Many weblogs are linking to the Oppose Ashcroft site, which was created by People for the American Way to educate people about his virulent record at the time of his nomination as attorney general. I linked to it back then, and hate to say I told you so. From this weblog community vantage point, the outrage about the Dictatorship’s mad, ongoing powergrab under Ashcroft’s influence seems so palpable, but where’s the organized opposition behind the spleen? It may turn out to be one of the greatest, most enduring humiliations in American history — certainly on a par with McCarthyism, if that phrase still makes anyone blush — that reasonable Americans are allowing this to happen with no more than ineffectual spluttering like this. Is it time to write your Congressional representatives? Ha! Time to march on Washington? blockade the Justice Dept? Do the words mass protest, or nonviolent civil disobedience, resonate with anyone anymore? [illustration courtesy of BlackHoleBrain]