I protest.

"Trust me, I'm from the government."

As usual: Ashcroft denounces Patriot Act "hysteria". Ashcroft says things like this:

In a speech Monday to an American Restaurant Association conference, Ashcroft said people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been "surrounded by the FBI," with agents "dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. They stop everyone and interrogate everyone like Joe Friday.

"Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong," Ashcroft said. "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No."

Er, actually the answer to that question is "yes." They do indeed care, if you're reading "dangerous" literature, such as, say, the Qu'ran or, perhaps, information about explosives. The problem, of course, is that the Justice Department has the power to perform intrusive investigations, not that it will use it. Having the power, someone will, sooner or later, use that power, whether or not doing so might be "justified" as a matter of "terrorism" or "national security." As long as "national security" is what John Ashcroft says it is, we are all in danger.

Ashcroft belittles and insults those who seek to protect the rights we all take for granted. He, himself, is probably the worst danger we face. He is a man who has used and is using the deaths of thousands of innocents to promote his own agenda, his own personal view of how things "should be." He is a vile, despicable man who has no business holding the position he does.