FISA and Border Searches of Laptops
With the recent attention to the DHS's draconian policy on laptop searches at borders, a blog post by Steven Bellovin from last month is worth wider discussion. Bellovin extrapolates from the DHS border policy on physical electronic devices and asks why authorities wouldn't push to extend it to electronic data transfers. "...it would seem to make little difference if the information is 'imported' into the US via a physical laptop or via a VPN, or for that matter by a Web connection. The right to search a laptop for information, then, is equivalent to the right to tap any and all international connections, without a warrant or probable cause. (More precisely, one always has a constitutional protection against 'unreasonable' search and seizure; the issue is what the definition of 'unreasonable' is.)"
"rights, once take away, are very slow to return"
What the poster states is true, in spite of your trying to redirect the discussion back with
"Except that you've NEVER had any rights when it comes to custom's searches"
Thanks for trying to apologize for the last 7+ years, you and all the idiots that voted for the fool will never wash that from your hands.
Good ending, though:
"Sorry, you can't blame this one on Bush. As much as you'd like to."
He wasn't blaming anything on Bush, but your paranoid interpretation and purported ability to read minds is sure characteristic of the sick f**ks that continue to cover for the worst president ever.
Modded +4 Insightful??? I'm going to have to agree with the /.=Digg comment - there is absolutely NOTHING insightful in this post. It's the most BLATANT of flamebaiting. Regardless of whether or not you or I agree with the current administration, that gives you no moral right to personally attack those who voted for Bush as "idiots" and "sick f**ks*. More insightfully, God knows what Al Gore or John Kerry would have passed for the sake of politics.
Please metamod the oc into obscurity, where it deserves to be.