Headlines - Thursday April 12

Is this really the best defense that can be afforded George Zimmerman:

In trying to portray his client in as sympathetic terms as possible, Zimmerman's new attorney Mark O'Mara said this evening that Zimmerman is "troubled by everything that has happened." O'Mara added, "Truly, it must be frightening to not be able to go into a 7/11 or into a store and literally to be in fact a prisoner wherever he was."

This is allegedly George Zimmerman's defense attorney making the case. Apparently he is unaware that Trayvon Martin was killed by his client for… going to 7/11.

Is this really the best the legal community can do in a high profile case? Is everyone in this country just a total moron?

 

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Fighting Forced Frankenfood: The epitome of corporate arrogance is not refusing to pay taxes, not breaking the law with impunity, not purchasing state and national legislatures wholesale. It's suing state governments for trying to protect their citizens' health.

 

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Now that's what we call a profile in courage Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam allowed the widely-mocked back-door creationist/climate-change-denier bill passed by the state's legislature to become law without his signature because even though he "had misgivings" about the law, he's a moral and physical coward who lacks the courage to stand up to the crazies, plain and simple.

 

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A fundraising email from Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) paints a bleak picture of his presidential campaign. "I won't mince words," Paul wrote. "If we don't reach our $2.5 million goal, I am not sure our campaign can go on."

 

I didn't know it WAS still going on.

 

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Bored in the USA

 

And finally: What's the worst thing a politician from New Jersey could do? Maybe fall asleep at a Bruce Springsteen concert? Well, that's exactly what Gov. Chris Christie (R) did during a Boss concert in Madison Square Garden Monday night.

 

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BREAKING: White House To Delay Implementation Of Key Anti-Discrimination Order

 

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SarahPAC Pulls Off Another Banner Quarter of Grift

 

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The Fox News mole/spy for Gawker went from being our hero to a dumbstupid within about 48 hours. He evidently attained and leaked information from within Fox News using his personal login for the FNC database. Doy.

So that's it. Almost as soon as was started, it ended. The guy's name is Joe Muto, a staffer on The O'Reilly Factor, and he's been suspended with pay.

The good news is that he intends to release covert information he gathered as an insider. So there's that. It just would've been better if he had been doing it in real time as an ongoing employee.

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Headline of the Day: Every Candidate Endorsed by God Has Now Lost to Mitt Romney

 

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The idea that the cops in my town could do - have done, may be doing right this minute - something this brutal and stupid just makes me crazy. Because it's just too common and widespread to not be happening everywhere.

Digby:

FRESNO, Calif. (CN) - Fresno police drowned a man by Tasering and hogtying him, then sticking a garden hose "onto (his) face and mouth" when he pleaded for water, the man's two children claim in Federal Court.

The two minor children, I.R. and H.R., claim that in the summer of 2011 Fresno police restrained their father, Raul Rosas, at a friend's house while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

The children say their father was not armed and "had not committed a crime."

After an altercation with a John Doe officer, police pepper-sprayed Rosas and then Tasered him a "countless number of times," the complaint states.

The children claim their father was Tasered "for eight to ten more minutes," then he was "hogtied with his ankles tied to his handcuffs behind his back."

The complaint continues: "Decedent was then slammed onto a table in the residence's backyard face down. An officer was observed with his knee on decedent's back while decedent was hogtied, handcuffed, and face down.

"Decedent stated that he couldn't breathe and that he needed water; an officer ran water from a hose onto decedent's face and mouth to the point of making it more difficult for decedent to breathe. Decedent tried to move his mouth away from the water and gasp for air. A witness yelled 'He can't breathe, you're drowning him,' but the officer continued running water over decedent's face.

SNIP

I'm pretty sure this what Dick Cheney would call a "no-brainer" when the authorities are dealing with somebody who gives them lip. Or whenever they need to.

If this is all true, you have to give them credit. It is a truly innovative torture regime employing pepper spray, electro-shock, hog-tying and water torture. I wonder where they came up with the idea?

Well, it's not like they strip-searched him right there in front of his kids and the neighbors.