This will work. But it's kind of crazy.
try:
assert False, "A Message"
except AssertionError, e:
raise Exception( e.args )
Why not the following? This is less crazy.
if not someAssertion: raise Exception( "Some Message" )
It's only a little wordier than the assert statement, but doesn't violate our expectation that assert failures raise AssertionError.
Consider this.
def myAssert( condition, action ):
if not condition: raise action