The cancer called the Department of Homeland Security is at it again, eating away at our fundamental rights. As it metastasizes through the Constitution, already bludgeoning due process in theFifth Amendment, it’s now tearing at the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizures without probable cause.

A recent federal court decision has upheld the practice by the US Customs officials to search laptops for international travelers arriving at the border, even forcing them to disclose password to unlock the laptop if the official demands it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604763.html

The agency that is at the center of this controversy is the US Customs department, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. On 6/25/08, Jayson Ahern, Deputy Commissioner of US Customs testified before Congress on this activity:

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/congressional_test/laptop_searches.xml

As the U.S. Supreme Court has stated, “since the beginning of our Government,” the Executive Branch has enjoyed “plenary authority to conduct routine searches and seizures at the border, without probable cause or a warrant, in order to regulate the collection of duties and to prevent the introduction of contraband into this country.”

Privacy advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is petitioning the government against possible violations of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure:

http://www.eff.org/issues/travel-screening
http://www.eff.org/cases/foia-litigation-border-searches
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/protecting-yourself-suspicionless-searches-while-t
http://www.eff.org/cases/us-v-arnold
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/01

Quote from the last link:

Your privacy could be at risk even if you don’t travel yourself. Your financial institution, your insurer, and other enterprises hold extensive personal data about you and your family,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. “If agents of those groups travel internationally, your information could be exposed to officials at the border or potentially copied and stored in government databases. Americans should know how and why electronic data is seized and kept by the government, and who is able to access it at the border and in the years afterwards.

NOTE: It’s important to point out that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) does not do laptop searches, only the US Customs department:

http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2008/02/rumor-alert-laptops.html

Last month I took care of a friend’s landlord’s cats while they traveled on a cross-country road trip. I was very impressed by the certified organic cat food they gave their cats, Wayne and Babycat. The company is called NaturaPet and the brand is Innova EVO, which comes in both wet and dry.

Check them out yourself.

Here’s the list of ingredients in their Innova EVO Cat & Kitten product:

• Turkey
• Chicken
• Chicken Meal
• Herring Meal
• Potatoes
• Chicken Fat
• Egg
• Turkey Meal
• Natural Flavors
• Apples
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Cottage Cheese
• Dried Chicory Root
• Taurine
• Herring Oil
• Rosemary Extract
• Vitamins/Minerals
• Viable Naturally Occurring Microorganisms

Technorati Tags: animals, organic pet food

So, in the last category of personal greed, we’ve got to add this gem.

File it under YHGTBFKM for “You have got to be fucking kidding me”.

First check this out:

Man sued over copyright violation for doing the ‘Electric Slide’ wrong

(The DMCA is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which — when it works — helps artists from being ripped off by thieves making perfect digital copies of their work without their consent.)

What is amazing (and the whole story makes me jaw-droppingly mad) is that the Ellen DeGeneres show has been fighting this retard since last year. Why hasn’t the judge thrown this out yet? This is one of those examples that cries out for tort reform. This case only exists to make lawyers happy. No one gives a shit about this stupid dance except drunk wedding dancers with no rhythm.

If someone was trying to pass themselves off as the inventor with the obvious intent to sell and profit from it, then yes, I can see it as a clear violation of copyright.

By the way, if you go to the bottom of his website you can read that he also single-handedly invented these other dance moves: Locking, Popping, The Wave, The Robot and Breakdancing!

And here’s the killer:

Check out his other website and guess who is doing The Electric Slide © ™ in the upper left corner? Tell me, did he get legal permission from Marvel Comics © ™ to have their Spiderman © ™ character dance? Wouldn’t dancing The Electric Slide © ™ dilute the image of the Spiderman © ™ franchise?

Thanks to my friend Ed for this!