Nothing chaps my ass more than when the US government takes rights away from US citizens. Most of the time, the majority of the US citizens have no idea what their elected representatives are actually doing when those same representatives vote away constitutional rights with some bill (like the Patriot Act). A couple of articles about the "border search exception" will open your eyes as to what's burning my bum at the moment.
Constitutional Rights
What brought the issue to my attention was the article posted at Techdirt, titled "ACLU Suing Homeland Security Over Laptop Searches… Even Though Other Cases Have All Failed". The comments from people arguing with "average_joe" (another commenter) will really show you what's wrong with a lot of Americans.
That article referenced another article at The Hill blog, titled "ACLU sues DHS over border laptop searches". What both articles are basically saying is that the US government can rifle through your personal belongings at the border, at international airports and other ports of entry without any regard to the 4th Amendment to the US constitution, all in the name of stopping terrorism.
To get a broader picture of all this, you should read the Wikipedia article about "Border search exception". It explains what position the US government is in and basically shows us why we have no legal recourse against its overreaching authority. According to the US government, we're not covered by the 4th Amendment because we're not in the country yet. I have to ask, since when does leaving the country take away your rights in the first place? I can understand it being applied to visitors without US passports (which only citizens can carry), but US citizens as well?
Laptop Searches and Terrorism
This is the biggest crock of crap I've heard about in the last 10 years. When I first heard it, I thought it meant opening a laptop, booting it up and shutting it down to make sure it wasn't actually a bomb housed in a laptop computer case. No, they actually search through all the files on the laptop, under the guise that information connected to terrorism might be found on the laptop.
Either the US government thinks its citizens are idiots or they think the terrorists are, or both. Anything I don't want people to see when I'm using my netbook in public, I can securely transfer into the US by way of the Internet long before I physically go there. I'm planning to take my netbook the next time I go to the US (within a few months due to my wife's pending surgery). Normally, I would have it loaded up with all kinds of personal information. Not now. I'm going to reformat it and put the netbook version of Ubuntu Linux and use password logins to services like Gmail.
It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.
How many times have I heard that phrase? Well, this is one time that it applies to me. I will visit the US on occasion, but I won't live there. It's becoming way too Orwellian for my tastes. A lot of freedoms that Americans once held dear no longer exist. If it wasn't for the fact that one of my sons and his family live in Arizona, or the fact that my other son will be returning to the US after he finishes his nursing school in order to pursue his nursing career, I wouldn't have any reason to return. Both of my parents are deceased and I'm estranged from the rest of my relatives, including my siblings.
When US citizens and other residents of the US care more about the rights of illegal aliens than the rights of other American citizens, something is wrong. Well… I plan to live in the Philippines for the rest of my life and I'll probably die here. It may be considered an impoverished country but one thing that Filipinos have that Americans think they have is true freedom. How else could someone actually disappear in the Philippines?
Here are some famous quotes that sum up my feelings on security vs. freedom and why I'm willing to live where I'm not quite so secure:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ~James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. ~Woodrow Wilson
Similar Articles:
- Do the TSA Body Scanners and Groping Policies Violate the 4th Amendment?
- Does the US Government want to take away our Guns?
- When the US Government Breaks its Promises
- The Enemy Within
- Why Internet Censorship (and SOPA) are Completely WRONG
This article is published as: Please Check your US Citizenship at the Gate
I would never want to visit the US. Sorry about that RT, but I have an increasing loathing for the government of a country that is so cynical towards the very rights it has taken upon itself to "protect" in other countries.
My own country, India is also starting to annoy me in the way the government wants access to private emails from providers like RIM and google.
Unless there is a mass revolution I don't see any improvements in the situation.
hari recently posted..Hello- are you still there
No need for sorry. I quite agree. I also agree that nothing short of a revolution is going to change anything. When legal recourses don't work, and civil disobedience lands you in jail, nothing less will work.
Reading about the increasing levels of airport security alone makes me want to travel less (by flights).
I think the day should come when people simply refuse anywhere to travel unless *absolutely* required. A lot of airline companies will go broke.
I think even in jobs, people should travel a lot, lot less than they do now and use e-mail or even teleconferencing if need be. If there is a massive civil disobedience in this manner, governments should sit up and take note.
hari recently posted..Hello- are you still there
The USA is still the home of Free and land of the Brave.
Love it or leave it! I suggest returning your military retirement checks in Protest.
If the citizenship of a country was based on "love" of the country then a lot of people in the world would be citizens of no country at all. LOL
hari recently posted..Hello- are you still there
Get a grip, Zeke. How many liberties are you willing to give up before you say stop it? Think about how many you've lost in the last 20 years (think hard because I know it hurts at your age) and then make an honest reply.
I just recently heared that a non-american citizen that wanted to visit the USA had to pay a fee of $14 plus taxes (about $30)… I´m fine with that, but if they now also start to do searches on the files of the laptops it´s in my opinion an invade into one´s privacy…
Steve recently posted..Keys to Business Success
Well now lets see…I received a Pay check for 25 years from the US Marine Corps for having the time of my life. I now get a retirement check each month for doing nothing, The VA payed in full my BA degree in fact I pocketed a fair share of that money. My son gets FSA as a college student,plus a CA Governors board waiver for his tuition. I get medical care from Tri-care for a fraction of what most people pay for medical care. I go to the Naval hospital so it does not cost me a penny. I pay about 33% less than most people for grocery's by shopping at the base commissary. Because I have cancer I am drawing State disability and Social Security disability. I have always been able to find a job when I wanted one. I have never been robbed even here in the Ghetto of San Diego. Any occasion I have had to call a Cop or Fire Dept they arrive in seconds.I have not been approached by any law enforcement in at least 20 years. We have not had a power outage in the last 15 years that I can remember. San Diego is a very clean city as is the whole country in general. The highways are constantly being improved. Are there social problems in this country, sure are but nothing compared to other country's. Lost any of my liberties? they are free to search my laptop all they want, I,ll gladly do a strip search at the airport if it keeps me from getting blow up.They can strip search my wife also for all I care,(that's a scary thought)Right to carry a gun? unless you live in the sticks you really do not have a reason to have one in the first place. I don't recall the Philippines winning any awards for personal freedom. I think we need to appreciate what we have or leave it.
You're right. The Philippines hasn't won any awards for anything. As far as liberties go, however, the Philippines constitution that existed before Marcos came into power (modeled after the US constitution) was put back into effect after he was ousted in 1986. I haven't had a chance to read the English version of it, but my son says the bill of rights is longer and that the right to privacy is one of those rights.
Anyway, you've turned a blind eye to what's wrong with the government because of all the entitlements you receive. I can love the country because of the people in it but I can despise the government at the same time because of the people running it and doing it in a manner contradictory to what the people want or vote for. You see a problem with that?
What the people want? I am not certain the people know what they want, most people certainly want things to go their way. They want everything right now and are not willing to pay their share for it.The media (which is controlled by the rich, in case you didn't know) has filled peoples heads so full of crap they will bitch about anything. I personally feel that we have to have faith in our system of government. Things have been a lot worst than today, the civil war, great depression etc, most likely sucked for the people living during those times, but they stuck with it and things turned out good. If anything its the people whining and crying, not willing to do squat that will ruin our country, not the government.
You're thinking of one kind of people and that's not at all what I mean. Let me give you an example. Quite a few years ago, a proposition was placed on the ballot during Phoenix elections to approve a sales tax hike to fund the new Diamondbacks baseball stadium. When the voters learned that the stadium would be privately owned, they voted no. After the elections, the city council found a loophole and instituted the sales tax hike anyway. This happens at the federal level every time a bill is passed. If the politicians can't get what they want one way, they'll figure out another way and it almost always happens behind our backs.
If you don't think anything fishy's going on, did you forget that federal retirees received no pay raise this year because "there was no inflation", yet all of the active duty folks did? What will it take before you realize that our elected officials do NOT have our best interests at heart?
The problem is complacency…
We all know we are giving up freedoms BUT when it slaps you in the face from real life dealings instead of it being this idea that you never actually are confronted with, that's when the fury hits. How dare they, and they are wrong, and I'm going to do something, but what.
The answer must be proactive, it can't be refusing to participate in it, it has to be changing it.
I wish it was that easy. But organizations with clout have failed to do anything about it even though they've sued the government. The courts say it's okay due to "terrorism". If big organizations with clout can't do anything, what can an individual do, with or without deep pockets? It will take a nationwide special election after a majority protest, or a revolution, to make the kind of change that's needed.
Wow, really? They're searching laptops? They didn't check mine when I re-entered the US this summer.
I think that's strange and scary. I have private information on my laptop and I don't want government officials searching it. And if I was a terrorist with secret plans for bombs I wouldn't keep that information on my laptop.
Techie recently posted..Benefit from posting less on your blog
They obviously pick and choose which laptop they want to search – people they suspect may be hiding something or people they profile (like Arabs and Muslims). I think there would be way many more people speaking out if it was everyone who carried a laptop with them.
This is sort of a stupid policy. Who is going to try to get across the border with information linking them to an act of terrorism saved on their laptop?
My point exactly.
That's very interesting – your stand on US not having real freedom. I don't agree. Freedom is not the ability to hide. It's not privacy. It's the ability to say with confidence that they trust their country's constitution and laws to uphold the TRUTH. That's what true freedom is. To be able to live life without constant fear. To not have to fear that thugs, neighbors or whatever can just come take everytihng you've got. Life is like that in most places on Earth. US is far better.
Can you honestly say you trust a government which violates its own constitution? Freedom is liberty, freedom from tyranny. The bill of rights was put into place to protect US citizens from the government. If we lose those rights, we will be at the mercy of a government which no longer requires "the people" to operate, doing whatever they feel like doing. When the freedom of speech, right to bear arms, and the rest of the list disappear, you're welcome to come back and talk about it. Wait, you won't be able to because the government will consider articles like this subversive and we won't have the freedom to discuss it.
One other thing. You obviously have not been to the US or you've been to the better places. There ARE places within the US exactly as you describe, with thugs and so forth doing pretty much anything they want.