Maddow documents that way back when Republicans were battling the evil “Hillarycare” instead of the evil “Obamacare,” Republicans pushed an individual mandate to purchase health insurance as a solution for soaring health care costs. And this includes some of the same Republicans who today declare that the individual mandate is the end of liberty as we know it. If you are short of time you can skip to the 5 minute mark, right before the juicy bits start.
Update: Several news stories say that the justice’s questioning today suggests the conservatives on the Court are going to end the mandate. Steve Kornacki says ain’t necessarily so. Ezra Klein is less optimistic.
The Sanford police are leaking every smear of Trayvon Martin they can think of to justify the miscarriage of justice they are perpetrating. Trayvon is being portrayed as a juvenile delinquent who had been suspended from school for possession of an empty baggie that may have contained marijuana! So, obviously, shooting him was justified somehow.
Now the police are claiming that 140-pound Trayvon Martin had “decked” the 200-plus-pound Zimmerman with one punch and was pounding his head into the pavement when Zimmerman shot him. Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and head injuries! Although oddly, he didn’t need immediate medical attention. He went to a doctor the next day, police say.
But you know what doesn’t seem to exist?
Photographs or medical reports of Zimmerman’s injuries
Photographs of the crime scene, including the state of Zimmernan’s clothes.
Zimmerman’s clothes, showing grass stains and other evidence that he was pushed to the ground.
Seriously, Sanford police? You expect us to just believe you that this happened, when the injured party can’t refute it, because he is dead?
Un-bee-lee-va-bull.
Even if actual evidence comes to light that Trayvon Martin had “decked” Zimmerman, as Charles Blow says in the video above, “If you start a fight and are losing it, you don’t get to claim self-defense.”