reacting to these egregious violations of privacy by leaving your smartphone at home, or simply not having one, seems somehow inadequate. The fascists will simply keep pushing and pushing, gradually closing the net around you as they have ever since the passage of the (un)PATRIOT Act. In an actual free and open society, stealing, er excuse me "confiscating" someone's property and then demanding the victim give up their password would be illegal, and the very idea that the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution shouldn't apply just because you are near the national border would be laughable. But we're not a free country, are we? No, not for a long time now.

I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this....

Ahem:

http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/06/7117-2/

Sorry, no can do, gotta send more money to the Defense Dept so we can take on ISIS. And AQ. And whatever other bogeymen conveniently pop up for us to fight. Oh yeah, and tax cuts for the 1% cuz muh trickle-down, etc.

Honestly, it's as if they want to wreck the US tech industry. I wouldn't be surprised if 20 years from now there was no longer an internet but instead just a bunch of regional intranets and national nets, each one totally disconnected to anything outside. We're already seeing the beginnings of this right now what with China's "Great Firewall" or whatever they call it and Iran's moves in that direction. The US' "What's yours is mine, BEEYOTCH" attitude is only gonna accelerate things.

Yes, and..? The United States hasn't been a free country for a long long time now.

That would be....really inadvisable to say to a judge.

I would not hesitate to contribute $100.00 right the fuck now.

"Hurrrr he used a word I don't like so I'll just disregard his statement and the entire thrust of the article."

I can only feel pity for folks like you.

I..don't think I've ever read such an egregious example of concentrated stupidity leavened with willful naivete in my entire life. I am stunned. Congrats. And enjoy the Kool-aid.

And it is precisely because of the above attitudes that the US is rapidly turning into the very same type of police state that people in other countries risk their lives to escape. Also, I notice that the common denominator which played a major part in kicking off the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions - as well as the collapse of the East Block back in the day - is a collapsing economy. Most folks in the US are still relatively well off, so as long as they feel comfortable they will continue to do nothing.

The only coward here is you, turd. "People" such as yourself who support blatantly unconstitutional garbage like the Patriot Act, TSA, stop-and-frisk and now this NSA spying are the filth who are dragging the United States down the road to a police state - if we aren't there already. In 10 years or less there will be drone strikes against suspected "criminals" and "terrorists" in the US itself, and there you will be, cheering it on from the sidelines like the mindless simpering piece of shit you always were.

The day that freedom finally returns to America, folks like you who supported tyranny should be held every bit as accountable as the bullies and thugs who carried it out. Without your disgusting kind, what they do would have been impossible.

American here. Bullshit. Thanks for playing.

Very soon now, the American people will have to make a stark and simple choice: free country or not. Liberty, privacy and a government bound by the chains of the Constitution, as the Founding Fathers intended, or a totalitarian panopticon police state which spies on and jails its people at home while waging endless wars of choice abroad to feed an enormous unneeded war machine which is bankrupting the nation.

The United States has more people behind bars than any other country in the world right now, and that number is climbing - daily. Bullying and abuse of the citizenry by the government and the corporations which own it is growing more and more brazen. Each day we are treated less like free citizens and more and more like cattle, or as sheep to be sheared. When does the government stop reading our emails, wiretapping and spying on us all without cause or warrant? When do we stop being treated like dangerous criminals just for trying to get on an airplane? When do we stop having cameras watch us each time we step outside our doors? When does the militarization of our police and the murder and imprisoning of free human beings in the so-called War on Drugs/crime/terrorism/whatever stop? When is this "War on Terror" supposed to end, anyway?

When do we become a free country again?

Fellow Americans, please understand that Democrats & Republicans are NO DIFFERENT from one another! Both are controlled by the 1%, both support the same anti-privacy, anti-freedom policies and both are slowly but surely turning these United States into a shiny new, ultra high-tech version of the good ol' USSR. If you don't stop supporting these filth, and start standing up for your liberties and privacy in a real and substantial way, you will die as slaves, and your children will never know freedom until after a long and bloody sojourn in darkness.

Hey it's your choice, America. Do you want to be free, or not? And yes, freedom - real freedom - carries risks, dangers and inconveniences. Boo hoo. Deal.

Congratz NASA! WHOO! Now for a manned mission!