I Wonder

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/12/14/build/business/30-cattle.inc">Errors mar cattle pricing system, agency reports</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>GAO investigators found that of the 844 audits the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> conducted of meatpackers during a three-year period, 64 percent had inaccuracies or missing information. And while the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> said the number of inaccuracies was small for the amount of information collected, the GAO reported that the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> also identified 46 instances with 22 meatpackers sending erroneous information that might affect the accuracy of the government's livestock market reports.<br />n<br />nSome packers did not promptly fix problems identified by the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>, the GAO found.<br />n<br />nThe GAO also reported that the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> did not include all prices in its reports. In some cases, the report said, officials left out high and low prices that appeared to be aberrations but did not tell industry sources that some prices were omitted. </blockquote><br />n<br />nAmazing isn't it. The <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> fails to keep an eye on the big meat packers, who control the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>. Did you know the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> also inspects the plants themselves for safety and cleanliness? Makes you wonder. Having the meat packers, through the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>, police themselves is not a safe idea.<br />n<br />n<b>There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets. Robert Green Ingersoll</b>