Your Papers Citizen

It's only a matter of time before it's "Your papers citizen?". Steve at YDD has the dope but let's just say the Department of Hopeless Insecurity has just lowered the bar one more time. Here is a snip but you really need to read the whole thing at Steve's.

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

[snip]

The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion."

The policies apply to any and everything that can store digital or analog information such as flash drives, IPods, cell phones, BlackBerry's you name it. Notice they have just brushed aside "probable cause" and "unreasonable search" with nary a sniffle for our lost rights.

Madam and I are heading across the pond on Tuesday and this little jewel made me decide to leave the laptop at home. The Fallenmonk will go dark for a couple of weeks unless someone wants to volunteer to play in my sandbox while I am away.