Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border (washingtonpost.com)

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border (washingtonpost.com)

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop 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.


Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


'The policies . . . are truly alarming,' said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

ebay and paypal sellers, watch out, the IRS is coming !

Essentially, the bill requires Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, PayPal, Amazon, Google Checkpoint, and virtually every other "electronic payment system" to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the IRS. They must report:

• The gross amount of payment card and third-party network transactions and
• The name, address, and taxpayer identification number of the participating merchant

However, the bill gives these systems more than two years to gear up for these requirements--mandatory reporting won't come into effect until 2011.

Asset Protection BLOG - Mark Nestmann: Housing Bailout Bill: Say Goodbye to Untaxed Internet Transactions

Possible new channels for Sirius XM Radio

Sirius XM radio will soon be adding a total of 12 new channels on each platform. Six that will be awarded to non-profits who wish to provide NCE (non-commercial, educational) informational programming, and another six that will be awarded to Qualified Entities (small businesses, preferably women and/or minority owned).

My thoughts on who would make good use of such channels:
Non-profits:
1. A Native American public radio station/network such as Native Voice One or AIROS. (This one could potentially qualify as minority owned, as well. But Native Americans deserve to have a voice on satellite radio, either way.)
2. A good eclectic public music station such as KEXP or The Current.
3. A quality Christian CHR station that would clearly not overlap with either The Message or Spirit. Perhaps a group like Radio U, WAY FM (Nashville/Nationwide), WaY FM (Michigan), or Radio Y.
4. An alternative point of view station/network such as Pacifica or perhaps Free Speech TV, if they wanted to also offer a Free Speech Radio, or even Link TV might offer Link Radio.

Minority / Female Owned:
1. BTNC (Black Television News Channel) should really put together a radio station (even it's primarily an audio simulcast of their TV channel. This would offer a new voice and source for news from a different perspective.
2. Given their extensive experience owning radio stations, Univision might be a good source for a new channel or two. I'm not sure whether the minority/female block of six channels will be limited to one to a customer, as the non-profit channels will surely be. Nonetheless, Univision could probably do well programming a station with mostly music and some news breaks, funded by national advertising.
3. The Word Network - they used to be on Sirius, and I'm sure they would jump at the chance to get back onto Sirius XM radio.

Any other ideas? Please feel free to leave comments.

energy / survival = what is coming ?

My Way News - Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare:

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

high-fat diet = better for epilepsy ?

BBC NEWS | Health | Diet treatment call for epilepsy:

A special high-fat diet helps to control fits in children with epilepsy, a UK trial suggests.


The number of seizures fell by a third in children on the 'ketogenic' diet, where previously they had suffered fits every day despite medication.

time to start stockpiling

R.O.I. - WSJ.com:

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.


No, this is not a drill.

24th amendment, anyone?

The forgotten constitutional amendment about voting rights. - By Bruce Ackerman and Jennifer Nou - Slate Magazine:

Indiana's law insists on a photo ID to vote, which in turn requires documents, like a birth certificate or passport, that verify identity. Getting these papers costs voters money as well as time and effort. This leads to the question the court failed to ask: Does the extra expense violate the absolute ban on all 'taxes' imposed by the 24th Amendment?

war landscape ... oil exploitation ... america ?

In Wyoming, the Dark Side of America’s Thirst for Energy - New York Times:

...like many Americans, the people in Teton County — which includes Jackson — do not understand what it takes to feed the country’s seemingly insatiable demand for energy.

“Most people don’t know what goes on in an oil field,” she said. “It’s a war landscape. Those boys are out there 24 hours, even when it’s 50 below and the wind is blowing sideways.”

europeans suffering as much as americans

For Europe’s Middle-Class, Stagnant Wages Stunt Lifestyle - New York Times:

LES ULIS, France — When their local bakery in this town south of Paris raised the price of a baguette for the third time in six months, Anne-Laure Renard and Guy Talpot bought a bread maker. When gasoline became their biggest single expense, they sold one of their two cars.

tell P&G it's okay

AFA ActionAlert - Procter & Gamble promotes explicit open-mouth homosexual kissing

My letter:
Dear Mr. Lafley,

I am very concerned that the American Family Association has nothing better to do than harass Procter & Gamble. I would suggest that P&G continue making the best As The World Turns show possible instead of catering to a very narrow conservative agenda. Most Americans, including me, aren't offended by a relatively chaste kiss, compared to what straight couples get away with doing on soap operas.

Sincerely,
Johnathan Grant