The Spoils of War

The records also indicate that the government gives customs agents unlimited authority to question travelers about their religious beliefs and political opinions…. blah blah homeland security, blah blah, smuggled money….

The travelers said customs agents regularly singled them out when they returned from abroad, looked at their papers and laptop computers, and asked them such questions as whom they had seen on their trips, whether they attended mosques and whether they hated the U.S. government.

The 1986 and 2000 policies required agents to meet a more-demanding standard – showing evidence that contained probable cause of smuggling or other wrongdoing – before copying documents, the lawyers’ groups said.

“For more than 20 years, the government implicitly recognized that reading and copying the letters, diaries, and personal papers of travelers without reason would chill Americans’ right to free speech and free expression,” Sinnar said. “But now customs officials can probe into the thoughts and lives of ordinary travelers without any suspicion at all.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/23/BA9P133LEA.DTL&tsp=1

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Bush overturns policy  as he skates out of office- you know how presidents often do strange things right before they leave? Pardon people, etc.?   Was it Reagan or was it Bush I where all these people quit  when the pres went out of office?  I bet anything tons of people will quit this time too. No matter which one actually wins. Well, here’s some excerpts from the story:   Big Brother breathing down our necks -They focus on certain ethnic groups being targeted, but who is to say who they determine needs to be fully snooped out? I can see how a lot of Whites might qualify for this type of treatment. Now they can look at and copy your stuff without you giving them any reason to be suspicious.

You have stuff you want to keep private yet want access to, you could upload it to a third party from a home or otherwise PC -to some off site web storage deal, then not even access that from the laptop, only use the laptop for browsing, not logging in or accessing said storage site, not doing email where you might get a statement saying you have been billed for this service. Yeah, that is no guarantee your stuff is safe, especially from the site you have  uploaded it to, though you might think so because of their advertising passwords and encryption and privacy yadayada- you can bet if the feds contacted them, they would instantly turn your info over. Get credit card/checking account bill/statement> feds get name fo upload company>>that’s all she wrote.

Main point: they can now seize ,copy and snoop through your stuff now even without suspicion, just because they want to, computer included.

MultiCulti National Anthem Fail -Check out the reactions. For some reason my videos are not showing up despite using the WP video format correctly.  youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYjmnv_54vg

I’m wondering what they are looking for at this stage that we don’t already have here? Illegals? Disease? People being gunned down almost every day, like Oakland? They’re  worried someone is smuggling illegal currency when we are on the brink of financial collapse? They think the non-border is going to prevent people other than mexicans sneaking in? Kind of gives pause that they are looking not for evidence of crime, but this stuff about “Do you hate America?” – they are looking for dissidents . Or something. Not sure what they would do if they actually found stuff, but because things are so bad already here, it does give one pause.

They already have tight security, so what NEW thing are they looking for that isn’t a physical thing, like weapons or having the wrong size shampoo bottle? Are they are looking for people who may start something down the road? I try to look at these things like they would, not like how We normally look at things- but you know they are always at least a football field’s length ahead of us. They are obviously doing it as some kind of preparedness for how bad they think things will get, or that people might start leaving the country, taking whatever they have saved with them- ok, maybe that’s a stretch.  Someone who knows more about these kind of things than I do can probably  better predict what it means, and if it is only another link in the chain of this dystopian age of invasion of privacy and  unreasonable search.