Hurricane season is about to arrive in the Southeast. Isaac has hit Jamaica and will be headed to Guantanamo next, and presumably on to Florida.

If you're there, please take extra precaautions.
And try to sing. I hear it's a good stress reliever. To get you started:

This is an open tread, all topics welcome.

The state has filed its response (available here) in the 5th District Court of Appeals to George Zimmerman's request for a Writ of Prohibition seeking to have Judge Lester removed from the case.

Shorter version: The judge gave Zimmerman a well-deserved tongue lashing, but his fear he won't get a fair trial from the judge is not objectively reasonable, and thus his motion to recuse was not legally sufficient and Lester was right to deny it.

None of the comments by the trial court rise to the level of being legally sufficient to establish an objectively reasonable fear by Petitioner that he will not receive a fair trial by the judge. Instead, the judge was simply giving Petitioner a well deserved tongue lashing for allowing others to mislead the court about his passport and his financial situation.

The test is whether a reasonable person in George Zimmerman's position would fear not getting a fair trial from this judge. [More...]

5th Avenue and 34th Street was not a good place to be this morning. 8 people shot, the shooter and at least one other are dead.

The New York Post says the cause was a dispute between coworkers.

He could throw millions at his his lawyers, and in the end, the deck was stacked against him. Sometimes, you just need to know when to hold them and when to fold them. Lance Armstrong folded today. He really had no choice.

The US Doping Agency can take away his medals and titles, and prevent him from competing in the future, but it can't take away his memories and all the good times he had. He's still ahead.

I'll be on Daily Kos radio with Jesse LaGreca this morning at 11 Eastern.

Listen here.

See this:

Open Thread.

What a nightmare. In 1996, Kristin Bunch was 21, pregnant and living in a mobile home with her three year old. A sudden fire engulfed the trailer, killing her three year old. The police said it was arson and claimed she went into her son's bedroom, doused it with a liquid accelerant like kerosene or diesel fuel and set it on fire. She was charged and convicted of felony murder and arson and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Arson investigators testified at her trial that burn patterns indicated the fire was arson.

After 16 years in prison, she was released on bond today pending a retrial, and went home with her jubilant mother and now 16 year old son (whom she gave birth to in prison.) In March, the Indiana Court of Appeals set aside her conviction, finding it was based on invalid, outdated science and the prosecutor had withheld critical evidence at her trial. (Great work by Kristin's post-conviction team, including the Center on Wrongful Convictions.)[More..}

An egg with two yolks. Twin yolks, no less. They are reported to occur in 1 of 1,000 eggs, so they aren't that rare, but today is the first time I've ever cracked an egg and seen them. It didn't taste any different than a regular egg but it was very strange to look at and contemplate how that happens. It used to be considered a good omen -- either of plenitude or that twins are in one's future. Since twins are definitely not in my future, I'll hope it signifies a plenitude of something good is on its way.

I'm less surprised about Prince Harry's nekked pix than am I that he flies commercial.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Mark O'Mara announced today on GZLegalCase he is shuttering the Facebook page the legal team created in April. In part, it's served its purpose. In other respects, the discussion in comments on the FB page have been a hindrance.

One of our published goals is Discouraging Speculation, and Facebook, by its nature, does not help us with this goal. Every post made on Facebook becomes an open thread where anyone on the site can comment, and comments inevitably lead to conversations about evidence and speculation about guilt or innocence. This type of conversation is a natural part of discourse, and there are plenty of places on the Internet where it is appropriate for this to happen, but it need not happen on a page hosted by the defense.

[More...]

Stormy weather resulted in the cancellation of six days of hearings for the 911 defendants at Guantanamo, which scheduled to begin yesterday and first postponed until tomorrow.

he U.S. National Hurricane Center’s tracking map shows Tropical Storm Isaac crossing Haiti as a hurricane on Aug. 24 and striking Cuba before arriving at the Florida coast below Cape Coral on Aug. 27.

The hearings have not yet been rescheduled. 25 pretrial motions were on the agenda, including some by the media.

Defense lawyers, journalists and representatives of non- governmental organizations including Human Rights Watch were on hand to watch the proceedings.

The last hearing was in May. One of the defense lawyers said today trial is unlikely to occur until four years from now, due to the hundreds of motions that will be need to be resolved.

I'll be on Daily Kos radio with Jesse LaGreca this morning at 11 Eastern.

Listen here.

One of the topics - what did Akin mean by forcible rape? And what does Romney endorser John Willke have to do with it?

Also too, Oklahoma bans wearing University of Michigan gear. While I agree with the sentiment, I can not support this law. See also Oklahoma principal denies valedictorian diploma for saying the word "hell".

Open thread.

Mitt Romney changes course from yesterday:

"As I said yesterday, Todd Akin's comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country," Romney said in a statement. "Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race."

Reuters reports Akin is staying in the race.

A new WSJ-NBC poll finds Romney's selection of Paul Ryan doesn't have much impact: 22% of voters are more likely to vote for Romney, 23 percent are less likely to vote for Romney, and 54 percent say it won't affect them one way or the other.

Akin's apology:

I'll be on Daily Kos radio with Jesse LaGreca this morning at 11 Eastern.

Listen here.

Open thread.