Today, June 17 is DAY #6  (beginning of 2nd week) of the scheduled State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. Continuing jury selection.  [First Week Summary HERE]

Jury selection is expected to continue with the “Frye Hearing” set to resume at 4:00pm with the defense providing their expert to discuss whether the cries for help heard on the 911 call can be identified.    Nelson is expected to rule on whether this information is presented to the jury during trial, or whether it is too conflicting to have divergent experts dispute each other.

During the Friday hearing one potential jurist slipped close review:  Prospective Juror G81

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

WASHINGTON DC – The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.”

If the NSA wants “to listen to the phone,” an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. “I was rather startled,” said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. (more…)

In response to the NSA leaks, and the bazillions of questions from concerned Americans about their privacy being snooped on by the government, the administration coordinated a Senate Classified Briefing to explain the details of the program.   The intent was to inform the elected Senators so they could answer questions from their state citizenry.

Less than half of them attended.

WASHINGTON DC – Less than half (47) of US Senators attended a classified briefing on Thursday afternoon, instead choosing to head home for the weekend.  The briefing was with “with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials.”

Wow. (more…)

(VIA New York Post) Hip-hop artist The Game has got your back … side.

Days after New Jersey resort town Wildwood passed a law banning saggy pants on its boardwalk, the rapper slammed the legislation as “racist” and promised to pick up the tab for the first five people ticketed.

In an interview with TMZ, The Game compared the law, passed Wednesday that imposes a $25 fine for first offenders and up to $200 for repeat offenders, to “slave days” and encouraged people to openly flout the law.

“N***** should sag down to their socks out there. They trying to get people to not sag, please. Can’t tell people how to wear their f***ing clothes. What time are we in? This ain’t the f***ing slave days. F*** that.”  (read more)

(more…)

(Via Gateway Pundit) NSA leaker Edward Snowden released documents to The South China Morning Post this week that detailed classified NSA data on targeted Chinese IP addresses. Bretibart reported:

NSA leaker Edward Snowden showed a Hong Kong newspaper classified documents that revealed the specific IP addresses in Hong Kong and China the National Security Agency may have hacked.

Snowden gave the information to the South China Morning Post, which reported on Saturday that though the “detailed records” cannot be independently verified, they “show specific dates and the IP addresses of computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland hacked by the National Security Agency over a four-year period” and “also include information indicating whether an attack on a computer was ongoing or had been completed.” (more…)

Here we go, we knew this was going to happen.   Both Russia and Iran (strategic economic BFF’s) are allied with the Assad regime.   The U.N. has declared they will remain neutral on the matter.   The United States has come out in support of al-Qaeda (Islamist rebels).  So the chess pieces are all in place for another proxy war.

Supporting the U.S. benefitted Islamists you have Turkey, Egypt, Libya and more recently Jordan.   Supporting the other side (Assad) you have Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

It’s Afghanistan all over again.   Giddy up 🙁

SYRIA – Iran has decided to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion, The Independent reported Sunday.

The British newspaper quoted pro-Iranian sources “which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security” as saying that Tehran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel. (more…)

My older brother whose teen years were in the last half of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s remembered bringing water from a well two miles away, in barrels, on a stone boat pulled through the dirt by a team of horses.

He described our water as precious to begin with, and then “…the more it was handled the more valued it became.  We first pumped the water out of the well, hauled it home and dumped it in a cistern, then pumped it back out and carried it into the kitchen for Mother, or in for bathing and washing, and then we carried what remained afterward to the garden or to the pigs.”

Around 1949 or 1950, there were two massive pigs in the 20 X 20 pig pen down behind the barn. They had to be slopped daily and their names were Nicodemus and Yellow Hammer. (more…)

Sometimes you’ve got to call the baby ugly.  

If things were not rapidly approaching a critical mass – this would not be needed.   Alas they are, and it is, and emotional obfuscations and insufferable detachments from reality need to be confronted:

Nettles:    In reading Robert Zimmerman’s book yesterday, I opined the characterization of Mr. O’Mara as a control freak was going to set off Diwataman and Sundance. Not sure if that is why the post today but it’s highly likely.

*yes, Correct.  THAT, and desperate plea(s) for immediate help – were the reasons for sharing the reality that is the O’Mara nightmare…./SD

Sundance is close-minded on the subject. He shut down my voice on it and many others. So with each posting those who disagree will shut-up or get banned. He’s entitled to his opinion as each of us are as well.  (link)

Pinecone (minpin) You guessed correctly Nettles. Yes, sundance has taken the O’mara said he was a control freak statement all the way in his latest trash piece. (more…)

… such is the bizarre reality of George  Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara.

Before getting into the substance of this consideration – multiple disclaimers are needed.

It is a sad reality the previous sentence even needs to be advanced, but it has become a necessary consideration.   Because discussion of Mark O’Mara is so toxic and divisive, if we don’t quantify the substance of presentation with disclaimers we’ll spend a ridiculous amount of time having to moderate, explain and explain again.

We have approached both opinion and research on Mark O’Mara using the exact same methodology applied to all other parties in this case.  People like Benjamin Crump, Natalie Jackson, Daryl Parks, Ryan Julison, Francis Oliver, et al, and even the media people like Daralene Jones, Matt Gutman, Frances Robles, Joy-Ann Reid etc.   The exact same critical research approach has been applied.

Some people cannot accept using a critical lens to look at the O’Mara aspect.  Many of those people are no longer here because of their inherent constitution not to be open-minded in the same regard.

What sets the Treehouse apart from most all others, is analysis based on research to apply the most logical explanations, Occam’s Razor, to some of the most difficult to understand aspects of any issue.   The State of Florida V Zimmerman is one of the most challenging to understand from a perspective of intent and motivation. (more…)