WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney says his heart said he was going to win the presidency, but when early results came in on election night, he knew it was not to be.
The GOP nominee tells "Fox News Sunday" that he knew his campaign was in trouble when exit polls suggested a close race in Florida. Romney thought he'd win the state solidly.
Obama ended up taking Florida and won the election by a wide margin in the electoral vote.
Romney says there was "a slow recognition" at that time that President Barack Obama would win ? and the race soon was over when Obama carried Ohio.
Romney says the loss hit hard and was emotional. Ann Romney says she cried.
The former Massachusetts governor acknowledges mistakes in the campaign and flaws in his candidacy.
But he jokes that he did better in his second run for the White House than he did the first time around ? when he lost the 2008 nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain.
He says he won't get a third crack at it.
Romney says his campaign didn't do a good job connecting with minority voters, and that Republicans must do a better job in appealing to African-Americans and Hispanics.
He says his campaign underestimated the appeal of Obama's new health care law to low-income voters.
But he knows that because he lost the race, it's hard to tell the GOP to listen now to what he has to say about how to improve the party's message.
The Romneys are living in Southern California now and he's kept a low profile since the election. He says "you move on" from the disappointment and that "I don't spend my life looking back."
Ann Romney says that after the election she was approached by TV's "Dancing with the Stars," but declined to join the cast.
She says she'll be turning 64 soon and "I'm not really as flexible as I should be."
The interview was taped Thursday and aired Sunday.
LockerDome, a social media publishing platform designed to connect sports fans with their favorite athletes, teams, brands and sports properties, announced today that it has raised $6 million in series A financing. The round was led by Cultivation Capital Growth Fund, a new venture fund created by Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, with contributions from St. Louis Cardinals President William DeWitt, III, a Milwaukee Brewers exec and veteran NHL defenseman (and Hart Trophy winner) Chris Pronger, among others.
Disturbing documents recently obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is operating drones in the United States that are capable of intercepting electronic communications along with recognizing and a person on the ground.
CBP, a child agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is itself quite fascinated with drones, is just one of many public entities in the United States operating drones domestically.
While we know the number is quite large and growing, it is impossible to know how many entities are authorized to fly drones over the US or if the Obama administration claims the authority to kill Americans on US soil without charge or trial as has been done abroad since they refuse to answer that question.
Others flying drones over the U.S. include National Guard units (more listed here), the military in concert with law enforcement agencies around the country, the Marshals Service and so many others that universities and colleges are expanding drone piloting programs to keep up with the domestic drone boom.
While we already knew that the domestic drone program was massive beyond comprehension, EPIC most recently revealed that CBP is ?operating drones in the United States capable of intercepting electronic communications,? evidenced in?a document from 2010.
Another document from 2005 shows that ?the ten Predator B drones operated by the agency have the capacity to recognize and identify a person on the ground.?
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this is that ?Approximately, 2/3 of the US population is subject to surveillance by the CBP drones.?
Indeed, this is due to what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls a ?Constitution-Free Zone? which essentially means little to no constitutional protection for the majority of persons living in the United States.
One of the documents obtained by EPIC reveals that the drone sensors are capable of ?identifying a standing human? and ?recognizing a backpack? but, according to The New York Times Bits blog, a CBP ?spokesman said they cannot identify a particular individual. They can only tell if it is a person or something else.?
It?s hard to know all that much about the CBP?s claims and their truthfulness since large portions of the document have been redacted.
Furthermore, the documents at issue are from 2005 and 2010, it is impossible to know what technology has been acquired since then.
Perhaps most important of all, we now know that the former press secretary for the Obama White House was told to deny the existence of the government?s drone program. In other words, he was told to lie.
If the White House spokesman was told to lie through his teeth, why would we think other agencies and their spokespersons suddenly have some kind of devotion to truth?
The 2010 document also states under section 3.1.2 that, ?To readily acquire state-of-the-art technology upgrades and improvements to the commercial products and services, CBP OAM may solicit or the contractor may independently propose changes, upgrades or enhancements to the aircraft, equipment, components, or other requirements to reduce costs, improve performance, save energy or improve safety.?
Put simply, if CBP or the contractor thinks technology capable of directly identifying someone may ?improve performance? ? which it arguably would ? then it could be implemented.
In a statement to the Huffington Post, the CBP spokesman claimed that signal interception capable of eavesdropping on cell phone calls and reading text messages hasn?t been deployed yet.
?Any potential deployment of such [drone] technology in the future would be implemented in full consideration of civil rights/civil liberties and privacy interests and in a manner consistent with the law and long-standing law enforcement practices,? said spokesman Michael Friel.
One must wonder why, in 2005, the CBP said that the initial payloads should include signals interception if they truly had no interest in deploying it for at least seven years.
?The agency has said that they?re not using the signals intercept technology, but that doesn?t mean they?re not capable of doing it, said Ginger McCall, director of EPIC?s Open Government Program.
If they did use the signals intercept technology, ?It seems like it would be in violation of federal privacy laws and potentially the Fourth Amendment ? and we haven?t seen any sort of privacy regulations come out from the Department of Homeland Security or any other agency about the drones.?
?Notably, she added, the agency has also left open the possibility that it could one day use facial recognition technology, which would raise additional privacy concerns,? according to the Huffington Post.
All we can be comforted by is a CBP spokesman claiming they don?t engage in communications surveillance along with the following reassuring statement given to the Bits blog.
?This is not an aircraft that?s looking through windows,? the spokesman said.
Read the documents linked below for a troubling look into what one Department of Homeland Security ? which claims jurisdiction over a disturbingly high number of Americans ? agency has been up to with their drone program.
2010 CBP document (original here)
2005 CBP document (original here)
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This article first appeared at End the Lie.
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Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office via AFP - Getty Images
James Eagan Holmes is scheduled to be arraigned March 12 in the July 2012 Colorado theater shootings that killed 12 people.
By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News
James Eagan Holmes, the man charged with killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a crowded Colorado movie theater last year, may seek to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, his lawyers indicated in court documents made public Friday.
Holmes, 25, allegedly stormed a theater in Centennial, Colo., showing the premiere of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20 and opened fire with an armament of legally acquired weapons. He is charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other offenses.?
Prosecutors still haven't said whether they intend to seek the death penalty for Holmes, who is scheduled to be arraigned March 12, and Friday's filing?indicates that the lack of certainty is complicating his defense.
"Mr. Holmes is considering entering a plea pursuant to (the Colorado law governing insanity pleas), but he cannot intelligently decide how to proceed, until this Court rules upon certain legal issues related to the entry of such a plea and advises Mr. Holmes and counsel of the consequences of such a plea.
In five filings, Holmes' lawyers ask the court to declare parts of that law unconstitutional. Specifically, it argues that sections governing when a defendant may waive his right to remain silent and whether he must reveal confidential medical information are unconstitutionally vague.
Holmes' attorneys have previously said he suffers from mental illness, and he is known ?to have seen a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Medical School before he dropped out a month before the shootings.
Only one person has been executed in Colorado since it legalized capital punishment in 1976.
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This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 6:30 PM EST
There's a lot of really weird stuff that happens on any given day in New York City. Which is why I like to take the occasional day off during the week just to walk around and take in my surroundings. Take, for example, this random video shoot I came across of some grungy folks equipped with Google Glass in the Lower East Side. More »
