Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of July 18, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or with the radioPup App.

Win McNamee, Getty Images
Win McNamee, Getty Images
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1. President Threatens Veto of GOP's Delay of Obamacare (link)

President Obama came up with the idea to delay Obamacare's mandate for employers, but now that the GOP wants to delay the mandates for individuals he decides to protest.

President Obama is threatening to veto Republican bills that would delay the healthcare reform law's employer and individual mandates.

Obama declared the employer bill "unnecessary" — the administration announced the same delay on July 2 — and said the individual bill is harmful to consumers in a Statement of Administration Policy issued Tuesday.

The measures will see House votes on Wednesday, but are unlikely to pass the Senate.

 

The White House mounted a general defense of the Affordable Care Act in its statement, arguing the law will improve healthcare for millions of Americans.

"The [GOP] bills, taken together, would cost millions of hard-working middle class families the security of affordable health coverage and care they deserve," the veto threat stated.

"Rather than attempting once again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which the House has tried to do nearly 40 times, it's time for the Congress to stop fighting old political battles."

House Republicans have attempted to repeal, dismantle or defund ObamaCare more than 35 times since its passage.

Wednesday's votes were announced last week as a response to the administration's decision to delay the employer mandate.

That policy requires that larger businesses offer healthcare coverage to their workers.

I still think you will see Obama delay the individual mandate.

2. Government Records of Where You Drive (link)

Well this probably shouldn't surprise anyone out there, but if you own a car and drive it, the government probably has records of that. Using scanners, law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have gathered records of every car with a license plate.

Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.

Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

As the technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and federal grants focus on aiding local terrorist detection, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to track a car with GPS, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver's location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners assemble what it calls a "single, high-resolution image of our lives."

"There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU. The civil rights group is proposing that police departments immediately delete any records of cars not linked to a crime.

Law enforcement officials said the scanners can be crucial to tracking suspicious cars, aiding drug busts and finding abducted children. License plate scanners also can be efficient. The state of Maryland told the ACLU that troopers could "maintain a normal patrol stance" while capturing up to 7,000 license plate images in a single eight hour shift.

Anyone really surprised about this?

3. NRA Blasts Holder (link)

The NRA is firing back at Eric Holder after Holder slammed "Stand-your-ground" Laws yesterday at the NAACP convention.

The National Rifle Association blasted Eric Holder for using the George Zimmerman case to attack "stand-your-ground" laws, accusing the attorney general of exploiting Trayvon Martin's shooting death for political gain.

Holder weighed in on the controversial self-defense laws for the first time on Tuesday during a speech to the annual NAACP convention, calling for a national review of the statutes.

"Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation's attention, it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," Holder said.

Holder has already confirmed that his Justice Department continues to investigate Zimmerman, in the wake of his acquittal, for possible federal civil rights crimes. But Chris W. Cox, executive director NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, claimed Holder went too far in extending the debate to "stand-your-ground" laws.

"The attorney general fails to understand that self-defense is not a concept, it's a fundamental human right," he said in a statement. "To send a message that legitimate self-defense is to blame is unconscionable, and demonstrates once again that this administration will exploit tragedies to push their political agenda."

The laws are in place in more than two dozen states, including Florida. They allow people to use deadly force if they think their life is being threatened. The role that law played in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is a matter of dispute -- Zimmerman's defense team technically did not use the law as the basis for their arguments.

But Holder, in his speech to the NAACP, suggested that the laws encourage gun owners to seek confrontation rather than avoid it.

"But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely," Holder said. "By allowing -- and perhaps encouraging -- violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety."

He called for a "hard look" at the laws. The crowd applauded as he said "we must stand our ground."

It's pretty pathetic when our own Department of Justice doesn't believe that we have the right to defend ourselves. Holder is an embarrassment.

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