posted May 21, 2012 01:52 PM            

in the interests of proving, or persuading his listeners, that obama is paving a smooth road for facebook because they are so nice to him, he rattled off a bunch of figures regarding facebooks not so hot shares...citing that the price on DAY 2 was down to 34 from 38 (i believe that was the starting price)...

two minutes later his own newscast contradicted him, saying FB shares are "sluggish, not having moved from their original price of 38"...

what is wrong with this?

posted May 21, 2012 01:58 PM            

she went on to say, that SHE hasn't a racist bone in her body, but that TRAYVON should have known he might look suspicious in a well-to-do neighbourhood...again, if she means the hoodie, i am writing gela nash to suggest she sue the media personnel who are maligning the garment that made her a multimillionaire.

this is the second time i have heard it implied that because he apparently smoked weed (though tests cannot pinpoint usage time except within a period of WEEKS) he might be more dangerous than previously admitted. weed smokers and brazen attacks on armed men do not usually go together, and who knows that zimmerman wasn't drunk or stoned himself? any test results floating around?

the conservatives seem to think that bringing this to charging and trial means zimmerman will be convicted, it is just as likely he will be acquitted, but what kind of fuss had to be made to get it to investigation?

posted May 21, 2012 03:41 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by AcousticGod:
Facebook did tank this morning.

With regard to the Trayvon case, I think there will be insufficient evidence. It is a shame that Zimmerman didn't have enough common sense to back off when the dispatcher told him to.

---

He DID back off. Trayvon ran up to him and attacked him. Do I have to do ALL your homework for you

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 21, 2012 03:53 PM            

do you have a source for the statement that zimmerman backed off, ami, or just rush's interpretation of events?

posted May 21, 2012 03:59 PM            

a famous defense attorney is now saying that even if zimmerman started the fight, if trayvon got the best of him he is innocent under florida law.

so now self-defense of self-defense is fine and dandy?? maybe to a defense attorney...

posted May 21, 2012 04:29 PM            

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posted May 21, 2012 04:31 PM            

It appears the system is not so color blind. I remember hearing on NPR of how Stand Your Ground got a white man off who chased down a Latino, IIRC, who had stolen his stereo and stabbed him to death a block or so away.

(Btw, the talk shows talking about this one?)

posted May 21, 2012 06:56 PM            

Your recent posts directed at me seem to suggest that you're in a position to educate me. This is not only the first time you've attempted taking this tone, but also you've never so much as tried to argue something with me. If you've mastered any actual facts you'd be able to put up an argument from time to time. Until such a time as you're willing to do so, I will consider all such suggestions [that you're in a position to educate me] as moot. Educators have facts and hopefully think with more clarity than their students.

posted May 21, 2012 07:05 PM            

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posted May 21, 2012 07:19 PM            

Why don't I listen to Rush? The real reason is because I don't listen to the radio a whole lot, and when I do I mostly listen to music. The one talk show station we have saved in the car does play conservatives, but I've never heard Rush there. The bigger, better question here is why would I listen to Rush? Aren't there more reliable news agencies? I just got done reading from the Orlando Sentinal. Do you think Rush knows the Trayvon Martin case better than the Sentinel?

posted May 21, 2012 07:43 PM            

I blame the law as well giving Zimmerman the false confidence he was supported by the law and it`s a "right" to shoot and kill.

IF only he stopped as asked

I agree with Mi.`s Rep Bledsloe:

Bledsoe said Michigan should return to the old standard because stand-your-ground is “the only law that I can think of that actually promotes violence.”

Only time and the facts played out will we really begin to see what happened.

posted May 21, 2012 07:46 PM            

by Charles Simic
for the NY Review of Books

quote:

---

No doubt, the Internet and cable television have allowed various political and corporate interests to spread disinformation on a scale that was not possible before, but to have it believed requires a badly educated population unaccustomed to verifying things they are being told. Where else on earth would a president who rescued big banks from bankruptcy with taxpayers’ money and allowed the rest of us to lose $12 trillion in investment, retirement, and home values be called a socialist?
...
In the past, if someone knew nothing and talked nonsense, no one paid any attention to him. No more. Now such people are courted and flattered by conservative politicians and ideologues as “Real Americans” defending their country against big government and educated liberal elites. The press interviews them and reports their opinions seriously without pointing out the imbecility of what they believe. The hucksters, who manipulate them for the powerful financial interests, know that they can be made to believe anything, because, to the ignorant and the bigoted, lies always sound better than truth:

• Christians are persecuted in this country.
  
• The government is coming to get your guns.
  
• Obama is a Muslim.
  
• Global Warming is a hoax.
  
• The president is forcing open homosexuality on the military.
  
• Schools push a left-wing agenda.
  
• Social Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare.
  
• Obama hates white people.
  
• The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe.
  
• The safety net contributes to poverty.
  
• The government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.

[Many of us could add several items to to this list]

...
there’s another more pernicious kind of ignorance we confront today. It is the product of years of ideological and political polarization and the deliberate effort by the most fanatical and intolerant parties in that conflict to manufacture more ignorance by lying about many aspects of our history and even our recent past. I recall being stunned some years back when I read that a majority of Americans told pollsters that Saddam Hussein was behind September 11 terrorist attacks. It struck me as a propaganda feat unsurpassed by the worst authoritarian regimes of the past

---

Fairgoers cheer for Sarah Palin while she appears on the Sean Hannity Show at the Iowa State Fair, August 12, 2011

The dumbing down seems to be most pernicious in the U.S. IMHO it is partially because of our woefully inadequate education system. People do not read books anymore, they do not write letters.

posted May 21, 2012 07:46 PM            

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 21, 2012 09:21 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ami Anne:
He DID back off. Trayvon ran up to him and attacked him. Do I have to do ALL your homework for you

---

Good lord. I'm sorry but no one can tell me this person isn't a troll.

posted May 21, 2012 09:40 PM            

Speaking of which, isn't he on Viagra...while calling a woman who wants birth control a **** ?

A lot of what he says seems arbitrary to me. For example, he refers to successful people as self-starters UNLESS they're black (or maybe even just not white?) so that Obama or Oprah are then said to be successful because of "white guilt" rather than being self-starters, though I suppose that makes all the white blue collar listeners I see listening to him (seriously, like if a bunch of workers are building a home they'll almost certainly be playing Rush Limbaugh ONLY IF most of them are white) feel better about not being the self-starters praised by Rush.

Heh, I recall a Janitor who was a Rush ditto head, and also a thief which is why he couldn't hold a job because he was such a klepto. (He even stole a bunch of my Women & Guns magazines while I made him lunch!) He got really mad (and never spoke to me again) after I told him to "get on welfare and steal honestly."

Though interesting experience, when I was 17 I gave about the same speech favoring individual liberty over government regulation to 2 people (about a month apart) and the Clintonista (working to get Gore elected in 2000 at the time) called me a "right wing extremist" while about a Rush Limbaugh ditto head who heard me say about the same thing called me a "Leftist Loony." It just goes to show that neither the mainstream liberals or conservatives don't want freedom as they claim but dominion.

Back when I took a road trip to Texas in the summer of 2004 the Aries deluxe (who'd move in with me later) took to listening to AM talk radio and it drove me up the wall with all its fear mongering and theatrical outrage. At some point I just put my hands over my ears and chanted (which summed up what they were all saying), "Terrorists, liberals, and Kerry or my, we're all gonna die!" The Aries deluxe finally turned it off (at least she laughed). It really made me appreciate this parody scene (starting at 1:35):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZFSuqh1pY

posted May 21, 2012 09:47 PM            

This discussion isn't about having a particular political viewpoint.

You said,

Trayvon ran up to him and attacked him. Do I have to do ALL your homework for you

posted May 21, 2012 10:02 PM            

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 21, 2012 10:24 PM            

every thread is hijacked to feed the troll. Shura is not the first to call it.

If you ignore it will it eventually go away?

No, it already has a steady food supply.

posted May 21, 2012 10:27 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Node:
Yikes-- here we go again.

every thread is hijacked to feed the troll. Shura is not the first to call it.

If you ignore it will it eventually go away?

No, it already has a steady food supply.

---

Be nice Node-y or I will talk to you

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 22, 2012 08:59 AM            

The Zimmerman case disintegrates
Beating people up because they looked at you funny is wrong
John Hayward
05/21/2012

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straight forward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense.

It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police. His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin. Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking and murdering an innocent black kid for no reason.

The Smoking Gun highlighted this bit of eyewitness testimony – released to the public by the Sanford police only a few days ago, but known to the prosecution when Zimmerman was charged – tendered to the police only 90 minutes after the shooting occurred, by a resident of Zimmerman’s community who heard the altercation and decided to investigate:

The man recalled seeing “a black male, wearing a dark colored ‘hoodie’ on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help.” The black male, he added, “was mounted on the white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA (mixed martial arts) style.'”

The witness--who was in his living room and about 30 feet away from the confrontation-- said he called out to the two men that he was dialing 911. “He then heard a ‘pop,’” police reported, and saw the black male “laid out on the grass.”

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit relates the discovery of video from Trayvon Martin’s YouTube account, removed at some point during the last month, that shows he was actually involved in some sort of underground “fight club.”

Also fatal to the prosecution’s case is the discovery that Martin had THC in his system – he had apparently been smoking pot that night. As related by the local CBS News affiliate:

According to the autopsy report made public record by the Office of the Medial Examiner, the blood from Martin’s chest contained 1.5 ng/ML of THC, a drug commonly found in marijuana. There was about 7.3ng/mL of THC carboxy, the by-product of the body’s metabolism of THC.

Depending on the amount of THC consumed and the frequency in which it is consumed, THC carboxy can stay in a person’s system from somewhere between two weeks to a month, according to WBTV. THC itself can stay in the body for as long as four hours.

This is important because the charging document clearly, and without evidence, accuses Zimmerman of racially “profiling” Martin. On the other hand, Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher that Martin caught his eye because “this guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something… it’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.” Only then did the dispatcher specifically ask about Martin’s race, and request a description of his clothing.

Despite the prosecution’s awareness of the autopsy reports and eyewitness testimony, they included none of it in their affidavit against Zimmerman. Criminal lawyer and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has been beside himself ever since the Zimmerman charges were filed, writes in the New York Daily News that it’s time to drop the charges, but doubts State Attorney Angela Corey “will do the right thing,” because “until now, her actions have been anything but ethical, lawful, and professional.”

***yeah, Dershowitz is known to be a rock ribbed conservative, isn't he!

As Dershowitz points out, the evidence released in this case means Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law isn’t even a factor in Zimmerman’s defense. Much political hay has been made out of this law, but if Zimmerman was on the ground getting beaten to a pulp, withdrawal from the encounter was physically impossible for him. “A defendant, under Florida law, loses his ‘stand your ground’ defense if he provoked the encounter,” observes Dershowitz, “but he retains traditional self-defense if he reasonably believed his life was in danger and his only recourse was to employ deadly force.”

For that matter, as Dershowitz notes, there is not one shred of evidence to support the prosecutor’s contention that Zimmerman provoked the encounter. Neighborhood Watch patrols are not illegal. There is no evidence that Zimmerman shouted any “fighting words” at Martin.

Dershowitz also mentions a suspicion I’ve harbored since the weird, circus-like press conference at which Corey announced the charges: they’re a political instrument designed to buy time for everyone to cool down, leading to a long trial that dismantles some of the hysteria built up around the Trayvon Martin case. If true, the strategy is understandable… but utterly outrageous. The United States does not do “show trials.” The justice system is not a safety valve for releasing unhealthy levels of political tension. Individual citizens are not pawns to be shoved around in media games by gun-control advocates, race hustlers, or opportunistic politicians. The purpose of law enforcement is to protect the public, not appease certain segments of it.

State attorney Angela Corey responded by saying, “What the general public has to remember, and the media has to remember, is that there is a lot we cannot release by law.” Zimmerman’s lawyer also cautiously conceded that more evidence may be in prosecutorial hands, as yet unreleased to either him or the public.

That doesn’t change the virtually indisputable fact that Corey deliberately suppressed evidence helpful to Zimmerman when her affidavit was written. At best, that’s very sloppy work. ABC News discusses the sort of cards Corey might be holding:

One key to the case is which of the two men instigated the clash that left Martin dead. The prosecution says Zimmerman initiated the altercation when he "profiled" Martin that night, and then got out of his car to follow him. In the newly released documents, lead homicide officer on the case, Chris Serino of the Sanford Police Department, called the shooting "avoidable" had Zimmerman remained in his vehicle.

What has yet to be seen are two main pieces of evidence: Zimmerman's statement on the night of the incident, and his reenactment of the events of that night, which could prove vital when and if the case is heard in court.

It’s difficult to see how any of that might convince a jury to hand down a “guilty” verdict to Murder Two charges. How does that “stay in your car” principle work? Do you have to stay in your car when you see anyone acting suspiciously in your neighborhood, or do the age, sex, and racial background of the subject matter? Does everyone have to stay in their cars, or only members of certain age, sex, and racial groups?

Or is it simpler for the law to assert that beating someone into the ground and administering an MMA-style thrashing is wrong, even if they looked at you funny?

posted May 22, 2012 09:20 AM            

Let's see Pixie...you got this in a fax from David Brock from Media Matters while he was sitting in him mommy's basement in his underwear...and he got it from the Nags at NOW?

You see Pixie, I have to ask these questions because I've never heard this nonsense before. Perhaps Rush crushes Viagra dissolves it in water, pours it in his ears to get his hearing UP!

posted May 22, 2012 11:51 AM            

Your article cites a witness that saw Martin on top of Zimmerman as if it's some sort of smoking gun. Then, at the end, says, "Or is it simpler for the law to assert that beating someone into the ground and administering an MMA-style thrashing is wrong, even if they looked at you funny?" Bad premise. Sure fighting is wrong, BUT there is no fight if there is no Zimmerman, and there is no Zimmerman if he'd followed the advice of authorities. You couldn't bring race into this if it didn't happen.