You know, I usually don't write about politics, but John Ashcroft annoys me. In this article, Yahoo! News - Ashcroft: FBI to Reveal Patriot Act Data, Ashcroft said he will release the number of times the FBI has used the Patriot Act's section 215. 215 allows the FBI to search library records of anyone at any time for any reason.
While it's nice that he's releasing information about it, that's not the point.
The point is that it could be abused in the future. We wouldn't allow the government to have the ability to kill people at random if they assured us they wouldn't use it. Eventually it will be used. And if it's not going to be used, why have it anyway?