TERRY TEACHOUT ON ten years of living online.

FROM JOAN HEMINWAY: The New Intermediary on the Block: Funding Portals under the CROWDFUND Act.

Related: CBS News: For crowdfunding, the revolution will be localized.

DAVID FRANCIS: How the Democratic Short Bench Boosts the Emerging GOP.

JACOB SULLUM: Sorry, the Zimmerman case has nothing to do with “Stand Your Ground.”

The story that George Zimmerman told about his fight with Trayvon Martin, the one that yesterday persuaded a jury to acquit him of second-degree murder and manslaughter, never had anything to do with the right to stand your ground when attacked in a public place. Knocked down and pinned to the ground by Martin, Zimmerman would not have had an opportunity to escape as Martin hit him and knocked his head against the concrete. The duty to retreat therefore was irrelevant. The initial decision not to arrest Zimmerman, former Sanford, Florida, Police Chief Bill Lee said last week (as paraphrased by CNN), “had nothing to do with Florida’s controversial ‘Stand Your Ground’ law” because “from an investigative standpoint, it was purely a matter of self-defense.” And as The New York Times explained last month, “Florida’s Stand Your Ground law…has not been invoked in this case.” The only context in which “stand your ground” was mentioned during the trial was as part of the prosecution’s attempt to undermine Zimmerman’s credibility by arguing that he lied when he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he had not heard of the law until after the shooting. During his rebuttal on Friday, prosecutor John Guy declared, “This case is not about standing your ground.”

So how did Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, respond to Zimmerman’s acquittal last night? By announcing that “we will continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state.”

Because they are, as usual, willing to try to exploit tragedy for political gain. Zimmerman’s case isn’t about black-white relations either — both Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman (who’s blacker than Homer Plessy) would be counted as African-American by any college “diversity” office in America, and Zimmerman was hispanic, too, but from the press coverage you’d think he was Bull Connor. The only thing that Zimmerman has in common with Bull Connor, though, is that Bull Connor was a Democrat too.

Meanwhile, people are raising a case that actually did involve stand your ground — the case of Marissa Alexander — as evidence of racial bias in the judicial system. But Angela Corey was the prosecutor there, and she seems to want to lock up anyone who uses a gun in self-defense. The main difference seems to be that the jury in the Alexander case believed Corey, though that may simply be because Zimmerman got better representation. Which opens up a whole different kettle of judicial fish that I doubt anyone really wants to talk about.

DID THE INTERNET BEGIN in a hut in the Philippines in 1945?

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BYRON YORK: Senate GOP Braces For Nuclear Option. They should make Harry pay in every conceivable way.

TALKLEFT ON THE ZIMMERMAN CASE:

The legacy of this case will be that the media never gets it right, and worse, that a group of lawyers, with the aid of a public relations team, who had a financial stake in the outcome of pending and anticipated civil litigation, were allowed to commandeer control of Florida’s criminal justice system, in pursuit of a divisive, personal agenda.

Their transformation of a tragic but spontaneous shooting into the crime of the century, and their relentless demonization of the person they deemed responsible, not for a tragic killing, but for “cold-blooded murder,” has called into question the political motives and ethics of the officials serving in the Executive branch of Florida’s government, ruined the career of other public officials, turned the lives of the Zimmerman family, who are as innocent as their grieving clients, into a nightmare, and along the way, set back any chance of a rational discussion of the very cause they were promoting, probably for years. . . .

The problems of racial disparity and arbitrary enforcement of our criminal laws are real, systemic and need to be addressed. Criminal defense lawyers see it and fight to correct it every day. From charging decisions to plea offers to sentences, the system is not fair and everybody knows it.

But this case has never been representative of those problems.

Forced to fit the narrative, which was all about keeping black voters — and white-guilt liberal voters — in the fold for 2012 and 2014.

WELL, OKAY THEN: Obama: The immigration law is all good, trust me. Just like the Affordable Care Act you’re suspending because it’s a train wreck. And FATCA, which the IRS is suspending because it’s a train wreck. . . .

MARK STEYN: A Dagger At The Heart of Justice.

The defining characteristic of English law is its distribution of power between prosecutor, judge, and jury. This delicate balance has been utterly corrupted in the United States to the point where today at the federal level there is a conviction rate of over 90 percent — which would impress Mubarak and the House of Saud, if not quite, yet, Kim Jong Un. . . .

Multiple charges tend, through sheer weight of numbers, to favor a result in which the jury convict on some and acquit on others and then tell themselves that they’ve reached a “moderate” “compromise” as befits the reasonable persons they assuredly are. It is, of course, not reasonable. Indeed, the notion of a “compromise” between conviction and acquittal is a dagger at the heart of justice. It’s the repugnant “plea bargain” in reverse, but this time to bargain with the jury: Okay, we threw the book at him and it went nowhere, so why don’t we all agree to settle?

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Foreign Policy: U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans. “For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government’s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts.” Shockingly, this is not about CNN or MSNBC.

AWFUL STATISTICS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: “Um, ma’am….if it is the 39th richest state, that means it’s the 12th poorest state. That means there are 11 states that are poorer. And if it is the 12th for percentage of children living in poverty….then again there are 11 states that are poorer. It’s exactly the same proportion, not out of line at all. What’s with this ‘And yet…’ thing you got going?”

WILL PEOPLE USE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO INSERT STRONG PRIVACY/ACCOUNTABILITY RULES? Senate begins to move on cybersecurity. “The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee unveiled draft cybersecurity legislation last Thursday and vowed to hold a vote on the bill by the end of the month. The bill has bipartisan support, but its focus is far narrower than last year’s comprehensive Cybersecurity Act, which was authored by former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). That measure failed twice to secure the 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster. Lawmakers in both chambers and parties agree that Congress must act to protect businesses and vital computer networks from hackers, but they have deadlocked on the question of whether to impose new regulations.”

SALENA ZITO: Fault Lines In The Democratic Party.

SURE, THAT MAKES SENSE: Reid: Low approval of Congress justifies triggering nuclear option in Senate.

MICKEY KAUS: The Non-Citizenship Trap.

Plus: What Coretta Scott King said.

JOHN FUND: Injudicious Criminal Justice in Florida: The prosecutorial misconduct in Zimmerman’s trial reveals a judicial system run amok. “Kruidbos feared he would put his job in jeopardy if he came forward with this information, but he also was concerned about a possible miscarriage of justice, so he directed his attorneys to alert Zimmerman’s defense team about the withheld evidence. He turned over the photos in late May, and the state placed Kruidbos on administrative leave until this past Friday, the day the Zimmerman case went to the jury. That morning, according to the Florida Times-Union, he received a hand-delivered letter from Corey informing him that he was fired and that he ‘can never again be trusted to step foot in this office.’ The treatment he received for telling the defense about government misconduct will discourage others from becoming whistleblowers.”

This crowd doesn’t like whistleblowers. There’s too much going on that’s whistleable.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Fraud fear raised in California’s health exchange.

As California prepares to launch its health care exchange, consumer groups are worried the uninsured could fall victim to fraud, identity theft or other crimes at the hands of some of the very people who are supposed to help them enroll.

The exchange, known as Covered California, recently adopted rules for a network of more than 21,000 enrollment counselors who will provide consumers with in-person assistance as part of the federal Affordable Care Act. In some cases, they will have access to personal and financial information, from ID cards to medical histories.

But the state insurance commissioner and anti-fraud groups say the exchange is falling short in ensuring that the people hired as counselors are adequately screened and monitored.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones also said the exchange does not have a plan for investigating any complaints that might arise once the counselors start work. That means consumers who might fall prey to bogus health care products, identity theft and other abuses will have a hard time seeking justice if unscrupulous counselors get hold of their Social Security number, bank accounts, health records or other private information, he said.

“We can have a real disaster on our hands,” Jones, a Democrat, said in an interview.

Oh, we already do.

WELL, GOOD: Zimmerman lawyer to move ‘asap’ against NBC News. “Last night’s not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial will enable the neighborhood-watch volunteer to resume his case against NBC News for the mis-editing of his widely distributed call to police. Back in December, Zimmerman sued NBC Universal Media for defamation over the botched editing, which depicted him as a hardened racial profiler.”

I don’t think it was “botched” editing, anymore than Fast & Furious was a “botched” gun-tracking operation.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Brookings Institution Shreds Elizabeth Warren’s Student Loan Reform Plan As A ‘Cheap Political Gimmick.’ Couldn’t have said it better myself.

PROSECUTION OR PERSECUTION: DOJ to Investigate Zimmerman.

The decision, of course, will be one hundred percent political. But there’s a problem: FBI records: agents found no evidence that Zimmerman was racist. But remember: For Obama et al., it’s never been about Zimmerman, or about Trayvon Martin. It’s about keeping blacks — and guilty white liberals — heated up and on the plantation, instead of defecting in disgust over Obama’s scandals and broken promises. So they’ll be demonizing everyone in sight between now and 2014.

IS POLITICO GOING THE WAY OF MSNBC? Conservative news site Daily Caller passes Politico in web traffic.