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...because episodes of Countdown detailing these sorts of things began flashing through my head, but the astonishing part was "this is... happening to me. oh god."
I feel sorry for those not speaking English well and trying to come here.
The Road - a meandering state of blog.
by aerojad on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 11:39:17 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
because I had the bad taste to post a diary warning that Raping the constitution is just a prelude to raping citizens.
I couldn't help but notice after your run-in you felt violated... perfectly reasonable and normal way to feel ... after you have been treated like that. Hopefully people will speak up about this before we get too far lost in this madness.
Ars Oblivionalis: The Art of Forgetting.
by 8ackgr0und N015e on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 01:04:00 PM PDT
exchange group. We were on a bus. We were "whisked through" in a little over 2 hours...a huge parking area held cars with people who had been waiting as long as 8 hours to get through.
Someone on the bus had a Playboy magazine, which was confiscated since sexual material was verboten...the East German soldier (without even a minor change in his serious, official facial expression) took 10 minutes to examine each page of the magazine before allowing the individual who'd turned it in to exit the bus.
One girl had a suitcase tied shut with clothesline rope because the latch on it had broken. At the border the East German guards, of course, made her untie the rope and they went through every item; it was stuffed with nothing but dirty laundry.
Even though the East German military was very officious and sober (the Playboy incident was revealing re what was going on behind the serious facade) they were respectful and personally harassed no one.
Aerojad's experience is a horrifying sniff of the raw sewage BushCo has slathered upon this country. It's only fitting that rude, obnoxious, immature and ignorant bullies are getting their rocks off by flaunting their "authority"...just like the Big Guy who hired them.
That The Iron Curtain border, in 1969, was easier to pass through than the US border is today is appalling and outrageous.
"Evil is a lack of empathy, a total incapacity to feel with their fellow man." - Capt. Gilbert,Psychiatrist, at the end of Nuremberg trials.
by 417els on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:49:24 PM PDT
...but the Brezhnev-era Soviet Bloc is actually a model, with the invasions (remember, this was the year after the Prague Spring!), cronyism and chauvinism for a dying system.
China appears to be a perfect amalgam of cronyism, repression, but capitalism for the very rich. Just add a bit of Saudi Arabian repression, and you have a Republican's dream.
9-11 changed everything? Well, Katrina changed it back.
by varro on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 09:13:37 AM PDT
Bush alone could not create the authoritarian attitude in our country today. This is a problem with our culture, our society as a whole. Americans either participate in this fascist pig bullshit, or they tolerate it.
For an indicator, look at all the cop movies churned out by Hollywood for the past 40 years. The "good guys" cruise the streets for "dirtbags," break every law and constitutional right that exists, and in the end usually blow the "bad guy's" head clean off in a glorious finale. The whole time, the cops have to fight against a system that protects the "bad guys" just to keep good Americans safe. These are America's modern nursery rhymes, the modern tales that children use to learn how the world works. No wonder we're turning into an authoritarian society.
"When I was an alien, cultures weren't opinions" ~ Kurt Cobain, Territorial Pissings
by Subterranean on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 10:49:08 AM PDT
that symbolizes the corrupted vehicle.
by 417els on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 10:51:39 PM PDT
a very large "scope" into your rectum on "suspicion."
That is near enough to rape to justify that diary.
by UneasyOne on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:57:57 PM PDT
how many times in the past I took a trip to Canada just because I was passing by the tunnel. My passport is expired right now, but when I get a new one, I wonder if I will go through the trouble. Of course, that's exactly how the fearmongers want me to think.
Nice photos. I wasn't permitted to go up to the restaurant at the top of the RenCen to take photos-- cause my camera was too big... might be a terrorist camera. I have also been questioned for taking photos of a fire hydrant.
And now a word from the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association
by Olds88 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 01:14:19 PM PDT
it will contain a chip that will let "them" track you. Ostensibly, those are for some sort of benign ID list . . . and I know of a really nice bridge for sale.
The degree to which you resist injustice is the degree to which you are free. -- Utah Phillips
by Mnemosyne on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 09:25:16 PM PDT
3-4 layers of the heavy duty industrial foil - they won't be able to track it. Trust me.
by Subterranean on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 10:50:23 AM PDT
The book (when closed) Prevents the RFID information to broadcast... and when open, the range the RFID chip has is ONLY FOUR INCHES.
also, the information IN the chip is exactly what is in the book. Nothing else. Not your social, nothing.
"Just when you think you are in control..." - Ok Go
by acluka on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 01:08:17 PM PDT
I'm sorry, but they don;t have the ability to track you. For instance, you fly into France, you can travel to 17 EU countries without presening your passport. It is like Domestic travel for them.
There is NO ability for the RFID tag to track your passport movements.
I seriously need to write a diary on this.
by acluka on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 01:06:55 PM PDT
reading this blog.
If I were stopped at a border and ordered to turn over my laptop, camera, cellphone, etc. and I insisted that before I would do so, I wanted my attorney, what if any rights would I have?
What is the legal justification (whether or not it is anything other than DHS fiat) by which such violations of individual rights are being undertaken?
What, if anything, can an individual do in such a situation?
Given the way our rights have been steadily removed, I am guessing I have no real defense.
I do know from personal experience just how arbitrary and capricious this whole situation has become. I am aware of the massive "discretion" agents seem to have in enforcing "rules."
I travel overseas reasonably often. Two years ago I returned to the U.S. from Asia, carrying a large volume of photo equipment I use for my work. Customs stopped me and wanted me to "prove" I had purchased it all in the U.S. I had paperwork documenting the purchases at home, but not on me. I was, however, able to convince them of my affiliation and my work and they simply advised me that next time I traveled, I should "register" things with Customs before leaving the country so I could re-enter with less risk of challenge.
Next time, I carried copies of every invoice with me and took them to Customs. The agents seemed less than interested in the whole thing....simply looked at the papers and waved me through....no forms to fill out or anything, and when I returned, no questions were ever asked.
And I am sure all of you have had the joy of dealing with the mysterious "3 oz." rule......the fact that someone has decided that you can travel with 3 ounces max of a liquid or gel on you (hair spray, deoderant, toothpaste, etc.) but anything beyond that gets confiscated. I once was stopped for toothpaste. Seems I was carrying a 14 oz tube of toothpaste tightly rolled up so that less than an inch of the tube still carried any paste. It was confiscated not because I had more than 3 oz. of dentifrice, but because the container was larger than 3 oz.
During my travels, I have lost a good Swiss Army knife (forgot it was in a shaving kit - gone), and another small pocket knife with a less than 2-inch blade (after reading a news item, supposedly based on a DHS news release indicating that they were now allowing the transit of such small items). The inspectors at the gate had never heard of it.
I admire the writer's restraint. I fear that I would lose my temper. When the toothpaste incident occurred, the agent blithely asked me if I wanted to take my luggage back out to the main counter and check it through (I was at that point finally at the security checkpoint after wading through a snaking line larger than the Spring Break crowd waiting to ride Space Mountain at Disney World.)
I replied through gritted teeth - "Please take this and put it in the museum where you display all the ways you have helped make America safe for Democracy." It was all I could do to keep from opening the tube and squeezing the remaining paste onto the belt and asking him to determine if it exceeded 3 oz.
Free markets would be a great idea, if markets were actually free.
by dweb8231 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 01:15:13 PM PDT
I wish I could think of comments like yours when faced with officious authority assholes... "Please take this and put it in the museum where you display all the ways you have helped make America safe for Democracy."
Pro-Choice and Proud of It!
by powwow500 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 02:10:53 PM PDT
[Doesn't TSA put a lot of confiscated stuff on eBay? At least the stuff they don't divvy up?]
Flew from BUR to ABQ via PHX. In PHX I had a 2 hour wait so I went to find some place to have a cigarette (I know, I know). Finding no lockers for my single small bag I took it and went outside, was smoking near a guy dressed like a pilot (also smoking) when an airport cop came to me and said if I didn't "go down there" (about 100 yards away) I would be ARRESTED. WTF? So I went "down there."
Went back in, back through security only to have the all-but-empty 12oz(?) tube of toothpaste, which wasn't questioned in Burbank, removed and was told I could surrender it or go check my bag. I friggin' lost it. I went off on the guy telling him there was NOT 3oz of anything in there and to give me the goddamn thing back you son-of-a-bitch. Two more guys, with guns, come over and I calmed down quickly, told him to use it in good health, asshole. After saying that I thought I was in for a long search and would miss my connection. For whatever reason they let me through.
On my way back I shipped home everything I would have otherwise carried via UPS, carried nothing except a copy of the Constitution and my car keys. And that didn't raise any flags? Weird. In both directions I carried a lighter with me and it was never found (lighters were banned then, but matches weren't - go figure).
This was last December. And I never left the country, only the People's Republic of California. I guess I'm lucky I wasn't arrested or detained for days and days.
I have no desire to fly any longer as long as this crap is going on, I am way too prone to challenging violations of my civil liberties.
What's next? Check-points on the highways at the county line?
"There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation." -W.C. Fields
by CatfishBlues on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 04:59:48 PM PDT
crap is not stopped.
Kucinich did NOT bankrupt Cleveland. Feingold didn't vote to impeach Clinton, either.
by zett on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 05:11:23 PM PDT
I87 in upstate NY and I89 in VT have had immigration checkpoints since at least 1991. I'm sure they're on many others, too. Vermont's a DUI checkpoint state, as well.. That ship sailed a long time ago, my friend.
On Liberation Day, 1/20/09, Americans will greet us with flowers and candy
by kamarvt on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 05:21:39 PM PDT
Here in CA there are checkpoints at the state line to control the produce coming in, been going on as long as I can remember, probably before I was born (1959). I expect Blackwater will be manning them if things get any worse.
We also have random DUI checkpoints. That's a whole different topic wrt civil rights....
by CatfishBlues on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 06:03:16 PM PDT
I was always more than a little creeped out by the checkpoint just South of Trafficula (what Dan Bernstein called Temecula). This is just one more step in the conversion of the USA into the USSA (United Soviet States of America) that began with Reagan.
by pengiep on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:47:40 PM PDT
... for speeding (I had honestly thought I was in a 40 zone, but it was a 30).
Anyway, the officer was conspicuous in checking the interior through the rear windows with his flashlight before coming near the driver's window to speak to me. He made a big show of it.
Of course, back in America (as opposed to the Amerika we live in now), that would constitute an illegal search. He had no cause (probable or not) to suspect anything.
I was not driving erratically, and he had made no assessment of me and my state of inebriation prior to searching my car. I don't drink or do drugs - unless you count Advil, and I hate even that...
Dump Steny Hoyer
by mataliandy on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 01:35:28 PM PDT
It's about authoritarianism. Obediance training for the public. Start out with blanket trivial and arbitrary search and siezures, sprinkle in a few full-on searches and $2000 laptop siezures, and once good obediance is sustainable, ratchet up to the next level: blanket laptop siezures, random cavity searches, detentions for the "smart asses," and pretty soon it will be SOP to detain undesireables or political suspects for indefinite lengths of time (like after the next elections).
I used to be pro gun control. Not anymore, not after seeing this bullshit. I'm a depressive so I will never buy a gun, but I'm certain that all Americans should have the right to bear arms, and when possible, should keep a few at home. The authoritarian thugs will think twice about martial law if they know that every door they kick in may have an armed citizen standing behind it. Like Jefferson said, you know it's democracy when the government fears the people.
by Subterranean on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 11:03:14 AM PDT
searching for bootleg music, etc.
Students in certain countries might have copies of every textbook in their field of study on their computer and an American might also acquire such copies.
by SingleVoter on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 02:54:23 PM PDT
That was probably more for tax/duty purposes than anything related to "terrorism". That's not out of the realm of possibility when you're carrying a bunch of expensive electronics - if you bought them overseas, you may need to pay duty on them to bring them back in the States. That's why they asked you to prove where you bought it. Not because you looked like a shifty terrorist, but because they wanted to tax you ;)
Blog: Sydneysided. Photoblog: pflog.
by AggieDemocrat on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 04:25:45 PM PDT
WHO would go to Canada to purchase expensive camera equipment? With the state of US currency VS the Canadian dollar?
If US Customs were concerned about such things coming in through Canada, they would have marked it on Aerojad's exit from the US into Canada. This happened to me several times leaving for other countries, in years past, when I owned a good Japanese made camera. It was marked on my departure, noted that I had possessed it when I left the US, thus not subject to importation duty upon re-entering the US.
by 417els on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 09:07:32 PM PDT
it was the sheer inconsistency of the whole thing.
The first time they were about to give me problems because they wanted to see documentation that I had purchased the equipment in the US and overseas where I was coming from.
The next time, when I pulled together all the documentation and brought it with me to show Customs on the way out...they couldn't have cared less. And they also didn't give a crap when I came back in the next time.....and each time I went and came back, all of the stuff was in a large waterproof high-impact rolling case...so it was pretty prominent when I was coming out of the luggage area.
by dweb8231 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 11:12:59 PM PDT
my mother had no trouble with her gel pack to keep a packed lunch cool going from FL to CA. however, on the return trip they took it away from her. i was with her on the return trip so when i came back to CA i used ice cubes instead of a gel pack for my packed lunch. they STILL took away the ice cubes!! its f**king nonsense.
the gall was that in the very next security line they were send cases and cases of bottled water through the ray machine. i asked why bottle water was going through the security area when i wasn't allowed to keep my ice cubes. they said it was the only way to get it to the food vendors.
"that's just great", i said, "any one of those cases of 'water' could blow up the whole joint!"
"now, now", they told me, "you don't want to be talking about such things here."
they didn't argue my point but i was content to at least point out the inconsistency with their rules and walked away. why even screen bottled water? those machines can't detect liquid explosives. why else do they limit any liquid to 3 ounces?
I'm a blue drop in a red bucket.
by blue drop on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 10:56:21 AM PDT
They caught you trying to peek through the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.
by Subterranean on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 11:08:25 AM PDT
place of purchase of foreign-made electronics, especially camera equipment, isn't new. As a precaution and because I'd been advised to do so, I registered with Customs the cameras I took with me to Europe 25 years ago, and have done so ever since.
So on that one small point, at least, things are about the same. Sometimes, an official will ask about the origin of a camera when you return, and sometimes not.
The toothpaste part, however, is flat-out bizarre. But then, so is Junior's entire GWOT.
by Mnemosyne on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 09:30:14 PM PDT
hasn't been used in years, though it probably still works well, but the body and every lens is registered. I've been a bit negligent about registering my later digitals. My binoculars, bought long ago in Japan, are also registered. I don't travel with them anymore taking a less valuable U.S. made brand.
Anyone with consumer items commonly sold overseas and worth more than pocket change should register them for safety. To some extent the fact that we are the dumping ground for so much stuff has seemed to limit the customs interest in such things. When people come here to shop for cheap items made in China there are probably few of us lugging back loads of "bargains" of this sort.
The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and those are ignorance, superstition, and incompetence. [Elbert Hubbard]
by pelagicray on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 07:09:15 AM PDT
than you do when you are admitted.
This was beaten to death in the We are now all prisoners within the US discussion. Here is the time this authority became effectively implemented as I noted in that thread: August 5, 1789.
For more see FindLaw: U.S. Constitution on Border Searches and follow the note links. The summary:
'That searches made at the border, pursuant to the longstanding right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country, are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border, should, by now, require no extended demonstration.'' 87 Authorized by the First Congress, 88 the customs search in these circumstances requires no warrant, no probable cause, not even the showing of some degree of suspicion that accompanies even investigatory stops.
The numbers are those cite links at the referenced page.
by pelagicray on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 08:10:15 AM PDT
is easier, less troublesome, and you don't have to put up with over-officious jerks - you simply walk into the USA. There is nobody there who will open and inspect your luggage, confiscate your laptop, or question you about the text messages on your cell.
You simply walk into the USA.
But don't take MY word for it. Ask any of the 12 million to 15 million people now living in the USA who have already done it.
"We don't need no steenking passports!"
Sorry I couldn't take your call. I'm using my cell phone to make pancakes. Leave a message.
by Celtic Merlin on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 11:43:46 AM PDT
is completed making passage for those illegals a bit more difficult and cutting wildlife off from natural migration routes in large areas. Our own National Wall! How nice.
Oh well, the Republicans have another plan if they can hold on long enough. Wreck the dollar so badly that it is about the same as the various Central American currencies. Then lots will go home. That is already happening with some legals from places where the dollar has lost more proportionately. That will leave just us all cozy with our near worthless money and the means of manufacturing wealth already shipped overseas.
by pelagicray on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 03:26:39 PM PDT
(don't forget to edit your name out and upload it using anonymous account.
A hidden voice recorder is always good for future reference.
by wittg1 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 03:16:47 PM PDT
wide narrow
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