St. Cloud Personal Injury Lawyer - Bush Administration

Short Sighted Political Expedience Should Never Rule The Day

Mike Bryant — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:31:00 GMT

I was listening to a speaker last week who reminded us of how it wasn't that long ago when citizen's constitutional right to trail didn't depend on what party was in control. When each election didn't signal an opening or closing of the courthouse doors depending on who got power. Sure, the politics of Bush/Rove took them a long way with the lawyer bashing, but is everyone better off because of it?

I look at this in the same manner with the problems they are having with the now open Senate seat in Massachusetts. A law was passed when John Kerry ran for president, that would have prevented then Governor Mitt Romney from appointing the replacement. Now there is Senator Kennedy's death and a replacement can't be appointed.

All short sighted politics which are simply done because of partisan interests over consumer rights. Hopefully, the politics of change will recognize the difference. There is much more to what happens in Washington and locally than the next election in two, four, or six years. It's time that people demanded it.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Nestle's Didn't Disclose Information To The FDA

Mike Bryant — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:42:00 GMT

Here at the Injuryboard, many of us have been following the recall of Nestle's Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough. The associated E. coli outbreak has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a part of the recall there has been an investigation into what happened.

Apparently, Nestle's declined several times over the past five years to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information. Shocking that the Bush Administration's FDA weren't forcing the issue. According to FDA reports , the company declined to allow agency investigators access to certain documents in at least 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Nestle's is claiming that its practices are standard within the food industry. That may very well have been the case, but like the peanut and other food problems, with improvements in the FDA, we won't see this kind of thing in the future.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Congress Reaffirms And Finances A Better FDA

Mike Bryant — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:33:00 GMT

Search "Food Safety" here at the Injuryboard site and you will find all sorts of alerts. Search "FDA" and you will find the list of failures by the organization over the last eight years. It's been an underfunded arm of the government that has been asked to look the other way from what has been happening. To actually write laws that make the world less safe for the consumer.

This past week, changes in congress hopefully signals a new direction. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration significantly more funding and power to police food safety.

The legislation would give the FDA authority to order food recalls, impose new civil penalties and require companies to follow food-safety standards. It also would require the agency to inspect so-called high-risk food facilities at least once a year and make companies keep detailed records to help the FDA more quickly trace the distribution of tainted foods and track the course of the contamination.

To help fund the work, the bill would require some 378,000 food facilities, including 223,000 overseas, to pay an annual registration fee of $500. The legislation exempts farms that raise meat and poultry and other facilities regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

This is great news for the consumer and will hopefully get the FDA back to what it's supposed to be doing. Less food problems and quick effective response when something does happen will make a big difference.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Sotomayor A Good Choice For Justice?

Mike Bryant — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:50:00 GMT

I've been following the Sotomayer talk for awhile with a little bit of indifference. Don't get me wrong, a seat on the U S Supreme Court has importance for every single American. It's nine people who could change a lot about the way we live. But as a candidate, I really didn't see someone who was going to be a great champion for the consumer. Her rulings have been pretty middle of the road, so for the clients we represent, there wasn't a lot of excitement.

Recent statements may change my mind. The U S Chamber is coming out against her. Apparently, they are very concerned not so much about her , but the vote for big business that they will be losing. “Souter was a critical fifth vote in a bunch of punitive damages cases,” said Roy Englert, a Washington appellate lawyer who has represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before the Supreme Court. “Without the assurance that she will be as ready to rein in punitive damages as he was, there is a significant worry.”

The analysis of their argument is very revealing and easily discloses the following keys:

1) They want to disregard the Jury system.

2) They want an activist court

3) It's really all about money.

It's time that they get over the belief that they still run this country the way they have for the last eight years. Frankly, they did a very poor job. If this nomination means consumers are protected or at least won't be shortshrifted, I'm all for it.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Bachmann Who Believes This Stuff?

Mike Bryant — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:09:00 GMT

The Minnesota Republicans held their central committee meeting last Saturday and elected their new party leaders. It's an event to half pay attention to for me. Seemed like many of the speakers at least tacitly admitted that the party has a problem. With the two term governor Tim Pawlenty stepping aside, they are facing some of the same leadership issues that the national party is and the Democrats have over time.

The speaker who shocked me was Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. I guess it shouldn't, she's been spouting off crazy things for some time. I've even taken the time to blog about a couple of them.

But, it seems to me that she is going to a whole new level of fantasy words.

Her take on the economy is that the world is now in chaos and capitalism is being killed by the Obama Administration. I guess it's possible. But her view seems to be based on such a one sided view. Wasn't she in Congress for a couple of terms now? Didn't she see what a rotten economy the Bush administration created? The recent ironic Pravda article about the death of capitalism seems more in touch with reality. This is after a week where she called the President a gangster and continued her ongoing battle with the truth.

Next was her ongoing attack that ACORN is going to be running all of our elections? I doubt they have the numbers. It might solve some of our problems like the Senate race here in Minnesota and the butterfly ballots of Florida. But, she means this to be a bad thing. It all goes to her claim that ACORN gets money that it uses to register voters. The reality is that the money is Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and goes to ACORN Housing, an affiliate of ACORN that offers home ownership counseling to low-income families.“CDBG rules list eligible uses of the money, including such things as building sidewalks, sewers and affordable housing, mostly. Specifically ineligible: ‘political activities,’” said Politifact ,a Pulitzer prize-winning operation of the St. Petersburg Times . “In other words, ACORN can’t use the money for voter registration.”

Finally, a new favorite as she claimed that American soldiers now had to read Miranda rights to Al Qaeda. I first have to wonder if she believes anyone should get their Miranda rights? But, back to the point, where does she get support for this claim? An O'Reilly report tnat misquotes another Congressman? It is an absolute untruth. The whole Guantanamo debate is whether we can just lock people up without charges, if they should get a hearing at some point and if we should at least treat them like prisoners of war.

It seems like she says enough that she actually believes this stuff. Hopefully, at some point she will stop getting chances to say them.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Consumer Victory: Obama Issues Clear Statement Against Preemption

Mike Bryant — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:38:00 GMT

For a long time here at the Injuryboard, many of us have looked at the issues surrounding preemption. Basically, the use of the federal government to override state laws. The Bush administration made it a practice to change administrative rules to preempt consumer protection laws of individual states.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave the consumer significant relief by ruling that the laws of Vermont weren't preempted in the pharmaceutical lawsuit of Wyeth v. Levine . The same issue is being addressed by congress concerning product liability.

This past week, President Obama gave the consumer another lift with the following statement:

Throughout our history, State and local governments have frequently protected health, safety, and the environment more aggressively than has the national Government… The purpose of this memorandum is to state the general policy of my Administration that preemption of State law by executive departments and agencies should be undertaken only with full consideration of the legitimate prerogatives of the States and with a sufficient legal basis for preemption… As Justice Brandeis explained more than 70 years ago, “[i]t is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

This is a clear sign that states are free to protect their citizens as they see fit.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Hydroxycut Recall Is Another Example Of The FDA's Problems

Mike Bryant — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:40:00 GMT

At the Injuryboard, many of the writers have discussed the horrid state of the FDA during the Bush Administration. The reality seems to be that there was either no oversight of products or there was work to continue to weaken consumer protections and to allow free wheeling for the pharmaceutical companies.

This recall is of particular interest because the report of death and many of the injuries have been reported for some time. Why didn't the FDA do something earlier? Also, there is a jurisdictional issue of if the FDA has authority to regulate the dietary supplement industry.

Presently, dietary supplements do not need FDA sanction to go on sale. Hopefully, a review of what happened in these cases and the importance of protecting the consumer will get Congress to look at adding the power.

If you or a family member is injured by a product, you need to get immediate medical care. If there is a significant affect or injury, you should contact an attorney concerning the problem. Early investigation can include the collection of product, checking recall alerts, and the proper notifying of those who caused the problem.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Interesting Questions Come Up After Michele Bachmann Donation

Mike Bryant — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:15:00 GMT

This video is worth watching for all of those who are interested in following the ongoing tale of Michele Bachmann exploits. At the heart of the issue this time is campaign contributions she received from Frank Vennes Jr . Following these contributions, she requested that President Bush include Mr. Vennes in his late pardons. Unfortunately, Mr. Vennes was caught up in a Peder ponzi scheme around the same time. So no pardon and Representative Bauchmann attempted to pass the money or at least part of it on to Minnesota Teen Challenge. They said thanks but no thanks. " We didn’t want to be involved if it was dirty money,” said Rich Scherber, executive director of Minnesota Teen Challenge.

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This smells bad. On top of everything, she failed to report the money being returned to her campaign until her first quarter 2009 campaign filing, a possible violation of Federal Election Commission rules. Maybe with her no earmarks pledge she should also refuse political favor money. Oh, and maybe don't try to pass it off to others either.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

This Week With George Will And His Ongoing Illogical Lawyers Attack

Mike Bryant — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:51:00 GMT

I was watching This Week With George Stephanopoulos again this Sunday, and got to hear from the ever lovable George Will. It's really sad how illogical he has gotten. This week's topic was the first 100 days of the Obama administration and in particular what to do with the torture issues that the Bush Administration had left behind. Should lawyers be prosecuted for illegal memos? Personally, I'd like to see us look ahead and deal with the huge problems the country faces. But, I understand the disgust and need for justice concerning the illegal activity.

Will goes into the whole Karl Rove "attack the lawyers" idea, stating that if meretricious lawyering is going to be found illegal, it is going to put a growth industry out of business. Really George? What industry has been built on the providing of illegal advice? Who are you calling prostitutes? It's part of his ongoing attack on the rights of the consumer to protect themselves in civil court. But, it does protect his big business buddies.

It is wholly intellectually dishonest to even bring his frivolous tort reform arguments into this topic. But, he's talking about lawyers, so I would guess his mind is on autopilot. He needs to be called out for his unsupported and dishonest asides.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Is Big Pharma Drugging Our Water?

Mike Bryant — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:55:00 GMT

This past week, the Associated Press released a startling study concerning our drinking water. Apparently, at least 271 million pounds of 22 pharmaceutical compounds was found in the tested water. The compounds come from two governmental lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

For a long time, Injuryboard members have been identifying the issues out there with pharmaceutical companies:

Buying doctors loyalties.
Questionable drug testing and marketing.
Involvement in faking tests.
Attacking of Doctors who questioned their products.
Benefiting from the Bush years.

Some of the information is quite troubling, but adding the dumping into our water should create nightmares. Think about being drugged and not even knowing it. Emerging research also has shown that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. This has caused some scientists to believe that even exposure to small amounts of the drugs, over decades, could cause harm to humans.

The investigation will hopefully continue as to the source of all of this drugging. There are indications that some of it comes from consumers disposing of their drugs. 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities. But, "It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, a former 10-year EPA enforcement officer and current ecologist and environmental attorney.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant