Previously:

Offered without comment (April 16, 2013)

Yesterday, via Twitter:

John Hancock @johnrhancock

Anybody else out there wishing John Ashcroft was still the USAG? #boston. 7:35 PM – 15 Apr 13

Boston? John Ashcroft? Yes, we do remember, almost ten years ago:

Crowd of 1,200 boos Ashcroft

By Allison Brown

The Daily Free Press (Boston U.)

09/10/2003

(U-WIRE) BOSTON — With fists and middle fingers upraised, a booing, hissing and chanting crowd of about 1,200 people awaited United States Attorney General John Ashcroft when he arrived at Faneuil Hall Tuesday morning, decrying his support of what some protesters called government policies undermining civil rights.

Ashcroft was bombarded by cries of “Shame!” and the sound of the “Imperial Death March” from the movie “Star Wars” as he entered a meeting with law enforcement officials in Faneuil Hall. The meeting, which was closed to the general public, was billed as a briefing on the particulars of the USA PATRIOT Act, a federal anti-terrorism initiative, according to The Boston Globe….

OUTSIDE

Why can’t we cover up this boob?

BY CAMILLE DODERO

This past Tuesday morning, US Attorney General John Ashcroft popped into Boston’s Faneuil Hall to deliver a speech about a little piece of legislation called the USA Patriot Act. What Ashcroft – or ASHHOLE, ASSKKKROFT, PROTO FACIST, or THE MAN MORE EVIL THAN STEINBRENNER, as the placards anticipating his arrival preferred to call him – had to say about the USA Patriot Act was as foully predictable as flatulence after a bowl of baked beans. But the horde hanging outside couldn’t be sure of that until Ashcroft was safely whisked away around 10 a.m., en route to a similar engagement in New York City. Indeed, Ashcroft’s national “public relations” spree to promote his invasive law doesn’t include the public at all – and that flagrantly intentional oversight was simply more fuel for the ire raging outside the historic building.

“Let the people in!” the hundreds (final estimates hovered around 1000) standing on the cobblestones chanted. “Let the people in!” they continued, followed by “What’s the big secret?” and “Closed meetings for closed minds!” And they sang “Hey, John Ashcroft!” to the tune of “Frère Jacques”:

Hey, John Ashcroft! Hey, John Ashcroft!

Why are you, why are you

Spying on our country?

We don’t think it’s funny.

Shame on you. Shame on you!

[….]

Issue Date: September 12 – 18, 2003

Yeah, for sure, Boston just loved John Ashcroft (r).