Kim Dotcom scores again in the New Zealand High Court. The Court has agreed to allow him to pay his lawyers $5 million using a bond that was seized during the illegal raid of his Mansion. He also got money for living expenses:

The money comes from a $10m government bond which was seized by the government on behalf of the United States as part of its internet piracy case against Dotcom and those involved in his Megaupload filesharing company. The United States position is that all the money and assets of Dotcom were gained through criminal copyright violation by internet piracy.

The ruling from Justice Judith Potter has also allowed Dotcom to sell some of the cars which were seized during the January raid.

[More...]

The militarization of the war on drugs is officially underway.

A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The Marines are deployed as part of Operation Martillo, a broader effort started last Jan. 15 to stop drug trafficking along the Central American coast. Focused exclusively on drug dealers in airplanes or boats, the U.S.-led operation involves troops or law enforcement agents from Belize, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain.

Wired has more here.

Here is today's opinion by the 5th District Court of Appeals in Florida granting George Zimmerman's Writ of Prohibition and removing Judge Kenneth Lester from the case.

"A motion is legally sufficient if it alleges facts that would create in a reasonably prudent person a wellfounded fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial."

Although many of the allegations in Zimmerman's motion, standing alone, do not meet the legal sufficiency test,1 and while this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find that the allegations, taken together, meet the threshold test of legal sufficiency. Accordingly, we direct the trial judge to enter an order of disqualification which requests the chief circuit judge to appoint a successor judge.

This is good news for George Zimmerman. And, in my view, the right decision. But who will be the new judge? Do they call retired judges in to serve in Florida?

Bmaz at Empty Wheel has more.

More legal documents to review. You folks enjoy the GOP Convention. I'll enjoy my legal documents.

Tomorrow though, all college football all the time.

Open Thread.

Hurricane Isaac touched down at 6:45 p.m. about 90 miles southeast of New Orleans. New Orleans is under both a hurricane warning and a tornado watch. 100,000 are already without power. There are flash flood watches. Storm surge flooding should begin tonight and continue through Thursday morning. Here's the latest alert.

Time for Zachary Richard and his cajun/Zydeco/blues/rock/music to send good thoughts to those in Isaac's path. "Come On Sheila" from Snake Bite Love, is one my favorites:

I’ve been waiting here since this morning,
I’ll wait as long as it will take.
Down in the old town of the city of New Orleans,
With my heart so heavy it might break.

Last night they put up a hurricane warning,
Last night you came into my room.
Around midnight the rain started falling,
I was holding on to you.

Who's Sheila? [More...]

You watching the Republican Convention? I'm not. Reading legal documents. I think I have the better deal.

Open Thread.

I bet he does:

Chris Christie believes if Mitt Romney could re-do his recent recent birth certificate joke, he'd take it back. [...] “I think if he had to do it over again, he wouldn’t make the joke,’’ Christie told Matt Lauer on TODAY Tuesday.

I know Christie is wrong about this:

If you get a chance to talk to Governor Romney, I think he’d tell you that he wishes he could take that one back.’’

No apologies Mitt? No way.

Tune in to Daily Kos Radio today at 11 Eastern, right after the Kagro in the Morning show. I'm solo again today.

Listen here.

What will I talk about? See this:

Open Thread.

(Before the Deluge.)

Isaac will be a Cateogry 1 Hurricane when it hits Louisiana around 7 pm tonight. New Orleans is directly in its cross-hairs. Here's the latest advisory.

How much has been learned in the seven years since Hurricane Katrina? Even the $10 billion invested in its hurricane risk reduction system hasn't fixed the attitudes of some:

Jefferson Parish officials issued a stern warning to anyone who dares tread outside during Tropical Storm Isaac. "If you create damage, you are going to jail,'' Sheriff Newell Normand said during a news conference that just wrapped up.

[More...]

I was on Daily Kos Radio, on my own today.Podcast here:

Also here or here or here.

Open Thread.

in a good way:

Not to mention the systematic Republican campaign to deny people of color the fundamental right to vote.

Mitt Romney "jokes" about the racist birther attacks on the president. But the short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump, slated for, in his words, "a big role" at the Republican National Convention, is deadly serious about it. After receiving the "Statesman of the Year" award (I kid you not) from the Sarasota Republican Club, Trump said:

[S]ome people thought [Romney's quip] might not be a joke. It happens to be an issue that a lot of people believe in. [...] Let’s just say this there’s a huge group of people that are not believers in what [Obama] did, what he said and where he came from. We’ll see what happens. Well see what happens over the coming weeks and months."

[...] I had a big role tomorrow night. You know what happened tomorrow night. So it’s now up to them. […] It’s totally up to them, whatever they like," he said. "They gave me a big role and I was looking forward – I was actually going to Tampa right after this, right after this dinner, but now I probably will be going back to New York. I may come back but I’ll probably be going to New York after the dinner. Asked to elaborate on what the "big surprise" was, Trump just said it was a "very big thing." "I think they're still going to probably do it," he added.

A very big thing from the leading birther in the nation for the Republican National Convention. Suuuure Romney was joking.

NOTE: Due to Hurricane Isaac, Trump has been bumped from the schedule.