I've got a long drive this afternoon to a jail in the mountains. Here's an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

I've got a busy day at work. Here's an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

Update: New report on Guantanamo finds cost is $2.7 million per prisoner per year.

Time for an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome (except Zimmerman who has his own threads.)

If you are looking for something moving to read today, try Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf's blog post, "The best gift I ever got from a convicted killer" about sentencing decisions.

Judge Kopf is not going to be pleased that I'm praising his blog again, but now that I've read all the posts, I can't help but point out some that I especially liked. There's several on the sequester cuts to defender services. Today he proposed this solution:

Unless the House Judiciary Committee is run entirely by hypocrites, I think the Committee ought to fire one of its lawyers every time a federal public defender gets the axe as a result of the sequester. Perhaps Mr. Branden Ritchie, Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, would be a good candidate for the first sequester generated pink slip.

Happy birthday to Mick Jagger, who turned 70 yesterday. While I couldn't possibly list all my favorites in one post, here he is singing Satisfaction in 1969; Happy in 1972; Under My Thumb and Time is On My Side in 1982;You Can't Always Get What You Want in 1990; Gimme Shelter in 1997; Let It Bleed in 2003; Sympathy for the Devil in 2006; at the Superbowl halftime show in 2010; It's Only Rock n Roll at Hyde Park a few weeks ago.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome (except Zimmerman which will have its own post shortly.)

Busy work day ahead. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome, except Zimmerman, who has his own threads. Far as i can tell the B-29 thread is still open.

Busy work day for me, open thread for you.

All topics welcome except Zimmerman and TM Martin.

Time for an open thread. All topics welcome except the Zimmerman case (and related and unrelated race issues) which have their own threads.

The House may vote later this week on repealing authority for the NSA Surveillance Program. The ACLU says call your representatives and tell them to vote Yes on the Amash Amendment.

The Amash Amendment would prevent the NSA from indiscriminately collecting the phone records of most Americans, including who we talk to, for how long, and how often.

Instead, it will limit the NSA's ability to collect these records to people who are actually under investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Anthony Weiner is apologizing again and about to hold a press conference. [Added: He's staying in the race for Mayor.][More..]

The Pentagon has sent out a notice that periodic review boards will be reinstated to evaluate 71 detainees and determine whether any any should be transferred.

46 captives currently held as “indefinite detainees,” a category created by an Obama Task force in 2010 of captives considered too dangerous to release but for whom there was no evidence that could justify a criminal trial;

25 other captives who in 2010 were listed as candidates for trials by military commissions or civilian courts.

The notice also seems to be timed for Wednesday's congressional hearing, "Closing Guantanamo: The National Security, Fiscal, and Human Rights Implications."

46 detainees are now being force-fed.

In other news, judges warn that the sequester may trigger a constitutional crisis.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, except those related to George Zimmerman. Please use a Zimmerman-related thread for to discuss his case or matters related to race.

The Constitution is not a rough draft. You don't get to edit or erase parts of it to delete rights for an unpopular or hated defendant.

The Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of the citizen accused from the awesome powers of the Government. It was not enacted to protect the rights of crime victims.

The presumption of innocence is a bedrock of our criminal justice system that applies to the person charged with a crime, not the victim of a crime.

Self-defense is an affirmative defense that may be raised by a defendant in court in response to a criminal charge. [More...]

A weekend with no work, I'm contemplating the possibilities. Farmers Market, Pilates, and some non-Zimmerman writing.

If you have any suggestions for crime or politics stories, please let me know.

I also may do none of these and watch for the arrival of Princess Kate's baby. (not really.)

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome besides Zimmerman. When his last threads get full, I'll put up a Zimmerman thread and try to keep out of it.

Hope you have a great weekend planned. Whats best at the farmer's market this time of year?

Stephen Rakes, a potential witness against Whitey Bulger, has been found dead. The Government says it was not going to call Rakes due to contradictions in his versions of events. I haven't been following the Bulger trial, so I don't know the significance of this, but it's making major headlines.

The full Rolling Stone article on Dzokhar Tsarnaev, Jahar's World, is available to read online.

I have a few more hours of work to do before I get to read Jahar's World, but I'll put up a post for it now, as well as one for Zimmerman.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome (Except Zimmerman).