Extreme right-wing mysticist John Ashcroft is out taking shots at people who would dare to question his unprecedented assault on the U.S. Constitution, and the ultraconservative powergrab he seeks to reinforce.

Of course Mr. Ashcroft is choosing his venues wisely, speaking to conservative audiences who aren't insulted by the fact that a man who was trounced by a corpse in his most recent popular election is offering arguments as to why the government should be given even more power to use against U.S. citizens.

The illegitimate Bush administration has shown repeatedly that it cannot be trusted to administer or deploy these powers. People are illegally harrassed and detained at airports daily. Authorities have no obligation to reveal the facts (or more likely, guesses, rationalizations, opinions, and superstitions) supporting to their decisions to investigate citizens, while doling out sweetheart contracts to special interests and entitled insiders. No effective oversight of these powers has been considered. No limitations or reassessment of the need for these powers has been discussed. Civil rights groups have not only not been invited to discuss ramifications of anti-terror policy but have been regularly accused of being 'unpatriotic', subversive, or pro-terror. Ashcroft effectively wants a shadow government with unrestricted power to wiretap, eavesdrop, data-mine, detain, harrass, interrogate, convict, and punish U.S. citizens without offering any semblance of due process, or even the most cursory considerations for our basic civil liberties. The only way to stop the conservative campaign to dismantle and reconstruct the American ideals of fairness and justice is to vocally reject Mr. Ashcroft's fraudulent PR junket as the opportunistic powergrab that it has always been and will continue to be until it is eliminated completely.