Bad Blogger

A case study, mostly taken from Atlantic Montly. Now, YOU TOO can fabricate the news!

FBI delves into DMV photos in search for fugitives

MIKE BAKER
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)

In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver’s license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.

The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong.

“Everybody’s participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver’s license,” said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union.

MORE at Media Vulture

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince Implicated In Murder

Jeremy Scahill reports at The Nation that the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, has been implicated in silencing whistleblowers at his company by killing them:

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

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One of the things you learn in History class when you're growing up, is how Switzerland remained at peace through two world wars because they remained neutral through those conflicts, and rarely does anyone bother to ask: if that strategy could have worked, why didn't anyone else think of that strategy? That view is absolute nonsense, and if anyone bothers to question this, they are given an equally nebulous answer about how noone wants to take on the Swiss army-- like they are some crack Moussad-type outfit-- and there's absolutely no way of telling what kind of army they have because they haven't fought a single war in at least a century! There's usually some vague, muttered reference to Swiss Army Knives, like an army of lederhosen-clad über-warriors brandishing corkscrews are going to drive off a German blitzkrieg!

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A year ago, it would have been unthinkable: Sen. Lindsey Graham advocating a government takeover of private banks -- but that is exactly what he suggested today.

"I would not take off the idea of nationalizing the banks" from the table, Graham, R-S.C., told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" program

"This idea of nationalizing banks is not comfortable, but I think we have gotten so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we're going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago, no one likes," Graham said. "But, to me, banking and housing are the root cause of this problem. And I'm very much afraid that any program to salvage the bank is going to require the government.."

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