Setting a good example...

There's been a lot of angst and gnashing of teeth lately over a series of products ranging from clothing to hygiene items manufactured in China that are, shall we say, of sub par quality. Many folks are asking why this has appeared so suddenly, and I think I may have a theory (first of all it's not all that sudden):

2002:


The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has announced the following recalls:

Hair Dryers. Remington Products Co, LLC has announced the recall of about 3,000 hair dryers made in China. The hair dryers are not equipped with an appliance leakage current interrupter plug to cut off electrical current in case of contact with water.

Extension Cords. STK International Inc has recalled approximately 190,000 extension cords made in China, which have undersized wires, presenting a shock hazard.

And second of all, when the Chinese Communist government made the decision to move from corrupt Communism to corrupt Corporatism as the basic model for the country, who do you think they looked to for inspiration?

Ford:

On June 9, 1978, Ford Motor Company agreed to recall 1.5 million Ford Pinto and 30,000 Mercury Bobcat sedan and hatchback models for fuel tank design defects which made the vehicles susceptible to fire in the event of a moderate-speed rear end collision. The action was the result of investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defect Investigations (Case #C7-38), sparked by a petition from Center for Auto Safety, publicity generated by national publication expose of the hazard (Mother Jones News Magazine, "Pinto Madness" by Mark Dowie, Sept/Oct, 1977) and publicity over the largest punitive damages awarded by a California jury to a young man who had been severely injured in a Pinto fuel tank fire (Grimshaw v Ford).

Chevrolet:

General Motors has refused to voluntarily recall and retrofit its pickup trucks with saddlebag gas tanks, even though its own internal records and testing experience in other models, and in proto-types, show that it has long mastered the engineering technology to enhance the safety of the gas tanks on these trucks.

Brunswick:

"Hey, Lou, I'll have anoth--" **CCCRRAACCKK** "WHOAAAAA!!" *THUD*

The following product safety recall was voluntarily conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC. Consumers should stop using the product immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Frameworx Table Height Chairs and Bar Stools

Units: About 22,400

Manufacturer: Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corp., of Lake Forest, Ill.

Hazard: The down shaft on the seat plate assembly can fracture, which can cause an occupant of the seat to fall.

Incidents/Injuries: Brunswick has received reports of 20 incidents in which the seat plate assembly has failed. Three injuries resulting from falling from a seat have been reported.

Good old American ingenuity, marketing and sales skills. That's where the Chinese looked for guidance. Of course, at least one of the men in charge let his conscience get the better of him:

Zhang Shuhong, the boss of a major supplier to Mattel, hung himself at the weekend after his export licence was suspended and 1.5m products withdrawn because of safety fears about toys sold in the US, Britain and other parts of Europe.

But he may have just been taking matters into his own hands before the Chinese government decided to:

The FDA issued a warning Friday after toothpaste containing DEG was detected in a shipment seized at the border. The government says at least 100 people died after taking cough syrup containing DEG, an industrial solvent used in paint and antifreeze.

China's dismal drug-safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.

You couldn't make this shit up no matter how hard you tried.

Really??? (Mark II)

Reuters:

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has made "extremely disappointing" progress towards reconciling its warring sects, the U.S. ambassador said on Tuesday, just three weeks before he is due to present a pivotal report on Iraq to the U.S. Congress.
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In some of the bluntest language used by a U.S. official towards Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fractured coalition government, ambassador Ryan Crocker also warned that U.S. support for Maliki's administration was not open-ended.

Only the U. S. Congress is allowed to take the entire month of August off!!

"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned, to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Crocker said.

"We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check," he told reporters in Baghdad.

Because we have other countries to bomb, dammit!!!

See?

AMY GOODMAN: Nir, what about Iran? What about the whole Bush-Cheney push to attack Iran? And what is the significance of this? And how does it play out in these countries?

NIR ROSEN: Well, I think we’re dealing with a mentality on the part of our administration that nobody else is going to have the guts to take on Iran in the future, the next president, so if we don’t do it, who’s going to do it, and we’ll be vindicated in the future just like Reagan was vindicated, allegedly, for bringing down the Soviet Union. So they have this long-term view of how history will treat them, and if they don’t take down Iran, nobody else will.

On to Damascus!

Since they've got the best quality steel to be found and our own production industry went overseas almost fifty years ago...

Holy Joe, courtesy of the (surprise, surprise, surprise!) WSJ:

The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq--but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad cannot seriously claim that he is incapable of exercising effective control over the main airport in his capital city. Syria is a police state, with sprawling domestic intelligence and security services. The notion that al Qaeda recruits are slipping into and through the Damascus airport unbeknownst to the local Mukhabarat is totally unbelievable.


Ah, Diplomacy... what a beautiful thing...

Really?!?

Apparently any trait indicating foresight must be surgically removed from one before running for public office.

DN1:

Dems: Wiretap Approval Could Grant Bush Extra Powers
Congressional Democrats are acknowledging President Bush’s broad new spying powers approved this month could be even more extensive than initially claimed. Ambiguous language defining “electronic surveillance” means the so-called Protect America of 2007 Act could go well beyond wiretapping to permit physical searches and financial record-gathering -- all without court approval. The admission comes amidst news the Bush administration has privately said it won’t be held to those limits the legislation does set on surveillance activities. The New York Times reports Justice Department officials refused repeated entreaties to commit to following Congressional rules at a private meeting last week. Participants in the meeting say assistant attorney general for national security Ken Wainstein told former Justice Department lawyer Bruce Fein the administration does not consider itself bound by Congressional restrictions.

Another chip of the old block...

courtesy of the current administration's hammer and chisel:

Article 1:

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Not so fast, my friend...

Raw Story:

A US anti-war group has been warned it will be fined 10,000 dollars if it does not remove posters in Washington announcing a march in the capital next month against US involvement in Iraq, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

1937;

"First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out;
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out;
Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984

Arthur Silber:

THREE: Tell every politician, Democratic or Republican, that they must stop repeating the Bush administration propaganda on Iran. Above all, they must stop saying that "all options are on the table," which in this context can only refer to a threat to launch an unprovoked war against Iran.

FOUR: Contact every politician you know who appears on television or gives newspaper interviews, and tell them they must be sure to explain briefly in every appearance they make why an attack on Iran at present would be a monstrous crime. IN EVERY APPEARANCE. As I noted above, if this catastrophe is to be stopped, it must be made the NUMBER ONE TOPIC IN THE NATION. If you're well-known enough to create interviews or appearances for yourself, THEN DO IT. Talk about Iran, and why we must not attack that country in the present circumstances.

FIVE: Talk to everyone you can, at work, in your family, among friends, and at social gatherings. Explain the issues to them in a way that is appropriate for the relationship and the occasion, and urge them to take all these actions themselves. Explain briefly why this might be the most important battle they will ever fight.

Talk to them as much as you have to, and take all the time you can afford. Where you can, create more time for this work. Talk to as many people as you can, every single day.

That post was the one that propelled me into the current state of world event heavy blogging you've been reading for the past five months. Arthur has decided to move away from his focus on the looming (some might say already in progress) Iranian crisis in order to work on other essays. His stated reason is a decidedly obvious lack of effect. I'm not offended, but I believe that any discussion (or post) about the topic with anyone is potentially informative and eye opening. Even after the bombing begins and oil prices skyrocket:

SEYMOUR HERSH: But anyway, so the question then is -- we go to war -- tell us what happens next, in your view.

SCOTT RITTER: Well, it’s, you know -- it’s almost impossible to be 100% correct, but I’ll give you my best analysis. The Iranians will use the weapon that is the most effective weapon, because the key for Iran -- you know, Iran can’t afford, if this -- remember, the regime wants to stay in power, so they can’t afford a strategy that gets the American people to recognize three years in that, oops, we made a mistake. I mean, if that was Saddam’s strategy, it failed for him, because he’s out of power. Yeah, we realize we made a mistake now in Iraq, but the regime is gone. So the Iranians realize that they have to inflict pain upfront. The pain is not going to be inflicted militarily, because we're not going to commit numbers of ground forces on the ground that can cause that pain. The pain will come economically.

Our oil-based economy is operating on the margins, as we speak. We only have 1.0% to 1.5% excess production capacity. If you take the Iranian oil off the market, which is the first thing the Iranians will do, we automatically drop to around minus-4%, which means there ain’t enough oil out there to support the globe’s thirst for oil, especially America’s thirst for oil. And we're not the only ones drinking it? You think for a second the Chinese and the Indians, the world’s two largest developing economies, are going to say, “Hey, Uncle Sam, we’ll put everything on hold, so we can divert oil resources, so you can feed your oil addiction, because you attacked Iran”?

And it’s not just Iranian oil that will go off the market. Why do you think we sent minesweepers up there? We’ve got to keep the Straits of Hormuz open. The Iranians will shut it down that quick. They’ll also shut down oil production in the western oil fields of Saudi Arabia. They’ll shut down Kuwaiti oil production. They’ll shut down oil production in the United Arab Emirates. They’ll shut down whatever remaining oil production there is in Iraq.

The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it’s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he’s getting from big business, who are saying, “We can’t afford to go to war with Iran.”

I'll be writing about how much of an insane folly any sort of action against Iran was and how the only recourse is to get the Hell out and leave these people and their natural resources alone for them to develop and sell (or not) on their own, for whatever reason they deem fit for the welfare of their own nation and people:

SCOTT RITTER: Well, there can be no doubt that Iran has plenty of oil, but that oil is the only thing Iran has going for it, in terms of a viable world-class economy. In 1976, the Shah of Iran came to the United States, sent his representatives to intercede and say, “Look, we’ve done an analysis, and we’ve got a finite amount of oil. And right now we need to export it. And if we don't export it, we don't make money, etc. We don't have enough oil to sustain this. We need to come up with an indigenous energy policy that frees up our oil for exportation. We want to use nuclear energy.” And the U.S. government went, “Good idea, Shah. We're all for it.” That was Gerald Ford.

The chief of staff of the White House at the time was Dick Cheney. The Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld. So, this argument that both Cheney and Rumsfeld put out today that Iran is a nation awash in a sea of oil, there is no need for a nuclear energy program, they both supported Iran's goals of achieving nuclear energy in 1976. Not only nuclear energy, but they also supported the Shah when he said, “We cannot allow a nuclear energy program’s fuel to be held hostage by the vagaries of sanctions and war. We need an indigenous fuel-manufacturing capability inclusive of the full uranium enrichment process.” And guess what the U.S. government said in 1976. “No problem, Shah. Good deal.”

So taking that into consideration along with the recent reminders from 1994 should we call this current version of the Shooter "Mark III"?

Anti Zydecoists? Terrorists?

DN!:

AMY GOODMAN: A drive-by shooting targeted Pacifica Radio station KPFT in Houston early Monday morning. A single bullet blasted through a Plexiglas window into the station's studio at 1:00 a.m. No one was injured in the shooting, but the bullet came within eighteen inches of Mary Thomas. She was hosting a Zydeco music program at the time.

More than thirty-five years ago, the Ku Klux Klan blew up the station's transmitters twice within the Houston station’s first year of operation. In October of 1970, five months after the first bombing, KPFT's transmitter was bombed for a second time, just as the station was broadcasting folk legend Arlo Guthrie's song “Alice's Restaurant.”


This came on the heels of the 'Summer Sizzle' fund raising campaign that was held to raise the funds needed to finish out the fiscal year for the operation of the station. Happily the goal was not only met but was exceeded by about 6 grand.

KPFT's Summer Sizzle finished a few hours early, achieved the goal of $135,000 and then some!
The unofficial final total has us at just over $141,000, about 5% over the goal!
Thanks to all the staff, programmers, phone volunteers and everyone who contributed.

AMY GOODMAN: Duane, do you think this could be politically motivated?

DUANE BRADLEY: Well, certainly we can't say it's not. There's nothing that’s been found yet in terms of who may have done this. KPFT has been, as you pointed out, at a point of controversy in Houston since day one, thirty-seven-and-a-half years ago. There were no overt threats to the station. We've received no email or voicemail or letters or anything. No one has claimed responsibility for it, but we do on Sunday evenings, prior to Mary's Zydeco Pas Sale show at midnight, from about 6:00 ’til midnight we have some relatively, you know, controversial programming, Afrocentric programming, that can sometimes be quite heated. And certainly we know from past experience that KPFT has been threatened and indeed attacked.

On Sunday morning during the Blues music show "Blues on the Move" Duane went into a bit of a testimonial about the vital importance of the support from the listeners to the existence of the station (member support accounts for 85% of the annual operating budget--the other 15% comes from a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant) and spoke of the diversity of the programming as one of the station's greatest strengths. He admitted that there was programming on the station's schedule that he did not care for personally but was committed to supporting just as much as the programming that he does enjoy--not just because he is the GM--but because he believes in the mission and service that the station provides to the community that supports it.

I feel the same way about KPFT, as has been evidenced in past posts. It's an amazing resource, a relative rarity here in the U.S. (there are only five flagship Pacifica stations along with several hundred affiliates), one that will endure despite the attempts of individuals who only know how to speak in the language of force and therefore assume that that is all anyone else can understand.

KPFT bills itself as "Radio for Peace." I guess that is just to much for some folks to handle.

Exeunt the Brain, Stage Left...

MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Karl Rove, President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration.