FBI Launches $1 Billion Biometric ID System Using Nationwide Array of Cameras, Receivers

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics, that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this biometric data is captured, through a nationwide network of cameras and photo databases, that is raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates.

Until now, the FBI relied on IAFIS, a national fingerprint database that has long been due an overhaul. Over the last few months, the FBI has been pilot testing a facial recognition system — and soon, detectives will also be able to search the system for other biometrics such as DNA records and iris scans. In theory, this should result in much faster positive identifications of criminals and fewer unsolved cases.

According to New Scientist, facial recognition systems have reached the point where they can match a single face from a pool of 1.6 million mugshots/passport photos with 92% accuracy, in under 1.2 seconds [PDF]. In the case of automated, biometric border controls where your face and corresponding mugshot are well lit, the accuracy approaches 100%. Likewise, where DNA or iris records exist, it’s a very expedient way of accurately identifying suspects…

Imagine if the NGI had full access to every driving license and passport photo in the country — and DNA records kept by doctors, and iris scans kept by businesses. The FBI’s NGI, if the right checks and balances aren’t in place, could very easily become a tool that decimates civilian privacy and freedom.

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA Tells Employees They’ll Lose Their Jobs if GOP Wins

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Two federal agency supervisors allegedly warned employees earlier this year that a Republican takeover in Washington could threaten their jobs — comments that some workers apparently took as guidance on “how to vote” and that one group claims may have violated federal law.

Nonprofit watchdog Cause of Action wrote a letter Wednesday asking the Department of Transportation’s inspector general to launch a probe into the incident, involving senior officials with the Federal Aviation Administration. The incident occurred in May during a meeting at the FAA’s Seattle office, according to the letter.

Emails obtained by FoxNews.com show one FAA employee recalling what John Hickey, deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, said at the meeting.

“I would not be able to quote Mr. Hickey (sic) exact words but what I took out of it was, if the conservative (Republicans) gain control of congress then the FAA could be looking (at) as much as a 15% cut in budget and we (may) be looking at furloughs. If the liberal Democrats take control of congress then we would be looking at a flat budget,” the email said. “In short if the Republicans win office our jobs may be (affected) … if the Democrats win office then our jobs would not be (affected).”

The recipient of that email then relayed the account, and others, to apparent higher-ups at the FAA. He said, “there seems to be some energy within the office as a reaction to Mr. Hickey’s, inappropriate at best, comments and more than a few employees took umbrage that a person in such an elevated position in the agency would make those remarks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Despite Earlier Promises to Repeal, Romney Plans to Keep Parts of Obamacare

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Photo credit: Ars Skeptica

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who promised early in his campaign to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, says he would keep several important parts of the overhaul.

‘Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,’ he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage.’

Romney also said he would allow young adults to keep their coverage under their parents’ health-insurance.

Those provisions have been two of the more popular parts of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

‘I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan,’ Romney said. ‘And even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people.’

Read more from this article HERE.

Obama Raises More Campaign Cash than Romney in August

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Photo Credit: Cain & Todd Benson

President Barack Obama squeaked out a fundraising victory over Mitt Romney in August as the candidates gear up for the final stretch of their closely contested campaign.

Obama raised more than $114 million in August, while Romney brought in just over $111 million, according to numbers released early Monday by the rival campaigns. It’s the first time in four months the Democrats have outraised the Republicans. And it’s a sharp increase for the president, who raised $75 million in July.

Despite Obama’s advantage in August, it’s the third straight month Romney has collected more than $100 million, and the figure represents his best one-month fundraising total. And Romney has socked away more money for the general election campaign.

The Republican hopeful showed signs of taking a new, more centrist tack toward health care and defense spending as he starts the next leg of his campaign with a Monday rally in Mansfield, Ohio, a pivotal region in a battleground state. Obama, who spent the weekend campaigning in Florida, is scheduled to be at the White House.

After weeks of pushing conservative GOP themes leading up to the party convention in Tampa, Fla., Romney’s less partisan tone comes as the race shifts toward the Nov. 6 election, which is expected to be decided in fewer than 10 states where neither Romney nor Obama has a significant advantage.

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Romney Says if He’s Elected, God Will Stay

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Making reference for the first time to the Democrats’ about-face on having the word “God” in their party’s platform, Mitt Romney said here today that if he is elected, God will not be removed from the Republican platform.

“I will not take God out of the name of our platform,” said Romney to thunderous applause. “I will not take God off our coins and I will not take God out of my heart. We’re a nation that’s bestowed by God.”

It was Romney’s first reference to last week’s awkward proceedings during the Democratic National Convention, in which after one day the platform was amended to include the word “God” and name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reportedly under the instruction of President Obama.

Romney debuted a new stump speech here today, one that hinged on the candidate leading the crowd of thousands in the Pledge of Allegiance.

“I remember as a boy, I was in the fourth grade, somehow in my mind I remember being there in the fourth grade in front of the blackboard, we had an American flag that was pinned in front of the blackboard. And every day we stood, lined up in front of that blackboard and we recited the pledge of allegiance. Do you remember?” asked Romney, launching into the pledge.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Widens Lead over Romney; 48% of US Give Obama Good or Excellent Marks

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Obama Widens Lead

By Alina Selyukh. President Barack Obama, picking up support following the Democratic National Convention, widened his narrow lead over Republican U.S. presidential challenger Mitt Romney in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday.

The latest daily tracking poll showed Obama, a Democrat, with a lead of 4 percentage points over Romney. Forty-seven percent of 1,457 likely voters surveyed online over the previous four days said they would vote for Obama if the November 6 elections were held today, compared with 43 percent for Romney.

“The bump is actually happening. I know there was some debate whether it would happen… but it’s here,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark, referring to the “bounce” in support that many presidential candidates enjoy after nominating conventions.

Obama had leapfrogged Romney in the daily tracking poll on Friday with a lead of 46 percent to 44 percent.

The president’s lead comes despite a mixed reaction to his convention speech on Thursday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Friday’s government data showing that jobs growth slowed sharply last month. [Read more from this story HERE].

48% Give Obama Good or Excellent Marks

By Rasmussen Reports. President Obama continues to earn positive marks for leadership from nearly half the nation’s voters, but there’s a wide partisan difference of opinion on this question.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters rate the president’s leadership as good or excellent. [Read more from this story HERE].

Las Vegas Attempts to Cleanup X-Rated Litter but ACLU Threatens Tourists, City

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Photo credit: Moyan Brenn

Some tourists try to dissuade them by directing icy glares their way. Others stare, zombie-like, into the Las Vegas Strip’s ubiquitous video screens and light displays in an effort to ignore the pushy handbill distributors.

But some tourists accept the pamphlets and glossy cards that advertise all-but-nude exotic dancers. Then, more often than not, they toss the material in the trash. Or if a trash can isn’t nearby, onto the sidewalk — creating an endless X-rated litter problem that Las Vegas officials are now trying to clean up.

A new ordinance requires handbillers to pick up litter within a 25-foot radius on the sidewalk. But there’s a hitch: The law might run afoul of the First Amendment.

“If someone takes some material, regardless of what it is, and then walks down the street and decides to drop it, that’s the person who is littering. That’s the person that is responsible, not the person who gave it to them originally,” said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union.

Las Vegas police aren’t enforcing the ordinance yet. The ACLU has been meeting regularly with the exotic dancer businesses and police to talk about how that will happen, as well as encourage handbillers to help keep the Strip clean. The group has not yet challenged the law in court.

Read more from this story HERE.

Over-Confident Obama Already Planning Second Term

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With the debates around the corner and the presidential race in full swing, the Obama administration is quietly planning a second term, Politico reported, as it assesses staff and crafts legislative plans.

What might seem as overconfidence, however, has some precedent in previous administrations. Still, a host of liberal groups also are quietly planning renewed lobbying efforts to pressure what would be a “lame-duck” president to push through some big-ticket projects, Politico reports.

Among the moves anticipated:

•The liberal Alliance for Justice, Leadership Conference of Civil Rights and the People for the American Way, among others, are focused on trying to make the process move faster to place more liberal federal judges on the bench.

•Heads of the major environmental groups held a two-day retreat in July at the Wye Plantation in Talbot County, Md., to consider ways to push big cap-and-trade programs in a second term.

•Environmental, gay-rights and immigration groups mindful of Obama’s own tight window for action are also working on how to get their ideas wrapped in various bills.

•Obama told Time Magazine that because of his policy contrasts with Romney, he’d interpret a win as giving him a mandate to end the Bush-era tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000.

Read more from this story HERE.

Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan Says Hands-off Medical Marijuana

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Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says the federal government shouldn’t interfere with states that have legalized medical marijuana.

The Wisconsin congressman tells KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs that he personally doesn’t approve of medical marijuana laws. But he says that states should have the right to choose whether to legalize the drug for medical purposes.

In response to a reporter’s question, Ryan said: “It’s up to Coloradans to decide.”

The interview was taped while Ryan campaigned this week in Colorado Springs and aired Friday.

Colorado is one of 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow medical marijuana.

The Obama administration at first signaled that it wouldn’t interfere with state-sanctioned marijuana distribution.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rush Limbaugh: Obama Copied Jimmy Carter’s Convention Acceptance Speech from 1980 (+video)

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Rush Limbaugh dubbed President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention a “halfhearted effort” that proved the conservative radio host was right when he warned an Obama presidency “would end up being nothing more than the second term Jimmy Carter never had.”

Limbaugh treated his radio listeners to a side-by-side comparison of Obama’s Thursday night speech to Carter’s convention acceptance speech in 1980.

“I’m just sitting here in stunned disbelief,” Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his website. “Barack Obama, he coulda channeled FDR. He coulda gone back and tried to copy something JFK had said, or RFK. If he’s gonna go back to the past and seek inspiration, if he’s gonna go back in time, if he’s gonna go back to the liberal playbook, if he’s gonna go back to the Democrat Party failed ideas of the past, if he’s gonna go back to the boilerplate, why pick Jimmy Carter, if you want to win?”

Limbaugh said last night’s speech shows just how right he was when he first linked Obama to Carter.

“Little did I know — and I’m always aware when I’m right; I never doubt it — but little did I know how right I was when I warned the people of America that an Obama presidency would end up being nothing more than the second term Jimmy Carter never had,” Limbaugh said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s Jimmy Carter’s 1980 acceptance speech: