To gradually wean myself away from the Zimmerman case, I have moved my laptop from the room I blog in during the evenings, and am switching to the iMac desktop I got several months ago but still haven't learned how to use. The keyboard is very small and the mouse quite different, so you may see more typos until I get accustomed to it. My laptop has all the GZ case documents and research and I'm not transferring it to the Mac. If this experiment lasts more than a few hours, I'll be surprised, but I thought I'd try it.

Here is an open thread for all topics except the George Zimmerman case.

Here's an open thread for all topics except George Zimmerman. Please use a Zimmerman thread to comment on his case.

Thanks again to everyone who donated to TalkLeft this past week. It has been a huge help, and I will send thank you emails soon. I like to respond to every contributor, and this week there were a lot of them, almost all in response to our Zimmerman coverage.

I'll be back tonight.

HLN is promoting an interview with Angela Corey and Bernie de la Rionda tonight in which the preview has Corey describing George Zimmerman as a "murderer." Poor choice of words. Not every killing is a murder. Some are excusable, some are justifiable, some are murder.

The jury instructions say:

A killing that is excusable or was committed by the use of justifiable deadly force is lawful. If you find Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, you will then consider the circumstances surrounding the killing in deciding if the killing was Murder in the Second Degree or was Manslaughter, or whether the killing was excusable or resulted from justifiable use of deadly force.

[More...]

Here's an open thread for all topics. except George Zimmerman, who has his own threads.

Bump and Update: Today is the final day of our TalkLeft Appreciation Week. Thank you to all who contributed so far, I'll be sending out thank you emails over the weekend.

********

If you have appreciated TalkLeft's s intensive coverage of the George Zimmerman case and trial over the past 16 months, here or at our forums, I hope you will consider making a donation to TalkLeft.

Debunking the myths, reviewing the discovery and pleadings, watching the hearings and trial, researching Florida law, writing extensive posts on the case and moderating comments to maintain a civil level of discourse and remove false information on the case, has consumed a huge amount of my time. It has been my pleasure to share my analysis and opinions with readers, and provide a place to comment, in an ad-free environment.

Here is the the paypal link. It's very easy (and takes credit cards even if you don't have a paypal account.)[More...]

As I remain glued to the Verdict Watch in the George Zimmerman trial, here's an open thread for all topics except Zimmerman.

Thanks to all who donated during TalkLeft Appreciation Week. I especially enjoyed reading the notes some readers sent with their contributions. I didn't realize Paypal now has little yellow pop-up notes that automatically open when you mouse over the contribution. I'll be sending thank you emails this weekend.

I'd really like to cover Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case but dozens of pleadings are missing from the docket which means they are filed under seal and never noted on the docket. (In my District and almost every other I can think of, the docket at least shows the fact that something was filed with and its docket number. )Not in this case. Last I checked there were more than 30 pleadings filed secretly (no number, no description.) [More...]

Here's an open thread for all topics, except the George Zimmerman trial. Please comment on Zimmerman in one of the threads about his case.

I'm pretty drained from the time and energy expended on the Zimmerman case but I'm looking forward to returning to blogging about larger and more important issues, which should be by early next week. Thanks to our readers who don't care about the Zimmerman case, don't get why I have so singularly focused on it, or disagree with my views on the case, who have stuck around anyway.

Here's a thread to discuss all topics except the George Zimmerman trial. Please comment on Zimmerman in a Zimmerman thread.

Here's an open thread for all matters except Zimmerman, for which there are plenty of other threads.

For those of you not following Zimmerman, it should be over by Friday.

Since our forums are crashing a few times a day due to server load, I'll put up a separate Zimmerman open thread.

Has anyone watched the new reality program Siberia? I've never seen a reality show where they show a contestant getting killed in the opening episode. Then again, maybe it's one of the illusions of the show. [Added: Thanks to those who emailed me to let me know it's a fake reality show. The "contestants" are actors playing reality show contestants and it's scripted. I think I'd rather watch a bad reality show than a good fake one. The whole point is that even though we know the show casts them by personality type and creates the drama with pre-planned story arcs, how the contestants deal with it and each other is still up to them. On the other hand, I loved the soap opera parody Mary Hartman years ago, so maybe I'll watch a few more episodes of Siberia.]

EPIC has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to stop the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program by vacating this Order of the FISA court. Among the questions presented in the Petition is whether the FISA court exceeded its authority :

when it ordered Verizon to disclose records to the National Security Agency for all telephone communications “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

A federal judge in D.C. has ruled she is without authority to stop the force-feeding at Guantanamo due to Congress, but in her ruling, invites Obama to step up and do so.

Here's an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

I've been so immersed in covering the George Zimmerman trial, I forgot to put up an open thread for other topics yesterday. Only one more week to go, and then I'll be back to regular blogging on other topics.

This is an open thread for all topics except Zimmerman. Please put Zimmerman comments in one of the threads on the trial threads.

I'm off to the mountains for a jail visit.

Here's an open thread, all Non-Zimmerman topics welcome.