God Bless you and your families and Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim
***********************

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted' for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d dy of October, A.D. 1789.

CHICAGO, IL...U.S. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-IL) told reporters at a press conference today that reforming the mutual fund industry is the most pressing economic issue now confronting the 95 million Americans who have invested their household, college, and retirement savings in mutual funds and that Congress must act quickly to reform the industry.

But before enacting comprehensive reform legislation, Fitzgerald said that Congress, regulators, and the media must investigate and gather more information about several industry practices, including the following:

*Whether any mutual fund managers are paying corporate employers for exclusive access to their employees’ retirement dollars. It is presently unclear whether any money or other consideration is changing hands between mutual fund managers and corporate employers who offer their employees one and only one family of funds in their company 401(k) or other defined benefit retirement plan. However, Barron’s editorial page editor, Thomas G. Donlan, raises the question in an Editorial Commentary dated today. Donlan notes that there is little disclosure in this area and questions why some employers have locked their employees into certain fund families which are well known to have extremely high fees and expenses.

*Whether it is advisable to continue allowing fund managers to bill advertising and other sales and distribution expenses to fund shareholders. Fitzgerald said that Congress needs to hold hearings specifically on the wisdom of SEC Rule 12b-1 which permits mutual fund managers to charge fund shareholders for "any activity which is primarily intended to result in the sale of shares issued by such company, including, but not necessarily limited to, advertising, compensation of underwriters, dealers, and sales personnel, the printing and mailing of prospectuses to other than current shareholders and the printing and mailing of sales literature." The original logic behind Rule 12b-1, which dates to 1980, was that fund shareholders would benefit from an economy of scale – that they would see a decrease in management and advisory fees as the fund grew larger – and that it therefore was appropriate to allow fund managers to bill fund shareholders for advertising and distribution costs. Fitzgerald, however, noted that instead of fund management and advisory fees going down as fund assets have increased, the reverse has been true. According to Vanguard Founder John C. Bogle who testified at the Senate hearing chaired by Senator Fitzgerald, mutual fund assets grew by 60 times between 1980 and 2000, but the mutual fund fees and expenses grew by 90 times during that same period.

*Whether "revenue sharing payments" should be banned. Some mutual fund advisors make payments (over and above their 12b-1 payments) out of their own profits to the broker-dealers who sell their funds. These payments are called "revenue sharing payments." The availability of these payments (like the 12b-1 fees paid to brokers) creates a conflict between the personal financial interest of the broker and his customer. Moreover, the average customer does not know that her broker is being paid to steer her into a particular mutual fund.

*Whether soft dollar arrangements should be prohibited. Under current practices, some fund managers allow brokerage firms to charge the mutual fund higher than necessary brokerage fees (to execute trades in securities for the fund’s portfolio) in return for the brokerage firm agreeing to provide the fund managers with a variety of services, including trade execution, access to analysts and traders, and research products. It is often unclear whether these soft dollar services really benefit fund shareholders and there is no requirement that details of these arrangements be disclosed to fund shareholders. Congress needs to gather more information about the propriety of this murky industry practice in order to decide whether to continue to permit such arrangements.

*Whether stale pricing could be eliminated with better technology. The illicit trading practices that have come to light in recent months, such as "late trading" and "market timing," are possible because the prices of mutual fund shares are set only once a day. Congress must learn why modern computer technology hasn’t yet enabled real-time fair value pricing of mutual fund shares.

Fitzgerald said that it is already clear that Congress must require fund companies to disclose more information to their shareholders and must require fund directors to be more independent from fund advisors and managers. But, he added, there are more issues that Congress must examine and that it would be a mistake for Congress to prematurely end its investigation of the industry.

"Because even small differences in costs can add up to large differences in returns over time, Congress must fully investigate each cost that fund managers pass on to fund shareholders," said Fitzgerald. "We must take the curtain off all hidden fees and we must examine the propriety of every fee."

"Too many mutual fund managers have viewed their shareholders as sheep to be sheared and they’ve been shearing them in more ways than one. Congress needs to act quickly to protect mutual fund shareholders from abuse, but Congress must make sure that it has uncovered all the forms of abuse," concluded Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald asked members of the public who have knowledge of abusive practices in the mutual fund industry to call his Washington office at (202) 224-2854 and ask to speak to Mike Russell.

Wow! My imaginary GOP operative grins, rubbing his hands in anticipation. The culprits are all in one party. Of course, that's because there is only one party.

Democrat Sheriff Michael Sheahan, whose deputies often seem to get into trouble, has been told to reduce personnel, and Stroger says Sheahan has not done so. Sheahan says he offered to cut 30 jobs. Stroger says Sheahan needs to cut 10 more. Sheahan says OK, and cuts four of five bodyguards and drivers he had assigned to Stroger. Whaa? The County Board president has five bodyguards? The media are agog at this number.

All the while, two investigating committees probe the circumstances surrounding the deaths of six who died in the Cook County Administration Building fire Oct. 17. Questions arise over why no sprinkler system was installed when the building was purchased and rehabbed at a cost of $62 million. Why, when the building was operated by Democrat Mayor Richard Daley's and Stroger's close friends and contributors, was there inattention to the rules of evacuation, with some emergency phones reportedly out of order? Fire Commissioner James Joyce, appointed by Daley, says he wouldn't do things differently, implying no changes in the 90 minutes it took firefighters to reach the victims in the stairwell. Joyce has to correct himself. Daley stands by his choice. Democrat Patrick Murphy, whose Public Guardian office lost three people in the fire, blasts Joyce, saying, "If Daley wants a guy running the department who's not a leader, that's his problem, not mine."

These are indications of one-party Democrat rule that has been too long in power: since 1968 with the County Board presidency, since 1931 with the mayoralty. The mayoralty is technically non-partisan now, yet any other community would be brimming with fresh contenders, yearning to take over from the fumbling old hands -- particularly in Cook County. Normally, events would spur a grass-roots protest to change the old order. Yet, where are the Republicans who vow to change things? Aside from the valiant Carl Hansen, who fights a lonely battle against excessive spending, nowhere.

We are living in a one-party Democratic gulag with the leadership aging, crotchety and unresponsive. The most recent Republican to run a visible race for County Board president was in 1994: Joseph Morris, an outstanding candidate. He received insufficient funds to campaign because the GOP had cut its deals with the Democratic establishment. The last candidate, Rev. Christopher Bullock, an African-American minister, was starved for funds. Maureen Murphy, the GOP county chairman, is energetic, forceful and imaginative, but she is outnumbered and underfinanced. But wait--there's hope.

A plan has emerged to reinvent Cook County government. It proposes a single office of tax administration to replace five different redundant offices: recorder of deed, assessor, clerk, treasurer and auditor; merging the offices of clerk and recorder; dissolving the sheriff's police and hiring police departments from adjacent communities to patrol unincorporated areas; eliminating the archaic township form of government; merging duplicative city and county offices that conduct elections; consolidating the four mosquito abatement and suburban tuberculosis sanitarium districts into the county's department of health, and severing the County Board president from voting member of the board, where he can vote to uphold his own veto.

The reorganization plan comes from Commissioner Mike Quigley, a Democrat. But the old guard Democrats are mired in seniority, too many jobs will be lost, and Quigley's plan may well be blocked. Stroger will be succeeded by John Daley, a lumbering bureaucrat like Stroger: Thus the old order changeth not. For the GOP, reform -- mobilized by movement politics, with the spearhead of the Quigley report, with refinements -- and a candidate with independent finances, could be a ticket to victory. To the dead, odious GOP corpse, sprawled lifeless in Chicago and Cook County and voters sickened by a corrupt, dead-on-its-feet Democrat government, let a new leader say to thee: Arise!

==>Mark Twain (1866)