U.S. unveils new rules on border searches of laptops

The Obama administration unveiled new rules on Thursday for searching computers and other electronic devices when people enter the United States, attempting to address concerns about violating privacy and constitutional rights.

At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security defended such searches as necessary to detect information about potential terrorism plots as well as other crimes such as child pornography and copyright infringement.

"The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

Between October 1, 2008 and August 11, 2009, 221 million travelers were processed at U.S. borders and about 1,000 searches of laptop computers were conducted, of which 46 were in-depth examinations, the agency said.

Searches often involve asking people to turn on the device to verify it is what it appears to be, the DHS said.

Privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have pushed Congress to stop border officers from searching laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices without probable cause when people enter or return to the country.

The rules permit searches of such devices without a person's consent. The review is to be done in the presence of the owner, unless there are national security or law enforcement reasons to conduct it elsewhere.

Immigration and customs officers can also hold the devices or the data, which may be copied without the knowledge of the owner for further review, according to the rules.

The new regulations note that border officers should be particularly careful when handling legal or business materials or other sensitive data like medical records or information carried by journalists.

America is Stupid!

By Bill Maher

New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn't make it a
smart country. A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought
Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I
wouldn't put anything past this stupid country. It was amazing - in the
minute or so between my calling America stupid and the end of the Cialis
commercial, CNN was flooded with furious emails and the twits hit the fan.
And you could tell that these people were really mad because they wrote
entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! It's how they get the blood circulating when
the Cialis wears off. Worst of all, Bill O'Reilly refuted my contention that
this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which A) proves my point,
and B) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him.

Now, the hate mail all seemed to have a running theme: that I may live in a
stupid country, but they lived in the greatest country on earth, and that
perhaps I should move to another country, like Somalia. Well, the joke's on
them because I happen to have a summer home in Somalia... and no I can't
show you an original copy of my birth certificate because Woody Harrelson
spilled bong water on it.

And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the
dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life
and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought
Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still
did. Or take the health care debate we're presently having: members of
Congress have recessed now so they can go home and "listen to their
constituents." An urge they should resist because their constituents don't
know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood
up and told his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare,"
which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.

I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a
majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain
what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in
the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's
in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration
does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being
alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators
and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican
governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup
poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No,
they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans
believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George
Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence
because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge."

People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what
their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid
consumes 24% of our federal budget. It's actually less than 1%. And don't
even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of
three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters
forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, "Do
you have these in a relaxed-fit?"

And I haven't even brought up America's religious beliefs. But here's one
fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are
aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right,
half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New
Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care
policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island
Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked
out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace
them with study halls. There's a lot of populist anger directed towards
Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at?
Their fellow citizens. "Inside the beltway" thinking may be wrong, but at
least it's thinking, which is more than you can say for what's going on
outside the beltway.

And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want
decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they're talking
about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin.

Which is the way our founding fathers wanted it. James Madison wrote that
"pure democracy" doesn't work because "there is nothing to check... an
obnoxious individual." Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the
Plumber.

Until we admit there are things we don't know, we can't even start asking
the questions to find out. Until we admit that America can make a mistake,
we can't stop the next one. A smart guy named Chesterton once said: "My
country, right or wrong is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying...
It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'" To which most Americans
would respond: "Are you calling my mother a drunk?"