Who is looking after us?

Government agencies still taking thinly veiled bribes from the industries they are tasked to regulate.

Are these people naïve or unethical? The Consumer Product Safety Commission chief and her predecessor, under the Bush administration, have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children’s furniture industries and others they regulate. Is there payoff involved? Absolutely. Want proof? The U.S. has become inundated with recalls of children’s products because of high levels of lead paint, under the Bush administration.

Our children are being put at risk by unethical industries that ignore safety requirements in their pursuit to make profit. They use substandard materials and our children are getting sick because of it. Parents are getting sick of it too.

These individuals are government employees and fall under the same ethical guidelines as every other government official concerning gifts. The industries who are regulated by the CPSC is guilty of bribery and the agency is guilty of accepting bribes. There is no other way to say it.

This practice of paying for travel is commonly called “gift travel”. This practice has become embedded as part of the benefits package of heads of regulatory agencies. When we can no longer count on regulatory agencies to protect us where does that leave us?

Once again our government has proven that it does not care about the safety of our children or of us as a whole. As long as they get pampered at the expense of someone else they will always be faced with returning the ‘favor’. And they do return the favor. Want proof of that too? The CPSC flew to China and Hong Kong in 2004 at the expense of the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory based in Bethesda, Maryland. Their laboratories are in Asia. The CPSC claims there were no regulatory requests pending at the time, hinting that there was no payoff involved, but rest assured the AFSL got a tax write-off for the travel and they expect the CSPC to reciprocate by looking favorably on safety standards that will favor the AFSL.

More egregious instances involve going soft on industries who have, this past summer, flooded the market with Chinese-made toys with hazardous levels of lead. The CPSC has gone soft on industries by opting for “voluntary” standards and repeatedly not taking legal action against businesses that refuse to recall dangerous products. Are we, the consumers being protected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? NO! Are businesses being favored by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? YES!

Are we being shown that “voluntary” adherence to safety regulations is not working? YES! What is the Consumer Product Safety Commission going to do about it? NOTHING! Because they have been bought and paid for.

This government is more concerned with making revenue from taxes generated by these industries doing business in the U.S. than they are about our safety. That much has been made abundantly clear. Does this agency need to take these trips to the factories to see the process of product manufacture? No, they don’t. These products are tested here in the U.S. by the CPSC or its affiliates. The FDA tests products before they are released to the market. Why is the process different for the CPSC?

If the government is truly concerned with our safety, these products should be tested before they ever reach the American consumer.

CPSC officials defend the industry-paid trips as a way for the agency to be in contact with manufacturing officials and hear their concerns despite a limited travel budget. These manufacturing officials need to fly to the CPSC offices to voice their concerns, not give the impression of impropriety through “gift travel”.

Commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency's counsel and its ethics officers conducted "a full conflict-of-interest analysis" of the trips and stand behind their decisions. This is in the best interest of the agency to employ counsel and its ethics officers who will “stand up” for the agency. Their voracity and honesty are in question.

"The mission of the agency and the benefits to consumer safety are two factors that are taken into consideration in approving gift travel," she said. Reports of the trips are submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, she added. It is plain to see that the ‘benefits to consumer safety’ have taken a back seat in light of all of the recent recalls this country has seen.

This “gift travel” bribery scheme is in clear violation of ethics codes. Why does an ethics code even have to be in writing? Why can’t we find someone ethical enough to sit at the heads of government offices? Why does the consumer, the taxpayer, the very people who pay through the nose to support these governmental agencies have to continuously be on the loosing end of everything?

Ann Brown, who served as chairman, under the Clinton administration, from 1994 to 2001, traveled only at the expense of the agency or of media organizations that sponsored appearances where she announced product recalls. "We hated to have an industry pay for our staff for anything," said Pam Gilbert, a lawyer who was executive director of the agency under Brown. What does this say about the Republican party vs. the Democratic party? I think it is very telling. Ethics have gone to hell since Bush took office. Ethics scandals have reached unprecedented levels under the republican controlled congress. I know there is no shortage of ethics violations for democrats, after all they are all politicians.

If the agency got by under the Clinton administration without taking bribes it can do it under the Bush and future administrations. The atmosphere under Bush made it easy for the agency to throw ethics out the window and take these unnecessary trips.

Accepting gifts opens the door to more suspicion. Chances are this is just the tip of the iceberg. Chances are there are more shady dealings going on behind closed doors. Since the agency has shown it is willing to accept this sort of bribery, we, the taxpayer, can’t help but become suspicious of any action this agency takes.

It’s the people vs. The government, new poll suggests.

Really!? I hope this does not come as a surprise to anyone.

A recent poll asked the American public how they think the Democratic Congress is doing after six months? Lousy. But better than the alternative.

The democrats only took control because we were fed up with how the republicans were doing. In the future we will be fed up with how the democrats are doing and vote republicans back in. This is, once again, the lesser of two evils and the ongoing theme of every election.

It's midyear, and the Democratic Congress is taking a break. Well-deserved? No, say Republicans. No, say I. Taking a break! From what? The American public can’t take a break like these guys do! The working public can take one or two weeks of a break, it’s called a vacation, sometimes without pay, but congress takes much longer vacations than the general public is allowed to and they still get paid a hell of a lot more than we do. Does anyone besides the democrats think they deserve it? Recently, it was shown that many Americans don’t even take their vacation time.

"We are now halfway through the first year of the 110th Congress," Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said. "And there is no question that the failure on the part of the Democrats in terms of their midterm exam is really a letdown to the expectations of the American people.'' Truthfully, we don’t have expectations of congress anymore. This way we can’t be let down so hard. The old axiom applies here, If you lower your expectations you won’t be disappointed.

"I'm not happy with Congress, either," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said.

And the American people? Look at the grades. President Bush is doing terribly -- an average of 30 percent job approval in six recent polls. Congress is doing worse -- 25 percent on the average in five polls. And he has been doing terribly for a terribly long time.

"Why the low marks?’ We all know the answer to this question. The democrats point to the war in Iraq and the republicans point to the immigration bill. Let me clue you in, guys, it goes a lot deeper than these issues.

How about a vice-president who still believes there is a link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein although it has never been shown to exist.

How about George W. Bush’s long list of lies and inconsistencies in stories of his past. See Bush Jr’s Skeleton Closet.

How about George W. Bush’s controversies surrounding nepotism and cronyism (Michael D. Brown, Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination, Uncle “Bucky”, Sam Fox).

How about George W. Bush’s controversies surrounding the growth of executive power.

How about the long list of controversies surrounding preIraq war intelligence, criminal acts of Administration officials, spying, human rights, propaganda, obstruction, poor response to national crisis (Hurricane Katrina and Walter Reed Medical Center), secrecy and censorship, the dismissal of U.S. attorneys. And the list still goes on.

How about an ineffective, under-qualified U.S. Attorney General who has the job only because he is ‘buds’ with the president and refuses to quit even when everyone around him has lost confidence in him?

How about the fact that, once again, Bush pardoned one of his cronies. This time it was Scooter Libby. Everyone saw this coming.

How about the fact that this is, in my opinion, the most corrupt and contemptible administration ever. Jimmy Carter may back down from this statement, I won’t.

As if this long list wasn’t enough reason not to trust politicians, just keep in mind that this list all belongs to the latest president. Previous presidents have their own list.

Do you still wonder why voter turnout is so lousy? It’s because the American public knows their vote doesn’t count. We know it is a waste of our time to vote. The only people who do vote are those who still believe that by some miracle a person of actual ‘leadership quality’ will take office. Don’t hold your breath. Politicians are not responsive to our needs, they are only in it for themselves, much as the rest of this society is only looking out for themselves. And who can blame them? This political system has been broken for a long time now. Only the millionaires can afford to play the game. And the only reason they do is to feed their own bloated egos.

There is no feeling that we are being ‘looked out for’. There is no one with our best interest at heart. We are a society that places way too much value on ‘me first’ instead of ‘the country first’ knowing it will then trickle down to all of us.
Sure, we are a nation of givers when disasters strike. But this is the only time Americans pull together.

So Democrats blame Republicans: "The fact is that the Republicans aren't allowing us to proceed," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, and Republicans blame Democrats. And the beat goes on. And here is where the problem lies. Republicans blame democrats, democrats blame republicans so no one believes in either one. Any parent who has ever faced the task of determining which of two children created a particular problem has heard this from each child “I didn’t do, he did”. So, if the parent can’t get the truth out of them then they both get punished. Meanwhile the problem still exists and no one does anything about it.

What has happened to compromise, to giving in a little on both sides, to not being so bull-headed to get what you want that nobody gets what they want. The American people are fed up with this garbage. This is why we have such low opinion of both sides.

The National Republican Congressional Committee was quick to release a video which highlights what it calls "the Democrat majority's broken promises, abysmal record and rock-bottom approval rating." The release of this video serves only to illustrate how petty the republicans are behaving. This video does nothing to restore faith from the American people. It only further exasperates us with this typical childish behavior. Again, it is nothing more than “I didn’t do it, he did.” It reminds me of the sayings “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, and “Look who is calling the kettle black”.

But Americans are not convinced that changing parties will make much difference. The new dynamic in American politics right now isn't Democrat versus Republican. It's really us vs. ourselves. Since we are so much into everything for ourselves and we don't have any sense of national unity, we have become our own worst enemies.

"It is a sad commentary in America today that many Americans have lost faith in their government," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, said. He added, "Americans don't believe that their government is representing them, is acting on their behalf. The polls show it."