Stunning New Ad Against Stand Your Ground Laws

Previous Posts:
Marching for Trayvon to Change Stand Your Ground Laws
Snark in Pictures - George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty
Florida Gun Owners are NOT Freelance Cops

This is a shocking new public service announcement from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence based on the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida. One reason it is so chilling is that it accurately recreates the night of the shooting through the use of witness testimony and actual 911 recordings.

My heart nearly stopped when the gun went off.

Snark in Pictures ~ George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty

Marco Rubio Flubs GOP Response to SOTU With Terrible Thirst

Source: Daily Kos

You can't make this stuff up. With the whole world watching, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) guzzled his way to infamy last night as he stopped in the middle of the GOP response to the State of the Union to reach off-camera and grab a bottle of water.


.


While the whole thing is absurd and may seem petty, this was Rubio's big chance to show he is Presidential enough to get the nomination from his party in 2016. And yet all anyone will remember is his dry mouth and overwhelming thirst. He apparently forgot about Bobby Jindal's weak response to the 2009 SOTU, Paul Ryan guzzling water during the Veep Debate, and the Mitt Romney parody on SNL showing him guzzling plain white milk to drown his sorrows. Now Rubio has joined the group of sweaty politicians who look nervous on camera and who need more libation than the average guy. Not a good place to be.

Twitter went cray-cray of course - see all the quotes on my other blog:
Snark Amendment: Stay Thirsty My Friend ~ Rubio Water Bottle Gate

Memory Lane . . .

Voter Suppression was Goal in Florida

The only thing surprising about Republicans plotting to suppress the vote in Florida is that some of their own are willing to admit the truth. And we know the same thing happened in Ohio where diminished early voting hours caused long lines. Luckily in both Florida and Ohio, the sheer numbers of voters who turned out to vote for Obama defeated their evil schemes. But this should never happen again! As President Obama said, we need to "fix that."



From Palm Beach Post

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer says he attended various meetings, beginning in 2009, at which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours.
“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.

“They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer said. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”

Greer is now under indictment, accused of stealing $200,000 from the party through a phony campaign fundraising operation. He, in turn, has sued the party, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

. . . Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal.
“In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,” Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.

This confirms what ex-Governor Charlie Crist had said earlier:

from Huffington Post

"The only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression," he said.

Crist added, "People have fought and died for our right to vote, and unfortunately our legislature and this governor have decided they want to make early voting less available to Floridians rather than more available ... It's hard for me as an American to comprehend why you don't make democracy as easy as possible to exercise for the people of our state. It's frankly unconscionable."

Florida Finally Calls it for Obama

Finally, Florida has finished counting (well mostly) and can certify that President Obama won the state on November 6. Woot-Woot!!! Those 332 Electoral Votes were hard-won and I applaud all the hard work done by Obama For America, the League of Women Voters, and many other groups in Florida. You did good!

Even Rick "Voldemort" Scott couldn't stop the Obama with voter suppression. I hope and pray that Obama really meant it when he said "we have to fix that" about the long voting lines in Florida and elsewhere. Seems to me they could tell states not to load up the ballot with written referendums during a Federal election. A 12-page ballot in November should go the way of the dinosaur.

CBS News:

After a four-day count with neck-and-neck tallies, President Obama was declared the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes Saturday, earning 50 percent to Mitt Romney's 49.1 percent, according to the Secretary of State's office.

The victory puts the president - who had clinched reelection Tuesday night even without Florida - at a final 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. It also marks his sweep of eight of the nine swing states, with North Carolina his only battleground loss.

Mr. Obama's margin of victory is over the half-percent mark that would trigger a computer recount unless Romney had waived it. A handful of overseas and military ballots, which have a Nov. 16 deadline, are believed to remain outstanding, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday's results.

Long Lines for Early Voting in Florida

Reuters: Early Voting Extended in Parts of Florida

Saturday was the last day for early voting in Florida, where polls showed Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney running neck-and-neck.
But Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles reopened the polls at one site, a library in the Orlando suburb of Winter Park, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The library was evacuated and voting there was suspended for four hours on Saturday because suspicious items were found on the grounds. A bomb squad safely detonated both - a cooler containing small electronics and what investigators described as a bag of miscellaneous garbage.
. . . In Miami, the Florida Democratic Party filed suit in U.S. District Court on Sunday asking for an extension of early voting opportunities in densely populated Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, where some voters waited six and seven hours to cast ballots on Saturday.
The lawsuit said the lines in the Democratic-leaning region were longer than in other areas, deterring or preventing people from voting.
. . . Election supervisors' offices were also opened in several other densely populated counties on Sunday for in-person absentee balloting.
Republican Governor Rick Scott refused on Thursday to extend early voting statewide despite the long lines.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Story from The Grio

UPDATE 2:50 p.m.: The Miami-Dade Elections office is facing a backlash Sunday evening after the lone voting location was quickly overrun by would-be voters, and because the location is far from neighborhoods where Democrats are most likely to live. From the Miami Herald:

The department had opened its Doral headquarters from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. as a work-around to an early-voting crackdown law.

But by 2 p.m., around 180 voters had showed up, and department spokeswoman Christina White said the office would not be able to accommodate any more voters who showed up. Additional voters would be turned away, she said.

“We had the best of intentions to provide this service today,” she said. “We just can’t accommodate it to the degree that we would like to.”

Shortly after, however, the department locked its doors and shut down the operation without explanation. The people in line did not get to vote.

“Let us vote!” they shouted.

The department had only one ballot-printing machine, five voting booths and two staffers to assist voters Sunday.

Karen Andre, who heads the Florida office for Obama’s Organizing for America field campaign, called the situation “unacceptable,” and said the organization’s attorneys would be “monitoring the situation.”

Third Presidential Debate Auto-tune

source: gifwich
LOL! This is surely a new experience for Bob Schieffer. After a long career as a journalist at CBS he is now starring in animated gifs and youtube parodies.

GOP Halts Voter Sign-Up in 5 States

Because of a shady consulting firm now under investigation in Florida, Republicans have stopped registering voters in five swing states. This is almost too good to be true - Rachel Maddow called it "the reverse of an October surprise" because it is such a gift to the Democrats.



Rachel Maddow made the point that usually each party would remain in a state until the deadlines, which you can see from the graphic below are a week away in some cases. So this is premature, uh, pull out . . . ahem . . . for the Repubs.





NBC News: RNC Cuts Ties with Firm Over Voter Fraud

Out of 304 Republican voter registration forms recently dropped off by a Strategic Allied employee at a small "satellite office" of the Palm Beach elections office, 106 were flagged as potentially fraudulent-- including "a lot" with "similar looking" signatures and others with apparently phony addresses, Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach elections supervisor, said in an interview.

Among the suspect home addresses were those that matched a gas station in Miami, a medical building in Boca Raton and a Land Rover automotive dealership in Palm Beach County, she told NBC News. Bucher said she called in the political director for the Palm Beach Republican Party and the GOP official agreed that the registration forms were a problem. She then took the forms to the Palm Beach County State's Attorney's office on Monday and requested the investigation.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Mike Grissom, executive director of the Florida Republican Party, said: "When we learned today about the instances of potential voter registration fraud that occurred in Palm Beach County, we immediately informed the Republican National Committee that we were terminating the contract with the voter registration vendor we hired at their request because there is no place for voter registration fraud in Florida."

From the first video below, the discussion between Chuck Todd and Michael Isikoff:  

Chuck Todd: Mike, you can't help but sit there, Republican Party has been pushing this line, Acorn, all of this, and the only evidence this year comes from their side.  

Michael Isikoff: Exactly. I should say I spoke last night to Nathan Sproul, he says he is the victim. He says he has strict quality control measures. . . . He is furious at the Florida Republican Party for suggesting his firm was involved in voter fraud. You could see lawsuits here which would make it even messier.

Happy Place Diversion: Obama Shenanigans in Florida

source: gifsfln
The Obama shenanigans have nothing to do with voter suppression, thank goodness! He was just seen having some fun with ordinary citizens this weekend.

This guy in Florida apparently got permission from the Secret Service before he gave President Obama a bear hug inside a family pizza restaurant on Sunday.

The hug has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.

Can you imagine Mitt Romney getting a hug from anyone? Not so much.


A Bear Hug for Obama by reuters

This follows another incident in which Obama asked a small Hawaiian boy "Do You Have a Birth Certificate?



source: gifsfln
Story via Marketwatch

. . . he stopped at Gator Dockside, a sports bar in Orlando.
At one table, he met Andre Wupperman, who turns 7 next week, and was informed that he was born in Hawaii.
“You were born in Hawaii?” the president asked. “You have a birth certificate?” The table burst out laughing.

No Bounce for Romney, Even in Florida

Republican Faceplant ~ No bounce for the Republicans after their convention. And no new favorable statistics for Romney. This isn't surprising since the only thing anyone will remember about last week are the lies of Paul Ryan and the insanity of Clint Eastwood. Epic fail.

Complete PPP Polling Results PDF Here

Public Policy Polling

Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney 48-47, exactly as he did on our last poll of the state five weeks ago.

The Republican convention being held in Tampa appears to have been a wash. 33% of voters say it made them more likely to vote for Republicans, 33% said it made them less likely to vote for Republicans, and 34% said it didn't make a difference to them either way.

Romney did see a slight bump in his favorability numbers. 49% of voters have a positive opinion of him to 47% with a negative one. That +2 spread is up a net 5 points from late July when his breakdown was 46/49.

*snip*

. . . -One reason Romney may not get much, if any, of a convention bounce is simply that people don't think he's a very good speaker. 58% in Florida say Obama is a better public speaker to 32% for Romney.

-49% of Florida voters think Romney should release 12 years of his tax returns to 41% who think he should not.

-Florida voters oppose the Ryan Plan 44/37 but given the lack of change in the race since Ryan's selection as Romney's running mate and the strong advantage the Republican ticket has with seniors that may not be having too much of an impact.

The Republican Convention Condensed

pic via eatbloganddie
My collections of Twitter and Videos from each night on Snark Amendment:

RNC Night Three: Mitt's Big Moment
RNC Night Three: Introducing Mitt
Clint Eastwood Talks to Empty Chair in Tampa
RNC Night Two: Paul Ryan Center Stage
RNC Opening Night: One Hand Clapping for Lame Speeches


And in case you just can't stomach all that (who can blame you?):

Talking Points Memo ~ The Republican Convention in 100 Seconds (per day)






And finally this great Recap by ABC News from Night Three:

Romney Dredges Up "Drill Baby Drill"

Good old Mitt Romney ~ as a hurricane moves into the Gulf threatening everything including the precarious Oil Industry, he brings up the idea of drilling offshore and in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge as a good thing.

Yeah, how did that work out for McCain/Palin?  And I know Mitt doesn't care to remember, but the Gulf suffered through the horrible Deepwater Horizon Spill since the last election. Good luck, Mitt. Even your toady, Bobby Jindal, might not back you on this one.

Via San Francisco Chronicle

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) — Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney promised on Thursday to aggressively expand off-shore oil drilling along Virginia, North Carolina and the Gulf of Mexico, changing the subject from social issues like abortion and Medicare that have dominated the debate in the days before the critical Republican National Convention.

Speaking to voters in the heart of New Mexico's oil and gas industry, Romney declared that his energy plans — which include drilling for oil in a federal Alaskan wildlife reserve — would create 3 million jobs and more than $1 trillion in new revenue. And he predicted complete "North American energy independence by 2020, a never-realized goal claimed by presidential candidates for decades."

"That means we produce all the energy we use in North America," Romney said, emphasizing an expansion of oil and gas over wind and solar production. "This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing. This is a real achievable objective."

 

Hurricane Isaac Threatens Republican Convention

Tropical Storm Isaac is swirling in the Atlantic to the east of Cuba, but eventually it will move towards Florida by the weekend. Will it go up the east side or the west side? If it moves over central or western Florida it will have a major impact the Republican Convention in Tampa, which starts Monday. If evacuation orders are in play, the Convention may be postponed or cancelled.

I guess people need to pack fancy raincoats, because Mitt won't accept just any rain gear. While attending a Nascar race last spring, Mitt mocked people wearing plastic ponchos saying "I like those fancy raincoats you bought. Really sprung for the big bucks.”

Keep up with Isaac Via NOAA:

Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook (click storm for latest path)
Tropical Atlantic Vapor Loop


ABC News Story

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said today that cancelling the convention is absolutely an option.
"Absolutely we are prepared to call it off," Buckhorn told CNN's Early Start. "Human safety and human life trumps politics. I think the RNC recognizes that. The organizers, certainly Gov. Romney, recognizes that."

"Whatever we do will be based on getting people out of harm's way," Buckhorn continued. "Politics will take second place and all of us recognize that."

As of this morning, the worst possible scenario is that Hurricane Isaac stays on the western track, skating over the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti, crossing the primarily flat landscape of western Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico then curving east and hitting Tampa dead-on.

"Tampa is just as vulnerable as New Orleans was in the sense that the water will funnel into the bay area and from the storm surge which will flood completely the whole entire city of Tampa," Golembo said referring to Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Ryan's Plan ~ Screw Everyone Under 55

Since I just turned 52 a few weeks ago and my husband is 49, Paul Ryan makes my blood run cold. He wants to keep Medicare for his Mom's generation, but destroy it for the late baby boomers who were born after 1959. How conveeenient!

Here it is from his own Twitter account:

Medicare should not be used as a piggy bank for Obamacare. Medicare should be the promise that is kept to current seniors. Period.
— Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) August 18, 2012

Get that? Current Seniors, not Future Seniors. Appeal to the safety of those currently receiving Medicare, since they are more likely to vote Republican, but throw the rest of uf under the bus.

This way our children will always be poor because they have to take care of us, our grandchildren won't thrive because all family money will go to hospitals and big pharma and nursing homes, and the only people who have a chance in the future are those like himself and Mitt with inherited wealth and no need for Medicare. The rich get richer and more powerful on tax cuts, and the middle class ceases to exist.

Ryan couldn't have been more honest and yet more repugnant today, using his mother as a prop for the sympathy vote, promising to save Medicare for his Mama and her friends - wealthy people who don't need help - but cutting the rest of us off with only "vouchers" that we can't afford on Social Security. Oh yeah - he wants to cut that, too.


Candidate Paul Ryan's Florida Speech, via MSNBC

Like a lot of Americans, when I think about Medicare it's not just a program, it's not just a bunch of numbers, it's what my mom relies on, it's what my grandma had. Medicare was there for our family, for my grandma, when we needed it then; and Medicare is there for my mom while she needs it now, and we have to keep that guarantee.

Our solution to preserve, protect, and save Medicare does not affect your benefits. Let me repeat that. Our plan does not affect the benefits for people who are in or near retirement.

. . . bureaucrats will not mess with my mom’s healthcare or your mom’s healthcare.

It’s a promise that was made and it’s a promise that must be kept. To save it for this generation, you have to reform it for my generation so it doesn’t go bankrupt when we retire.

Save Medicare for this generation - not the next generation. You got that, folks??? He truly couldn't give a flying flip about the rest of us.

From the Tampa Bay Times

Behind him hung a big sign: "Protect & Strengthen MEDICARE."

Above him circled a single-engine plane with a banner: "Paul Ryan keep your hands off our Medicare."

The Villages is a massive retirement community about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, and one of the biggest Republican strongholds in Florida.

A fire marshal estimated 10,000 people attended the event, though the crowd appeared smaller. Four years ago, newly minted vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin came to The Villages after the Republican National Convention, drawing a crowd estimated at 25,000 to 60,000.

The seniors holding anti-Obamacare signs and sipping breakfast-hour cocktails Saturday morning in the village square consistently said they applauded Ryan's talk about entitlement reform, and noted that it did not affect anyone 55 or over.

Wow - that's just great. Turn the seniors against the next generation, their younger brothers and sisters and cousins, Obama's generation. Put us in poverty forever.

But we will not thank you.

After today, there is no doubt that Ryan really is a follower of Ayn Rand making an appeal to selfishness. It makes him happy to have Medicare take care of his Grandma and his Mom, but screw everyone else. The 99% are just parasites who deserve to die off anyway.

"Let Them Eat Cat Food"

It's a Darwinian approach that even Sarah Palin would say is right up there with "Death Panels."

Of course, an optimist would say that such speeches may be the death knell of the Romney/Ryan ticket, too, because he isn't mincing words about what he wants to do. He's not as good a liar as Mitt, and that may be his downfall. Hope springs eternal that people hear this stuff and begin to have doubts.

Will the seniors buy what he is selling? Seniors are usually more conservative nationally and locally. They are famous for voting against raising taxes for schools because their own kids are grown and their grandchildren go to private schools. Not one dime for anyone else, they will say, especially for anyone of color.

Sadly, yes, it might work. But we can still fight back while we can.

This guy is the coldest fish to come along in a while. Anyone who is still on the fence after that speech just isn't paying attention.

Romney Cancels Orlando Campaign Stop

Via therehastobeaway on Daily Kos

Story from The Orlando Sentinal

Although Mitt Romney was supposed to visit Orlando on Monday, the campaign announced late Sunday that the presumed Republican presidential nominee was too exhausted to make the trip.

The news came after Romney spent what one campaign official said was an exhausting 48 hours of championing his new vice presidential pick.

But wait . . . Etch-That-Sketch!!! His surrogates want us to know he is "not exhausted," even though the newspaper used that word several times, presumably because a source also used that word. LOL


From ABC News

A top adviser to Mitt Romney is pushing back on an Orlando Sentinel report that the presumptive Republican nominee canceled an event there today because of "exhaustion."
Romney had been set to hold an economic roundtable there as part of his day-long bus tour through the state. But the Romney campaign canceled that event last night, choosing instead to stick with rallies here and in Miami later today.

The paper cited an unnamed campaign official saying Romney was exhausted after 48 hours of intense campaigning with his new running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. But Romney adviser Kevin Madden called that report "not accurate."
"The governor has a packed day, schedule wise," Madden told Yahoo News.

Zimmerman Sees God's Plan in Murder of Trayvon Martin

George Zimmerman told Sean Hannity that he thinks the shooting of Trayvon Martin is part of God's Plan, so he wouldn't go back and do anything differently. Zimmerman was was released on $1 million bond earlier in July.

Via Transcript from Fox News

HANNITY: Is there anything you regret? Do you regret getting out of the car to follow Trayvon that night?

ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.

HANNITY: Do you regret that you had a gun that night?

ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.

HANNITY: Do you feel you wouldn't be here for this interview if you didn't have that gun?

ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.

HANNITY: You feel you would not be here?

ZIMMERMAN: I feel it was all God's plan and for me to second guess it or judge it --

Barabara Walters was offered the interview, and even flew to Florida to speak to Zimmerman, but at the last minute he changed the terms:
Via Huffington Post

When Walters and her team arrived in Florida, she said that Zimmerman came in dressed in a t-shirt, rather than a suit. "That should have been my first clue," she said.
According to Walters, Zimmerman said that the plans had changed, and he was refusing to do the interview unless ABC granted him one request. Walters refused to confirm that he had requested a month-long stay in a hotel. "It was a condition that, being a member of ABC News, I was unable to grant," she said.
. . . The drama took a bizarre twist when Walters announced that Zimmerman wanted to call into the show to speak to Walters. "He wouldn't do the interview, but now he has something to say," she said, later adding, "This has been an interesting day, to say the least."
She then pointedly refused to put him on air. "Mr. Zimmerman, if you could not do the interview yesterday, I don’t think we should do a quick one today," she said. "In the future if you feel differently, we will consider it.”

Several attorneys told the Orlando Sentinal that the interview was probably a mistake:

WOFL-Channel 35 legal analyst Diana Tennis. “Mark O’Mara looked unhappy through most of that interview, and how he did not leap out of his chair and throw himself on his client at that moment, I don’t know,” Tennis said. “Just terrible, terrible, unfortunate judgment in the moment,” she added.

WOFL legal analyst Aramis Ayala saw the interview as a gift to the prosecution. “They do have a gift with a red bow on top of it to address his credibility,” she said.

WFTV-Channel 9’s Bill Sheaffer predicted that prosecutors will be prepared to cross examine Zimmerman about statements in the interview. Sheaffer added that Zimmerman’s lack of regret may hurt the shooter the most. “One may conclude from those statements that there is no remorse on the part of Mr. Zimmerman,” Sheaffer said.

On CNN, Sunny Hostin said the interview was very unusual for someone facing second-degree murder. “There’s a lot of objective evidence that, quite frankly, contradicts a lot of the things he said to the police,” she said. ‘I never think it’s a good idea for a defendant to use a strategy giving media interviews. It’s always a bad idea.”

“In Session” correspondent Jean Casarez, also talking to CNN, said it was “amazing” that Zimmerman did the interview. “The credibility of George Zimmerman is truly the entire case,” she said.

Casarez said that Zimmerman’s version of being injured by Martin might help the defense case. She added, however, that Zimmerman’s inconsistencies will determine whether he’s believed or not.

Zimmerman Reenactment of Trayvon Martin's Killing

You can judge the videos below for yourselves, but in my opinion George freely admits that he continued to follow Trayvon Martin after he was told to stop by the dispatcher, even though he says it was to get the "address for the police." Okay, so he was, indeed, following Trayvon to see where he lived, else how would he get the address? It's all semantic and rationalized in George's mind because he is lying about his real intent, which was to "shoot a goon" or whatever. He had a gun in his pocket and was itching to use it on someone he saw as a threat.

There wouldn't have been any physical fight or tussle in the grass if Zimmerman hadn't pursued this boy, who was minding his own business. Aren't all children in this country taught by their parents and schools to fight back if someone attacks them? Come on . . .

New York Times Story:

A collection of audiotapes, a videotape and a signed statement by Mr. Zimmerman were released on Thursday by his legal team, allowing the public to hear for the first time Mr. Zimmerman’s words to the police over the course of several days of official interviews.

. . . the extended conversations between Mr. Zimmerman and the Sanford police also show that detectives, particularly the lead investigator, Chris Serino, raised questions about parts of Mr. Zimmerman’s version of events. The police expressed puzzlement over inconsistencies or hard-to-explain moments in his statements.

Why wasn’t Mr. Zimmerman’s head more profoundly injured from repeated slams to the pavement, Mr. Serino asked. Why did Mr. Martin have only one wound to his hand, he asked. Why did Mr. Zimmerman, who said he was too afraid to roll down his car window when Mr. Martin approached, then get out of the car to follow him, he asked.

And what provoked Mr. Martin’s anger?

“What if, in his mind’s eye, which I can’t get into because he has passed, he perceives you as a threat,” Mr. Serino said, drawing no answer from Mr. Zimmerman. “He perceived you as a threat; he has every right to defend himself, especially if you reach into your pocket to grab your cellphone.”

Rubio Out for Romney Veep

ABC News is reporting that Marco Rubio is probably out of the Veepstakes and isn't being vetted as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.
Although it is possible that Rubio may yet be asked to go through the vetting process, it has been nearly two months since Romney named his long-time aide Beth Myers to run his vice presidential search. The fact that Rubio has not been asked to turn over any documents by now is a strong indication that he is not on Romney’s short list of potential running mates.
Officially the Romney campaign has no comment. And Rubio has refused to make any comment when it comes to vice presidential questions.

This comes as no surprise to me, because as I blogged in detail back in May, The Donald Trump (who was travelling around with Romney on Honeymoon-in-Vegas week) said Rubio was too young and too ambivalent, and that same week ex-Att. General Roberto Gonzales told CNN that Rubio wasn't experienced or "wise" enough to run for Vice President.
But the real kiss of death was probably last Friday when Rubio was the first Republican to praise President Obama's decision to extend safe status to 800,000 illegal "Dreamers" who have been trapped in legal Limbo. This is too far left of Very Important Tea Party Birthers such as Joe Arpaio and Trump himself. Add to that this quote from Rubio's new book, American Son, in which Rubio writes:

Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn’t feed our families....If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here.

How dare he write such a *gasp* compassionate and understanding sentence! That does not compute for the Romneybot equation of Big Fence Plus Self-Deporting Grandma equals Republican Immigration Policy. That doesn't add up with Sheriff Joe Arpaio arresting a 6-year-old illegal girl after Obama's new rule went into place. And it especially doesn't add up with Donald Trump's Obama Birther Conspiracy Theory.

This is actually an opportunity for Rubio. Being an "outsider" to the Romney campaign puts him in line with other mainstream conservatives from Jeb Bush to Arnold Schwarzenegger to George Will to. Sanity is a good thing, and Rubio will probably thank his stars someday that he narrowly escaped.

Trayvon Martin UpDate: Perjury, Evidence, and Gun Law Activism

Lots of news in the Trayvon Martin case recently.
George Zimmerman is back in jail because lied about how much money he had in the bank and received an unfairly low bond. Now his wife has been charged with perjury in the case, and Judge Lester is showing no sympathy. Story from The Washington Post

Records show that in the days before the bond hearing, Shellie Zimmerman transferred $74,000 in eight smaller amounts ranging from $7,500 to $9,990, from her husband’s credit union account to hers, according to an arrest affidavit. It also shows that $47,000 was transferred from George Zimmerman’s account to his sister’s in the days before the bond hearing. . . . The affidavit also said jail call records show that George Zimmerman instructed her to “pay off all the bills,” including an American Express and Sam’s Club card.
. . . In bringing a motion to have Zimmerman’s bond revoked lead prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda complained “This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny. It was misleading and I don’t know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie.”
The judge agreed and ordered Zimmerman returned to jail where he has been since turning himself in on June 3. He didn’t perjure himself, but Lester said he knew his wife was lying.
“Does your client get to sit there like a potted plant and lead the court down the primrose path? That’s the issue,” Lester said in revoking Zimmerman’s bond. “He can’t sit back and obtain the benefit of a lower bond based upon those material falsehoods.”

This week, Judge Lester also ruled to release evidence including Trayvon's autopsy results. The only thing he is holding back are the names and addresses of witnesses.
Via The Grio

In his order, Judge Kenneth Lester ordered a significant amount of information released to the public, including:
- Zimmerman’s statements to police in the aftermath of the shooting.
- The results of a voice “stress test” conducted on Zimmerman.
- The full statement by “witness 9,” a woman who called police after the shooting and alluded to Zimmerman and his family “hating black people” and to issues of character that she said included something Zimmerman “did to her.” The woman, who sounded shaken and did not want the officer who took her statement to use her name, will not be named in the release.
- The crime scene photos from the night of February 26th when Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin to death, except for those photos showing Martin’s body.
- All emails to Sanford police related to the case, which are deemed to be public record under Florida’s liberal “sunshine laws.”

And Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, has filmed a Father's Day Message about getting "Stand Your Ground" laws repealed in other states:

Breaking Tonight ~ Dept. of Justice Sues State of Florida

Unbelievable. Today I wrote a post about Governor Scott of Florida refusing to comply with the Department of Justice request to stop purging and instead trying to sue Homeland Security for more voter records to purge.
And tonight, Think Progress is reporting that the Department of Justice is striking back with a lawsuit of their own. The letter is fascinating and lectures Governor Scott once again about the purpose of the National Voter Registration Act that protects the rights of individual voters over the rights of the states.
Letter Here on Scribd
Also from Talking Points Memo

Last Friday, June 8th, the ACLU also filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida on behalf of some voters mistakenly placed on the purge list. From the Palm Beach Post:

The ACLU, the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges asked a three-judge panel in Tampa to stop Secretary of State Ken Detzner from continuing the scrub until the Justice Department decides whether it is permissible.
. . . Murat Limage, a Haitian-American U.S. Citizen, and Pamela Gomez, who is a Dominican-American Hispanic U.S. Citizen, brought the suit along with Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to working with the Latino/Hispanic community to increase civic participation. Both Gomez and Limage are registered to vote in Hillsborough County.
Haitian-born Murat Limage, one of the plaintiffs in the case, registered to vote after becoming a naturalized citizen two years ago. Limage was one of the more than 2,000 voters who received written notice from local elections officials notifying him that he “may not be a U.S. citizen,” the lawsuit reads.

According to the lawsuit, Limage provided his U.S. passport and other citizenship documents to the Hillsborough County elections office but has not yet received confirmation that he will be allowed to vote.
“When I received the letter saying that they had information that I may not be a citizen, I was concerned that someone was taking away my citizenship,” Limage said in a press release announcing the lawsuit today. “I’m an American which means I can vote and that’s all I want to do.”

DOJ Letter to Florida 6:11:2012