Ashcroft and Boobs

[strandinthewind]

I had to chuckle when I say this. Think of how many people could have been fed with that money. Let's put it this way, many meals on wheels programs can give a family a bag of groceries for a week for about $50. So, 160 such bags vould have been bought for this apparantly misguided use of $8,000.

Nude Justice Statues Exposed Once Again

Saturday, June 25, 2005

WASHINGTON — With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department (search) Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years.

Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall.

The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft (search) to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft.

The 12-foot, 6-inch aluminum statues were installed shortly after the building opened in the 1930s.

With a change in leadership at Justice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (search) faced the question: Would they stay or would they go?

He regularly deflected the question, saying he had weightier issues before him.

Paul R. Corts, the assistant attorney general for administration, recommended the drapes be removed and Gonzales signed off on it, spokesman Kevin Madden said, while refusing to allow The Associated Press to photograph the statues Friday.

In the past, snagging a photo of the attorney general in front of the statues has been somewhat of a sport for photographers.

When former Attorney General Edwin Meese (search) released a report on pornography in the 1980s, photographers dived to the floor to capture the image of him raising the report in the air, with the partially nude female statue behind him.

The first attorney general to use the blue drapery was Republican Richard Thornburgh, attorney general under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He had the drapery put up only for a few occasions when he was appearing in the Great Hall, rather than permanently installed as it was under Ashcroft.

Most news conferences now are held in a state-of-the-art conference room, although the Great Hall still hosts speeches and other special events.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160668,00.html

[irishgrl]

$8000 for BLUE DRAPES? Good Grief! Im with YOU Jason, there are surely other, BETTER things to spend money on or fixate about than Statues for cripes sake!

That reminds me, wasnt Michaelangelo's David once covered with a fig leaf?
I seem to recall a point in time where many of the great works were "covered" up in a similar fashion....if not defaced altogether....how stoopid!

[macfanken]

I guess he doesn't like man boobs either... he had the male statue covered as well. Good riddance to that f-ing idiot!!

[dissention]

A boob censoring a boob. What's the world coming to?

We've got people dying all over the place and this bumbling ****tard is worried about people seeing a pair of cast iron knockers? No wonder he lost that election to a dead guy.

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by dissention

A boob censoring a boob. What's the world coming to?

We've got people dying all over the place and this bumbling ****tard is worried about people seeing a pair of cast iron knockers? No wonder he lost that election to a dead guy.

Diss, its a good thing I can laff fairly quiet or I'd have woken up my boy