Here's the affidavit of probable cause submitted for the arrest of George Zimmerman on second degree murder charges for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. It is written and sworn to by States' Attorney Special Investigators T.C. O'Steen and Dale Gilbreath, both former investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department. They don't believe there was a racial slur.

During the recorded call Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood. Later while talking about Martin, Zimrnerman stated "these a*sholes, they always get away and also said “these f*cking punks.”

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George Zimmerman had his first court appearance today. His arraignment was set for May 29. Unless he's granted bail before then, he'll remain jailed. At a news conference I just watched that took place after the brief court hearing, the prosecutor who will be in charge of the case refused to answer questions about the facts that led to the second degree murder charged. By the end of his conference, he displayed a short fuse and testy demeanor.

George Zimmerman's new lawyer, Mark O'Mara, addressed the media, and said he and Zimmerman decided a few hours before the hearing to delay their request for bail. He said they will be requesting bail sometime within the next few weeks. He also said Zimmerman is in protective custody at the jail, and that he supported the placement for safety reasons. [More..]

Busy today.

Open thread.

Update: Is this Florida's modified version of the perp walk? There was a throng of media outside the jail awaiting George Zimmerman's arrival. When the garage doors opened, two black cars pulled in, one of which had George Zimmerman inside. Orlando TV aired his arrival live, pointing their cameras through the window to get the shot of him exiting the vehicle and being taken inside.

At a press conference today, Florida state's attorney Angela Corey, the chief prosecutor assigned to the investigation into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, announced George Zimmerman has been charged with second degree murder. You can read the charges here. [More...]

CBS and other media organizations say they have confirmed through law enforcement officials that state's attorney Angela Corey has decided to charge George Zimmerman with a crime in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. She is expected to make the announcement later this afternoon.

The announcement, which Corey's office describes as a release of new information (rather than a decision on charging) will be made at 6:00 pm at her office in Jacksonville, FL. Here is her press release. [More...]

Discussing Rachel Maddow's book Drift, Kevin Drum writes:

Maddow decided to write a book about America and the way we use our military. Specifically: why is it so damn easy to go to war these days? [...] The book is, basically, a series of potted histories that explain how we drifted away from our post-Vietnam promise to make sure we never again went to war without the full backing and buy-in of the American public. [...] Maddow's premise is that, just as the founders intended, our aim was to make war hard. Presidents would need Congress on their side. The Abrams Doctrine ensured that reserves would have to be called up. Wars would no longer unfold almost accidentally, as Vietnam did.

Drum posits that George H.W. Bush changed all that. That is not historically accurate in my view. The times getting into war was not easy was after wars that had been very costly and not particularly successful from the US point of view. Think World War I and Vietnam. Otherwise, going to war has been one of the great American pasttimes. I'm all for making going to war hard, but the history does not demonstrate that, except for isolated periods, that was ever really the case in the United States.

Speaking for me only

Serious GOP VP contender Allen West has a list of 80 Communist Party members in the Democratic Caucus.

REP. ALLEN WEST (R-FL): I believe there's about 70, 80 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party [in the House of Representatives].

Hearkening to the good old days:

So says WaPo poll:

More Americans think Supreme Court justices will be acting mainly on their partisan political views than on a neutral reading of the law when they decide the constitutionality of President Obama’s health-care law, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Half of the public expects the justices to rule mainly based on their “partisan political views,” while fewer, 40 percent, expect their decisions to be rooted primarily “on the basis of the law.” The rest say both equally or do not have an opinion.

This is hardly surprising in light of the partisan oral arguments. Ann Althouse objects:

Update: The state's attorney handling the George Zimmerman investigation said today she will make a statement within 72 hours. She said she is "preparing to release new information regarding the Trayvon Martin shooting death investigation.". It doesn't explicitly say the announcement will be her decision on whether to file charges.

In another bizarre turn in the Trayvon Martin shooting. George Zimmerman's lawyers have withdrawn from representing him, saying he hasn't returned calls since Sunday and called the prosecutor and Sean Hannity to talk to them. The prosecutor refused to talk to him without counsel.

The website he set up was done on his own. His lawyers, at his request, had been in the process of setting one up, when he decided to do his own. [More..]

Rick Santorum drops out.

Another busy day. Here's an open thread till we get back.

So Ozzie Guillen said some stuff about Fidel Castro. Who cares what Ozzie Guillen says about Fidel Castro, right? I don't. But Ozzie Guillen is the manager of the Miami Marlins. So it's fair to say the Marlins care.

People in Miami aren't happy about what Ozzie Guillen said about Fidel Castro. That means the Marlins can't be too happy. Ozzie is having a press conference tomorrow to, no doubt, apologize and explain that in fact, he hates Fidel Castro and does not respect him. I don't care about that either. But people in Miami do. So the Marlins care too.

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Special Prosecutor Angela Corey has decided against using the grand jury to investigate the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Corey says the grand jury isn't needed and the case is still being investigated. She says ""The decision should not be considered a factor in the final determination of the case." She previously said she's never used one before in investigating whether a case involved justifiable homicide and she has previously said she may or may not use the grand jury in this case. The initial decision to use the grand jury was made by State's Attorney Norm Wolfinger, before he recused himself from the case. /p>

Here is her actual statement, courtesy of NBC 6 Miami.

I have no clue which way she is leaning.