THE HEADLINES

Screen grab from a promotional video showing law enforcement using "mobile biometrics" technology (Al Jazeera)

DOES THE FOURTH AMENDMENT APPLY TO YOUR IRISES AND FINGERPRINTS? THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DOESN’T THINK SO...

(Al Jazeera)

“Mobile biometrics.” It’s a phrase with a futuristic ring to it, but this technology is not out of a science fiction novel. It is very real, and it is about to get a major boost via the deployment of thousands of “mobile biometrics” hand-held units to local police and law enforcement throughout the United States as part of the government’s new “Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System.” The premise behind this breathtaking new technology is to allow law enforcement to instantly identify and track suspects or “persons of interests” in preventing crimes, fighting “terror,” etc. The US military has used similar technology in Iraq and Afghanistan to apparently great effect, and other federal agencies may begin using them on US soil. But using battlefield gadgets on American citizens, especially those that aren’t suspected of a crime but are subjected to biometrics for “identification” purposes, raises grave risks about the legal framework of how local law enforcement will use the technology and whether it is even constitutional. The entities given the first wave of biometric scanners have disturbingly varying protocols for their use. And some legal scholars already insist biometric scans are a direct violation of the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

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OUR NEW “SUPER CONGRESS” IS GOING TO BE “SUPER SECRET.“

(Huffington Post)

One provision of the wildly disorganized final deal struck between the White House and congressional Republicans to raise the nation’s debt limit included a plan to create something dubbed the “super Congress.” This unprecedented new body will be charged with putting meat on the bones of the trillions of dollars in cuts demanded by Republican lawmakers and agreed upon by President Obama, Very few actual cuts are specified in the deal itself, instead deferring most long-term decisions on which facets of government spending will be slashed to the “super Congress”; really a “super committee” based on the model of other congressional committees already operating. But there are distinct differences between a random congressional committee and the “super Congress.” The “super Congress” will be given immense power to cut spending and kill government programs almost unilaterally, yet it will make these decisions behind doors that are sealed, with no requirements to notify the public and no real structure of transparency. Government accountability activists are outraged, noting that “the committee is designed for power, not for transparency and accountability.”

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DEFAULT AVOIDED, PRESIDENT OBAMA, CONGRESS AND BUSINESS INTERESTS WILL NOW “PIVOT” TO FIXING THE ECONOMY…BY KILLING JOBS WITH FREE TRADE.

(Reuters)

Three free trade agreements–with South Korea, Colombia and Panama–approved by President Bush have been languishing for years since his administration left office. The new Republican majority in the House and an emboldened minority in the Senate, coupled with a disturbing acquiescence from President Obama, has been lobbying for action on the deals, spurred on by the demands of American multinational corporations that stand to benefit handsomely from such agreements. But with fights over government shutdowns and the debt ceiling, trade has taken a back seat to more urgent congressional action. Now members of both parties in Congress, as well as the president, promise to “pivot to jobs” in the wake of partisan bickering over debt that proved deeply unpopular with the public. And what is first on this “jobs” agenda? Ratification of the three tabled free trade agreements, of course, proposals that would kill tens of thousands of American jobs and allow the corporations aggressively pushing for the deals to boost their profits by sending US jobs overseas for cheap labor.

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POLITICS MEETS FOOTBALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: “YOU CAN’T HAVE UNION GUYS.”

(Gainesville Sun)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker may have found his new favorite football coach. Forget rooting for his home state University of Wisconsin Badgers; Gov. Walker, famous for his crusade against the collective bargaining rights of public employees, may soon become a Florida Gator fan. That’s because Will Muschamp, the new head football coach at the University of Florida, is in hot water with his school’s union leaders over a comment made during his media tour prior to the beginning of the new football season. Describing his attitude to what kind of players he wants on his team, Muschamp said, “You can’t have union guys.” He went on to say,”Those are the guys who make a great play and then take the next play off because they think they are in a union.” The leader of UF’s largest union on campus disagreed with Muschamp’s characterization of “union guys,” saying that the coach has been “watching too much TV and all the union-bashing going on.”

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