The FBI's $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) programme is proceeding on schedule and should be fully launched by 2014. It's already in use in several states as test pilots, including Michigan, Hawaii, Maryland, and possibly Oregon.

NGI expands the FBI’s IAFIS criminal and civil fingerprint database to include multimodal biometric identifiers such as iris scans, palm prints, face-recognition-ready photos, and voice data, and makes that data available to other agencies at the state and federal levels.

The FBI page for the program is here. Here is a handy powerpoint on it from the 2010 Biometrics Conference. Here are the uses the FBI envisions for it: [More...]

The former Seal who goes by the name Mark Owen was on 60 minutes tonight. He said the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound was not a kill mission.

He then describes how they were going up the stairs and had been told to expect one of bin Laden's sons to be there. They saw a figure disappear behind a door. They didn't know who it was. A Seal, on a hunch, whispers "Khalid." The figure peeks around the corner. The Seal shoots him dead. It was Khalid bin Laden.

Owen: “Curiosity killed the cat. I guess Khalid, too.”

But this was not a kill mission.

As Mark Kleiman notes, Republicans are waking up to the fact the Romney is losing. So it's time to try and understand why. Collective answer? It's the American People's fault.

John Hinderaker thinks it all those welfare queens in their Cadillacs:

I'm back in NY after the DNC. I apologize for the sparcity of my blogging from Charlotte - I was juggling a lot of balls, including some important work issues. Tomorrow I hope to provide a comprehensive post on the goings on and what I think they mean for this election. In the meantime, it's Saturday and that means college football. My picks on the flip.

Open Thread. Go Gators!

Busy work day, but I see the jobs report is out.

If you're driving on East Colfax today in Denver, be prepared for delays. A 19 year old is holding the manager of a Radio Shack hostage at Colfax and Glencoe. Shots have been fired, the police are everywhere, and the 19 year old says he's not coming out.

Businesses in the adjacent strip mall and nearby streets have been evacuated. Traffic on Colfax is blocked by 40 to 50 police and emergency vehicles. Fifteen to 20 cops, including SWAT-team officers, are in front of the RadioShack. Others searched the alley behind the store with their guns drawn. Along Glencoe Street north of Colfax, cops have lined the street with their cars and are pointing their guns toward the store from behind open car doors.

5 elementary schools are on lockdown.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

While we were watching Obama last night, the MTV Music Video Awards took place in LA. In case you are wondering what you missed: Best New Artist went to the latest incarnation of the British Invasion boy group, One Direction, who were contestants on the British version of the X Factor, were then signed by Simon Cowell's record label and became Mega Stars. You can watch their live performance here.

[More...]

The text of Obama's speech is here.

It's a Wrap: Obama gave a great speech -- he was inspiring, authentic, inclusive, humble, passionate and most of all, Presidential. His supporters love him. They will work extra hard in November. There's too much at stake.

8:55 pm: Obama's hit his mark. Most moving line so far: "Welcome Home."

You’re the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she’s ever called home — why selfless soldiers won’t be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love, why thousands of families have finally been able to say to the loved ones who served us so bravely, welcome home. Welcome home. You did that. You did that. You did that.

[More...]

The New Yorker has an extensive article, The Throwaways , on the misuse of informants.

Informants are the foot soldiers in the government’s war on drugs. By some estimates, up to eighty per cent of all drug cases in America involve them, often in active roles like Hoffman’s. For police departments facing budget woes, untrained C.I.s provide an inexpensive way to outsource the work of undercover officers. “The system makes it cheap and easy to use informants, as opposed to other, less risky but more cumbersome approaches,” says Alexandra Natapoff, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a leading expert on informants. “There are fewer procedures in place and fewer institutional checks on their use.” Often, deploying informants involves no paperwork and no institutional oversight, let alone lawyers, judges, or public scrutiny; their use is necessarily shrouded in secrecy.

[More....]

Photo credit: Archiwum Panstwowe w Krakowie

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton has ruled that the provision in S.B. 1070, Arizona's on-hold immigration law allowing police officers to ask for proof of lawful presence in the U.S. during a valid traffic stop can go into effect. Police are expected to start enforcing it in about 10 days.

Judge Bolton has closed the door on facial attacks to the statute. The Supreme Court ruled last year that this part of the law is constitutional because it requires police to check the documentation without regard to race or ethnicity.
[More...]

The Bush Administration legacy of torture grows, and its claims to Congress were false, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

The United States government during the Bush administration tortured opponents of Muammar Gaddafi, then transferred them to mistreatment in Libya, according to accounts by former detainees and recently uncovered CIA and UK Secret Service documents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. One former detainee alleged he was waterboarded and another described a similar form of water torture, contradicting claims by Bush administration officials that only three men in US custody had been waterboarded.

[More...]

Far and away, Julian Castro was the best speech of the convention so far (with a big assist from his incredibly telegenic 3 year old daughter.)

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is speaking now. I didn't find it special.

A very happy, energizer-bunny of a nun is up next. She seemed very nice but a little too cheerful.

The big flap on Jerusalem, brings to mind this fun video from "Working Girl."

I'll be back for Clinton and check the comments to see if I've missed anything. [Post speech thoughts below...]