There must be readers with something besides the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case to talk about. If so, here's a place.

If you want to continue the Zimmerman discussion, you can do that here too. It's an open thread, all topics welcome

I'm going to watch Key Largo on PBS, and check for new developments in the John Edwards and Kim DotCom/ MegaUpload cases.

As Tom Maguire aptly notes, some of us have day jobs and can't spend two hours watching a hearing. So I didn't watch the George Zimmerman bail hearing live. But I just read CNN's transcript (parts 1, 2 and 3) (again thanks to Tom for the links.)

While it cuts out in places for commercial breaks, it appears to be almost a compete transcript. My thoughts, based on the transcript, are below. I also recommend Tom's analysis which I just finished reading after writing this post. I'll probably add some others views later, or in a new post, since this one is so lengthy. [More...]

Our hero

Happy Ben Masel Day:

Ben Masel, the happy warrior against the drug war who became one of Madison’s most beloved civil libertarians, may have died last year. But his legacy is very much alive. It will be celebrated this afternoon at the Capitol — where Masel so frequently protested secrecy, intolerance and injustice — and tonight at the Barrymore Theatre. City officials have even voted to make this “Ben Masel Day.” And rightly so.

Bail has been set for George Zimmerman in the amount of $150,000.

CNN has an article on today's bail hearing in the case of George Zimmerman, accused of second degree murder with penalty enhancements in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. CNN reports:

Special prosecutor Angela Corey has the burden of showing why bond should not be set or that it should be high. The burden is referred to as "proof of guilt is evident or presumption of guilt is great." Corey would have to convince [Judge] Lester that a jury would convict Zimmerman.

I think that's an inadequate description. Corey's burden of proof at the bail hearing to establish the "proof of guilt is evident or the presumption great" is not the same burden as applies to a jury. At trial, a jury must find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman committed the charged crime. Under established Florida case law on bail hearings involving capital and life charges, Corey's burden is higher. [More...]

The Orlando Sentinel polled its online readers. Only 35% believe Zimmerman can get a fair trial. Most blame the media coverage. The best response is the first one currently showing by Diane Panacek of Altamonte Springs.

The slanted media coverage continues unabated. The most ridiculous question I saw asked today was by an MSNBC interviewer named Tammaron Hall who told her legal guest that Zimmerman's attorney wanted him to appear in civilian clothes instead of an orange jumpsuit, and asked him, "Is that a bizarre request or something you would often hear?" If she's that ignorant of court proceedings, what is she doing interviewing anyone about them? (The commentator says it's a "sensible request" and then compares the request to one made for convicted murderer Scott Peterson.)

Also, apparently neither noticed that Zimmerman wore a gray jumpsuit at his last court appearance. The orange jumpsuit comes from his booking photo in 2005 in Orange County.

Two of the Chinese Uighur Muslim detainees at Guantanamo, ordered freed three years ago by a federal judge in Washington, were finally able to leave Gtimo yesterday. They went to El Salvador. They have spent ten years at Gitmoo.

AThe freed men are Hamat Memet, who turns 34 next month, and Abdul Razzak, whose age is not known.

Two down, 169 to go, not counting the 5 9/11 detainees who will be tried in a military commission proceeding.

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, in which 168 persons were killed and hundreds more injured. It was then, and remains today, the largest act of domestic terrorism in the history of the nation. The Government's investigation into the bombing was, until 9/11, the largest criminal investigation the Government had ever undertaken.

Timothy McVeigh was found guilty and executed in 2001. Terry Nichols was tried in both federal and state court and sentenced to life in prison, a sentence he is currently serving at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.

Speculation has never ceased about whether McVeigh and Nichols acted alone or were aided by others who either went undetected or were ignored during the Government's investigation.

Next week you can get greater insight with the release of Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed--and Why It Still Matters by investigative journalists Andrew Gumbel and Roger Charles.[More...]

Not at a computer for a while. Here is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Did George Zimmerman catch a break or step on a landmine by getting a new judge today? His case will be presided over by Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester, Jr. The first judge who was next in line to succeed Judge Recksielder declined the case because he used to practice with Mark O'Mara and O'Mara is godfather to one of his children.

Next in line was Judge Kenneth Lester, Jr. He now has the case. At the very end of a long Orlando Sentinel article, it discloses that Judge Lester is married to a long-time homicide prosecutor in the state's attorney's office in Orange County. (Orange County is adjacent to Seminole County and includes Orlando. It's also the county that filed battery charges against Zimmerman in 2005.) See updates below)[More..]

In the 7th grade, it was quite the ritual. I'd rush home from school, turn on the TV in my parents' bedroom, call a girlfriend on the phone, and we'd watch American Bandstand. We dissected every moment -- who was dancing with whom, who was wearing what, how they wore their hair, which guy looked the cutest that day, and which couple reportedly was breaking up. (We got that info from fan magazines.) My friends and I weren't the only ones. So many people are saying the same thing today on Twitter, Facebook and in blogposts. It was almost like a reality TV show.

The show aired from Philadephia back then, with, of course, Dick Clark as host.

Dick Clark, the "world's oldest teenager" died today at 82. R.I.P. Dick, and thanks so much for the memories.

The LA Times has photos of U.S. troops in Afghanistan posing with body parts of dead Afghans.

The troops were with the 82nd Airborne Division. In one instance, their mission on the first such occasion was simply to :

Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.

They did the same while investigating another suicide bombing a few months later. The photos were given to the Times by a soldier in the division. A criminal investigation has been launched:

It is a violation of Army standards to pose with corpses for photographs outside of officially sanctioned purposes," said George Wright, an Army spokesman. "Such actions fall short of what we expect of our uniformed service members in deployed areas."

[More...]