Yes I think Lobbyists have influenced the trade bills.

I also know that as long as you can buy something in China for a dollar that costs you 5 dollars here, people will buy from China.

There are currency issues that are not being addressed that have a large effect on such relative costs.

Another thing. As long as you can buy finished products in China for less than the cost of materials here, there is no incentive to manufacture here. This scenario means that a competitor can buy finished products cheaper than the parts for your similar product.

I buy stuff from China now for my products. If I want to sell I have no choice. If I don't buy at least some of my stuff from China, my products are too expensive for the market.

If you don't like that, its too bad, because every time I sell a product, my customers go search the internet for cheaper prices. For most of them, if they can save 12 cents off a 20,000 dollar purchase they will do it.

This is way off topic, but its a pet peeve of mine so I'm responding anyway.

For the record we are trying to move some manufacturing to Viet Nam to get it out of China. Korea and Japan are too expensive. Mexico has a reputation for quality problems, but otherwise I would rather have some things built there. We will be trying to get more of our mechanical stuff built there in the future.

Also google search "bills written by lobbyists" include the quote marks again.

You may be right, but if there is such a law I do not know about it. Perhaps the laws you refer to are in France or England or some other country. In any case I think such a law is a good idea, which is the point of the topic.

As for Fanta and missing his point, I didn't miss his point. I was just not interested in that point as it is already much discussed and beyond the scope of the discussion I was attempting to raise.

Lobbyists spend money on political campaigns and other things to promote their interests. I'm willing to live with that to some extent because sometimes corporate interests also support the greater good, and the politicians are supposed to sort out the difference.

As for whether bills are presently written by lobbyists, try a search in Google on "bill written by lobbyists" (include the quote marks) and see what you come up with. Apparently the practice is rather widespread from what I can see. My attention was brought to the matter when I heard some commentary regarding the recent bankruptcy bill being written by lobbyists for the credit card industry. Whether it is true or not, I don't know. I'm much more involved with my own business than in the business of congress.

I just think that for lobbyists to write the bill goes beyond the normal influence that is attained by their spending habits.

I'll make a point here that is counter to my argument though. In the case of a particularly complicated legislative matter a politician might find a real need to get some information from lobbyists. For example, if you were to legislate storage and handling of waste nuclear material, a congressman might not be able to differentiate between what is desirable, what is possible and what is practical, so writing the related laws could have the effect of creating a speed limit that nobody could stay within.

Hi Jess,
No I'm not saying anything about your prime minister. Actually I was thinking of Ron Paul and his ilk at the time I said it, but I don't actually think he is schizophrenic either.

I think Australia is wonderful.

The media is driven on the wind and politicians try to follow, but fortunately the law process is so complicated and cumbersome that the media is limited in its effect, unless of course they take the moral high ground on some issue in order to crush the rights of poor people. For example when the media got down on drinking and driving, bad bad bad evil hateful people who drink, hell hell and damnation, like those who want to have a beer on the way home from work in their car, it was all over but the crying. Trial lawyers sucked up cash and alcohol test device companies soaked up the rest. Moral high ground is no nice.

Anybody like that line? Ha ha. I don't drink.

Ouch, Hey we're doing the best we can here. I think politics follows the people only after about 20 years. That's how long it takes to get a season of the incumbents out of office.

In some ways that might be better than swinging wildly like a schizophrenic in a storm.

150 years, that's nothing for a stepper. I'm in for the long haul.

Hiya Shawnee, When I said Africa might be half Indian, I meant Asian Indian actually. There a billion or so of those folks around and they are looking for places to expand. Same with the Chinese, who are already populating Africa more and more. But if you guys want to take a bite out of the Big Africa, go for it. Personally by then I'll be limiting my activities to pinching whichever women are in range.

Mine is aluminum foil thank you.

Hurray Aluminum!!

We will get over the fossil fuels crunch in the next 15 years. Whether we can find peace with our neighbors is another thing.

My feeling is that we will be around. The world will be different. Most countries will speak English, because it is a good language and very popular now, not so much because we speak English.

Africa will be half Chinese and half Indian and half African. Ha ha, how ya like my math?

South America will be doing better but they will always be strange and have that Carnival thing in Rio. Hopefully Argentina will not have scrapped its currency more than a few times in the interim.

A hundred years is not that long really. I expect I'll still be alive and hitting on the chicks in a hundred years. Hopefully I won't be so senile so I will still know the difference between pinching the girls that like it and pinching any girls that comes close enough. I don't pinch chicks currently but after I get to be 100 I reserve the right.

When my son is in my care, which seems to be about half the time, but in big blocks, months to a year at a time, I don't really have an opportunity to go out at all. When I'm at work I'm working, when I'm not my son is with me all the time. I'm not putting him on the shelf for dating. Its messed up, but we all have our priorities. For a woman to be part of my life she just has to accept my son is going to be there, except after bedtime of course. I stay up later than he does. I think I have to find a woman in the between times, when he is with his mom.

Note,,, this is a between time.

Cincy, good luck. You probably need a home-body kind of woman who can come over and share barbecues and movies, ping pong and such. I suggest you get a huge billboard in your front yard advertising for such a woman. Otherwise its back to the dating forums.

So Kentucky girl,
You are suggesting that getting rid of the CIA, the NSA and the FBI would be a step in the right direction? I think his present position on that is that it would be the best thing, but it is impossible at this point to do it,because of the history of the organizations etc.

Yes Voil, that is the thrust of the issue here as I see it.

I do not think all bills are written this way, and I expect the congressmen at least have some input, setting up the framework, whatever, but if the meat of the wording is contributed by a lobbyist, that meets the criteria I am setting up here for being objectionable.

Maybe you have some different information or ideas about the matter?

I don't attempt to buy votes, so don't bother trying to change my words. I do try to get the ideas I have to the ears of politicians. This costs money in some cases and time in some cases. If you don't like it, spend your own money and time to try to change things. I hardly think you would be addressing the same issues as I am, so it doesn't matter to me anyway. I'm interested in matters that affect my own company and its markets. If you don't like that, tough beans. I'm doing it anyway. My efforts won't hurt you though. If anything, if I prevail, it will benefit you economically. That's my opinion. But since I am not sharing my issues with you, once again, tough beans. Spend your own money.

Looking around for my cowboy hat...

Looking around for my BBQ pit..

Thinking about which is more likely to do me some good.

Going to the store for charcoal.

Well Fanta, as it happens I am better than some people. I'm certainly more rational than some to. What makes you think you can tell me what to do with my money anyway? Have you noticed that there are groups that opposing issues that others support? When the bigger powerful interests like move-on.org has influence in Washington and you think I should not? I am never going to listen to what you think I should do with my money, so give it up.

The Marlboro Man died of Cancer. This might not be too good of an example.

How about if Hillary owned stock in a health care conglomerate that would benefit from nationalized health care? That one would annoy a few people.

I don't care if someone is fired for being gay, they can find a job somewhere else. All of society is not so prejudiced. If someone does not want to have anyone working for him for any reason I think they should be able to fire them. What if you hired someone and they came to work dressed like a hooker every day no matter what you said? What if you hired a guy and he wore kneepads and hung around in the men's bathroom all the time or wore a skirt and hung around in the girls bathroom? Everyone's threshold for intolerance is different, but only the lamest wimps have no threshold where they become intolerant. This goes back to drawing the line between being a nice guy and being a doormat.

If you have a good employee and he does his work well and behaves nicely, and you fire him because he is gay, good luck with your business because good employees are hard to keep. Others will probably jump ship too if you are too intolerant.

It makes sense that he withdrew his candidacy because he was so far down that he was in the wagon wheel rut.

I don't see what it matters that he once was involved with a company that manufactured RFID devices for implant.

On another note, now I'm wondering what these cute little RFID devices cost for someone who wants one implanted. Maybe I could pot them up in some silicone and sell them to the medical industry. Anybody heard a price for one implantable in pets?

The readers are not so cheap as the RFID devices themselves. 30 feet would be a long range device, and the information stored on the devices is very limited. Usually just a few bytes.

Wouldn't it be very interesting if everyone could be outfitted with a long range RFID chip and a GPS, everyone coded to a serial number so nay person can be tracked anywhere on earth at any time.

You could be sleeping in the grass in the wilderness and if the gov't decided you were Fanta, they could come get you without notice. Oh heck. We all better behave or they'll require implanting at birth along with the circumcision process. Take one thing off and add another.

I agree with most of what you said here.

Let me bring up an ambiguous point with your post though.

First a two paragraph clip

"The FDA is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, which, at the time of VeriChip's approval, was headed by Tommy Thompson. Two weeks after the device's approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within five months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options.

Thompson, until recently a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, says he had no personal relationship with the company as the VeriChip was being evaluated, nor did he play any role in FDA's approval process of the RFID tag."

I do not recall a Tommy Thompson as a Republican Candidate.
I know of a Fred Thompson who is now a candidate.

I get the feeling that this article blurs the lines between the one person and the other. So as wide brushes go, this one paints two individuals with the same slur. Particularly at the bottom of the article, where it is not clear to which Thompson they are referring, the current presidential candidate, or the previous one I never heard of.

It is interesting that a head of the FDA might go to work for a medical devices company, but maybe not so odd as it seems. The FDA approval process is quite tedious and experts in the field are needed to process the proper documents and to assure all the proper steps are taken.

Every major medical device manufacturer faces this burden and it is probably a good thing that they do. The more successful companies can afford to pay the more qualified employees and consultants. As a top position holder in the FDA, this Tommy Thompson would be well qualified, it seems.

Nevertheless I do not see this as an issue to presidential politics or something concerning Fred Thompson in particular.

I happen to own a corporation, and if I choose to contribute to a political campaign for use by one candidate I do not want you taking it for another candidate.

If McCain represents my views and I want to contribute to his campaign, why should you have the right to divert my contribution to Ron Paul.

Fanta, you are not even discussing my opinion here, you are arguing a point that i was not trying to address. The issue is not disagreement, it is topic. Go take some ritalin or whatever and get an attention span.

No. I'm talking about lobbyists writing bills for congressman.

If my corporation makes a contribution to the Romney campaign, it is my choice. It is a personal choice. It comes off the bottom line. If you don't like who I support, start your own corporation, generate a ton of revenue and give it to dweezlebutt, whoever you support. I don't care, just keep your mitts off my money.

Well Fanta, I started the post, so it is my point we are discussing here. I'm trying to generate some discussion about a matter I consider important.

I don't suppose I'm part of the problem and I'm surprised you would want to suggest that I am. I hardly think you know anything about me to base such an accusation upon.

Pooling all political contributions would be a bad idea in my opinion. First it unfairly supports unpopular candidates. Take for example that idiot Ron Paul. Who would want to give that guy 5 cents that was contributed to support Fred Thompson? Ha ha, did you recognize that as a personal jab?

If I give money to support a candidate and you want to take it and give it to another I consider you a thief and usurper. Its like me giving to a homeless shelter and you take the money and give it to a cancer research program. The cancer research program may need the money and be a noble charity, but I may have a homeless acquaintance that I want to benefit personally.