Today's edition of quick hits:
* Criminal charges will reportedly be brought against George Zimmerman this afternoon, with an announcement expected in about a half-hour.
* Quakes, but no tsunami: "Two powerful earthquakes struck about two hours apart off the coast of Sumatra on Wednesday afternoon, spreading panic among residents of the Indonesian island and reviving memories of the devastating 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the same area."
* Nearing a launch: "North Korea completed the hurried transition to its young new leader, Kim Jong-un, on Wednesday, as a confrontation with the United States loomed over the North's intent to launch a long-range rocket."
* Kofi Annan is so desperate to broker a stable cease-fire in Syria, he's seeking Iran's help. The former U.S. secretary general is also cautioning the West against arming rebel forces.
* Fox News believes it has already identified the "Fox Mole." The Mole himself doesn't seem to think so.
* Wendy's is reportedly the latest corporate sponsor to reportedly pull its support of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The list seems to be getting longer.
* I always love the White House White Board.
* And for the second time in less than a week, National Review has had to get rid of one its writers for being a racist.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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I think Newt's bounced check to Utah for getting on the ballot might deserve a line or two. Especially since he has a history of bouncing them, including one to the IRS.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/gingrich-defends-utah-bounced-check-bounced-22-checks-as-house-minority-whip/
The Philly Predator Priest trial is the very first in the US to see a court of law. How come it seems to have a TV blackout? One priest has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced. The other priest and the monsignor are still on trial. Why no interest from TV, lots of print stories.
Also just heard that another Bishop in Kansas will also be seeing his day in court soon.
Could these stories be a reason why the Catholic Church started is PR campaign slogan on the war on religion. Has that bought them silence?
Help bring some good out of this terrible tragedy. The organization called ALEC has actively fostered the spread of "STAND YOUR GROUND" laws to many states. These are the very same laws that led to the Trayvon Martin murder in Florida. Many mainstream corporations have funded ALEC, BUT as their funding has been publicized they have withdrawn their support. Call or write or email the following two ALEC supporters: JOHNSON and JOHNSON, and STATE FARM ...or ....visit www.pfaw.org/ditchALEC. Please urge these companies to their cut ties with ALEC. Tell them that they should not want their brands associated with the dangerous laws ALEC promotes -- including voter suppression, NRA-backed “stand your ground” laws, extreme racial profiling laws targeting immigrants, privatizing public education and protecting corporate polluters. If you do not want YOUR hard earned money to be used AGAINST your best interests, then tell State Farm and Johnson and Johnson, in no uncertain terms: DON’T FUND ALEC!
Umm it may be worthwhile for TRMS to explain that while The Today Show edited out the portion of the 911 call w/ Zimmerman in which the 911 operator asked Zimmerman if Treyvon was white, black, or Hispanic that MSNBC (or at least TRMS and MHP) did not do the same thing. Jon Stewart on The Daily Show played clips of Fox News accusing MSNBC of following in "lock-step" w/ the edit and stated that MSNBC was complicit in implying that Zimmerman was a racist on the basis of this 911 call. I think it might do MHP and Maddow a good bit for their integrity to show no we have covered the story in it's entirety.
I'll get off my bossy-pants box now. I just was a little shocked when Jon didn't point out that MSNBC did not falsely present the 911 calls.
And ask Al Sharpton how involved he was in the Tawana Brawley case, the various incitements in the Bronx and Brooklyn. And how he serves a duel role of commentator and activist.
I agree with Mouzer. My teacher brought up that NBC edited the tapes but I had no idea what he was talking about because all reports I heard had that multiple-choice question presented. I couldn't retort because I didn't know what context, show, or anything else about that.
And probably the morning show has a wider audience, but one edit out of the multitude of tape recordings that have aired should have been brought to John Stewart's attention before he did his piece condemning NBC as a whole.
Yes it's unfortunate and regrettable that the tape was edited on that show, but it does not have any merit towards a continuous trend by (MS)NBC (unlike FOX).
Tom do not piggyback on my comments just to take a jab at a black guy because you're pissed off that he had the audacity to march for Treyvon Martin or because you're pissed off that he attempts to draw media attention to black issues. That's low man and totally inappropriate AND totally irrelevant to the post. Grow up.
The NBC editing of the tape was overblown as an issue. This was right wingers looking for something to criticize. Yes, NBC should have included the question from the dispatcher. However, Zimmerman's response doesn't seem any less racist with the question included.
It was nighttime and raining. The kid had on a hoodie. Zimmerman was some distance away. For all this guy knew, the kid might have had on dark colored gloves. Many Hispanics are relatively dark skinned. Were Zimmerman not a racist, there were several excellent replies available to him when the dispatcher asked about whether he was black, white, or Hispanic:
1. "I can't tell."
2. "I don't know."
3. "I'm not sure."
Or any one of dozens of similar responses, since he really couldn't tell for sure whether or not the kid was black.
Mouser: I am not taking a jab at a black guy. I am merely pointing out that he is exploitative and feeds on his own ego. His past actions tell it all. The fact that MSNBC has him as a host speaks for the kind of programming they will do to get weak ratings
Tom . . . I won't speak to some of Sharpton's previous exploits. However, there's little doubt that this whole incident would have been swept under the rug without his intervention. The Sanford police and the Florida state authorities accepted Zimmerman's version on faith, and seemed completely disinterested in doing any meaningful investigation.
No Tom what you are attempting to do is say that because Al Sharpton had the audacity to raise awareness to an issue that was later found to be exonerated through court that this discredits Al Sharpton and then you were attempting to attribute this falsely to a post that had nothing to do w/ Sharpton in order to rant against him. A. Al Sharpton bringing awareness to black issues and raising awareness to cases in which corruption and/or abuse of black persons may have happened and asking that there be a trial is NOT equivalent to calling him a hack. You are assuming that bringing awareness so that trial can be had is somehow a bad thing which speaks volumes to your understanding and desire for justice. Remember just because someone is accused of a crime does not make them guilty or excuse a fair trial. B. You are then assuming that if someone is wrong at any point in time that this therefore makes any and all other claims they make false. You have been wrong many times before. Should I then use your logic and presume the same?
Don't hijack my thread again to go on your rants about some black guy that you don't like. That's bull@!$%# and you know it.
So Mr. Zimmerman opted out from his NRA=( Not Really Associated ) legal representatives apparent course of action ? Were they to willing to sell him down the river for a “ higher principle “ ?
I wonder how many of the oil sands jobs Artis Brown keeps talking about will be under water trying to scrape the gunk off of the bottom of the aquifer. None of the usual oil clean up measures work since this stuff does not float as evidenced by the Mich. spill of over two years ago,,
Funny how stuff like that seems to be forgotten.
Regarding the earthquakes, the Nicobarese tribe was the only tribe to convert to christianity and was the only tribe to experience massive loss during the 2004 tsunami.
If they are going to continue to say that Zimmerman had the right to kill Treyvon Martin because he felt he was in danger, then wouldn't Treyvon have even more right to kill Zimmerman because he was stalked and attacked by someone with a gun? I think that this law would basically allow anyone to say they felt they were in danger and they could kill anyone.
It's a real life version of this:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/149674/its-coming-right-for-us
just a comment the audio coming out of the Burbank studio is SO much clearer and noise free compared with the regular New York studio. The show is MUCH easier to listen to this week. I didn't notice until you guys had a guest in NYC this week, it was like someone turned on a window AC unit and pointed a mic at it.
--old radio guy.
--old
Sanford is going to burn when they bring back a "not guilty", hell, I'd be lighting it right now for murder "2". Another dead black kid, murdered by fake john-law, the neighborhood swatch-nazi.. That town is going to burn.