Where Are My Keys?

Not a good day for the prosecution..

One would think the DA's Office would have their "A" team on this case.  If it is their "A" team, I feel sorry for the citizens of that jurisdiction.

What's sad (besides a teenager losing his life, obviously), is that Zimmerman will walk out of that courtroom a free man, and the folks that think this was a racially-motivated murder will have a horrible prosecution and trial to blame.  It won't be that Zimmerman beat the rap, it will be that the prosecution will have lost it due to their ham-fistedness.

It won't give the victim's family and his supporters the feeling that they had their best shot in court to get a conviction, and so the meme will be that Zimmerman "walked" because of a bad lawyer, not a bad case.

The reality is that it is looking more and more that the prosecution has both: a bad case and a bad legal team.

Coming soon to the USA?

Hey Young Voters, remember when the Generation 44 President told the Russian Guy that after the election, he'd have more freedom to do stuff?  What if an idea like this was part of his plan?  Would you still vote for him?

GERMANY is proposing to levy extra taxes on the young to pay for the costs of the country's growing numbers of old people, under government plans for a ''demographic reserve'' levy.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have drafted proposals that, if law, would require all those over 25 to pay a proportion of their income to cushion Germany against a looming population crisis.

The German Chancellor's ruling party is seeking extra sources of revenue to pay for soaring pensions and bills for social care costs as Germany's ''baby boomer'' generation ages amid a decline in the birth rate.

The proposals, to be adopted by Dr Merkel's party cabinet after the Easter break, have not yet set a figure on the age tax but officials are considering a special levy of about 1 per cent of income.

Because of a slump in Germany's population, as more ageing Germans retire there are fewer young workers to replace them as taxpayers to fund generous welfare and pension arrangements.

How many predictions has the President gotten correct?

Today he declared that Obamacare will stand.  How has he done with his crystal ball since being in office?

Let's see, he predicted Obamacare would lower costs, in reality they've already doubled.  He picked North Carolina to win the NCAA Championship tonight (Carolina isn't playing in the title game).  He told us to pass The Obama Stimulus, and unemployment wouldn't go above 8%.  He predicted Q4 11 growth would be almost 6% (he didn't quite hit 3%).  He lobbied for the Olympics, instead they went elsewhere.

Obama saying something will happen is the kiss of death.  Needless to say, I'm liking that he thinks Obamacare is good law.

A record no President wants to hold..

Winter gas prices are at their highest point.  Ever.

So when President Romney has to launch an attack in two years, will the Left have amnesia again?

We all know how The Left forgot about Saddam's threats to use WMD before Bush came into office, will they forget about the Obama Administration warning us about Syria (and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc), too?

My money is on "yes".

Think waaaaaay back to January 7th..

There was debate moderated by George Steponallofus, which featured a decent amount of time being focused on contraception.  Remember how it caught everyone by surprise?

 

Was this a "trial balloon" furnished from the Obama Administration?  It does raise an interesting question.  Is it possible that Boy George just happened to pull a non-issue out of his back pocket, which became an issue a month later, or was it just a coincidence?

I'd usually say "coincidence", but with the news of JournoList 2.0 coming out over the weekend, it does make one wonder.

It's too bad our "journalists" have lost their way over the years.  Any Republican running for anyoffice should be prepared to get suckered in by the MSM at some point in their quest for public office.

This time next year..

We'll be swearing in a new President.  Barack Obama will get a much classier sendoff from the
Republican crowd, then the Obama supporters gave to George Bush.

 

The grounds will look better as well.

 

Get ready for early 2013..

One of my favorite wonkish blogs is Political Calculations.  Over there, they make a compelling argument on why the early months of 2013 will not be good.  Prepare!

Who knew?

What a disgusting method to push your agenda:

Follow the link and read the e-mails from a participating gun dealer to the ATF asking for a letter affirming that he was only selling these weapons at the agency’s behest. He was worried that the sales were shady and wanted legal cover in case the bureau later turned around and decided that the dealers were “irresponsible” or whatever in making the sales — which was awfully prescient given the ATF’s subsequent political opportunism. But then, none of this is surprising: Congressional Democrats and even Eric Holder himself have already used F&F as a pretext to call for more gun control. I thought the sleaziest bit of White House scandal spin we’d see this year was the Energy Department asking Solyndra to hold off on layoffs until after election day in 2010. Nope: Per the new F&F e-mails, they’re actually using their own scandals now as a pretext for greater regulation. Says Dan McLaughlin, “Obama Administration once again lives down to every paranoid caricature of itself.”

Why is Eric Holder still employed?

More here:

But a fundamental question has never been answered: why in the world did the Obama administration not just allow AK-47s and other weapons to be shipped across the border to Mexican drug gangs, but encourage and even finance such transactions, over the objections of jittery gun shop owners and its own veteran agents? If the Obama administration wasn’t trying to set up an argument for more gun control, then what was it trying to do? That question has never been answered.

 

The elephant in the room..

Instapundit has a post up on the impact of taxes on your 401(k) plan. This comment from one of his readers gave me pause:

UPDATE: Reader John MacDonald writes: “When they reach 70, they have to make withdrawals but since the banks are only paying 1.5% , their retirement principal becomes depleted at a faster rate. Financial planners used to factor in returns of 7-8% when figuring how long their clients’ money would last. That’s been thrown out the window….that’s a story the media haven’t written about. Middle class seniors thought they would be OK, but aren’t so sure today… they haven’t made money on stocks they held since 2000. …to add insult to injury, banks have been paying an anaemic 1% on CD’s….If they saved $500,000 for example over 40 years, it would throw off $30000 @ 6% but @1% it’s a puny $5000…Lots of belt tightening ….and no hope on the horizon.”

Made me think of the CD the fetching Mrs. P and I opened for the little Duper 12 months ago.  We selected a CD for her that was earning a whopping 1.09% at our credit union.  It had a 15 month maturity (Feb '12).  We chose the shorter term, because of the fluctuation in rates at the time.

That same CD today pays .45% for 12 months.  To get close to the rate we had for 15 months, we will have to roll it over into a 3-year CD (1.24%).

In other words, it's taking almost three times as long to earn what she made in a little over a year before.

Granted, she won't be needing that money anytime soon.  But as any investor knows, the power of compounding interest is an amazing thing.  The secret, of course, is to invest money early on, at a decent rate, and compounding works its magic.

We already know that the policies of the Obama Administration are going to cost our children in the form of higher taxes and fewer services in the future.  But today, our kids are having their pockets lightened  with minuscule interest rates on their savings.