In truth Ashcroft and the rest of the Bush administration was simply going about their business of keeping the US population controlled through fear. Oh I’m sure they did actually stop some threats and attacks, but the way they went about it did damage to the US culture and reputation that will take a generation to repair. This fear allowed Bush and his cronies to make sweeping cultural and economic changes designed primarily to financially benefit Bush’s friends and allies.
All this is common knowledge though. I’m just rambling on in the pretence of generating some background story for the picture.
In the midst of it all, someone took offense to Mr. Ashcroft’s supposed problems with the statue of the “Spirit of Justice”. The argument was the partially nude female statue was being used to embarrass Ashcroft by press photographers. Ashcroft’s department, or Ashcroft himself .. who knows, chose to cover the statue with curtains. Ashcroft’s War on Pornography included the harassment and prosecution of filmmakers for including sex scenes in films (fictional films let’s remember) and went after companies that provide erotic films to hotels. The creation of an anti-porn office tied in nicely with the wiretapping and suggestions that Americans spy on each other to root out un-American activities. Basically the exact opposite of Republican’s long stated stance that the government should be smaller and stay out of people’s bedrooms.
This all from a man who lost an election to a dead man.
So someone created this picture of Ashcroft. To me it is a nice protest piece of the Bush administration’s efforts to ram their cultural beliefs on all Americans rather than actually overseeing the economy or chasing actual terrorists. You have to expand the picture and zoom in on it to get the real effect.