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stand your ground law

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If anyone didn't think this guy was quite insufferable enough during his interview on Piers Morgan last month, you're in luck. You can be treated to almost an entire hour of his whining about how liberals are keeping the poor conservative white man down.

This was a talk he gave at Jim DeMint's wingnut Heritage Foundation a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, Breitbart protege Ben Shapiro has got a book to sell, so naturally he's being promoted by the likes of C-SPAN, which sadly leans way, way to the right with their Book TV series. They ended up treating their viewers to what was one long exercise in projection, claiming that liberals just want to silence conservatives, making ridiculous claims that conservatives are somehow shut out of the political debate in the United States, and are being oppressed by some secret liberal cabal out there who makes sure no one can hear their message.

[Insert laughter here.]

In Shapiro's world, Media Matters has a whole lot more influence than I'd give them credit for. Plus, there's some grand conspiracy to keep conservatives out of Hollywood and our educational institutions. And you can't dare call a conservative a racist ever... never, ever... and don't dare call voter suppression racist or mention anything about their policies being racist, because then you're just pandering and trying to pick on them and YOU JUST BETTER SHUT UP.

And heaven forbid someone picked on poor ALEC and forced them to run away from the "stand your ground" laws. Yes, and Al Sharpton is a big bad meanie who, along with the rest of the "liberal media," tried to frame George Zimmerman.

I don't know if anyone's got the stomach for the rest of his pity party, but you can watch the entire event here. I'll leave everyone with a quote from one of my fellow contributors here at C&L, Mugsy, who relayed his feelings on this pity party of Shapiro's by email:

As noted, classic "projection". I've been saying for years that "if a conservative accuses you of something, it's only because they either did the same thing themselves or would if they were in your shoes."

Ding, ding, ding, ding... give that man a medal. That's exactly what we had here -- in such blatant form that it's almost laughable, or it would be, if not for the fact that there are still people who consider this guy some kind of "serious" conservative thinker.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new fresh face of the Republican party -- which, oddly enough, looks just like the old face of the Republican party.

If they need any help with their "rebranding" effort, I sincerely hope they give this guy a call. I'm sure it will work out just as well for them as the recent efforts by Eric Cantor and Bobby Jindal.



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Sean Hannity really is a nasty piece of work. He spent his entire show this Wednesday evening giving Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman an extremely leading interview where he walked him through a lot of the answers and at times talked more than Zimmerman did.

This interview comes in the wake of recent questions about whether Hannity is paying for Zimmerman's defense, which of course Hannity denied.

As Think Progress reported, here's how Zimmerman responded when asked if he had any regrets: George Zimmerman Says He Wouldn’t Do Anything Differently: ‘It Was God’s Plan’ For Me To Kill Trayvon Martin:

Tonight, George Zimmerman — who is currently facing second degree murder charges for killing Trayvon Martin — participated in a highly unusual interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity.

Hannity asked Zimmerman if he regretted getting out of his car to follow Trayvon, carrying a gun, or anything at all about the night he killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman said he regretted nothing because he believed “it was all God’s plan.” He also said there isn’t anything he would do differently in retrospect. [...]

Update: At the very end of the interview, Zimmerman goes back and to the question and says “I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that would have put me in the position where I didn’t have to take his life. And I do want to tell everyone…that I’m sorry that this happened.”

As they noted, Martin's father responded to Zimmerman's statement tonight as well. Lawrence O'Donnell and his panel members Joy Reid and Jonathan Capehart weighed in on the interview on MSNBC and Reid addressed something I was wondering as well, which is why Zimmerman's attorney would subject him to the extra scrutiny this interview is going to bring him ahead of his trial. Reid explained it was made clear that his attorney Mark O'Mara was willing to have him appear on Fox to get his fundraising going again.

You can watch that interview below the fold.

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In an interview on Tuesday, one of George Zimmerman's neighbors referred to "young black males" eight times, but insisted that there was no racial profiling by his neighborhood watch.

Speaking to CNN's Soledad O'Brien, Frank Taaffe defended Zimmerman's February slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teen.

"Neighbor-hood, that's a great word," Taaffe said, chuckling. "We had eight burglaries in our neighborhood, all perpetrated by young black males in the 15 months prior to Trayvon being shot."

"How many of those cases did they arrest people?" O'Brien wondered. "How many of those cases were people actually convicted."

"One that I know of where the perpetrator was apprehended," Taaffe admitted. "The young black male went in during the daytime just two houses down from where my my place was."

"It sounds like you are saying that it made sense to you that George Zimmerman would be fearful of young black men," O'Brien observed.

"No, it would be consistent that the perpetrators were all of the young black male ID," Taaffe explained. "All of the perpetrators of the prior burglaries were young black males. ... You know, there's an old saying that if you plant corn, you get corn."

"If you plant corn, you get corn. What does that mean?" O'Brien wondered.

"It is what it is," Taaffe replied. "I would go on record stating, of the eight prior burglaries in the 15 months prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, all of the perpetrators were young black males. ... No disrespect to George Clooney, but it was a perfect storm. All the ingredients were set up. You know, the prior burglaries were committed or perpetrated by young black males, George was on his [neighborhood watch] rounds."

CNN panelist Will Cain, an analyst for Glenn Beck's The Blaze website, asked Taaffe if there had been discussions at neighborhood watch meetings to look out for suspects that fit the profile of African-American men.

"Young black men were never the topic of discussion," Taaffe insisted.

"George Zimmerman and his family have contended that George did not racially profile Trayvon Martin," Cain pressed. "But some of what you're sharing with us today sounds like you're suggesting that it might have been appropriate if he had."

"George did not surveil just one group of people," Taaffe said. "You're asking if George profiled one group of people in my mind. And George looked at the whole landscape when he surveilled our property. It just so happened that the prior eight burglaries were perpetrated by young black males."



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Ann Coulter on Sunday was anxious to defend Florida's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, arguing that it should not be a part of the debate in the killing of an unarmed African-American teen.

The conservative firebrand told an ABC News panel that no matter which side of the story you believe -- either neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman or Trayvon Martin, the black 17-year-old that he gunned down -- the "Stand Your Ground" law was irrelevant in the case.

Florida became the first state in 2005 to do away with the English Law concept of a “duty to retreat” when they passed a law that expanded self-defense zones to most public places.

ABC's Terry Moran noted on Sunday that Florida's law "short circuits" the process by preventing the justice system from coming to a conclusion about Zimmerman's guilt because he was never charged.

"Florida, unlike any other state that has a 'Stand Your Ground' law, makes it very difficult to trust out system, trust the jury, let them find the facts and do justice," Moran said.

"That is completely wrong," Coulter replied. "This had nothing to do do with the 'Stand Your Ground' law. ... because in one [version of the story], you have Zimmerman -- the white Hispanic -- tracking down the suspicious looking kids just because he's black, blowing him away. We'll the question is, did he ever have to retreat? No, he's the one doing the stalking. In the second narrative, he's on the ground being beaten up by Trayvon Martin. There's no possibility of retreating when you are on the ground."

"This does not implicate the 'Stand Your Ground' law," she added.

"The police don't have to believe one narrative or the other," Moran pointed out. "The police have to look at the fact that somebody discharged the firearm into another human being on the public thoroughfare, and what happened here."

"In neither narrative is retreating an option," Coulter continued to insist. "This is simple self defense on at least George Zimmerman's narrative."

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday said that he expected Florida to reconsider the law after Martin's killing.

"I’m confident that the people of Florida will debate and discuss whether or not this law, that ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, whether it’s being applied as it was intended to apply, and whether or not as intended it makes sense," he told CBS News.