Iris Scanners, Widely Used by US Military, Could Be Coming to a Police Department Near You [+video]

military-iris-scannerIris scans could become part of a routine traffic stop, thanks to technology being developed by researchers at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University that can grab an image from a distance of 40 feet. The technology would allow police to take an image the second a driver glances into the rear-view mirror.

“It’s no different than a camera taking a picture of you,” said Marios Savvides, a research professor at CMU’s computer engineering department and the director of the CyLab Biometrics Center. “You could be anywhere within a 6- to 12-meter radius and it will find you and zoom in and capture your iris.”

The technology would be a major development for iris biometric scanners, which have been hampered for years by accuracy at long distances. But adoption also would create legal questions by relying on technology that’s similar to the local license plate databases that have been in use in Virginia, California and other municipalities.

“It could be used surreptitiously,” said Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is monitoring the development of the technology. “That could lead to the ability of law enforcement officers to collect a person’s biometric information without their knowledge.”

The U.S. military has been using iris scan technology for more than a decade in the Middle East, in part to help determine who is authorized to enter military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. soldiers in combat zones often take a snapshot of an individual 6 inches from their face, at which point the data is uploaded to a wide-ranging database that includes everything from scar information and mug shot images to height and eye color data. (Read more from “Iris Scanners, Widely Used by US Military, Could Be Coming to a Police Department Near You” HERE)

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America’s Changing Religious Landscape

cross-211989_640The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.

To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.1 But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. And the share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2 percentage points, from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base.

The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007.

Even as their numbers decline, American Christians – like the U.S. population as a whole – are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Non-Hispanic whites now account for smaller shares of evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics than they did seven years earlier, while Hispanics have grown as a share of all three religious groups. Racial and ethnic minorities now make up 41% of Catholics (up from 35% in 2007), 24% of evangelical Protestants (up from 19%) and 14% of mainline Protestants (up from 9%).

Religious intermarriage also appears to be on the rise: Among Americans who have gotten married since 2010, nearly four-in-ten (39%) report that they are in religiously mixed marriages, compared with 19% among those who got married before 1960.3 The rise in intermarriage appears to be linked with the growth of the religiously unaffiliated population. Nearly one-in-five people surveyed who got married since 2010 are either religiously unaffiliated respondents who married a Christian spouse or Christians who married an unaffiliated spouse. By contrast, just 5% of people who got married before 1960 fit this profile. (Read more from “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” HERE)

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Jeb Bush to Skip Iowa Straw Poll, Probably Fears Early Loss

Photo Credit: The Des Moines Register

Photo Credit: The Des Moines Register

No Iowa Straw Poll for Jeb Bush.

The likely Republican presidential candidate will instead attend a competing event, the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, the day of the Iowa event, GOP sources in Iowa told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday. A spokesman for Bush confirmed the report.

Bush, a former Florida governor, is the first well-known Republican in the 2016 presidential field to officially opt out of the straw poll, a nationally renowned event that has drawn significant criticism over the years.

The Republican Party of Iowa, which hosts the Iowa Straw Poll, has been working to shore up the event’s reputation and lure candidates by addressing some of the most prevalent complaints. Last week, Iowa GOP officials announced they’ll provide free tent space and utilities for the campaigns. The straw poll has been bashed as having outsized importance, even to the point of having losing candidates drop out of the race. Campaigns sometimes spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at the straw poll as a sort of dry run for the Iowa caucuses.

But for the GOP presidential contenders, whether to compete in the straw poll is more of a risk-reward analysis. For those who compete, the aim is to do better than expected. This cycle, some contenders have said, they intend to focus instead on the caucuses, which will take place in precincts across the state on Feb. 1. (Read more from “Jeb Bush to Skip Iowa Straw Poll” HERE)

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Voters Still Worrying Military Exercises May Lead to Federal Control of States

military_trainingEight weeks of U.S. military exercises this summer in several southwestern states – dubbed Jade Helm 15 – have some wondering if the government is preparing for martial law. Most voters don’t oppose such exercises, but a surprising number worry about what the federal government is up to.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the U.S. military conducting training exercises in their state. Just 16% are opposed, but slightly more (19%) are undecided.

Only 21% believe the government’s decision to conduct military training exercises in some states is an infringement on the rights of the citizens in those states. Sixty-two percent (62%) disagree. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

But 45% of voters are concerned that the government will use U.S. military training operations to impose greater control over some states, with 19% who are Very Concerned. Just over half (52%) are not concerned that the government has an ulterior motive for the training exercises, including 26% who are Not At All Concerned.

Among voters who oppose military exercises in their state, 82% are concerned that the federal government has greater control in mind. Just 34% of those who favor the exercises share that concern. (Read more from “Voters Worry Military Exercises May Lead to Federal Control of States” HERE)

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Senate Democrats to the Rescue, Foil Obama on Asia Trade Deal; TPA Defeated

Photo Credit: NY Times

Photo Credit: NY Times

Senate Democrats, in a rebuke of President Obama, on Tuesday blocked consideration of giving him power to accelerate a broad trade accord with Asia.

After more than six years battling Republicans on everything from his signature health care legislation to simply keeping the government open, Mr. Obama is at odds with his own party as he seeks a legislative capstone to his presidency. In some respects, that reflects the complicated politics of trade, which has always been harder for Democrats, their working-class constituents and backers in organized labor.

But Tuesday’s setback also highlighted a problem that has vexed Mr. Obama for most of his tenure in office: his difficulties with Congress. This time he is criticizing Democrats whose votes he now needs.

The president “has made this more personal than he needed to,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, after the 52-45 vote. Only one Democrat, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, joined Republicans to support considering legislation that would give Mr. Obama authority to pursue the most sweeping trade accord since the North American Free Trade Agreement more than 20 years ago, and the procedural vote fell eight short of the 60 needed.

“Ultimately, it’s up to the president,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican. “Does the president of the United States have enough clout with members of his own political party?” (Read more from “Senate Democrats Foil Obama on Asia Trade Deal” HERE)

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Police Make Arrest Related to Synthetic Stimulant Flakka: ‘I Am God, I Am Satan’ [+video]

bath-saltsA 17-year-old female was arrested at 2:30 in the morning Saturday after police said she jumped through the window of a home on the 1600 block of Sycamore Street in Melbourne, according to her arrest report.

The residents of the home say they were terrified after following the incident. The arrest report states that the girl, covered in broken glass and blood, slapped one of the residents of the home, and then ran outside. When police arrived, the report says she charged the officer while screaming, “I am God, I am Satan!” The officer wrote that he backed up at first, but then Tasered her and took her into custody.

Melbourne Police say this behavior is indicative of someone high on “flakka,” a relatively new synthetic designer drug that burst onto the scene in 2012 in South Florida . . .

Two weeks ago, Melbourne officers say they took down a suspected flakka drug dealer by the name of Tyler Reynolds Junior on Grant Street after he blew through a stop sign at Race and Horn streets. They say inside the 20-year-old’s vehicle they found 62 grams of flakka . . .

Last month, Melbourne police arrested 41-year-old Kenneth Crowder for running naked down a Melbourne street and then humping a tree, all while screaming that he was God. When Melbourne cops Tasered him, he allegedly pulled the leads out of his skin and attacked officers. He was eventually arrested and taken to jail. (Read more from “Police Make Arrest Related to Synthetic Stimulant Flakka: ‘I Am God, I Am Satan'[+video]” HERE)

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At Least 42 Dead After Second Devastating Earthquake Hits Nepal

download (18)Still reeling from last month’s devastating earthquake, Nepal was hammered again Tuesday by a magnitude 7.3 temblor that caused dozens more deaths, unleashed fresh landslides and brought down unsteady buildings.

By late afternoon, Nepal’s Home Affairs Ministry said at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,117 injured in the largest aftershock yet recorded from the 7.8 quake on April 25. Officials warned that the toll could rise.

The epicenter was about 47 miles northeast of the capital, Katmandu, near the Chinese border, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The April 25 quake, which killed more than 8,150 people, was centered in the mountains west of Katmandu.

The tremor struck just before 1 p.m. local time, sending residents of the capital scurrying into the open air for safety, and was followed by a series of smaller tremors that rattled nerves even further.

Within hours, new makeshift tents had begun popping up in parts of Katmandu as families that had survived the earlier quake and returned to their homes in recent days decided again they were safer sleeping outdoors. (Read more from “At Least 42 Dead After Second Devastating Earthquake Hits Nepal” HERE)

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Call Your Congressman Today! GOP Leaders Giving Obama Unconstitutional Authority to By-Pass Congress in Approving Treaties

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Today the Republican leadership will encourage the House and Senate to vote to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Initiative; the bill is known as “Trade Promotion Authority” or TPA – no one has even seen thousands of pages of Obama’s Secret Trade Bill – now the Republican leadership is saying “we will have to pass it to see what is in it”. The Republican leaders are planning to give Obama “Carte Blanche” to enter into “Fast-Track Trade Treaties” in “total secrecy” eventually with future countries such as Cuba, Iran, China, Russia, etc., because Obama will be able to add other countries to this agreement, which is UNCONSTITUTIONAL; it “short circuits the legislative process” which requires a two thirds majority vote of the US Senate to approve Treaties. Republican leaders are planning to give Obama unprecedented power to curtail Congressional checks and balances on Treaties, even while they have been watching him for over six years, violate Federal Immigration Laws, the US Constitution, and Freedom of Religion for members of the US Armed Forces.

The TPA Bill has many damaging provisions, among them, it will (1) allow millions of foreign workers to be given visas to enter the US at a time when 104 million Americans are unemployed, (2) open the way to import dangerous foods products that will negatively affect the health of unsuspecting Americans, (3) ship millions of American jobs overseas, (4) “force the US” to abide by UN and EPA business destructive unproven climate change regulations, (5) “force the US” to abide by the UN’s Small Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which was voted down by the US Senate and violates the 2nd Amendment’s provision that allows American citizens to purchase and sell their small arms, and (6) it will force the US Congress to abide by every UN Treaty, undermining the sovereignty of the United States.

The TPA initially embraces 12 nations including the US, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore; however there is a provision in the agreement that allows Obama to add other countries in the future, like Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, etc. The TPA is a secret Obama Law, like the secret Obamacare Law, that will allow the free flow of Mexican, South American, and Asian workers to enter the US (not only will the southern border remain wide open, but the US will no longer have any borders “at all”, or any barriers to entry), the millions of new entering foreign workers will willingly work for exceptionally lower wages under substandard conditions. Details in thousands of unread pages of this law have not been read or worked out, yet the Republican leadership is giving Obama “Fast-Track” authority to make any and all decisions in all and every treaty with the initial 12 countries and as many additional countries Obama decides on in the future, without Senate ratification (all future trade treaties will no longer be subject to the Constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority of the US Senate for ratification). Republican leaders are enhancing Obama’s control of foreign policy, while making the Congress irrelevant.

In order to deal with the millions of Americans who will be losing their jobs because of the TPA Bill, under the radar, the Republican leadership of the House and Senate is crafting a bill to go along with TPA, known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Bill to be passed on the same day the TPA Bill is passed – it should more appropriately be entitled the “Put all American Workers on Welfare Bill Because of the TPA Bill”. That new Trade Adjustment Assistance Bill – being promoted by the Republican leadership in Congress – specifically targets workers and farmers because many of them will lose their jobs once Obama authorizes secret “Trade Treaties” with foreign countries and devastates the labor movement in the United States.

Once Obama uses his “Fast-Track” authority to agree with UN Regulations, Congress would not be able to modify or amend those TPP provisions entered into solely by Obama himself – without Congressional involvement at all – and Obama’s individual decision would have the force of the “law of the land” under the US Constitution. This proposed “living agreement” by Republican leaders in Congress will seriously undercut the re-employment of 104 million unemployed Americans, because as a “living agreement”, it would leave the southern border of the US to be even more porous than it is today. It will also allow Obama to change immigration policy “at will” without Congressional approval. Obviously, those proposed provisions of the TPA are absolutely UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Republican leaders are approving the massive immigration of millions of illegal aliens from Mexico and from 12 other countries.

The Republican leadership will surrender its authority to write Federal Immigration Laws by passing the TPA, thus enabling Obama to use his pen to simply authorize the importation of millions of non-Christian Asian, Japanese, Malaysian, Brunei, Singapore, and eventually Chinese and Iranian workers. According to the Greek Catholic Relief Agency, for over six years, Obama has refused to allow any of the 300,000 Syrian and Assyrian Christian refugees in the Middle East to enter the US, while Canada has been resettling those Syrian and Assyrian Christians. Obama has only been allowing the entry of Muslim refugees through the UN Muslim Refugees Resettlement Program, and has been intentionally excluding Christians. Now the Republican leadership is giving Obama the right to bring in millions of Asian immigrant workers who are also not of the Christian faith.

Obama has been resettling hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees in 195 cities across the nation without elected state and city officials being provided with specific details on who is being resettled in their cities, and without informing them who is going to pay for the health care, resettlement costs, transportation costs, education of refugee children, welfare costs of refugee families, food stamps, and housing costs for hundreds of thousands Muslims forced into their communities.

Supporters of this aggressive secret Obama initiative include Democratic Progressives in Congress, Democratic Congressman Danny K. Davis (received an award from the Communist Party in 2012), David Cortright (Obama’s close Chicago associate on the Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy (SANE)), Communist Tom Hayden (member of “Progressives for Obama”), Democratic Congressmen in the “Hanoi Lobby” (group aggressively supporting normalization of relations with Cuba), Cora Weiss (a strong supporter of Communism and a member of the Anti-War Movement), Adam Hersh (from the liberal Center for American Progress), the left of center liberal media establishment, and the Democratic Progressive Caucus. Those Leftists, Marxists, Progressives, and Communists have been getting the very aggressive support of the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, who have been working with the Democratic Progressive Caucus in Congress to pass the TPA (the 70 member Caucus includes Socialists, Progressives, Marxists, and Communists members of Congress).

The AFL-CIO Unions are on solid footing in their opposition to this “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority”. Responsible and clear thinking Democrats in Congress are also against giving Obama “Fast-Track” authority with this labor damaging bill as it will allow millions of new workers to enter the US, will force the Congress to abide by environmental protection standards that will restrict business development and job growth in the US, will allow currency manipulation, and will allow millions of new Mexican Illegal Alien workers to legally enter and work in the United States. The Republican leaders in Congress should use some degree of “Common Sense” and wait for 19 months, before they give the occupant in the Oval Office any trade promotion authority, and only if that trade authority is very limited. Hopefully, the new occupant of the Oval Office, unlike Obama, will be a pro-American president who supports and abides by the provisions of the US Constitution.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has alerted the American people about the dangers of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) speeding through Congress and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal that TPA would help push. Senator Sessions said in a “critical alert” from his office, “The president has circumvented Congress on immigration with serial regularity. But the TPA would yield new power to the executive to alter admissions while subtracting Congressional checks against those actions.” Senator Sessions and several outside groups said Obama could change immigration policies between trading partners “at will” without any Congressional oversight. “The plain language of TPA provides avenues for Obama and trading partners to facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers into the U.S. – including issuing visitor visas that are used as worker visas,” said Senator Sessions. The basis of that charge is a phrase in TPA calling it a “living agreement.” Sessions said that means that they can be changed after Congress approves them, and also that countries can be added in the future, including China. “It leaves it open for a president to change it without Congressional approval,” warned Jessica M. Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “Congress should not surrender its authority to write immigration laws to either the executive branch, to trade negotiators, and definitely not to international trade tribunals,” she added.

The Republican Leadership of the House and Senate are planning to give Obama free rein with “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority”, with full the knowledge of Obama’s very dangerous anti-American track record, and his pro-Marxist/Communist initiatives. Even the most casual observer of Obama’s dangerous foreign policy initiatives can’t help but understand that, in the past six plus years, Obama foreign policy decisions have consistently favored the enemies of the Republic like Radical Islamic Terrorists in Libya, Communist China, Communist North Vietnam, Radical Islamic Terrorists in Iran, Radical Islamic Terrorists in the Muslim Brotherhood, Chavez’s Socialist Venezuela, Castro’s Communist Cuba, and Putin’s anti-American Russia – they have all collectively and repeatedly expressed their intent to destroy the Republic as it was created by the Founding Fathers.

A newly elected pro-American Patriotic US President would judiciously apply trade promotion authority negotiations by entering into separate Trade Treaties with 12 Asian and South American countries, while abiding by the provision of the US Constitution that requires a two thirds majority vote of the US Senate to approve each treaty. The American people need to rise up and oppose Obama’s secret TPA Bill by calling their Senate representatives at (202) 224-3121 and by sending FaxGrams to their Senate and Congressional representatives telling them to reject Obama’s “Fast-Track” authority which will permit Obama to enter into and force the Congress to abide by all UN Treaties, and will also permit Obama to enter into future secret treaties with countries such as Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, etc. This most recent initiative by Republican leadership in the House and Senate, follows their inept funding of Obamacare, illegal Immigration, and Obama’s wide open southern border policy through September 2015. This most recent action of the GOP leadership is approaching insanity, akin to allowing the fox into the chicken coop.

(The author of “GOP Leaders Giving Obama Unconstitutional Authority” was interviewed previously on The Joe Miller Show)

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Watch: Famous American Muslim Claims Pam Geller Is ‘Worse Than ISIS’ During Interview

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

This weekend, video from a news program out of Michigan surfaced featuring a prominent Muslim American businessman and publisher making outrageous claims about Pamela Geller, her “Draw Muhammad” event in Texas, and ISIS. Watch the clip first. You won’t believe your ears. Then, when you read up on the context … you won’t believe your eyes.

Did you catch that? Plain as day, that man just said:

“She is a hatemonger. She is drawing incitement and violence.” … “Let me talk a little bit about ISIS. ISIS is a hate group exactly like Pamela Geller. She is drawing killers, she makes killers, she is inviting killers to come in.” … “She is worse than ISIS. She is worse than ISIS.”

Worse. Than. ISIS. Unbelievable. Although he did get one thing right. He said “she is drawing killers.” That’s true. They were definitely drawing that.

Now, this guy isn’t some lone-wolf extremist. That was Osama Siblani, publisher of “Arab American News,” the largest and most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States. He’s been editing/publishing the publication out of Dearborn Michigan since 1984. Dearborn boasts the highest concentration of Arab Muslims in the United States… and Osama Siblani is the editor of arguably their most emblematic publication in the country.

My show is based out of Detroit/Ann Arbor, and I’m quite familiar with Dearborn. One of my favorite restaurants ever was caught funneling money to Hezbollah. We were literally discussing it and laughing about it on the air this week. “Yep, those terrorists sure make good food though,” is an exact quote. This is par for the course for Dearborn, and everyone in eastern Michigan knows it.

Allow me to re-iterate: This man, is not a lone-wolf, he has acted as a widely accepted ambassador for Arab-American Muslims since 1984. He not only blamed Pamela Gellar for the terror attempt in Garland, but he flat-out said that she, as an American exercising her free speech… was worse than ISIS. Worse than ISIS.

Muslim Americans, we await your grand protest, and your demanding of his immediate resignation.

… Any minute now. (See “Famous American Muslim Claims Pam Geller Is ‘Worse Than ISIS’ on Air”, originally posted HERE)

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Obama’s Quiet Nuclear Deal With China Raises Proliferation Concerns

download (15)It seemed like a typical day for President Obama. He taped a TV interview on trade, hosted the champion NASCAR team on the South Lawn and met with the defense secretary in the Oval Office.

Not so typical was something that didn’t appear that day on the president’s public schedule: notification to Congress that he intends to renew a nuclear cooperation agreement with China. The deal would allow Beijing to buy more U.S.-designed reactors and pursue a facility or the technology to reprocess plutonium from spent fuel. China would also be able to buy reactor coolant technology that experts say could be adapted to make its submarines quieter and harder to detect.

The formal notice initially didn’t draw any headlines. Its unheralded release on April 21 reflected the administration’s anxiety that it might alarm members of Congress and nonproliferation experts who fear China’s growing naval power — and the possibility of nuclear technology falling into the hands of third parties with nefarious intentions.

Now, however, Congress is turning its attention to the agreement. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to hear from five Obama officials in a closed-door meeting Monday to weigh the commercial, political and security implications of extending the accord. The private session will permit discussion of a classified addendum from the director of national intelligence analyzing China’s nuclear export control system and what Obama’s notification called its “interactions with other countries of proliferation concern.”

The White House’s willingness to push ahead with the nuclear accord with Beijing illustrates the evolving relationship between the world’s two largest powers, which, while eyeing each other with mutual suspicion and competitiveness, also view each other as vital economic and strategic global partners. The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, argues that the new agreement will clear the way for U.S. companies to sell dozens of nuclear reactors to China, the biggest nuclear power market in the world. (Read more from “Obama’s Quiet Nuclear Deal With China Raises Proliferation Concerns” HERE)

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