Erring on the side of caution? A popular toy is tainted with a date-rape drug, which has caused at least two children to fall into comas, and all this person can say is that re-calling the toys is "erring on the side of caution"? What have these people been smoking? "Could have been isolated"?! I say right now, yes Mr. Byrnes it is more than just a little scary when we insist on importing the cheapest toys in the world from China where there is no regulations or penalties for including date-rape drugs in the ingredients. I long for the days when my toys as a youngster had that proud and trustable tag, "Made in America" on them.

Well, as usual John Edwards has been way out in front on this issue, and has solid, concrete plans to insure the safety of our children's toys, and the American consumer. First of all, he opposes the trade deals that allow American businesses to exploit foreign workers for their cheap dangerous products, and destroy the American middle-class. In my native Western Kentucky town of Murray, we used to have a Fisher-Price factory that closed down. Something tells me the American and Kentuckian workers in this factory weren't putting date-rape drugs in their toys!!!

Here is what John Edwards has to say about all the recalls of unsafe products that plague the American consumer:

"America is facing a crisis of quality in imported products, food and medicine," Edwards said. "We can no longer rely on corporations to initiate recall after recall while our government sits on the sidelines and our nation's children and families remain at serious risk. Multinational corporations' race to cut costs by offshoring the production of drugs, toys and other consumer goods has come at the price of quality and safety.

"The broken system in Washington has created weak consumer protection regulations and bad trade deals leaving our children and families vulnerable to unsafe products. Worst all of all, this is not by accident - industry lobbying has persuaded Washington to keep protections for families lax and out-of-date. As president, I will overhaul our import safety system and stand up to the special interests who put corporate profit about the health and safety of the American people. It's time for our government to take steps to protect our children from dangerous toys, strengthen food safety regulations and ensure that drug imports are safe.

"But American families shouldn't have to wait until 2009 - they deserve to know right now that their government is doing everything possible to keep them safe. That's why today I sent a letter to President Bush demanding the resignation of Nancy Nord, the acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who has accepted travel expenses from the toy industry and opposes congressional efforts to strengthen the CPSC and protect Americans families from dangerous imported toys."

Not only that, Edwards has thought long and hard about how to combat this problem and has come up with very definative and strong measures to halt this influx of dangerous imports:

Throughout the campaign, Edwards has showed that he has the backbone to stand up for regular families against multinational corporations and their lobbyists in Washington. Edwards has issued the boldest lobbying and ethics reforms to put Washington back on the side of the American people, and he is the only candidate in this race who has offered voters a detailed plan to overhaul our import safety system. Today's plan will:

Put Washington Back on the Side of Regular Families: Edwards will nominate officials who actually believe in their agencies' missions, ban industry gifts and travel to regulators, close the lobbyist revolving door and empower consumers with an improved web site for consumer complaints and recalls.

Protect American Children from Unsafe Toys: Edwards will ban lead in all children's products, require mandatory independent testing, give officials the authority to stop risky products at the border, stiffen penalties for wrongdoing and double funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Keep America's Food Safe: Edwards will finally enforce country-of-origin labeling, strengthen food safety authority, beef up inspections with mandatory recall powers and ensure that all exporting countries have tough safety systems of their own.

Ensure Safe Drug Imports: Edwards will station permanent FDA inspectors to conduct spot inspections in all countries with significant imports, starting with China and India. He will also demand that China regulates is chemical exporters and require "track and trace" pedigrees on all drugs to fight counterfeits.

The Edwards plan will go further than the half-measures recently proposed by President Bush by (1) calling for leadership at the Consumer Product Safety Commission who actually believe in the mission of the agency, starting with the resignation of acting chair Nancy Nord, (2) banning lead paint in all children's products, and (3) banning industry-bought gifts and travel and closing the lobbyist revolving door.

Of all the many reasons I support John Edwards, this one is most important. While Hillary and Obama blindly support more unfair trade deals such as the Peru Trade agreement that promise to cost more middle-class jobs, and more unsafe products made by exploited foreign labor John Edwards has stood strong against them:

"The fact that the Peru trade deal is supported by a bipartisan group of insiders, including George Bush and senior officials from the first Clinton Administration - many of whom are now lobbyists, corporate lawyers, and business consultants - should be proof-positive of why members of Congress should join with me and oppose this deal. The benefit to corporate lobbyists from both sides of the political aisle will come only at the expense of hard-working families.

"Senator Obama has chosen to support this bad deal. I strongly disagree with his position, but at least he has taken one. Senator Clinton, on the other hand, has refused to take any position. I urge Senator Clinton to publicly announce, today, her opposition and join with me in encouraging members of Congress to vote against the Peru trade deal."