Zimmerman not guilty.

[a completely inoffensive name]

When I wear my uni's hoodie, people actually think I am less threatening.

[Fisherking]

Ok, can we give the hoodie a rest? It was raining outside, a hoodie is perfectly acceptable outerwear.

Who said anything about hoodies? I was talking about Obama.

If Obama ever did ware a hoodie, would you think the guy with Armani slacks and a hoodie with a designer label was as threatening as the guy with a hoodie and pants hanging to his knees?

[Fragony]

Ok, can we give the hoodie a rest? It was raining outside, a hoodie is perfectly acceptable outerwear.

Not here, if you wear one if you want to take the bus you will have to wait for the next one, shopkeepers won't help you

[Ironside]

I have some difficulty treating his speech with anything short of skepticism. Obama grew up in a privileged enviornment, mostly in Hawaii. As most profiling relies on dress as much as color, I just don’t buy it.

Obama accepted an offer to work as a community organizer in Chicago's largely poor and black South Side. As biographer David Mendell notes in his 2007 book Obama: From Promise to Power, the job gave Obama "his first deep immersion into the African American community he had longed to both understand and belong to."

Which way was it? It is rather hard to be both.

He's admitted to drug use (alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) about 35 years ago and his group of friends used to describe themselves as a gang. So previledged backround and hyperbole sure, but he wasn't exactly the saint of his class at that age.

[Fragony]

Who is, I wouldn't pay too much attention to that anyway as he is a bigger idiot right now for going along with race-baiters. No facts matter anymore, blacks got their pittitude and get to howl and he served the gutmensch a cause on a silver plate

[Fisherking]

He's admitted to drug use (alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) about 35 years ago and his group of friends used to describe themselves as a gang. So previledged backround and hyperbole sure, but he wasn't exactly the saint of his class at that age.

That all sounds like hyperbole. In the 1970s cocaine was the drug of choice of the privileged. His gang likely did the drugs and alcohol they pilfered from their parents.

I am less impressed than ever.

[Lemur]

he is a bigger idiot right now for going along with race-baiters.

I would be interested to see if there were any way Obama could address race without getting dinged for race-baiting by the Fox/Drudge/NewsMax crowd.

From what I've seen of the transcripts, I'm missing the whole LET'S HATE ON WHITEY thing that you all seem to be hearing. Sample:

And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these “stand your ground” laws, I’d just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

[Fragony]

What does it matter, Obama shouldn't have get himself involved in a non-issue, and now it's an issue.

[Lemur]

What does it matter, Obama shouldn't have get himself involved in a non-issue, and now it's an issue.

So by saying anything, Obama is (as my wingnut friends on Facebook are calling him) the race-baiter-in-chief.

Gotcha. Thanks for playing.

[rvg]

So by saying anything, Obama is (as my wingnut friends on Facebook are calling him) the race-baiter-in-chief.

Pretty much. Moreso since his comments were downright retarded.

[Lemur]

Pretty much. Moreso since his comments were downright retarded.

Okay, gotcha, for the first black president to have an I-feel-your-pain moment with the black community is evil and retarded. And by saying anything at all he's a race-baiter.

It's a good thing that only other people have identity politics. Since we're white, we are immune! And the only racism left in America is Al Sharpton!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

[rvg]

Okay, gotcha, for the first black president to have an I-feel-your-pain moment with the black community is evil and retarded. And by saying anything at all he's a race-baiter.

He sure comes across like one. Now, I understand that he's aiming at guns rather than race, however it's not about what he means, it's about how it looks. Had he said "It could have been anybody", he would have shifted this into an anti-gun direction, which I think is what his aim was. The way he did it looked like pure race baiting. As a president he should be above that kind of stuff.

[Greyblades]

Lemur, please you are unfairly lumping us all together with these people, there are plenty of good, honest, non-assholish white people and to insinuate we are all like that is quite frankly offensive.

:P

[Fragony]

So by saying anything, Obama is (as my wingnut friends on Facebook are calling him) the race-baiter-in-chief.

Gotcha. Thanks for playing.

Why encourage pittitude. Leave it to the court that is why you have them. Damage control done wrong, it now looks like he sided with the black community, over a crackhead piece of shit who is actually very likely to have been the burglar scouting the area they were looking for as they found loot in his locker at school and they found pictures of jewelry on his bed and automatic firearms as well. You must be reading quality-media as even I know that and I live on the other side of the ocean.

[Lemur]

[Obama] sided with the black community, over a crackhead piece of **** who is actually very likely to have been the burglar scouting the area

But the President is the one who's race-baiting. Gotcha.

Hard to argue with such a wealth of linked and documented evidence, not to mention your thoughtful analysis of the case.

[rvg]

But the President is the one who's race-baiting. Gotcha.

Of course it's the president. The president should learn when to interject himself into controversy and when to stay out of it. He should have stayed out of this one.

[Fragony]

But the President is the one who's race-baiting. Gotcha.

Hard to argue with such a wealth of linked and documented evidence, not to mention your thoughtful analysis of the case.

He encouraged it. Courts should be independent and he gave race-baiters a free pass by speaking out on it.

^- rvg says it better

Anyhow, the juwels they found in deadboy's locker can probably be traced back exactly to where they came from but we will never know for reasons that are obvious for anyone who doesn't read quality-newspapers

[Lemur]

rvg says it better

Nah, I'd say you are both expressing yourselves just fine.

[Fragony]

Nah, I'd say you are both expressing yourselves just fine.

It isn't what some people want it to be, sorry for that reality sucks sometimes. Maybe you should be apoligising for giving blacks equal rights for the law instead, who to blame now if you just have to blame someone for being a mess.

[Xiahou]

Zimmerman helps rescue a family from a SUV wreck.
Unable to square this with their mental image of Zimmerman as the embodiment of evil, Zimmerman haters are claiming it was staged....

[Lemur]

Good for Zimmerman. I hope it's exactly what it looks like.

Whenever someone brings up the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote about how "there are no second acts in American lives," I want to get slap-happy.

[Fragony]

Zimmerman helps rescue a family from a SUV wreck.
Unable to square this with their mental image of Zimmerman as the embodiment of evil, Zimmerman haters are claiming it was staged....

Must have staged this as well http://www.google.nl/search?q=zimmer...ts%3B800%3B587

That's ouch. An ad hominum like that really really bleeds. Can even be fatal. That looks like a cracked skull to me really. People who read quality-newspapers can't have seen this, but this was after the event

[Strike For The South]

I have some difficulty treating his speech with anything short of skepticism. Obama grew up in a privileged enviornment, mostly in Hawaii. As most profiling relies on dress as much as color, I just don’t buy it.

Obama accepted an offer to work as a community organizer in Chicago's largely poor and black South Side. As biographer David Mendell notes in his 2007 book Obama: From Promise to Power, the job gave Obama "his first deep immersion into the African American community he had longed to both understand and belong to."

Which way was it? It is rather hard to be both.

Who said anything about hoodies? I was talking about Obama.

If Obama ever did ware a hoodie, would you think the guy with Armani slacks and a hoodie with a designer label was as threatening as the guy with a hoodie and pants hanging to his knees?

Clearly Obama could produce a son that looks like Trayvon. And that son may wear a hoodie, hell Obama may have even worn one a some point because it's a perfectly acceptable form of clothing

In other news, St.Zimmerman apparently saved 10 white babies from a burning car.

[Ironside]

That all sounds like hyperbole. In the 1970s cocaine was the drug of choice of the privileged. His gang likely did the drugs and alcohol they pilfered from their parents.

I am less impressed than ever.

Sure, but my point was that a high young Obama doing something to earn the suspicion of a overzealous neighbourhood watch member (see below on that narrative not facts are the driving matter) that with some escalation ends up with Obama dead, is a very improbable scenario, but doesn't require some outright crazyness to happen. Compare to say Mitt Romney (afaik) or someone else with a very spotless growing up record.

What does it matter, Obama shouldn't have get himself involved in a non-issue, and now it's an issue.

They've got national protests and everything. It was an issue already.

It's not the facts that he has to react to, it's the narrative. He could've chosen to officially reject the narrative, but that's still a reaction to the narrative, not the facts. No time to fully check atm, but afaik he choosed troubled youth did something stupid and ended up dead for it as he narrative for his speach.

That media can control the narrative is quite nasty and a fact that's hard to avoid.

[a completely inoffensive name]

You can't Flim-Flam the Zim Zam.

[Husar]

Zimmerman helps rescue a family from a SUV wreck.
Unable to square this with their mental image of Zimmerman as the embodiment of evil, Zimmerman haters are claiming it was staged....

Of course he did, they were white rednecks driving an SUV. And it conveniently happened close to his known location, shortly after his trial and noone got injured.

I BET HE HELPED TURN THE TRUCK ON ITS BACK, TOO!!!111

[naut]

I BET HE HELPED TURN THE TRUCK ON ITS BACK, TOO!!!111

I bet he shot out the front tyres; black and under a hood. Yep, that's probably it.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I would be interested to see if there were any way Obama could address race without getting dinged for race-baiting by the Fox/Drudge/NewsMax crowd.

From what I've seen of the transcripts, I'm missing the whole LET'S HATE ON WHITEY thing that you all seem to be hearing. Sample:

And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these “stand your ground” laws, I’d just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

Sounds like CinC is saying that if Martin had a gun, he should have shot Zimmerman rather than punching him, according to Florida Law.

Given that Obama is, irrc, a Harvard educated Lawyer, I think he's allowed an opinion on that.

I also think he's correct - given that a Texan once shot a Scot for urinating on his lawn and nothing happened.

Edit: rvg is Assyrian - so he's less white than Zimmerman, sorry Lemur.

[Xiahou]

Sounds like CinC is saying that if Martin had a gun, he should have shot Zimmerman rather than punching him, according to Florida Law.

If Zimmerman hadn't been beaten bloody, claiming self-defense would have been a lot more challenging.
If Martin shot Zimmerman just for following him, without a scratch on him... he'd likely go to prison.

It's a stupid and unhelpful comment from the president.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

If Zimmerman hadn't been beaten bloody, claiming self-defense would have been a lot more challenging.
If Martin shot Zimmerman just for following him, without a scratch on him... he'd likely go to prison.

It's a stupid and unhelpful comment from the president.

It was dark, Zimmerman was following a young man out to buy skittles. He was armed - Florida allows concealed carry, so if Martin had been armed and he had been approached by Zimmerman he would have been justified shooting Zimmerman before Zimmerman shot him.

As it happened Martin wasn't armed, so he did the same but with his fists, and because he didn't have a gun he died. If he had been armed, Zimmerman would be dead.

Zimmerman was beaten, but not horribly, mostly that was unfortunate because his head was right by the curb.

The fact is - there's no Western country where Zimmerman would not have gone to gaol, except the US.