Cato Daily Dispatch for November 10, 2004
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Ashcroft Resigning as Attorney GeneralArmitage: Combating Afghanistan Opium Is a Top U.S. Priority
Another Plan Proposed for Funding D.C. Stadium
Ashcroft Resigning as Attorney General
"To his supporters, John Ashcroft was an aggressive and unapologetic warrior against terrorism, unflinching in his efforts to remake the Justice Department in order to avoid a repetition of the Sept. 11 attacks. President Bush, in announcing Ashcroft's resignation as attorney general Tuesday, said he had 'worked tirelessly to help make our country safer,'" the New York Times reports.
"To his many critics, however, Ashcroft was a symbol of excesses of the antiterror campaign, a man engaged in overzealous prosecutions and insensitive to civil liberties."
In "Cato vs. DOJ, Round 2," Timothy Lynch, director of Cato's Project on Criminal Justice, writes: "The Patriot Act is a textbook example of how our laws should not be made. Gigantic, 'omnibus' bills almost always contain provisions that would never pass the legislature on their own merits. When the Patriot Act was initially proposed, Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas) tried to break it down into several parts for deliberation and debate. Armey had the right idea because some provisions of the Patriot Act make sense, while others do not. Mr. Ashcroft is trying to convince Americans that they must either accept or reject the entire Patriot Act 'package.' That is a false choice, plain and simple."
Armitage: Combating Afghanistan Opium Is a Top U.S. Priority
"U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pledged increased support for Afghanistan's reconstruction in the first visit here by a senior U.S. official since President George W. Bush's re-election," Agence France Presse reports.
"President Hamid Karzai and Armitage discussed Afghanistan's burgeoning narco-economy and Armitage said combating opium production was 'a priority for the United States,' a source close to the presidency told AFP."
Today, Cato released the study "How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America's War on Terror" by Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, which argues that U.S. efforts to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crops threaten to undermine the anti-terrorism campaign and could drive Afghan farmers, who have assisted in the war on terror, into the arms of anti-American terrorists.
"If zealous American drug warriors alienate hundreds of thousands of Afghan farmers, the Karzai government's hold on power, which is none too secure now, could become even more precarious," Carpenter writes. "Washington would then face the unpalatable choice of letting radical Islamists regain power or sending more U.S. troops to suppress the insurgency."
Another Plan Proposed for Funding D.C. Stadium
"D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp blocked approval of a bill to build a baseball stadium with public money yesterday, announcing that she has a plan that could provide up to $350 million in private funding," the Washington Post reports.
"Under Mayor Anthony Williams' plan, the stadium would be financed through a combination of a gross-receipts tax on big businesses, a tax on concessions and an annual rent payment by the team. Under Cropp's new proposal, the city would implement a gross-receipts tax to raise its $150 million share. But the top rate would be reduced from $48,000 a year to $7,000."
The new Cato study "Caught Stealing: Debunking the Economic Case for D.C. Baseball" shows that professional sports teams are not engines of economic development and the government-subsidized stadiums teams demand generally have little, if any, positive effect on a city's economy.
Professors Dennis Coates and Brad R. Humphreys of, respectively, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Illinois, write: "Rooting for the team might provide satisfaction to many local baseball fans. That is hardly a reason for the city government to subsidize the team. D.C. policymakers should not be mesmerized by faulty impact studies that claim that a baseball team and a new stadium can be an engine of economic growth."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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