Saturday, June 28, 2008

On the side of the angels

Not in a million, billion years would I have ever imagined that I'd be politically aligned on an issue -- ANY issue -- with Russ Feingold and Pat Leahy. These guys are two of the biggest socialists in the Senate. Senator Feingold and RINO John McCommie put together the execrable Campaign Finance anti-free speech bill. Senator Leahy never met an entitlement he thought went too far.

But this time, Feingold and Leahy are on the side of the angels.

Two U.S. senators called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to back off its assertion that it can search laptops and other electronic devices owned by U.S. citizens returning to the country without the need for reasonable suspicion of a crime or probable cause.

Senators Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, both urged CBP to reconsider its policy that apparently has lead to frequent searches of laptops, digital cameras and handheld devices at borders.

"If you asked [U.S. residents] whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs, and examine the Web sites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government has absolutely no right to do that," said Feingold, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. "And if you asked him whether that actually happens, they would say, 'not in the United States of America.'"
By the way, the policy cited by the Senators was implemented at the behest of a REPUBLICAN administration. Seems to me that the Liberals are doing a better job of protecting our freedoms than the so-called Conservatives, who only seem to be in the business of conserving power for themselves.

Senators Feingold and Leahy, well done lads! I'm glad SOMEBODY in Washington still cares about our rights and freedoms.

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