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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is launching a broad investigation into the practices of the Ferguson, Missouri, police department. That's according to Attorney General Eric Holder. He announced the investigation following the shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb.

Well, this sounds interesting and probably sinister and open to manipulation: The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.” The university has received $919,917 so far for the project. “The project stands...

This is a real headshaker that should send chills down your spine.Washington Free Beacon: The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.” The university has received $919,917 so far for the project....

MADISON, Wis. – Conservative targets of a Democrat-launched John Doe investigation have described the secret probe as a witch hunt. That might not be a big enough descriptor, based on records released Friday by a federal appeals court as part of a massive document dump. Attorneys for conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth point to subpoenas requested by John Doe prosecutors that sought records from “at least eight phone companies” believed to serve the targets of the investigation. O’Keefe and the club have filed a civil rights lawsuit against John Doe prosecutors, alleging they violated conservatives’...

Microsoft's "SmartScreen Filter" is blocking Sarah Palin's new website (sarahpalinchannel.com). When I went to the site anyway (it's hard to do), the videos would not play. Whatever is wrong may have been caused by a deliberately orchestrated group of people reporting the site as unsafe to Microsoft, or it may simply be that Microsoft simply does not like Sarah Palin. Regardless of the cause, it may help if people go to the site and click on the "Report this site does not contain threats" choice.

Earlier in July, German politicians said they were considering going back to old-fashioned manual typewriters for confidential documents, in order to protect national secrets from American NSA spooks. Patrick Sensburg, chair of the German parliament’s inquiry into alleged NSA spying, said committee members are considering new security measures and are seriously thinking about abandoning email and returning to old school typewriters.

Weeks after an apparent case of politically motivated Internet censorship at a Connecticut high school, officials are still blaming the incident on technical malfunctions — even though evidence suggests human culpability. On May 27, shortly before his graduation, Andrew Lampart, an 18-year-old senior at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Conn., set out to research gun control on a school computer in order to fulfill an assignment for a basic law course. He found that the website for the National Rifle Association was blocked, while websites supporting gun control remained accessible. Over the next five days, Lampart spent more time on...

Instead of a no-spy deal, the US has begun a Cyber Dialogue with Germany. In a Spiegel interview, John Podesta, a special advisor to President Barack Obama, speaks of the balance between alliances and security and says that changes are being made to NSA espionage practices. […] “(W)ith respect to what German citizens think, the United States has a pretty good track record of standing up for values of global democracy, of free expression, of protecting the rights of individuals, of trying to ensure that people are not discriminated against, of not suppressing free speech. Every country has a history...

Germany’s domestic intelligence service wants to increase surveillance on users of social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, but stressed it would only target terrorists and extremists. […] But the Süddeutsche Zeitung had reported that the BfV’s chief, Hans-Georg Maaßen, wanted to develop a system which collected “large amounts of online data”. …

Here at SteynOnline every cutting-edge pop culture reference has to be at least three-quarters of a century old. So, watching the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, I found him a dead ringer for Guy Kibbee, the beaming befuddled sugar daddy who was a mainstay at Warner Brothers in the early Thirties. Mr Koskinen is a Democrat sugar daddy who has given generously to his party since the Seventies: He's not the kind of sober civil servant you'd appoint if you were looking to signal to America that King Barack's revenue collectors are cleaning house and returning, chastened, to their previous role...

HOLMES BEACH, FL — With the help of new technology and federal grant money, police are preparing to warrantlessly search people’s refreshments as they visit the beaches of Florida. New passive alcohol detectors can simply be hovered above a person’s beverage to detect whether it contains alcohol. Similar devices can detect alcohol on someone’s breath. “We can go up to anybody we want, OK? If we see something that looks like alcohol.” On Holmes Beach, even the mere possession of sealed alcohol containers is illegal. Police are using that as an excuse to inspect anyone’s beverage they choose. “We can...

First lady Michelle Obama wants students to police their families for any “racially insensitive comments” they might make, and to challenge those comments whenever they’re made, asking them to “drag” their presumably racist relatives into the “fight against racism.” Huh? You heard right. The lady whose husband has taken every opportunity to fan the flames of racism, from the Cambridge police, to Arizona’s immigration law, to the Trayvon Martin case, and on and on, wants everyone else to stop being so racist.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder, Jr. on Monday announced the creation of a task force within the Justice Department to combat an “escalating danger” from “homegrown” terrorists within the United States.. The Justice Department, in a news release accompanying Holder’s weekly video address, cited a Congressional Research Service report last year that said domestic terrorists were responsible for more than two dozen incidents in the U.S. since 9/11. [....] The task force will chiefly comprise leaders from the FBI, the Justice Department’s National Security Division and U.S. Attorneys. Called the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, it is a recreation of a...

SANTA BARBARA (CBSLA.com) — State lawmakers are pushing for new legislation that would give family or friends of a potential gunman the ability to ask law enforcement to prevent them from owning or buying a firearm. The proposed bill from California State Assemblymembers Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) would create a gun violence restraining order, which would grant authority to “concerned family members, friends and intimate partners” to “intervene and potentially prohibit the purchase of firearms and/or remove the firearms already in possession.” Williams told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO law enforcement would in turn have the ability to...

Last week, Michelle Obama made headlines when she exhorted graduating high schoolers in a commencement address to monitor their families for politically incorrect thoughts and behaviors. To one journalist, this was more than an off-hand comment made by the first lady. In the opinion of Cheryl Chumley, a reporter for The Washington Times and the author of “Police State USA,” Michelle Obama’s remark reflects a growing trend in America to target and attack individuals for committing “thought crime.”

Milwaukee police who forced their way into a gun rights advocate's home without a warrant, took her for an emergency mental evaluation and seized her gun were justified under the circumstances and protected from her civil rights claims, a federal appeals court has ruled. "The intrusions upon Sutterfield's privacy were profound," Judge Ilana Rovner wrote for three-judge panel. "At the core of the privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment is the right to be let alone in one's home." But the court also found, that on the other hand, "There is no suggestion that (police) acted for any reason other...

Lightning-Rod W. German Cop Unmasked as Stasi Spy Revelation likened to discovering Kent State shooters were KGB agents (Newser) – The West German cop whose shooting of an unarmed protester in 1967 changed the country forever has been unmasked as an East German spy by historians going through Stasi files, the New York Times reports. The shooting sparked a wide, sometimes violent left-wing protest movement many believe spawned Germany's current liberal disposition. The revelation that the "fascist cop" was a socialist spy has rocked the country. Many now ask whether the policeman was ordered to shoot a protester by Stasi...

You just can't make this stuff up.

Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races. In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly. They are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they’re concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations lawmakers collect, which must be...

“After nearly 20 years of being in business,” Engelbrecht, said during the hearing, “and no agency coming to visit with us, the succession of agencies that have now come to us — for all manner of things — begs the question.” “Ms. Engelbrecht,” Jordan said, “in the first 20 years of business, did OSHA ever visit your place of business?” “No sir,” she responded. “Never once?” “No sir.” “After you filed the [tax-exempt application for King Street Patriots], OSHA visited then, right?” “Yes sir.” “In the first 20 years of business did the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]...