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Why helmet laws protect MY freedom #tcot
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The many worlds of downtown Los Angeles
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If the right-wing Washington Times is alarmed at this, we all should be. (HT @dangillmor)
Federal security workers are now free to snoop through more than just your undergarments and luggage at the airport. Thanks to a recent series of federal court decisions, the digital belongings of international fliers are now open for inspection. This includes reading the saved e-mails on your laptop, scanning the address book on your iPhone or BlackBerry and closely scrutinizing your digital vacation snapshots.
Unlike the more common confiscations of dangerous Evian bottles and fingernail clippers, these searches are not being done in the name of safety. The digital seizures instead are part of a disturbing trend of federal agencies using legal gimmicks to sidestep Fourth Amendment constitutional protections. This became clear in an April 8 court ruling that found admissible the evidence obtained by officials who had peeped at a passenger's laptop files at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
According to court documents, FBI agents had identified an individual suspected of downloading child pornography on an Internet chat room. The G-men, however, did not want to take their evidence before a judge to obtain a search warrant, as the Constitution requires. Instead, they flagged the suspect's passport and asked officials at the Department of Homeland Security to seize and search his computer at the airport - without a warrant. Three incriminating images were found during the examination, but this case is not about whether a particular person is a scumbag. It's about abusing a principle that applies to all Americans.
U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller found in this case that neither probable cause, justification nor warrant were required to seize and examine the suspect's laptop. Judge Miller, in accord with a 9th Circuit appellate ruling handed down two years ago, explained that "the court finds that reviewing the files of a computer does not rise to the level of invasion of the privacy and dignity of the individual to make the search non-routine."
In other words, simply because a U.S. citizen is returning from a foreign country by airplane, the government thinks it is a "routine" matter to download sensitive business documents, personal correspondence and any other information that might be saved on a laptop or cell phone, regardless of whether there is any reason to suspect the traveler of a crime.
The danger of this chain of reasoning is magnified by the courts' expansive definition of "border," which now includes checkpoints operating up to 100 miles from Canada or Mexico. Those traveling on the highway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, for example, may find themselves stopped by Department of Homeland Security officers who, literally, ask travelers to show their papers. Drug dogs also can be brought in to search vehicles without probable cause.
The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" from unreasonable and unwarranted government intrusion. It is obvious that this right is meant to apply equally to papers that happen to be stored in digital form on a personal hard drive. Such protections do not disappear merely because one happens to be at a real - or imaginary - border.
Because the courts have been derelict in their duty to uphold this fundamental right, it is up to Congress to prohibit the thinly veiled attempts to create Constitution-free zones where Americans find their privacy invaded.
Police raid student newspaper offices, seize 900 photos | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Police raid offices of JMU’s paper, seize 900 photos
vote
nowBuzz up!Up to a dozen police officers led by Rockingham County's commonwealth's attorney raided the offices of James Madison University's student-run newspaper yesterday and seized more than 900 photos taken of last weekend's off-campus, violence-marred party.
Commonwealth's Attorney Marsha L. Garst, armed with a search warrant and accompanied by the officers, showed up unannounced about 10:30 a.m., said Katie Thisdell, editor-in-chief of The Breeze.
"She said if you don't release all of them, we are prepared to take everything out of this office -- all the computers, the cameras, documents, everything," Thisdell said last night
Thisdell said she complied after consulting with the newspaper's general manager, a university employee, and allowed police to download the images onto DVDs. She said not all the photos were related to Springfest, an annual party that drew about 8,000 people this year -- not all of them JMU students.
More than 30 people were arrested and 42 injuries were reported when police with riot shields used pepper spray and tear gas to break up last Saturday's party. Property damage was extensive, authorities said.
Thisdell said a member of Garst's office called her Thursday requesting the photos. Thisdell advised that the newspaper's policy was to release only those photos that appeared on its website or were published in the paper.
Garst couldn't be reached for comment last night.
Thisdell said The Breeze has accepted an offer to be legally represented by the Student Press Law Center in Arlington County, a nonprofit organization that defends student journalists' First Amendment rights. The law center yesterday demanded that Rockingham authorities immediately return the "improperly seized" unpublished photos.
Attorney Frank D. LoMonte, the center's executive director, said in a prepared statement that the search likely violated the federal Privacy Protection Act, which makes it unlawful to search newsrooms for unpublished newsgathering materials.
"To intimidate student journalists with a massive show of force and with no time to consult with legal counsel is grossly improper," LoMonte said.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com .Advertisement
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Reader Reactions
Voice your opinion by posting a comment.Rockingham Co CA & Police = NAZIS
Simple formula.
Where is the outrage at this
crime?Badger: You shouldn’t blame the RTD for saying the raid occurred yesterday, and claim the reporter was on drugs. . . That’s exactly what the student editor told reporters and what was reported in every other state newspaper. The search warrant was executed yesterday (Friday) just like it says in the story.
I guess you get your knowledge from some secret Badger Times or something.
“By Jordan Fifer | The Roanoke Times
At least half a dozen police officers and the Rockingham County commonwealth�s attorney raided the offices of James Madison University�s student newspaper Friday, confiscating hundreds of photos of an off-campus riot last weekend, the paper�s editor said.“And Badger, the First Amendment might be an issue. More germane, if you’d read to the end of the story, is the Privacy Protection Act, a specific federal law to protect newsrooms from this sort of blanket fishing expedition to cease all their equipment, etc.—which is exactly what the CA threatened to do. If this act is in play, then the evidence she has ceased won’t be able to be used in a court of law. Dumb.
Uh, folks…This happened like 3-4 days ago! And the Times-Dispatch is just posting it as news today? The search warrant was not executed “yesterday” as Mark Bowes reports. (He needs to lay off the sleeping pills).
Violation of the First Amendment? Oh lady, you’re way off. Well there’s much that this pitiful RT-D version doesn’t give you, so maybe you truly don’t know.
#1. The Breeze refused to let CA Garst look at the photos, when Garst first asked.
#2. The photos are evidence in a criminal investigation.
#3. Many of the photos are of last weekend’s riot, where JMU students—and non-JMU students—pelted Harrisonburg police officers (and others) with rocks, bottles & cans.
#4. The ER there was overflowing all day & all night from inuries. One guy had to be flown to UVA hospital he was hurt so bad (and is why 8 people were charged with Malicious Wounding by Mob).So this is a simple ‘free speech issue’, huh? Hey I got a tip—Know what actually happened before you go off on some high-school civics class tangent!!
The Roberts Court, Inc., has already decided that students don’t have rights in Morse v. Frederick. What’s the big deal?
Could there BE a clearer case of first amendment rights violation? WTF was the CA thinking here? And going in herself with the police? Thats a CLEAR breech of separation between law enforcement and the prosecution. Theres no way she can be involved in the hearing for this case because it would be a huge conflict of interest. She just put herself on the same level as the officers there, as a witness. What a moron! Did she completely miss the first year of law school?? I agree with the last post here. What IS this state coming to with the violations of Constitutional rights every five seconds. It’s embarassing!
Is the the County Attorney incompetent and ignorant of the law, or does he think that he has some special exemption? His job is to uphold the law, not violate it. I suspect this is a result of the culture of the current state leadership that believes that it can ignore federal laws and the US constitution because they don’t agree that all citizens are created equal and that the Commonwealth of Virgina is subject to federal laws. I wonder what rights or laws they will decide that to violate next. And the word you are looking for is “facist.“ That’s what you call a state that superceeds your rights at a whim. Jefferson would be so ashamed of the leaders today.
This is America. The Police can do whatever they want.
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This is a very serious breach of First Amendment principles. The government cannot raid a newsroom unless they've exhausted all other reasonable means to get what they are looking for. Please help spread the word about this serious incident and consider donating (http://partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateReport...) to the Student Press Law Center (http://www.splc.org.)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
How can product called "Smartfood" have 20g of fat per serving?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
WHO admits shortcomings in handling flu pandemic | Reuters
WHO admits shortcomings in handling flu pandemic
An epidemiologist examines the sample taken from a patient thought to be infected with influenza A (H1N1) virus, formerly referred to as swine flu, in a government laboratory in Leon Guanajuato, some 320 km (200 miles) northwest of Mexico City, April 30, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Mario Armas
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization conceded shortcomings on Monday in its handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, including a failure to communicate uncertainties about the new virus as it swept around the globe.
Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's top influenza expert, said the U.N. agency's six-phase system for declaring a pandemic had sown confusion about the flu bug which was ultimately not as deadly as the widely-feared avian influenza.
"The reality is there is a huge amount of uncertainty (in a pandemic). I think we did not convey the uncertainty. That was interpreted by many as a non-transparent process," Fukuda said.
He was addressing a three-day meeting of 29 external flu experts called to review WHO's handling of the first influenza pandemic in 40 years.
LINKS TO DRUG COMPANIES
Critics have said the WHO created panic about the swine flu virus, which turned out to be moderate in its effect, and caused governments to stockpile vaccines which went unused.
Some questioned its links to the pharmaceutical industry after companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis profited from producing H1N1 vaccine.
Kenya's delegation criticized the United Nations agency for failing to ensure that developing countries received a fair share of vaccines developed against the virus.
"It is not fair to have new vaccines and medicines and then they are so expensive that most poor people in developing countries can't access them," Kenya's delegate said. "This is not a situation that should be tolerated at all."
To date, 31 poorer countries including Afghanistan, Cuba, Kenya and Myanmar have received limited supplies of vaccine donated by drug companies and Western countries, via the WHO.
India's delegation suggested that in public health emergencies, patents on vital drugs should be lifted in line with the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement on intellectual property.
H1N1, which emerged in Mexico and the United States almost exactly a year ago, has killed 17,770 people in 213 countries, according to WHO, which declared a pandemic under way in June.
The WHO will need another year or two after the pandemic is declared over to determine a final death rate from the virus, which is certain to be much higher. The pandemic is still officially under way.
FEAR AND CONFUSION
The World Bank has estimated that countries have spent $4 billion to prepare pandemic preparedness plans and respond to the outbreaks, according to the U.S. delegation to the talks.
"Influenza is a formidable and unpredictable opponent. The threat of a severe pandemic has not decreased," the U.S. delegate said.
The separate but highly lethal H5N1 bird flu virus -- which has killed 60 percent of those infected since 2003 -- "injected a high level of fear about the next pandemic," Fukuda said.
It had been difficult to meet public demands for advice as the H1N1 virus spread quickly across borders and blogs generated speculation and criticism, according to the WHO official.
One big surprise had been that only one dose of vaccine was needed to provide immunity, whereas most planning had been built around two doses being required, he said.
This meant that some countries were left struggling with an oversupply of unused vaccines while poorer ones had little or no access to supplies.
"Confusion about phases and level of severity remains a very vexing issue," Fukuda said, referring to the WHO's six-level scale for pandemics which takes into account the geographic spread of a virus but not its severity.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Michael Roddy)
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