Getty Images via the Seattle P-I
That could explain a lot.
Ahmed Almaktoum of the UAE unloads his shotgun during the qualifying round of the men's trap competition of the shooting event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 10, 2008.
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out to Viennese home owners, business proprietors, and pedestrians by US Secret Service agents and local police before and during Bush's visit received widespread Austrian media attention, it was White House "toilet security" ("TOILSEC"), which has Austrians talking the most. The White House flew in a special portable toilet to Vienna for Bush's personal use during his visit. The Bush White House is so concerned about Bush's security, the veil of secrecy extends over the president's bodily excretions.
The terrorists have laptops in their hideouts. Can America afford to have a leader who is just learning how to use one?Read the whole thing, it's interesting.
Honest Abe was a techie. Yep, it's true. President Lincoln pushed hard for the spread of telegraph lines across the country and used the new medium to make communications with his generals during the Civil War swift and specific. Sometimes he even slept on the couch in the telegraph office when he was monitoring battlefield conditions. In his book "Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails," author Tom Wheeler brings the language of Silicon Valley to Gettysburg. "Lincoln's early-adopter instincts," he writes, "coupled with his being unburdened by the old dogmas, allowed him to outperform his generals in the ability to see change and harness it to his purpose."
Paging John McCain. Or at least calling him. Because he doesn't text-message. Or have a BlackBerry. Or use e-mail. Anyhow, he might want to pay more attention to Lincoln's successful future-think.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/135465558/Today the Washington Post ran a front-page story on a topic previously reported by ThinkProgress. Homeland Security is telling customs agents they can search, and take, travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices without needing any reasonable suspicion or probable cause.Insane? Yes. Maybe they could offer spyware removal and defragmentation services. (That is, if indeed, they aren't installing some nefarious software or device.)The Post story highlights a new Customs and Border Patrol policy document that states:
In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States.
The new policy says CPB can take away the laptop or analyze copies of its contents:
Officers may detain documents and electronic devices, or copies thereof, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location.
CBP says that the officers are supposed to return the laptop and destroy copies of the contents if nothing illegal is found (but be sure not to have any downloaded songs that you haven’t paid for).
That is far from comforting, even once you get your laptop back days or weeks later, because “nothing in this policy limits the authority of an officer to make written notes” about what was in the laptop.
