Tuesday, October 14, 2003

"Americans are not going broke over lattes!" Home mortgages, insurance and, above all, children are driving middle-class parents into bankruptcy, says Harvard law professor and author Elizabeth Warren. In the U.S. today, you cannot buy a toaster that has a 1 in 12 chance of burning down your house. It's not legal according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. But you can buy a home mortgage that has a 1 in 12 chance of costing you your house. Either way the family is out on the street. The mortgage industry needs to be regulated at least as aggressively as the toaster industry. [Salon] 4:59:55 PM

Joe Conason's Journal Who was behind the effort to get soldiers to sign form letters from Iraq? [...] Given the plunging poll numbers that have Republicans so worried, there is another obvious possibility. The Republican National Committee is well-staffed with "Astroturf" technicians, as we learned not so long ago. [Salon] 2:13:47 PM

Homeland Security at the border Dan Turned Away at Border The love story of Trevor Hughes and his fiancee began in an elementary school in the Himalayan foothills. They were "global nomads." He was a diplomat's son. She the daughter of missionaries. They lived in Asia, attended school together, fell in love and want to get married in June. But when Hughes' fiancee, a German national, tried to visit him on a six-month tourist visa Monday, she was detained in Atlanta, handcuffed, jailed--even stripped of her diamond engagement ring. Then, after 20 hours without food, she was put on a plane and shipped back to Stuttgart. Horrible story. I was also harassed at the border this time, much worse than I've ever been. I have a zillion stamps in my passport and it's obvious that I travel frequently to the US, but the questions were quite relentless. The Homeland Security officer was really tough on everyone and when it was turn for the Japanese woman in front of my to go up, she was so frightened, she was shaking and couldn't even speak. He kept asking her name and she opened her mouth and nothing came out. I haven't seen anyone so scared. Anyway, for anyone traveling to the US... It's TOTALLY different now. I may have just hit a particularly tough guy, but the mood is totally different now. The questions are totally different now. Be prepared to explain everything about your trip, your history, your nationality and your job in great detail. My guy this trip didn't know what a venture capitalist was so I had to explain that too... I think I'm going to start cutting back my travel to the US. I definitely don't want to end up in some jail with no food for 20 hours... The US might as well put up a sign saying, "your trip may be randomly terminated for security purposes..." via Boing Boing [Joi Ito's Web] 2:08:15 PM

© Copyright 2003 The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.