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In order to keep up with the nature of free, spirited debate, I wanted to place the chat feature at the top of the homepage. This ensures people can come here and share their views on anything they wish and not have it be related to any specific discussion. Here, people can share ideas, links, and views "unmoderated" and an their own pace. To me, this makes The Elephant in the Room blog truly a place for debate.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

May 16, 2012 - Morning Headlines

- A medical exam conducted on George Zimmerman the day after his fateful confrontation with Trayvon Martin shows he had several injuries including a broken nose and two black eyes (CNN): http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/16/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

- With little media attention given because he has been the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney secured victories in the Nebraska and Oregon primaries, bringing his delegate total to 973 out of 1,144 (MSNBC): http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11724010-romney-wins-nebraska-oregon-primaries

- The man known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic went on trial at The Hague for genocide (MSNBC): http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/16/11727515-butcher-of-bosnia-ratko-mladic-goes-on-trial-over-slaughter-at-srebrenica?lite

- F.B.I. to investigate JPMorgan's $2 billion loss (CBS News): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57434664/fbi-opens-inquiry-into-jpmorgans-$2b-loss/?tag=stack

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29 comments:

  1. Trayvon Martin also had injuries to his knuckles.

    http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/autopsy-results-show-trayvon-martin-had-injuries-h/nN6gs/

    The kid had been dead a month before we ever heard a word about it. Why is it 3 months before these details ever came out?

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  2. Hi Slim

    My husband (of 40 yrs) is a retired police officer. He left the force after thirty years in a major metropolitan area. Part of that time was spent as a resident officer, where he worked alone and was charged with conducting the initial investigations of various types of crimes with an eye to what would need to be preserved for forensics, i.d. etc.

    Based on how investigations are conducted in my neck of the woods...this is my opinion:

    In light of the fact that it WAS a month before there was ANY coverage of the Trayvon case, it is my belief that this tragic death WAS thoroughly investigated by the local police... and based on their findings they had decided NOT to pursue charges against Mr. Zimmerman.

    I believe they had ALL of the evidence that's now being released to the public, three months after the fact.

    I feel terrible for Trayvon's parents, but also believe that detractors of Florida's Stand Your Ground law, 'leaders' of the black community, radicals, etc, etc, found a 'cause' they could portray as an 'incident' to fit a 'white on black crime' agenda - and ran with it.

    Oh wait, Zimmerman is Hispanic? Okay, we'll just make him 'white/hispanic'... problem solved. And the MSM charged forward.

    I never believed this case fell within the Stand Your Ground guidelines. I, nor anyone else was there, but I don't think Zimmerman fired in self-defense, which would have been justified - given the evidence we're seeing now.

    The evidence clearly shows a struggle; my gut feeling is that the gun discharged during that struggle.

    So, my question is - what happens now?

    Will the New Black Panthers, Al Sharpton, the President, etc. be satisfied with these 'new' findings and stand down their race-bating and hate rhetoric?

    Will the 'Special Prosecutor' address her mistake in charging, or more importantly, OVERcharging Mr. Zimmerman with a crime she couldn't POSSIBLY have proved he'd committed?

    Time will tell.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Dara.

      What happens now? Well I guess Zimmerman will go to a highly publicized trial probably be found not guilty and people will get justice for Trayvon by burning stuff, stealing stuff and killing innocent people.

      Let's hope I am wrong.

      Delete
    2. HE killed a teenager, there needs to be a trial to determine guilt.

      The injuries were not bad enough to send him to the hospital so they were obviously not bad enough to justify killing a teenage child.

      You can make assumptions on what u thought might or might not have happened the point is we don't know and there is case on both sides of the isle.

      Zimmerman obviously went after the teenage kid against the wishes of the police and confronted him.

      There was obviously a fight, who started it we do not know, was the fightso bad someone would have been beaten to death? Zimmerman was not hospitalizes i think that speaks for itself.

      A grown man killed a teenage with a gun, the teenager was doing nothing but walking how, the argument can be made that the teenager was acting in self defense in fear of his life just as much as it can be made that the grown man was.

      Regardless there needs to be a trial, anyone who thinks otherwise deserves to loose there own child in the same way..... and thats my oppinon...

      Delete
    3. "Oh shit ! I killed him ! Better bash my face into the ground to make it look like self defense"

      Delete
    4. LOLOLOL at loyal watcher. You are a joke. You say this:

      "You can make assumptions on what u thought might or might not have happened the point is we don't know and there is case on both sides of the isle."

      Which is the most correct thing you've ever said: WE DON'T KNOW.

      But then you assert, as if YOU know, this:

      "The injuries were not bad enough to send him to the hospital so they were obviously not bad enough to justify killing a teenage child."

      And

      "Zimmerman obviously went after the teenage kid against the wishes of the police and confronted him."

      I seriously hope you realize that you're being completely 2-faced in how you're discussing this. If not, you may need professional help.

      Delete
  3. Stimulus Dollars Fund Studies into Sexual History and Erectile Dysfunction

    http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Stimulus-Grants-Fund-Erectile-Dysfunction-And-Sexual-Habits-Studies-151195105.html

    Of course I know this will be dismissed by liberals and independent liberals as, "Well it was only a million and half dollars and hardly a fraction of the Stimulus bill", but, this is the kind of needless BS spending that needs to stop. I thought the Stimulus bill was to build roads and bridges because of our "crumbling infrastructure".

    Here is a small list of other "fractions of Stimulus spending":

    $762,372 for Interactive Dance Software
    $1,900,000 to capture, photograph and analyze ants in SW Indian Ocean islands and east Africa
    $89,298 to replace new sidewalks with newer sidewalks that lead to a ditch
    $39,700,000 for upgraded office space and indoor parking for Kansas politicians
    $490,590 to keep a public swimming pool open free of charge in Ohio
    $54,000,000 to a casino owner to build a WNBA practice facility
    $13,300,000 to restore one of the nations least visited parks
    $762,372 to study improvised music
    $677,462 to study monkey and chimpanzee responses to inequity
    $199,862 helping Siberians lobby Russian policymakers
    $298,453 to predict weather on OTHER PLANETS
    $144,541 to study effects of cocaine on monkeys
    $2,400,000 for new buses that average 2 or 3 riders per hour
    $529,468 to study the effects of local populations on the environment....in the Himalayas
    $712,883 to create a joke machine
    $294,958 to study the reduction of menopausal hot flashes through yoga
    $1,200,000 marketing video games to the elderly
    $498,176 improving privacy on social networking sites
    $193,956 understanding perceptions of the economic stimulus
    $25,000,000 for snow making and chairlifts at Mount Snow
    $253,123 for bug storage for a Raleigh, NC museum that has 44 visitors a year
    $4,600,000 to preserve and rehabilitate FDR's home (over $19 million in recent years)
    $3,400,000 to construct an underground wildlife road crossing (I bet we have to have some signs too or else how will the wildlife know it is there)

    We did do some infrastructure work though. We spent $11,000,000 building a bridge to connect Microsoft's two campuses in Washington.

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    1. wow this is insane...... I wish they would have build a high speed rail network that would have helped the economy so much, what a waste....... how approves this crap?

      Delete
    2. How would a high speed rail help the economy so much?

      Delete
    3. It would help small businesses a TONE! I could have customers get to my studio from Chicago, st Louise , Cincinnati quick! I could hit Chicago for the weekend with the wife in no time.

      Time is money, save time on travel, save money.

      Have you been to Europe? I got the opportunity to go, it was amazing how easy it was to travel.

      Delete
    4. Loyal Watcher, if the high speed rail is such a grand idea why haven't the greedy capitalists tried to cash in on the huge profit potential? Maybe because they know it is a huge money loser which means it would be subsidized by the government.

      Delete
    5. Hi Slim,

      I'm a bit confused by your sentiments here. The stimulus money was first and foremost for job creation, in a number of different areas.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009

      "To respond to the late-2000s recession, the primary objective for ARRA was to save and create jobs almost immediately. Secondary objectives were to provide temporary relief programs for those most impacted by the recession and invest in infrastructure, education, health, and ‘green’ energy. The approximate cost of the economic stimulus package was estimated to be $787 billion at the time of passage, later revised to $831 billion between 2009 and 2019.[citation needed] The Act included direct spending in infrastructure, education, health, and energy, federal tax incentives, and expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare provisions. The Act also included many items not directly related to economic recovery such as long-term spending projects (e.g., a study of the effectiveness of medical treatments) and other items specifically included by Congress (e.g., a limitation on executive compensation in federally aided banks added by Senator Dodd and Rep. Frank)."

      Every area you listed there did directly create jobs.

      None of those projects involve money simply vanishing; the money goes towards hiring contractors, workers, researchers, etc, which also then indirectly helps the economy in these people now having jobs and money to spend on consumer goods that they may not have had otherwise.

      This is particularly the case for grants, where the majority of that money is directly used in paying salaries to staff.

      So I’m a bit confused as to why this is “needless BS spending”? Jobs were created, for a variety of different areas.

      It gets a bit convoluted in trying to compare the value of ‘Dance Software’ jobs vs construction jobs, but at the same time a stimulus that invested 100% of its resources into only construction workers would leave the 95% of the nation that isn’t involved in construction work completely ignored. Particularly the case when construction work wasn’t hit as hard as many other industries.

      I don’t disagree with infrastructure being valuable, and it desperately needing an overhaul, but the stimulus wasn’t “first and foremost a construction bill”, it was “first and foremost a jobs bill.”

      And while sure, it’s easy to sit back and criticize something like Dance software, but if the $726k invested in that created the same amount of jobs it would’ve in construction, why does it really matter when the main purpose of the bill is jobs?

      Delete
    6. i did not even think about that your right...

      just like highways, and railroads...

      Those things screwed us over bad...... Wish the government never would did that

      man and to think of all the inventions that came as a result of the government making investments the private sector was scared to make...

      We would be alot better off without all the crap we have in our lives.

      man I gota listen to you more often your so smart!

      Delete
    7. A few years back Dingy Harry Reid proposed a 'high speed rail' project between Vegas and L.A. claiming that people would flock to Vegas on these trains and thus increase hotel/casino revenues.

      This was an earlier time... prior to any 'Stimuli' and before our 'current' disastrous level of government fiscal dysfunction.

      Dirty Harry's big 'plan' was to divert some big gov. bucks to be matched by contractors, hotel owners, etc. for this 'must do' project.

      Having personal knowledge of Mr. Reid and his shady land deals throughout NV, AZ and CA, I suspect that was instrumental in his haste to 'get this done.'

      NOT ONE business person came forward to 'suckle upon the government teat' for these massive funds. I think it was Hotel/Casino Mogul and bazillionaire Steve Wynn (a Reid AND Obama supporter) that called it a 'massively stupid and reckless idea. A complete waste of money...totally without merit.'

      The high speed rail lines in Asia and Europe, just like our AmTrac train service in the U.S. are complete money-pits, MOST are incapable of functioning, without a steady stream of government funding.

      And, like it or not...We The People of the United States, are NOT European or Chinese... we LOVE our CARS.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. I'll tell you what loyal Watcher, how about you and I get together and I will slam your head into a sidewalk for a little while. You let me know if your life feels endangered.

      Delete
    2. is this before or after you follow me confront me attack me and i see you have a gun?

      Delete
    3. Wrong, Trayvon confronted Zimmerman.

      Delete
    4. says who? the argument is being made on both sides. Im not saying eather one is right I DONT KNOW, neither do you.

      I do know one thing, the police told a man not to follow a child and to let them do there job, he follow that child and not the kid is dead.... I know that much is a FACT and not something that can be argued eather way.

      Are you saying he should not go to trial and you personally know without a doubt he is not guilty of acidently shooting the kid? and he did nothing wrong at all and should not have a jury decide?

      Delete
    5. Loyal Watcher, I am so glad you post on here. I get so many laughs.

      Anyway, a 911 dispatcher isn't a police officer and I don't believe ignoring the suggestions of a phone operator is a crime--especially since it was to protect Zimmerman.

      Considering the police let him go after they interviewed him with no charges speaks volumes. They saw a bloodied and beaten man that was assaulted, they saw the injuries to Martin's hand, they spoke to witnesses and they interviewed Zimmerman. Don't you think if his story didn't line up with forensic evidence and witness statements they would have charged him then.

      Now, to answer your question, yes they should have a trial since they have charged him. However they are going to be hard pressed to get a conviction. I don't think Zimmerman shot him accidentally, I think he shot him on purpose to get him to stop beating him.

      Delete
    6. "911 dispatcher:

      He’s running? Which way is he running?

      Zimmerman:

      Down toward the other entrance of the neighborhood. [2:14]"

      So zimmerman was chasing the kid, and he tried to run away from him.....

      Yea that sounds like some kid attacking a grown man with an intent to kill him, ur right slim, fuck it let zimmerman go, that kid deserved to die, he fought back ....

      Anyone who fights back should be killed on the spot.

      Matter of fact i should find you follow you, then attack you and when you fight back shoot you in the face,

      its self defense right?

      Delete
    7. OK, Loyal Watcher, you convinced me. Since Zimmerman knew which Trayvon was running that definitely proves to me Zimmerman killed him in a premeditated fashion. It also tells me that poor ole innocent Trayvon was just standing his ground and Zimmerman had no right to react. He should have just silently laid there and got his brains bashed out on the sidewalk. I can't believe I didn't see it that way all along. LOL


      I'll just forget about the part where Zimmerman was on his way back to his car when Trayvon approached him from behind (like all people who are running scared for their life do).

      Hopefully he gets an extra 10 years for disregarding the advice of a 911 operator.

      Delete
  5. @Loyalty Watcher...

    I find you guilty as charged for the act of inflammatory stupidity; the same sort embraced by the MSM, the New Black Panthers, and yes... even our 'dear leader'.

    YOU were NOT at the scene; YOU do NOT have all the EVIDENCE - yet YOU have made the same ASSinine ASSumption: Guilty Until Proven Innocent.

    'HE killed a teenager, there needs to be a trial to determine guilt.'

    Spoken by someone who obviously has NO inkling of the LAW!

    The EVIDENCE is collected and examined by LAW ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONALS. This EVIDENCE includes but is not limited to police reports, forensics and coroner's reports, etc. Each science examines their EVIDENCE, puts the pieces together and comes to a consensus of whether or not a crime has been committed.

    Forensic EVIDENCE has concluded NO crime was committed...BUT if a serious crime, such as a death is involved, said EVIDENCE is THEN REVIEWED by the District Attorney (or assistant) who RE-examines it.

    Bear in mind that in a CRIMINAL TRIAL, a prosecutor MUST PROVE, to a JURY, that the DEFENDANT is GUILTY of the CRIME for which he/she was CHARGED -- BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.

    If, after review, the D.A. determines that the FACTS included in the EVIDENCE show that NO CRIME has been COMMITTED - NO TRIAL IS WARRANTED OR JUSTIFIED.

    "Regardless there needs to be a trial, anyone who thinks otherwise deserves to loose there own child in the same way..... and thats my oppinon..."

    This statement leads me to believe that you are not only ignorant of the law and illiterate - you're also a soulless creature, as devoid of any GENUINE compassion, as you are of intelligent, cohesive thought.

    A sad commentary of today's youth.

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    Replies
    1. yea im the one with no compassion lol....

      You just said
      " I never believed this case fell within the Stand Your Ground guidelines. I, nor anyone else was there, but I don't think Zimmerman fired in self-defense, which would have been justified - given the evidence we're seeing now. "

      What evidence are you talking about.... I got a broke nose and a black eye when i got in a fight as a child, Guess what i did not die, and i did not kill anyone. it was just a fight, they happen when two people disagree....

      Delete
  6. LOLOLOL at loyal watcher. You are a joke. You say this:

    "You can make assumptions on what u thought might or might not have happened the point is we don't know and there is case on both sides of the isle."

    Which is the most correct thing you've ever said: WE DON'T KNOW.

    But then you assert, as if YOU know, this:

    "The injuries were not bad enough to send him to the hospital so they were obviously not bad enough to justify killing a teenage child."

    And

    "Zimmerman obviously went after the teenage kid against the wishes of the police and confronted him."

    I seriously hope you realize that you're being completely 2-faced in how you're discussing this. If not, you may need professional help.

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    Replies
    1. no texas im not but im sure it fits ur fairy tale

      there is a recorded tape with 911 telling him not to follow.

      IT is a fact he did not go to the hospital that means he was not hurt enough to be required to go to the hospital.

      Also there is video of him after the event in the police station, he was standing and walking around, he was not beaten to near death.....

      Those are facts not oppinions.

      Delete
    2. I agree with Texas Tea... lololol

      You pulled not one but TWO classic lefty tricks in your response.

      1) you took a line out of completely out of context with the entire statement.

      2) you twisted what I DID say to fit your uninformed and frankly silly agenda.

      The facts as we NOW know them:

      On the 911 tape, the dispatcher says (regarding the following of Trayvon), 'We don't need you to do that.'

      Zimmerman VERY CLEARLY responds 'Okay, I'll go back and wait for the police'

      The altercation between the Zimmerman and Trayvon occurred NEXT TO Zimmerman's truck which was parked at the location he was to meet the police.

      These are FACTS.

      Delete
    3. im flattered you think i have an "agenda" lol

      The only "agenda" I have is that we live in a country were when a grown man kills a teenage kid with a gun there is trial to determine who was at fault.

      I know im a CRAZY person, to think I would expect a trial for the killing of an un armed teenager.... Its completely normal for a teenage kid to get killed by a grown man while walking down the street.

      you guys are right sorry....

      Delete
  7. Can't wait to have this conversation with my son when he is older

    "remember son when u and lil billy get in a fight if you feel like your loosing the fight go ahead and pull out your gun and shoot him"

    ReplyDelete