#Zimmerman Verdict: State Never Proved Its Case, Legal Analysts Say

An analysis at the Miami Herald (via Instapundit):

SANFORD -- After five weeks of trial and 56 witnesses, few legal observers believed prosecutors came close to proving Sanford neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman committed second-degree murder when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

So for many legal analysts, it was no surprise that jurors rejected even a lesser “compromise” verdict of manslaughter, acquitting Zimmerman outright of all criminal charges and deciding he acted in a reasonable way to protect his own life.

The acquittal was a stinging blow for prosecutors and their decision to file the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman, who was not initially arrested by Sanford police after claiming self-defense. And it was a resounding embrace of the defense’s strategy during closing arguments not just to establish that prosecutors hadn’t proven Zimmerman guilty, but also to show he was “absolutely” innocent.

“Justifiable use of force is one of the most difficult areas of the law,” State Attorney Angela Corey acknowledged Saturday after Zimmerman’s acquittal. “Make no mistake, Trayvon Martin had every right to be on the premises as did George Zimmerman ... that’s what makes this case unique.”

Zimmerman defense attorney Don West ... called the prosecution’s case a “disgrace.”

“We proved that George Zimmerman was not guilty,” he said.

Continue reading.

Oakland Riots After #Zimmerman Not Guilty Verdict

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "No arrests in Oakland vandalism."

Across the bay in Oakland ... about 125 protesters gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall before marching through downtown, starting small fires and smashing windows at the Wells Fargo Bank at 12th Street and Broadway and at several locations, including the Dogwood Bar, the Oakland Tribune, the Foot Locker shoe store and the Sears store.

A BART police car parked outside the 12th Street BART Station had its windows smashed, and protesters spray-painted "F- the police" and "Kill Pigs" on the side of the vehicle.

About 11:30 p.m., Oakland police formed a skirmish line near their headquarters at 7th Street and Broadway and came face-to-face with protesters.

As Argus, the police helicopter, monitored from above, the crowd soon moved away from the intersection and headed east on 14th Street, stopping at a McDonald's restaurant shortly after midnight to burn several flags and to spray-paint "Kill Zimmerman" and "FTP," an anti-police epithet, on the side of Alameda County's Rene C. Davidson Courthouse.

The protesters then returned to Broadway and Telegraph Avenue by about 12:30 a.m., smashing more windows, setting more fires and throwing garbage cans at motorists before dispersing, police said. No arrests were made, and there were no reported injuries, said Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland police spokeswoman.

Well, it's Oakland, so it's like completely unexpected, or something.

More at Memeorandum, and especially at Protein Wisdom.

#Zimmerman Verdict Unleashes Social Media Avalanche

At the Los Angeles Times, "Zimmerman not guilty: Verdict sparks social media avalanche."

Here's one of my tweets that was retweeted over a couple of dozen times.

I'm proud to live in a country where an Hispanic man can find justice in our "racist" criminal justice system #Zimmerman #TrayvonMartin

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 14, 2013

At lots at Twitchy, "‘Apoplectic’ Terry McMillan declares the verdict ‘was all about race’." And, "It’s ‘n*gga season’: Marlon Wayans tweets epic meltdown about ‘fat guck Zimmerman’." And check the "Zimmerman verdict" search.

More on the news at the New York Times, "Zimmerman Is Acquitted in Trayvon Martin Killing. " (At Memeorandum.)

And at Instapundit, "ZIMMERMAN VERDICT REACHED: Not Guilty. This is a prosecution that never should have been brought."

More on the reactions later, especially on MSNBC's meltdown, when I find some video.

George #Zimmerman Found NOT GUILTY in #TrayvonMartin Murder Trial

I should probably post something.

Unlike a lot of people, I make no claim to expertise on this case. All along I thought it was a racial carnival show that brought out the worst in America's left-wing politics, mass media, and black culture.

I had no doubt that Zimmerman would be acquitted, as I posted on Twitter moments before the verdict was read.

#Zimmerman should be 100 percent acquitted!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 14, 2013

Freakin' not guilty! I told you! 100 percent acquittal! #Zimmerman #Trayvon #TrayvonMartin
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 14, 2013

@MichelleMalkin I knew it. I had no doubt!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 14, 2013

We're going to continue our long national debate on race and racism after this trial, simply because the racial grievance industry won't let it go. It's a victory for decency and rationalism, a rare one in our upside down world of political correctness and radical left-wing lies and deception. The leftist media comes out particularly poorly.

I'll be updating, but here's the Miami Herald, "George Zimmerman not guilty in murder of Trayvon Martin." And at London's Daily Mail, "George Zimmerman found NOT GUILTY of murder or manslaughter of Trayvon Martin."

More at Twitchy as well, on the calls for George Zimmerman's death, "Twitter lynch mob threatens to kill George Zimmerman."

'No Justice, No Peace — #Trayvon'

A photo from the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center, via Jacob Langston on Twitter.

A verdict could come any minute.

Angry Protesters Await #Zimmerman Verdict

At LAT, "Tempers flare as crowd at courthouse waits for Zimmerman verdict":

As the six-woman jury continued their second day of deliberations Saturday, local authorities staffed the emergency operations center and sheriff’s deputies lingered at the edge of the courthouse lawn, where metal barricades had been erected.

“Shouting at each other -- it’s not going to do anything,” Campbell said.

As the white-haired man made his way through the crowd, a chorus of angry voices trailed him.

“Zimmerman’s a killer!”

“He’s a murderer!”

“You’re a racist!”

Eventually, half a dozen protesters surrounded the man with signs, chanting. One of the young women wore a T-shirt that said, “What if it were your son?” They talked about the O.J. Simpson case, one holding a sign that said, “The glove don’t fit.”

GRAPHIC: Who's who in the Trayvon Martin case

They tried to convince the white-haired man that he was wrong, but the man just shook his head.

“He has a right to self-defense,” he said of Zimmerman.

Tempers flared. Voices rose. But no one came to blows.

In the end, the old man walked away to talk to more Martin supporters, including a young black man wearing a T-shirt with Zimmerman’s face in the cross-hairs.

Homosexuals Protest FDA's Tainted Blood Ban

At Lonely Con, "What Could Go Wrong? Gay Men Want Ban Lifted On Blood Donations."

Lots could go wrong, like untold numbers of innocent people contracting AIDS.

And despite clear evidence that the blood supply becomes infected every year with HIV-tainted blood, a left-wing campaign of political correctness seeks to override public health safety and pooh-pooh the odds of infection. Homosexuals are simply pushing one more area of public life where they say efforts to protect the public have "stigmatized" the homosexual culture of depraved abandon and licentiousness. Oh the humanity!

Here's the New Yorker's extremely sympathetic (and stupid) report, "Breaking the Blood Ban":

Over the past fifteen years, the F.D.A. has reëxamined its policy on blood from M.S.M.s on several occasions. It continues to stand by it. The “FDA’s primary responsibility with regard to blood and blood products is to assure the safety of patients who receive these life-saving products,” Morgan Liscinsky, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, told me in an e-mail. She stressed the “much higher rates of transmissible diseases among some MSM than in the non-MSM general population.” Liscinsky did tell me that the F.D.A. is open to a discussion on the matter, though she employed some startling double negatives to make the point: “Although scientific evidence has not yet demonstrated that blood donated by MSM or a subgroup of these potential donors does not have a substantially increased rate of H.I.V. infection compared to currently accepted blood donors, FDA remains willing to consider new approaches to donor screening and testing.”

But there is good evidence to suggest that dropping the ban, and screening gay men who wish to give blood in the same way that people in other high-risk groups are screened, would pose almost no additional risk to the public. In fact, the evidence suggests that such a change in policy might actually save lives by increasing the amount of available blood.

I recommend showing this video to any person about to get a blood transfusion, informing them of the statistics on risk from homosexual infection. Let's see how well that goes over. Homos not only want to get in your face, they want to get in your bloodstream.



Or show them this one, featuring the homosexual organizer Ryan James Yezak and his homosexual freak supporters prancing in the background. Again, ask someone getting a transfusion, do you want blood from these people? How about that big black homosexual bitch in the background? You want that mf's blood?

 

And more at CBS, from Michelle Castillo (who looks like a damned tranny), "Activists hold first gay, bisexual blood drive to get FDA to change rules." The piece includes no voices of those supporting the ban, and nothing is offered to contradict the homo activist left's claims, despite the ample evidence.

Frankly, progressives don't care about public health. They're destroying every corner of American life, from your child's school to the blood supply. No citizen is safe from the freak homosexual takeover of American life.

Hey, man, we're going to be like the Castro nationwide in no time, mf's!

Cool Instagram Account for U.S. Department of the Interior

I love this.

At London's Daily Mail, "Inside story: Photographs from U.S. Department of the Interior's Instagram account reveal the stunningly diverse landscapes of the United States."

Weiner?! — Spitzer?!

Saw this just now on Twitter:

Awesome. RT @audreygelman: cover of monday's @nymag. wow. pic.twitter.com/MY1etX1Q1a

— Marin Cogan (@marincogan) July 13, 2013

And at the magazine, "The Steamroller Returns."

Stranahan in Sanford

Check Lee Stranahan on Twitter and Instagraham.

Malala Yousafzai Addresses the United Nations

At the Telegraph UK, "Malala tells UN she will not be silenced by Taliban attack":

Malala Yousafzai has she will not be silenced by terrorist threats, in an address to the United Nations on her 16th birthday that was her first public speech since being shot by the Taliban.

“Let us pick up our books and pens,” said the Pakistani teenager, who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as she left school last October.

“They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution.”

Malala, who has been recovering in Britain, delivered her address in New York in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to an auditorium packed with 1,000 students from around the world.

Her parents watched proudly as she assured her audience that she was “the same Malala”.

Wearing a loose-fitting pink shawl that had belonged to assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, she continued: “I am not against anyone. Nor am I here to speak against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I am here to speak up for the right to education of every child.”

It was a typically impressive performance by a teen who earned the enmity of the Taliban in her home country for campaigning for girls’ rights to go to school. She said she was speaking for human rights activists across the world fighting for education, justice and equality.

“Here I stand not as one voice but speaking for those who have fought for the right to be treated with dignity, their right for equality of opportunity, and their right to be educated,” she said.

She called on governments to fight for the rights of women and children deprived of an education by child labour and forced marriages at early ages.

“The extremists were afraid of education,” she said. “That is why they’re blasting schools every day. Because they’re afraid of progress, afraid of change.

“If we want to achieve our goals, let us empower ourselves with a weapon of knowledge and shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.”

During a series of standing ovations, she said that the attempt on her life had only made her more resolute. “Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervour was born,” she said.”I speak not for myself but for those without a voice.”

Unable to safely return to Pakistan, she started at a school in Birmingham in March after medical treatment there during which doctors mended parts of her skull with a titanium plate.

I think she should be condemning the Taliban. Let's hear it.

Don't be all "Imagine" on us, okay. You've got to stand up to evil, and you've experienced it like few others.

Also at the New York Times, "Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban, Makes Appeal at U.N."

University of California at Critical Juncture for Napolitano

I'm still processing the mindlessness of this appointment.

It's astounding. This lady fails upward.

At LAT, "Janet Napolitano would take UC helm at a critical time":

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be assuming the presidency of the University of California's system as it emerges from several tough financial years and is under increased pressure from elected leaders to increase graduation rates and make greater use of technology.

"We're coming out of a recession so there's an opportunity to be strategic," said Timothy P. White, who was the president of UC Riverside before being named chancellor of the California State University system last year. "It's an absolutely fascinating and important time in higher education."

After years of raising tuitions in the face of increasingly heated student protests, including one in which UC Davis students and alumni were pepper sprayed, regents will keep undergraduate tuition the same for the second year in a row and are expected to approve hikes affecting only about 800 graduate students.

UC has an annual budget of $24 billion, 230,000 students, 191,000 faculty and staff members, five medical centers and three national laboratories.

The system is under pressure from Gov. Jerry Brown to increase graduation rates. He proposed, and then backed off of, tying future funding to improving graduation rates. About 60% of UC students who enter as freshmen graduate within four years and about 83% of them graduate within six, according to a UC report.

Napolitano, who will begin her term in September if her nomination is approved as expected next week, will also have to help steer the system through a potentially complicated technological transition. Brown has proposed increasing the number of online classes — something the public supports, according to polling, although many academics have been resistant.

"Technology is going to be one of her biggest challenges," White said.

Here's something that relates, "UC programs in lieu of affirmative action show limited success":

UC has struggled to enroll more blacks and Latinos since a state ban on race-based admissions, an issue central to a recent Supreme Court case.

Actually, the system's perverted the prohibition on affirmative action in a million ways, and they still can't make up for the abject failure of minorities at the K-12 level.

And see Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Multiculti U."

It's messed up all around.

Yay Regents of the University of California! I'm sure Napolitano can turn things around (not). She'll be a fundraising whore and that's about it ---- although, maybe that's good.

New York's Hempstead Union Free School District Disciplines Employee Who Compiled Misspelled Summer Reading List

Well, it could happened anywhere, I guess.

At WSJ, "Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gypsy'? School Book List Fails Spell Check: Hempstead Summer Reading Recommendation Rife With Errors":

When the Hempstead Union Free School District put together a summer reading list this year, students and parents were introduced to some unfamiliar new titles.

Among them: "The Canterbury Tale," by Geoffrey Chaucer; "The Lovely Bone," by Alice Sebold; and, most notably, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gypsy."

School officials in the Long Island community said Thursday that they had disciplined an employee who made the dozens of spelling errors and typos in the 13-page list outlining recommended summer reading for students.

Alicia Figueras, the district's spokeswoman, said at a news conference that the district apologizes for what she called an isolated incident.

"I would like to announce that disciplinary action has been taken against the personnel who made the unfortunate clerical errors while compiling the list," she said.

The district declined to identify the employee, provide his or her title or say how he or she was disciplined.

RTWT.

Well all make typos, especially me.

But I think there's more to this story than the school district's letting on. But you'd need a FOIA request to get the full story out of these derps. Sheesh.

Welcome to the Hive Mind

This is great.

Liberal flow chart on social issues... #tcot #truth pic.twitter.com/vhXU84fyTL

— Gregory Moore Jr (@gregorymoorejr) July 13, 2013

Riverside Couple Accused of Animal Cruelty, Gets Death Threats

Well, you're nothing these days unless you've got people threatening your ass.

At NBC News Los Angeles.

Couple Says They’re Getting Death Threats Over ‘Joke’ Facebook Photo http://t.co/sESl9bINGY

— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) July 13, 2013

Well, It's a Slow Game After All

When folks compare sports, the oldest complaint about baseball is that it's often boring, with a lot of really lackadaisical, er, action.

Well, here's proof, at WSJ, "In America's Pastime, Baseball Players Pass a Lot of Time":

In any given year, roughly 70 million people will attend major-league baseball games. A lucky handful will be treated to something unforgettable: a no-hitter, a walk-off grand slam, a player stealing home. Many more fans will see towering home runs, late-inning rallies and diving catches. But there is one thing every single fan who buys a ticket is 100% guaranteed to see: a bunch of grown men standing in a field, doing absolutely nothing.


Baseball is remembered for its moments of action, and it is no secret that such moments are fleeting. But how much actual action takes place in a baseball game? We decided to find out.

By WSJ calculations, a baseball fan will see 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action over the course of a three-hour game. This is roughly the equivalent of a TED Talk, a Broadway intermission or the missing section of the Watergate tapes. A similar WSJ study on NFL games in January 2010 found that the average action time for a football game was 11 minutes. So MLB does pack more punch in a battle of the two biggest stop-and-start sports. By seven minutes.

The WSJ reached this number by taking the stopwatch to three different games and timing everything that happened. We then categorized the parts of the game that could fairly be considered "action" and averaged the results. The almost 18-minute average included balls in play, runner advancement attempts on stolen bases, wild pitches, pitches (balls, strikes, fouls and balls hit into play), trotting batters (on home runs, walks and hit-by-pitches), pickoff throws and even one fake-pickoff throw. This may be generous. If we'd cut the action definition down to just the time when everyone on the field is running around looking for something to do (balls in play and runner advancement attempts), we'd be down to 5:47.

We chose three very different games to get a fair sampling of variation. The first game was as close as we could find to an average game in terms of batters faced and length of game—a 3-2 Twins win over the Tigers on April 3 that clocked in at 3:01 for nine innings. (The average MLB game this season is three hours and three minutes, according to the firm Stats LLC.) Then, for balance, we decided to throw in a slugfest—the Indians 19-6 victory over the Astros from April 20 at 3:45 and a pitchers' duel, the Nationals 1-0 victory over the Reds on April 26 that lasted 2:08. The sample conveniently included both leagues and six different teams.

So where did all the time go? The missing 160 or so minutes? The answer: Huge chunks of inaction that absolutely dwarf everything else that goes on in the game...

Continue reading.

And baseball beats football for action? It's counterintuitive, no doubt.

Maria Sharapova for Porsche Design

Amazing!

At London's Daily Mail, "Life in the fast lane! Maria Sharapova flashes her long legs... as she poses on the hood of a bright red Porsche 911 Carrera."

KTVU Anchor Tori Campbell Read the names Off the Teleprompter and Didn't Bat An Eye

That's from London's Daily Mail, which picks up on the "Ho Lee Fuk" story.

See, "Outrage as news station is duped into reporting false and racist names for the Asiana crash pilots... as it emerges an NTSB INTERN was behind the prank."

Look, even X's Exene Cervenka's pissed:

Fail: KTVU Uses Fake Names For Asiana Flight 214 Crash Crew http://t.co/nq267ySch8 via @viralread KTVU gave names, NTSB CONFIRMED names.
— Exene Cervenka (@exenecervenka) July 13, 2013

More:

NTSB: Fake Asiana pilot names originated with KTVU, intern was acting in "good faith" when he confirmed names - http://t.co/9xkVbufRLU
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) July 13, 2013

And check Memeorandum.

Van Nuys Tagger Hits $2.3 Million Lear Jet

Well, if you're gonna go for it, might was well go big!

At NBC News Los Angeles:

Tagger hits $2.3M Lear Jet parked at Van Nuys Airport, police say. http://t.co/NaEUseB1Vb pic.twitter.com/1HdSvzkueg
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) July 13, 2013

Jury Deliberations Continue in #Zimmerman Trial

At LAT, "Jury weighing George Zimmerman's fate adjourns for the night."

Plus, the lovely Judge Jeanine Pirro discusses the case, with Laura Ingraham on last night's O'Reilly Factor: