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Federal Judge Limits DHS Laptop Border Searches
Declan McCullogh is reporting at CNET that a federal district court judge has rebuked the Department of Homeland Security, "which had claimed it can seize a traveler's laptop and search it six months later without warrant." As described in the article, DHS policies have been stacked against travelers entering the US, including citizens returning from abroad: "There's no requirement that they be returned to their owners after even six months or a year has passed, though supervisory approval is required if they're held for more than 15 days. The complete contents of a hard drive or memory card can be perused at length for evidence of lawbreaking of any kind, even if it's underpaying taxes or not paying parking tickets." This ruling does not address immediate searches at the border, but says that DHS cannot hold computers for indefinite searching, as in the case to hand, concerning a US citizen returning from a trip to Korea, whose laptop was seized and held for months before a search was even conducted on it.
where the fuck do you get that nonsense? Glenn Beck?? Obama's not changing the economy one way or another. All he's done is help solidify the corporate domination of the economy that existed before the crisis. Neither party has even bothered to try to offer a way out of that. Nonsense about "socialism" is just a silly red herring.
P.S. Also you didn't answer the question: How can Obama BE any more liberal? He's only a few steps away from where Lenin stood on the political spectrum (central planning).
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
There is NO WAY that Obama was worse than Hillary (who fully approved the invasion of Iraq without looking over the evidence) or John Edwards (willing to be nominated while he was having a reckless affair, which shows how much he values honesty *and* the efforts of all working for him).
Obama's done absolutely nothing to pull out of Iraq, so I don't see how he's less bad than Hillary. And I don't care about politicians having mistresses; that's perfectly normal in other countries. Only in America do people get their panties in a bind about their leaders' sex lives.
What I think is going on here, is that Obama is being called awful simply because he's not a savior. There are a lot of big messes going on right now, people. Any one of them would be the most notable thing to happen in a presidency - and we're getting all of them at once. He inherits two wars, a historic recession, and now possibly the worst ecological disaster in US history.
Wrong. He's being called awful because he's done nothing to improve anything, even though he campaigned on a platform promising "change". A chimpanzee could do just as effective a job as President as him, since he hasn't done squat except make speeches. He holds the highest office in the country, and perhaps in the world; you'd think someone at that level would be able to make real changes and improve and lead. He's done none of that. Sure, he's inherited big problems, but what has he done about them? Nothing. He continued the wars instead of pulling out (which is the only sensible thing to do; face it, we're not going to be able to establish advanced, western-style governments over there, no matter how hard we try, and frankly we screwed up with Osama, and we might as well admit we lost him, if he's even still alive). He hasn't done much to help the recession. And his response with the oil spill has been about as effective as Bush's response during Katrina.
And above all else, Obama shows himself as better than McCain simply by not foisting on us an obscenity like Palin.
This is the only statement I completely agree with. Palin as President (since McCain probably would have died early in office due to Murphy's Law and his poor health) would have been a disaster far worse than Obama. What's really scary, however, is that there's a very good chance that Palin WILL be elected President either in 2012 or 2016. Even though she's a quitter and a dimwit, she's extremely popular with the well-meaning but naive and stupid Tea Partiers.
Hear, hear. I'm sick to death of people blaming Bush for any and all problems in this country. The guy's been gone for 17 months now, when do we get to start blaming the new guy?
I've actually read comments somewhere that the BP spill is Bush's fault. Nevermind that construction on that well didn't start until Obama was in office, it's still the other guy's fault. Give me a break!
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Actually, we already tried that. George W Bush did a much worse job than Obama is doing.
I think the real problem is that, after eight ruinous years of Bush, people were looking for a savior. What we got was an everyday politician. Obama is not great, but he's not bad either. I would prefer to have a great president, but I'll settle for average over abysmally shitty any day.
If that happens, this country will not survive. I mean that quite literally. A Palin presidency would actually make us long for the days of George W Bush.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Healthcare is a right. I agree. You have the right to go to a doctor, say I feel sick, and expect the doctor to heal you as per his professional duty.
What you do NOT have a right to do is take the doctor's bill, and raid your neighbors' wallets to pay for it. That's called stealing. You've got a job, you've got money, so you should pay it yourself. You afforded that ~$30,000 Lexus in your front drive (times two if you have a wife), so I think you can afford a $200 annual visit, or the rare $10,000 hospital stay.
The only exception is if you're homeless/jobless. Then like food stamps, I think the government should assist you. But that's it. There should be NO help for people like us who have a jobs. We can pay our own bills.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall