Witch in the Old Mill Creek

Today is your last chance to send in comments to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on the project to widen the Mill Creek. You can still email your comments. Be sure to add "Mill Creek" to the subject line. Or you can call: (502) 315-6769.

Pete and Repeat Were in a Boat...

In reference to my post from yesterday and a comment from said post we get a history lesson via Kevin Drum.

Kids Today Are Uneducated

Kids today are either really uneducated on the workings of a Democracy or they are misled by equally uneducated parents.

Come on, have the government approve newspaper stories? Are these kids on crack or have they spent to much time in Pastor Bob's destroy the liberals bible study class?

Xer's or Just an Unknown?

Via Rob Bernard we get an article from the Dayton Daily News announcing changes to the paper, mostly the renaming of several weekly sections with the inclusion of "X" to the title. I don't know if this is some type of a marketing ploy to gain the attention of us slacker Gen Xers or if this is meant to trick teenage fans of the Xtreme Games into thinking their business reports are featuring Tony Hawk. Either way I don't think it will do much for circulation.

Chick Rock Fest

I don't know much about this event, but when you combine chicks, rock music, and the Southgate House it must be good. Look for it on April 8th and 9th.

More at their website www.chicksrockfest.com.

Everyone Hearts Berding

Jeff Berding has officially announced his candidacy for Cincinnati City Council. At his announcement once could not find a more motley crew of local politicians. Get this list as compiled by Greg Korte: Mark Mallory, David, Pepper, Charlie Luken, David Mann, Arn Bortz, Tom Brinkman, Pat DeWine, and Pete Witte. Are the last three actually going to vote for Berding? If yes, then I will applaud all three for being non-partisan, but does that make Jeff Berding another Dusty Rhodes, who is as much of a Democrat as Bob Taft.

I don't know much about Berding. I would surmise that as part of the Bengals organization he would likely be very pro-business. The article reports he already has raised $40,000. That kind of bread at this point in time puts him in line as the front runner to fill Pepper's open seat. The fact that he is only one of two declared challengers for council might have something to do with that as well.

Will Berding keep a Rucker or Harris from running? That I hope only depends on Reece's and/or Smitherman's choices to run for mayor, freeing up their seats as well.

Private Parts

When people push the privatization of Social Security they are failing to provide the details. Now, most people don't care about the details, even though the say they want to know them. When they start to hear about COLA's, administrative policy, and PIA's their eyes start to roll back into their head.

Even with that in mind I have a laundry list of unanswered questions, problems, and issues that would have to be answered, solved, and addressed before any private accounts were established.

1. Who is eligible for a private account? What will be the cut off age?
2. What percent of individual's contributions will be eligible for contribution?
3. Will the tax status of the private account be on a Pre-Tax or After-Tax basis?
4. If it will be Pre-Tax, that creates a tax cut, how will the massive loss in revenues be made up?
5. If it will be After-Tax, will that point be made known when this is made to look like a 401K Plan?
   
6. Who will administer these accounts? Employers? The government? Are Individuals forced to go to a Financial Institution on their own?
7. Who pays the administration fees?
8. Are administration fees included in Bush's Plan?
9. What investments can be included? Private Funds? Stocks, bonds, options, futures, commodities? Anything? Who Decides what a person can invest in?
   
10. Who manages those investments? Are they owned directly or in a mutual type fund?
11. Who pays the brokerage fees? Are they straight fees or discounted?
    
12. If these are collectively owned in mutual type fund, who does the accounting?
13. If the private accounts are use, who then who votes the proxies?
14. Will lump sum distributions now be allowed?
15. Will beneficiary benefits continued to be offered.
16. How will beneficiary, minor dependent, disability, and death benefits be funded?
17. Does Bush's plan cap the level of earnings on private accounts to pay for existing and future "traditional" benefits?
18. Is Bush using the "Cash Balance" type of retirement plan as his basis for this? Those type of Plans have not yet received favorable determination letters from the IRS.
    

I could on and on with questions that are not being asked by the media and not by politicians. This issues should be debated in public, and not just on CSPAN. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, PBS, talk radio, and we in the blogosphere should be discussing the details and understand it BEFORE a lobbyist writes the bill and passes it around an hour before the final vote.