In the coming weeks the President is going to be addressing Education and how the Federal Government can improve the quality of education your child or children receive. The President wants to throw more money at “No Child Left Behind”, and give more power to the local school systems. Is this what is needed? Will it work? Or should we be totally rethinking how we as a country approach education?
The answer starts with defining what an education is; with understanding the needs of the individual child, and should be the responsibility of the parent not the State or Federal Government. After all who knows your child best, who is most concerned about the development of your child; you of course. So you should have the most say in the education your child receives.
Yes, yes I hear all of you screaming about those parents who do not care about their child and his or hers education or welfare for that matter. But I maintain that my rights as a parent should not be infringed upon because of the shortcomings of a small minority of parents, those parents should be punished and you and I should be left to do our jobs as parents without government interference.
So, what is an education? Webster defines education as; the action or process of educating or of being educated. But what does that really mean? Simply put it is the time and effort taken by a person to learn a subject, set of subjects, or skills of a trade. It involves everything in life that you have to take time to watch, read, or be instructed in order to learn. Education is a lifelong process that one should never end until you breath your last breath.
What an education is not, is the “assembly line” production method of having students memorize facts and formulas to be reproduced for a test and then forgotten, which is used by all public schools and a few private schools today. We must see education as more than a one dimensional problem, as more than a one size fits all solution. We must look outside the box for answers; we must actually look at our past for unique answers. Starting with our Founding Father, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brother, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, and many other successful men like them. Read about them and see how they were educated. You will be surprised by what you learn.
Over the next several weeks I will be addressing education from several different angles, giving you different things to think about, different options to consider, different answers you will not hear anywhere else. I will tell you my story of the public school system failing to recognize my education needs and challenges. I will talk about the many different education options available to you today without any Education Reform. And I will shock you with how simple and affordable true Education Reform can and should be.
I hope you will join me as I reveal the secrets to not just a good education, but a great one.
Gerald
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
China – The Consumer Nation
February marked the first time since China started exporting manufactured goods that China has experienced a trade deficit. China has crossed the threshold from being a producer nation to being a consumer nation, and there is no turning back.
The westernization of China is nearing completion. We, the United States, started in the late 1950’s taking advantage of the low worker wages in China, and we have continued for almost 60 years. But China has changed over the years. The people of China started liking and wanting the products they manufactured. They demanded higher wages to afford the niceties. Then Hong Kong was returned to China control, and the inhabitance of Hong Kong would not surrender their western freedoms. These western ideals spread to Beijing and other large cities. China now has an emerging middle class. The emergence of the middle class will cause wages to increase even more, to the point that most countries will find it no longer practical to import goods from China. Then the westernization of China will be complete. Then what country will the world exploit to get its goods produced cheaply? Who will be the next China?
The answer is not simple or safe. India is out, they are the World’s out source for customer service not manufacturing. South America is already well on its way to modernization. That leaves the poor countries of the Middle East, and the unstable countries of Central and Western Africa. However the Middle Eastern countries hold many problems with the restrictions on the products they will produce due to their religious beliefs. While the corrupt and unstable governments of the African nations hold many safety, and investment loss issues to deal with. In short there is no good option at present to replace China as the world export mecca.
Replacing China is not a pressing issue today in the headlines, but I assure you that thousands of companies producing products in China today are already hunting a new location for their product. These companies have read the signs of the coming need to relocate, and they do not want to be a product without a cheap country to exploit.
Gerald
The westernization of China is nearing completion. We, the United States, started in the late 1950’s taking advantage of the low worker wages in China, and we have continued for almost 60 years. But China has changed over the years. The people of China started liking and wanting the products they manufactured. They demanded higher wages to afford the niceties. Then Hong Kong was returned to China control, and the inhabitance of Hong Kong would not surrender their western freedoms. These western ideals spread to Beijing and other large cities. China now has an emerging middle class. The emergence of the middle class will cause wages to increase even more, to the point that most countries will find it no longer practical to import goods from China. Then the westernization of China will be complete. Then what country will the world exploit to get its goods produced cheaply? Who will be the next China?
The answer is not simple or safe. India is out, they are the World’s out source for customer service not manufacturing. South America is already well on its way to modernization. That leaves the poor countries of the Middle East, and the unstable countries of Central and Western Africa. However the Middle Eastern countries hold many problems with the restrictions on the products they will produce due to their religious beliefs. While the corrupt and unstable governments of the African nations hold many safety, and investment loss issues to deal with. In short there is no good option at present to replace China as the world export mecca.
Replacing China is not a pressing issue today in the headlines, but I assure you that thousands of companies producing products in China today are already hunting a new location for their product. These companies have read the signs of the coming need to relocate, and they do not want to be a product without a cheap country to exploit.
Gerald
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The US Senate – The Fly In The Healthcare Ointment
The House has passed the Senate Healthcare Bill, and separately passed a package of amendments to the Bill to be sent to the Senate for approval. But what if the Senate decides to not consider these amendments? What if the GOP mounts a successful filibuster? THEN WHAT?
Months ago when the Senate passed its Bill, the Senate was unwilling to negotiate with the House in Conference Committee. Now there is nothing to stop the Senate from allowing their Bill to be signed into Law by the President, and then simply ignore the House Amendments. The House has passed the Senate Bill without any changes, and sent it to the President to be signed. This is the process the Constitution calls for. And the Senate would not be wrong if they ignored the House Amendments.
Why? You ask. Simple The Constitution states that both houses of Congress must pass an identical bill, which is then presented to the President to be signed. The House did not like the Senate Bill, the House wanted changes. What was supposed to happen is the House was supposed to Amend the Bill to reflect the changes the House wanted, and then send the Bill back to the Senate to be voted on for agreement, before sending the completed bill to the President. Of course this is not what happened. The system, which has worked for more than 200 years, was taking too long for the President and the Party in control of Congress to get what they wanted, so they decided to work outside the rules to get this Bill and a host of amendments passed separately; all in the name of the “good of the American people".
Now we have a Bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President with all these amendments waiting on the Senate to approve to make the House happy. The Senate for its part was already happy, and their Bill is now law. So what reason do they have for any further debate? NONE!
Or the Senate could take up the amendments from the House, and the Republicans block a vote by the full Senate. Then we would again be without the House amendments making the, now Law, complete.
If the Senate fails to pass the House Amendments, the scenarios are too numerous to consider.
No matter the outcome we as a country have ventured down a path that our forefather took such great care to help us avoid. The Constitutional questions this bill and amendments present our country, and our Judiciary, are mind boggling.
What Pandora’s Box have we opened, and can we ever get it closed again?
Call and tell Congress this cannot happen again; I have!
Gerald
Months ago when the Senate passed its Bill, the Senate was unwilling to negotiate with the House in Conference Committee. Now there is nothing to stop the Senate from allowing their Bill to be signed into Law by the President, and then simply ignore the House Amendments. The House has passed the Senate Bill without any changes, and sent it to the President to be signed. This is the process the Constitution calls for. And the Senate would not be wrong if they ignored the House Amendments.
Why? You ask. Simple The Constitution states that both houses of Congress must pass an identical bill, which is then presented to the President to be signed. The House did not like the Senate Bill, the House wanted changes. What was supposed to happen is the House was supposed to Amend the Bill to reflect the changes the House wanted, and then send the Bill back to the Senate to be voted on for agreement, before sending the completed bill to the President. Of course this is not what happened. The system, which has worked for more than 200 years, was taking too long for the President and the Party in control of Congress to get what they wanted, so they decided to work outside the rules to get this Bill and a host of amendments passed separately; all in the name of the “good of the American people".
Now we have a Bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President with all these amendments waiting on the Senate to approve to make the House happy. The Senate for its part was already happy, and their Bill is now law. So what reason do they have for any further debate? NONE!
Or the Senate could take up the amendments from the House, and the Republicans block a vote by the full Senate. Then we would again be without the House amendments making the, now Law, complete.
If the Senate fails to pass the House Amendments, the scenarios are too numerous to consider.
No matter the outcome we as a country have ventured down a path that our forefather took such great care to help us avoid. The Constitutional questions this bill and amendments present our country, and our Judiciary, are mind boggling.
What Pandora’s Box have we opened, and can we ever get it closed again?
Call and tell Congress this cannot happen again; I have!
Gerald
Monday, March 15, 2010
Health Care Reform – Washington Not Addressing the Real Problem
For more than a year Congress has argued, fussed, accused, demanded, and spread general rhetoric over the Health Care debate, and has manages to not once actually address the real problems in our health care system which need to be fixed. One of those issues is the problem of hospitals and doctors over charging for their services, and I recently experienced this problem first hand.
Three weeks ago I had to take one of my employees to the emergency room of our local hospital to be examined after being injured on the job. The employee’s injuries were in no life threatening. We spent six hours at the hospital while the doctor ordered a series of ex-rays and MRIs to be performed. In the end my employee was told he has a sprained wrist, and a bad bruise on the back of his head. He returned to work the next day.
Last week I nearly fell out of my chair when I received the hospital bill of more than $11,800.00 and the doctor’s bill for $3,900.00. I was shocked to say the least. I knew the bills would not be cheap, but I never dreamed the bills would exceed $15,000.00. I was enraged by these bills. I wanted to scream at the hospital, and the doctor. There were no broken bones, no need of stitches, no over-night stay, this was out-n-out highway robbery, and I was going to let the hospital know what I thought of them.
After giving myself a couple of days to get over being angry so I could ensure that I could convey my message to the hospital without yelling I called and spoke with the hospital’s Patient Relations Supervisor. The supervisor was very patient, and listened to my objection to the outrageousness of the bill. Once I finished the supervisor informed me that since this was a Worker Comp. Injury and would be handled by my insurance company, the hospital was discounting the bill to the insurance company down to $2,600.00. On the one hand I was thrilled that the amount owed had been lowered, but on the other I was even madder than before. Just to make sure I heard the supervisor correctly, I asked. “So let me get this strait, because an insurance company is involved, the bill will only be $2,600.00, but if I did not have insurance the bill would be the $11,800?” The supervisor told me that I had heard correctly. I then spent the next ten minutes wasting my time explaining, to the hospital supervisor, all of the ways that their billing practices were simply wrong, and bordered on legalized theft. I have been told that I can expect a similar discount form the doctor, but I have not yet had this confirmed.
Let me break this issue down for you, and point out all of the ways the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies work together to try and force you to buy health insurance, while lining their pockets with huge profits.
The hospitals like insurance companies because they insure the hospital will collect the majority of their funds quickly and will only have to worry about collecting a small portion form the patient. With this in mind the hospitals and doctors have conspired with the insurance companies to encourage you and I to purchase health insurance. The hospitals and doctors now inflate their bills for services by 500 to 600 percent, present the bill to you. If you have insurance, you’re insurance company, going along with the plan, then requests and receives a sizeable discount on your behalf bring the bill down to the actual amount that should have been billed in the first place. By doing this the insurance can show you the insured, that they are working hard for you and saving you money. However if you do not have insurance, then you are forced to pay, without discount, the highly inflated bill for the treatment you received. And if you are unable to pay the over inflated, undiscounted bill, then you have to file bankruptcy, and the hospital gets to legally write-off the overstated bill as a loss and deduct the loss on the hospital’s taxes. To further their cause the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all pay millions every year to lobbyist to lie and convince Congress that the problem is that not enough Americans have insurance. Congress being the lazy entity that it is, and has failed to fully investigate and analyze the problem. Therefore this and many other issues in the Health Care problem are not being addressed by the current Health Care Bill; nor have any of the amendments that have been offered, by either party, to the Bill.
Now Congress is so happy that the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all support the Health Care Reform Bill, and it is no wonder that they do. The insurance companies know that the Federal Government will have to have the insurance industry underwrite the Government’s Plan, and all three will be able to continue the operate their over inflated billing racket and have it legitimized by the Federal Government.
We must speak out my friends. We all must tell Congress that we will no longer put up with flimflam bills that do not address the core issues of a problem; that We the People demand to get our monies worth from their representation.
Speak out my friends, and be heard; do not let the rhetoric of Washington drown out your voice. To remain silent, is to say you don’t care what happens.
Gerald
Three weeks ago I had to take one of my employees to the emergency room of our local hospital to be examined after being injured on the job. The employee’s injuries were in no life threatening. We spent six hours at the hospital while the doctor ordered a series of ex-rays and MRIs to be performed. In the end my employee was told he has a sprained wrist, and a bad bruise on the back of his head. He returned to work the next day.
Last week I nearly fell out of my chair when I received the hospital bill of more than $11,800.00 and the doctor’s bill for $3,900.00. I was shocked to say the least. I knew the bills would not be cheap, but I never dreamed the bills would exceed $15,000.00. I was enraged by these bills. I wanted to scream at the hospital, and the doctor. There were no broken bones, no need of stitches, no over-night stay, this was out-n-out highway robbery, and I was going to let the hospital know what I thought of them.
After giving myself a couple of days to get over being angry so I could ensure that I could convey my message to the hospital without yelling I called and spoke with the hospital’s Patient Relations Supervisor. The supervisor was very patient, and listened to my objection to the outrageousness of the bill. Once I finished the supervisor informed me that since this was a Worker Comp. Injury and would be handled by my insurance company, the hospital was discounting the bill to the insurance company down to $2,600.00. On the one hand I was thrilled that the amount owed had been lowered, but on the other I was even madder than before. Just to make sure I heard the supervisor correctly, I asked. “So let me get this strait, because an insurance company is involved, the bill will only be $2,600.00, but if I did not have insurance the bill would be the $11,800?” The supervisor told me that I had heard correctly. I then spent the next ten minutes wasting my time explaining, to the hospital supervisor, all of the ways that their billing practices were simply wrong, and bordered on legalized theft. I have been told that I can expect a similar discount form the doctor, but I have not yet had this confirmed.
Let me break this issue down for you, and point out all of the ways the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies work together to try and force you to buy health insurance, while lining their pockets with huge profits.
The hospitals like insurance companies because they insure the hospital will collect the majority of their funds quickly and will only have to worry about collecting a small portion form the patient. With this in mind the hospitals and doctors have conspired with the insurance companies to encourage you and I to purchase health insurance. The hospitals and doctors now inflate their bills for services by 500 to 600 percent, present the bill to you. If you have insurance, you’re insurance company, going along with the plan, then requests and receives a sizeable discount on your behalf bring the bill down to the actual amount that should have been billed in the first place. By doing this the insurance can show you the insured, that they are working hard for you and saving you money. However if you do not have insurance, then you are forced to pay, without discount, the highly inflated bill for the treatment you received. And if you are unable to pay the over inflated, undiscounted bill, then you have to file bankruptcy, and the hospital gets to legally write-off the overstated bill as a loss and deduct the loss on the hospital’s taxes. To further their cause the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all pay millions every year to lobbyist to lie and convince Congress that the problem is that not enough Americans have insurance. Congress being the lazy entity that it is, and has failed to fully investigate and analyze the problem. Therefore this and many other issues in the Health Care problem are not being addressed by the current Health Care Bill; nor have any of the amendments that have been offered, by either party, to the Bill.
Now Congress is so happy that the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all support the Health Care Reform Bill, and it is no wonder that they do. The insurance companies know that the Federal Government will have to have the insurance industry underwrite the Government’s Plan, and all three will be able to continue the operate their over inflated billing racket and have it legitimized by the Federal Government.
We must speak out my friends. We all must tell Congress that we will no longer put up with flimflam bills that do not address the core issues of a problem; that We the People demand to get our monies worth from their representation.
Speak out my friends, and be heard; do not let the rhetoric of Washington drown out your voice. To remain silent, is to say you don’t care what happens.
Gerald
Friday, March 27, 2009
Protect Your Homeschool Rights
On 3/10/09 the Georgia State Senate voted to approve SB 239 by a margin of 36 to 18 with 2 Senators not voting. SB 239 - Education; mandatory attendance; provisions; require new residents in a local school system to enroll a child within 30 days, is harmless at first glance. But as you read deeper you will find some very disturbing provisions.
First of all I must tell you that this is one the most poorly written pieces of legislation I have ever read. I cannot believe that a State Body actually voted on this grammatically butchered group of words. Many if the subsections ramble on line after line without having a coherent message to be found. I am ashamed to admit that my Senator actually voted for this bill. I will be telling him how upset I am at the next County Republican meeting.
The First Readers Summary reads like this is just putting into law that which should be common sense. The summary reads as follows:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 1 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to school attendance in elementary and secondary education, so as to revise certain provisions relating to mandatory attendance; to require new residents in a local school system to enroll a child within 30 days; to provide for reporting violations of mandatory attendance requirements; to provide that a local school system official who fails to make certain reports is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide that a person who fails to enroll a child is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
Sounds pretty harmless right? Yes. But now let’s look a little deeper. First off the summary says that new residents will be required to enroll a child in school within 30 days of moving into the state. However, when you read the actual text of the bill (SB 239 Text) you will see that the bill does not set the number of days to register your child or children at 30 days, but rather a much shorter 10 days. Not a big deal you say? Read the fine print. Subsection (G – 2) says that any parent or guardian who does not enroll a child within the stipulated 10 days is subject to being imprisoned for up to 30 days. Big deal if you ask me.
Next the nuts and bolts of the Home School or Home Study Program is the Legislature’s attempt to invade your Home Classroom to ensure that you are teaching in a manner that they approve of. In Subsection (H) the bill states:
(h) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to authorize the State Board of Education, local boards of education, or any officers thereof or appropriate enforcement agencies to impose any additional requirements on private schools or home study programs beyond that specifically included in subsection (a) of this Code section and in Code Section 20-2-690.
This sounds good, right? Well not when you read Subsection (C) which states:
(c) Local school superintendents in the case of private schools or home study programs and visiting teachers and attendance officers in the case of public schools shall have authority and it shall be their duty to file proceedings in court to enforce this subpart.
This Subsection specifically states that local school superintendents have the authority to file proceedings in court to ensure that private schools and home study programs are in compliance with the bill. How will they do this? The superintendents will send Special Teachers to visit you to observe your school day and the superintendents will send truancy officers to investigate your attendance records. And if the superintendents deem that you are not giving your child or children a proper education, they will bring you up on charges under the powers given them under this bill. Then you could face up to 30 days in jail while the state enrolls your child or children in public school.
I know this sounds like I am taking this bill to the extreme, but the Superintendent’s office in our county is very hostile towards home schooling, and she takes every opportunity to harass the families of our county. For her this bill would be a blank check to abridge the rights of the home schooling community in this county.
I urge you to take the time to contact your State Representative to urge him or her to vote against SB 239. On 3/26/09 the House Committee favorably reported on this bill. Unless we speak out and let them know how we feel; they will pass this harmful bill into law. To contact your representative Click Here. Tell the Georgia Legislature that you will not have your rights as a parent taken away. Also I suggest that you call the Governor’s office and ask him to Veto the bill if it is passed. Governor Perdue has supported Home Schooling in the past and we need to ask him to support us again by Vetoing this harmful bill.
Thank you my friends for standing up for your rights.
And remember, if you remain silent, you will be ignored.
Gerald
First of all I must tell you that this is one the most poorly written pieces of legislation I have ever read. I cannot believe that a State Body actually voted on this grammatically butchered group of words. Many if the subsections ramble on line after line without having a coherent message to be found. I am ashamed to admit that my Senator actually voted for this bill. I will be telling him how upset I am at the next County Republican meeting.
The First Readers Summary reads like this is just putting into law that which should be common sense. The summary reads as follows:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 1 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to school attendance in elementary and secondary education, so as to revise certain provisions relating to mandatory attendance; to require new residents in a local school system to enroll a child within 30 days; to provide for reporting violations of mandatory attendance requirements; to provide that a local school system official who fails to make certain reports is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide that a person who fails to enroll a child is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
Sounds pretty harmless right? Yes. But now let’s look a little deeper. First off the summary says that new residents will be required to enroll a child in school within 30 days of moving into the state. However, when you read the actual text of the bill (SB 239 Text) you will see that the bill does not set the number of days to register your child or children at 30 days, but rather a much shorter 10 days. Not a big deal you say? Read the fine print. Subsection (G – 2) says that any parent or guardian who does not enroll a child within the stipulated 10 days is subject to being imprisoned for up to 30 days. Big deal if you ask me.
Next the nuts and bolts of the Home School or Home Study Program is the Legislature’s attempt to invade your Home Classroom to ensure that you are teaching in a manner that they approve of. In Subsection (H) the bill states:
(h) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to authorize the State Board of Education, local boards of education, or any officers thereof or appropriate enforcement agencies to impose any additional requirements on private schools or home study programs beyond that specifically included in subsection (a) of this Code section and in Code Section 20-2-690.
This sounds good, right? Well not when you read Subsection (C) which states:
(c) Local school superintendents in the case of private schools or home study programs and visiting teachers and attendance officers in the case of public schools shall have authority and it shall be their duty to file proceedings in court to enforce this subpart.
This Subsection specifically states that local school superintendents have the authority to file proceedings in court to ensure that private schools and home study programs are in compliance with the bill. How will they do this? The superintendents will send Special Teachers to visit you to observe your school day and the superintendents will send truancy officers to investigate your attendance records. And if the superintendents deem that you are not giving your child or children a proper education, they will bring you up on charges under the powers given them under this bill. Then you could face up to 30 days in jail while the state enrolls your child or children in public school.
I know this sounds like I am taking this bill to the extreme, but the Superintendent’s office in our county is very hostile towards home schooling, and she takes every opportunity to harass the families of our county. For her this bill would be a blank check to abridge the rights of the home schooling community in this county.
I urge you to take the time to contact your State Representative to urge him or her to vote against SB 239. On 3/26/09 the House Committee favorably reported on this bill. Unless we speak out and let them know how we feel; they will pass this harmful bill into law. To contact your representative Click Here. Tell the Georgia Legislature that you will not have your rights as a parent taken away. Also I suggest that you call the Governor’s office and ask him to Veto the bill if it is passed. Governor Perdue has supported Home Schooling in the past and we need to ask him to support us again by Vetoing this harmful bill.
Thank you my friends for standing up for your rights.
And remember, if you remain silent, you will be ignored.
Gerald
Monday, February 16, 2009
Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC)
For those of us in the transportation industry just mentioning the term TWIC will get you all kinds of heated responses. From the lack of information put out by the Ports and the Federal Government to the six to eight weeks it takes to get a TWIC Card, this is one of the worst implementations of a government program you will ever find.
First the deadline to register was set and then not announced. It was left to the individual ports to inform Port Employees, Contractors, and Transportation Providers. What the ports did was tell all the Port Employees and Contractors, and then posted a note on the bulletin board with 20 other notices for the Transportation Provider’s employees to read and inform their respective companies. Big surprise, very few trucking companies even knew about the program until less than 60 days until the deadline.
Then once a trucking company knew of the program, getting correct information was even harder. There was nothing on my state DOT web-site, or on the Port of Savannah web-site, or most of the web-sites of the ports my company frequents. Even my state trucking association had no information. So I had nothing, not who the program belonged to, no congressional committee, nothing. Finally I started looking at the web-sites for posts I don’t usually go to, and eventually found a link on the Port of Charleston to the TWIC Program. Three cheers for Charleston, which I must add the Port of Charleston was the only port to properly inform the trucking companies of the TWIC Program.
I then went to work on Washington to get help with expediting the process. Thank you to Congressman Jim Marshall and staff for their assistance in getting me in contact with Denise Krepp at the Sub-committee. Denise was very instrumental in getting my employees enrolled in the program.
Now several weeks later my employees are getting their TWIC Cards, and now I have hit a new problem. It seems that the State of Florida not only is going to require the TWIC Card, but they are also requiring that all truck drivers going into Florida ports will half to have a Florida Port Identification Card. Without both you will not gain entry to any Florida port facility. O Great three to five more weeks of waiting to get this card. And between the two cards I will spend in fees, travel expenses and wages more than $500.00 per employee for the two cards. Talk about REDUNDENCE.
This program has many problems which congress refuses to address. Let them know as I have that it is time to bring this program under control and to address the issues it has caused.
Take friends.
Gerald
First the deadline to register was set and then not announced. It was left to the individual ports to inform Port Employees, Contractors, and Transportation Providers. What the ports did was tell all the Port Employees and Contractors, and then posted a note on the bulletin board with 20 other notices for the Transportation Provider’s employees to read and inform their respective companies. Big surprise, very few trucking companies even knew about the program until less than 60 days until the deadline.
Then once a trucking company knew of the program, getting correct information was even harder. There was nothing on my state DOT web-site, or on the Port of Savannah web-site, or most of the web-sites of the ports my company frequents. Even my state trucking association had no information. So I had nothing, not who the program belonged to, no congressional committee, nothing. Finally I started looking at the web-sites for posts I don’t usually go to, and eventually found a link on the Port of Charleston to the TWIC Program. Three cheers for Charleston, which I must add the Port of Charleston was the only port to properly inform the trucking companies of the TWIC Program.
I then went to work on Washington to get help with expediting the process. Thank you to Congressman Jim Marshall and staff for their assistance in getting me in contact with Denise Krepp at the Sub-committee. Denise was very instrumental in getting my employees enrolled in the program.
Now several weeks later my employees are getting their TWIC Cards, and now I have hit a new problem. It seems that the State of Florida not only is going to require the TWIC Card, but they are also requiring that all truck drivers going into Florida ports will half to have a Florida Port Identification Card. Without both you will not gain entry to any Florida port facility. O Great three to five more weeks of waiting to get this card. And between the two cards I will spend in fees, travel expenses and wages more than $500.00 per employee for the two cards. Talk about REDUNDENCE.
This program has many problems which congress refuses to address. Let them know as I have that it is time to bring this program under control and to address the issues it has caused.
Take friends.
Gerald
Monday, February 2, 2009
Children's Products
Update on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
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