Their banks may be insolvent, but their soccer teams are not - Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece advance to the quarterfinals of Euro2012.

The Germans and the Czechs also have advanced. France, England and host Ukraine are battling for the last 2 spots in the quarters.

Open Thread.

Mark O-Mara, attorney for George Zimmerman, has posted the full audiotapes of the six jail calls between Zimmerman and his wife on the website he maintains for the case.

• April 12
• April 15
• April 16
• April 16
• April 16
• April 17

He has also filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider its previous order and keep the remaining jail calls and a statement of W-9 private. W-9 will not be a witness for either party and her statement, which is inflammatory, is not admissible. The state has released the credit union bank records and transcripts of the six calls. I assume the media will publish these.

New Discovery will be out this morning in the George Zimmerman case. It may just be the audio tapes and/or transcripts of the 6 jail calls between George Zimmerman and his wife Shellie Zimmerman.

While we're waiting, here's a question: When the state filed its list of items included in the second round of discovery turned over to O'Mara last week, the list included surveillance video of M&I Bank on Feb. 26, 2012.

Many assumed, including me, it was video of Shellie Zimmerman when she was transferring money. But, it can't be: It was taken on Feb. 26, 2012, the day of the Trayvon Martin shooting, which was a Sunday, and the bank was closed. All that would have been open was an ATM. So what is the significance of the camera surveillance? Some ideas below: [More...]

Happy Fathers day to fathers everywhere.

R.I.P., Rodney King, who drowned in his swimming pool yesterday. He was 47.

I'll be busy today setting up my new laptop. Thanks again to TL readers who helped me buy it. It's a Sony Vaio, just like my last 6 laptops. It has a bigger screen (15 inches and still just 4.5 pounds) so hopefully I'll make less blogging typos. (I had a few Macbooks at one point, but the last one was stolen 4 years ago, and I've yet to replace it.)

I did stop at the Apple Store first yesterday to check out the new retina display model, and while it's nice, it was too expensive and didn't scream out at me, "Buy me." The Sony store was at the other end of the mall, and having picked out which one I was interested in online, I went right to it and it was love at first sight.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Last night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke at a conference hosted by the American Constitution Society. While not giving any clues to how the court will rule on the Affordable Care Act, Arizona's immigration law, or other important cases still to be decided this term, she did say the justices were in "sharp disagreement."

"As one may expect, many of the most controversial cases remain pending," she noted. "So it is likely that the sharp disagreement rate will go up next week and the week after."

In the context of the healthcare law, she described the individual mandate issue this way: [More...]

Thanks to all of you who contributed to our birthday fundraising. I'll be sending individual thank-you emails over the next few days. I'm really excited to be able to get a new laptop, and am headed out now to shop for one.

In the news, here's the transcript of Obama's full speech on immigration policy:

Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security is taking steps to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people. Over the next few months eligible individuals who do not present a risk to national security or public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization.

[More...]

Via Hullabaloo, George Will's forthright embrace of judicial activism:

Although Hamilton called the judiciary the “least dangerous” branch because it has “neither force nor will, but merely judgment,” it is dangerous to liberty when it is unreasonably restrained. One hopes Romney recognizes that judicial deference to elected representatives can be dereliction of judicial duty.

As David Atkins notes, this is not a change in reality, but the open embrace of judicial activism by conservatives is new.

Where does the time go? Today is TalkLeft's 10th birthday. Little did I know when I sat at the computer one weekend in June, 2002 to create TalkLeft, that I would blog every day for the next decade.

We've grown quite a bit since our first birthday -- from 1 million page views and 625,000 visitors to 82 million page views and 38 million visitors. The average time spent on TalkLeft for each visit exceeds 4 minutes. I guess there's no turning back now.

If you appreciate our coverage, or just want to buy us a birthday drink, here is the the paypal link. It's very easy (and takes credit cards even if you don't have a paypal account.) Or you can use snail-mail.

Update: Mark O'Mara has asked for 30 days to review the jail calls not relied on by the state to revoke bond. Thus of the 151 calls, only the six calls referred to at the bond revocation hearing and in the state's motion will be released Monday.

Also, Khaled Akkawi, owner of Straight-Shoot Gun Shops, confirmed to the media Zimmerman purchased his gun from one of their stores and has used the firing range at their Casselberry store. He said the FBI visited the stores and asked employees whether Zimmerman had displayed any racial animus. Akkawi said his employees told him, "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Keep in mind, as I wrote below, Akkawi and the others listed in his section of the state's disclosure are unlikely to be called as witnesses. They are listed as "Category C" witnesses, which under Florida's discovery rules, applies to: bq.

All witnesses who performed only ministerial functions or whom the prosecutor does not intend to call at trial and whose involvement with and knowledge of the case is fully set out in a police report or other statement furnished to the defense;

Kim Dotcom scores another win in New Zealand, and it's an expensive one for the U.S. The U.S. has been fighting a New Zealand court's order to provide discovery in the extradition case, including the information stored on Megaupload servers in the U.S.

The back story: Kim Dotcom (and his codefendants) requested the disclosure of documents and materials relating to the issue of whether the U.S. has a prima facie case against them allowing for their extradition to the U.S. to face charges pending in the Eastern District of Virginia. On May 29, New Zealand District Court Judge Harvey granted several of the discovery requests and gave the U.S. 21 days to turn over the material.[More...]

The Supreme Court of Great Britain has denied the request of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to reconsider its May 30 order rejecting his appeal of a lower court's extradition order. A press release explaining the May 30 order is here.

Today's order is here. The extradition order takes effect 14 days from today. Assange could apply for relief to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, but experts say it's unlikely he would prevail.

According to Fair Trials International, Assange is likely to be kept in pre-trial detention once he reaches Sweden.

Mark O'Mara, attorney for George Zimmerman, filed a pleading today stating he would call two witnesses from All Star Magic Bail Bonds at the June 29 hearing for bond.

I assume they will testify of the difficulty the family had in coming up with the $15,000. bond premium, as evidence that George and Shellie Zimmerman didn't think of the money raised by the website as their money, but money earmarked for legal fees, living expenses while waiting for trial and creditors. O'Mara has said in the past that the Zimmerman's didn't fully appreciate that the money belonged to them.

O'Mara has said he explained to Zimmerman why his belief was wrong, and he now understands.

Shorter version: Zimmerman wasn't lying, just mistaken, and had no intent to deceive the court.

Will he get another bond? Absolutely, in my view. First, he's legally entitled to it. Second, he will have spent 29 days in jail for his mistake -- that's a steep enough penalty. The judge is not concerned Zimmerman is a flight risk. He may not even raise the bond amount since the money is no longer under Zimmerman's control, but the control of a independent third party trustee. [More..]