NBC News and just about everyone else reported yesterday that more evidence has been released to the public in the Trayvon Martin killing. Apparently tests show that the grip of George Zimmerman's pistol, the one used in the shooting, had no traces of Martin's DNA on it. Tests on the holster were inconclusive. Brother Zimmerman maintains that he shot Martin in self defense as the teenager was banging his head against a sidewalk while trying to snatch his gun.
In addition, a security tape at the 7-11 convenience store Martin visited immediately before the shooting showed him buying Arizona Ice Tea and a bag of Skittles. Unlike Zimmerman, the clerk found young Mr. Martin so non-threatening that he maintains he doesn't even remember selling the items to him and couldn't pick him out in a photo array. In other words he was just another kid buying junk food like so many others.
Zimmerman's defense team, in an ongoing effort to put the victim on trial, have subpoenaed Martin's Miami school transcripts. They want to look specifically at his disciplinary notices, suspensions, and tardiness records. It is part of their plan to portray Martin as a gangster wanna be cum drug fiend who was on the prowl for a burglary score and no doubt, some Caucasian victim to shake down or worse.
No one has ever maintained that Trayvon Martin was a perfect kid. In fact the reason he was in Sanford, Florida that night was that his father didn't want to leave him at home alone in Miami while he visited a friend up state. I just hope Zimmerman's defense team doesn't ever want to look at my high school records. To be truthful, if a suspension or two, tardiness to class, and mediocre grades make you a dangerous thug I'll have to plead guilty. So will a lot of us.
Meanwhile Mitt Romney did a one hundred and eighty degree turn last night during a Univision Forum back in Miami. Despite video evidence to the contrary, Mr. Romney reportedly told the audience, "That this is a campaign about the 100%." He also took credit for and praised the Massachusetts health care law he enacted as governor. In front of a primarily Hispanic audience he said he wasn't in favor of mass deportations of illegals and instead favored something called "self deportation." He babbled about people making their "own choice as to whether they want to go home." Why someone who took the risk and spent the time and money to get here illegally would want to go "home" remained unexplained. Finally, he claimed that while he wanted to make sure the word "marriage" applied to one man and one woman, he said, "that certainly doesn't prevent two people of the same gender living in a loving relationship in a gay domestic partnership."
Those angry rumbles you hear are coming from the far right of his party. The liberal Mitt has resurfaced and every suspicion and fear has just been realized. As I type conservatives everywhere are wondering why they didn't vote for Rick Santorum in a primary.
Of course if we've learned anything in the last year, Mitt Romney doesn't just want it both ways, he wants it every way. He is a political chameleon who changes shades depending on his audience and the polls. At the moment he is reeling, his numbers dipping as the center responds negatively to his arch conservative pitch. Now he appears to be shifting to the center. Make no mistake about it though, when the hard right reacts like they always do to such heresy we will be back to the Mitt who has written nearly half of us off as being a bunch of loafers who refuse to take responsibility for our lives. The more he talks the more he sounds like a used car salesman who is desperately trying to get you behind the wheel of that Saturn Ion with only 175,000 miles on the odometer.
Yes, after yesterday's performance one thing is certain. Mr. Romney is slick and his hair is perfectly coiffed, but he is lying to someone. And everyone, I mean everyone, knows it, even the people who will vote for him.
So there we have it. Another day in the rock 'em sock 'em world of American justice and politics. It is better to be all things rather than just one. Everyone plays to the press. Public opinion is all important. When crunch time comes you want the masses on your side and whipped into a proper pep rally frenzy. Hold that line and block that kick. Go, go, get 'em, ugh, ugh.
Sic vita est
9-20-12
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