# John Ashcroft is a Crypto-Fascist Prick **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 26, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839 "2001-10-26T19:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/1 "2001-10-26T19:18:12Z")
…More of an observation than a rant. Thank you. (Oh, yeah. Ari Fleischer can blow me. Thank you. I think a lot of people are in favor of free speech until they realize it means people can say what they want.) ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/2 "2001-10-26T19:21:10Z")
Kinda gotta go with you on this one. He really does have a strong authoritarian streak and his visible desire to whittle down civil liberties so cavalierly is disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/3 "2001-10-26T19:23:55Z")
and he’s against DANCING! Just like my dog! What a drip ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/4 "2001-10-26T19:45:06Z")
And he’s a member of an uncommon religious group. Stone him to death! ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/5 "2001-10-26T19:52:28Z")
I must admit his “more-opposed-to-terrorism-than-thou” attitude sends chills up my spine sometimes. It would be even worse if I lived in America, I suppose. May I recommed the _Onion_ article, “Freedoms Curtailed in Defense of Liberty”? Classic quote: > [@](#): > > “We live in a land governed by plurality of opinion in an open electorate, but we are now under siege by adherents of a fundamentalist, totalitarian belief system that tolerates no dissent,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said. “Our most basic American values are threatened by an enemy opposed to everything for which our flag stands. That is why I call upon all Americans to submit to wiretaps, e-mail monitoring, and racial profiling. Now is not the time to allow simplistic, romantic notions of ‘civil liberties’ and ‘equal protection under the law’ to get in the way of our battle with the enemies of freedom.” Too close to reality for comfort, really. ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/6 "2001-10-26T20:04:12Z")
And, I feel I should point out that he lost the U.S. Senate race in Missouri to a dead guy. (no, not Al Gore) ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/7 "2001-10-26T20:07:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > **And he’s a member of an uncommon religious group.** There’s that, too. From the _Baptist Standard_: > [@](#): > > Ashcroft passes out devotional books to the three to 30 people who attend the sessions in his personal office or a conference room, the Washington Post reported. They’re known as RAMP meetings with a four-point focus–Read, Argue, Memorize and Pray. > > “The purpose of the Department of Justice is to do the business of the government, not to establish a religion,” said a Justice attorney, one of several critics who refused to be identified by name. “It strikes me and a lot of others as offensive, disrespectful and unconstitutional. … It at least blurs the line, and it probably crosses it.” It’s a good thing the US has a man like Ashcroft in those trying times, facing all these wacky, fundamentalist Muslims ;). ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/8 "2001-10-26T20:49:48Z")
Now, remember all, the AG is a lawyer, and the top advocate for the United States. That means he’s absolutely justified in treating his own fellow citizens as suspects and doing whatever possible to undermine their civil liberties. After all, we have the Supreme Court to defend us if he oversteps his bounds. Heh. Hehheh. Ha, hahaha. HA HA HAHAHAWWWW!!! EEE-heeeheeeheeeheee!!! ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/9 "2001-10-26T21:10:17Z")
For those who are dissing JA here: > [@](#): > > He … attended public schools until enrolling at Yale University, where he graduated with honors in 1964. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1967. > > He… was later elected to two terms as the state’s Attorney General. His ability to work with leaders of both political parties prompted his colleagues in the non-partisan National Association of Attorneys General to choose him as Chairman. > > Ashcroft was elected Governor of Missouri in 1984 and held that post until 1993…Fortune magazine rated him one of the top ten education governors in the country, while Financial World and City and State magazines credited him with making Missouri one of the best financially managed states in the country…In 1991, the non-partisan National Governors Association elected him Chairman. > > … He co-sponsored the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. He fought to toughen the penalties for gun crimes by substantially increasing mandatory minimum prison sentences for the criminal misuse of firearms. During his time in the Senate, Ashcroft was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee. > > Prior to entering public service, Ashcroft taught business law at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. He… co-authored multiple editions of two college law textbooks with his wife, Janet… [http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/ashcroftbio.html](http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/ashcroftbio.html) ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/10 "2001-10-26T21:57:52Z")
December, what does your little blurb have to do with people’s opinions that Ashcroft is a Fascist zealot who’s doing nothing but reducing Americans’ rights to a pile of rubble? Who cares if he went to a public school or Yale or wrote textbooks if his shenanigans smack of unconstitutionality and a violation of my civil liberties? He’s wrong for the US, has been since he got the nod from Bush. Sam ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/11 "2001-10-26T22:58:57Z")
And Ashcroft is just the tip of the iceberg, the fucking prick. Now look who is our ambassador to the UN? John Negroponte. And who is in charge of Latin American affairs (although his nomination is stalled in Congress)? Otto Reich. What, are the Sandinistas back in power? (My obligatory driveby about Latin America…;)) Seriously, what the fuck? Wire taps? Ashcroft can suck my non-existant wang. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/12 "2001-10-26T23:14:40Z")
Why did you call him “Crypto-”? ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/13 "2001-10-27T00:11:05Z")
I’m not much impressed by the fact that the Atty. Gen. went to public school/Yale/Chicago Law School or that he was both Atty. Gen. and Gov. of Missouri. Jesse Helms, after all, has been elected to public office again and again. Even as progressive a State as Wisconsin sent Joe McCarthy to the US Senate. Every thing I know about Ashcroft indicates that he is a reactionary zealot and a lot more inclined to his own take on public and private morality and the duty of the government to suppress real or imagined disorder by whatever means he can get away with than to observe conventional notions of the due process an equal protection of law. The secret issuance and execution of search warrants under the new Antiterrorism Crime bill is a case in point. If the police can secretly obtain and execute search warrants in “terrorism cases,” then a defendant’s (suspect’s) ability to resist a search is hand cuffed. How can you prevent the government from doing something when you don’t even know that they are doing it? It is simply an authorization for what was once called black bag jobs. This, with the new authorizations for wire taps and E-mail searches, leads me to think that the Atty. Gen. is bringing up a whole laundry list of stuff that has been sought for years but thought too much for a free society to countenance. The slippery slope argument suggests that we should look out for an authorization to do interrogations under drugs and the most judicial use of cattle prods. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/14 "2001-10-27T00:25:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*Why did you call him “Crypto-”? \*\* Ommmmmmm…ommmmmmmmm…ommmmmmm… 😃 You had to know that _I_, at least, would catch the reference. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/15 "2001-10-27T02:02:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smeghead \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > > Why did you call him “Crypto-”? > > Ommmmmmm…ommmmmmmmm…ommmmmmm… > > 😃 You had to know that _I_, at least, would catch the reference. “Will you stop calling everything crypto-fascist? You sound like a total git!” I’ve got some red paint and white vinyl lettering - who wants to help make Tension Sheets? ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/16 "2001-10-27T02:43:09Z")
And do you know who’s back in government, in the National Security Council? Elliot Abrams, for Christ’s sake! I first saw that serpent, back in the mid-1980’s, telling an elderly couple that it was their late son’s own fault if he let his Peace Corps work put him in the way of “Freedom Fighters” (Contras), resulting in his being shot in the head, execution-style. I promised myself that, if I ever got to meet Abrams, I’d kick him right in the goddamned nuts. His specialty used to be “massacre denial”; God knows what exactly he’s doing now. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/17 "2001-10-27T04:44:14Z")
And your point is? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/18 "2001-10-27T11:05:57Z")
It’s a rant board. I don’t think he needs a point ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/19 "2001-10-27T13:12:56Z")
I never had a point before; why start now? ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839/20 "2001-10-27T16:16:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GaWd \* > \*\*December, what does your little blurb have to do with people’s opinions that Ashcroft is a Fascist zealot who’s doing nothing but reducing Americans’ rights to a pile of rubble? \*\* JA must have done a remarkable job to hide his fascist side from all those Democratic and Republican attorneys general who elected him national chairman, and also hiding his fascist nature from all those Dem and Rep governors who electd him national chairman. And, those people actually know him. \*\*GaWd, Baldwin \*\*, et. al., why can you judge the man more accurately than the AG’s and governors who worked with him can? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-ashcroft-is-a-crypto-fascist-prick/89839.md?page=2)