'We did our duty and have no regrets': Juror who cleared George Zimmerman breaks her silence...

Source: Daily Mail

A juror in the George Zimmerman trial has broken her silence to reveal she has no regrets about acquitting the neighborhood watch volunteer of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin.

The 62 year old said: 'I have no regrets. We were all just doing our duty'.

Speaking for the first time since Zimmerman was cleared of second degree murder last July the juror added that she and the other five women on the panel had moved on with their lives.

'We have all moved on. I don't talk about it, and as far as I know the others do not talk about it. Whatever I say now could just stir things up and be read the wrong way. I do not want that.





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2599437/EXCLUSIVE-We-did-duty-no-regrets-Everyone-moved-Juror-cleared-George-Zimmerman-breaks-silence-reveals-women-jury-secret-meeting-Christmas.html

Snowden: NSA spied on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

"He told council members: "The NSA has specifically targeted either leaders or staff members in a number of civil and non-governmental organisations … including domestically within the borders of the United States." Snowden did not reveal which groups the NSA had bugged.The assembly asked Snowden if the US spied on the "highly sensitive and confidential communications" of major rights bodies such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, as well as on similar smaller regional and national groups. He replied: "The answer is, without question, yes. Absolutely."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/08/edwards-snowden-us-government-spied-human-rights-workers

Jonathan Chait's article on racial issues angers Joan Walsh

Jonathan Chait wrote an article on racial issues in the New York Magazine. It is very lengthy, so here is an excerpt:

"This bitter, irreconcilable enmity is not the racial harmony the optimists imagined the cultural breakthrough of an ­African- American president would usher in. On the other hand, it’s not exactly the sort of racial strife the pessimists, hardened by racial animosity, envisioned either, the splitting of white and black America into worlds of mutual incomprehension—as in the cases of the O.?J. Simpson trial, the L.A. riots, or Bernhard Goetz.

The Simpson episode actually provides a useful comparison. The racial divide was what made the episode so depressing: Blacks saw one thing, whites something completely different. Indeed, when Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder charges, whites across parties reacted in nearly equal measure: 56 percent of white Republicans objected to the verdict, as did 52 percent of white Democrats. Two decades later, the trial of George Zimmerman produced a very different reaction. This case also hinged on race—Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen from his neighborhood in Florida, and was acquitted of all charges. But here the gap in disapproval over the verdict between white Democrats and white Republicans was not 4 points but 43. Americans had split once again into mutually uncomprehending racial camps, but this time along political lines, not by race itself."

At one point Chait mentioned Joan Walsh of Salon.com:

"Does this sound like an exaggeration? Bill O’Reilly’s aggressive (and aggressively dumb) Super Bowl interview with the president included the question “Why do you feel it’s necessary to fundamentally transform the nation that has afforded you so much opportunity?” Salon’s Joan Walsh asserted, “O’Reilly and Ailes and their viewers see this president as unqualified and ungrateful, an affirmative-action baby who won’t thank us for all we’ve done for him and his cohort. The question was, of course, deeply condescending and borderline racist.” Yes, it’s possible that O’Reilly implied that the United States afforded Obama special opportunity owing to the color of his skin. But it’s at least as possible, and consistent with O’Reilly’s beliefs, that he merely believes the United States offers everybody opportunity."

This sparked a sharp response from Walsh, who lashed out against Chait's "epic fail":

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/07/jonathan_chaits_epic_race_fail_how_a_story_about_racism_and_obama_goes_horribly_wrong/

Glenn Greenwald supports Democrat seeking to unseat Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Shenna Bellows is "Pro-Pot, Pro-Gay, Anti-NSA..." , according to the Daily Beast.

Greenwald just called her "that rarest of species; a viable US Senate candidate who merits admiration and support."

Right-wing organization slams U. of Georgia for giving courage award to Glenn Greenwald

Renew America, a group which among other things advocates the impeachment of President Obama, slammed the University of Georgia for granting the journalistic courage award this year to Glenn Greenwald:

" Demonstrating cowardice, not courage, Greenwald, an American citizen living in Brazil, has not returned to the U.S. since his disclosures of the stolen classified information began. The consensus of opinion is that Greenwald fears being charged personally with espionage as a Snowden accomplice if he returns to the U.S. The Espionage Act absolutely prohibits the publication of classified information in the area of communications intelligence. That would include programs of the NSA. The law does not include a loophole for self-proclaimed journalists who cooperate with spies to violate the law."

Glenn Greenwald To Receive Courage Award

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — The journalist most associated with the coverage of Edward Snowden's leak of phone and Internet surveillance by the National Security Agency will be this year's recipient of the University of Georgia's McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage.

Glenn Greenwald was a columnist for The Guardian and is now a founder of First Look Media's "The Intercept." He'll receive the award during a ceremony in the fall.

Last June, Greenwald was the first journalist to report that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecom providers.

Greenwald was nominated for the UGA award by Dorothy Parvaz, an editor at Al Jazeera English and last year's award recipient.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/glenn-greenwald-award-courage-georgia-snowden-nsa-leaks-guardian_n_5067527.html

New York Times publishes op-ed by Nicolas Maduro

A Call for Peace

CARACAS, Venezuela — THE recent protests in Venezuela have made international headlines. Much of the foreign media coverage has distorted the reality of my country and the facts surrounding the events.

Venezuelans are proud of our democracy. We have built a participatory democratic movement from the grass roots that has ensured that both power and resources are equitably distributed among our people.

According to the United Nations, Venezuela has consistently reduced inequality: It now has the lowest income inequality in the region. We have reduced poverty enormously — to 25.4 percent in 2012, on the World Bank’s data, from 49 percent in 1998; in the same period, according to government statistics, extreme poverty diminished to 6 percent from 21 percent.

We have created flagship universal health care and education programs, free to our citizens nationwide. We have achieved these feats in large part by using revenue from Venezuelan oil.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/opinion/venezuela-a-call-for-peace.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DSectionFront%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3Dopinion%26t%3Dqry504%23%2Fmaduro%2F24hours%2F&_r=2