Obama Toys With Foreign Policy ... And Fails

It's not easy being green ... politically green, untested and naive.

Big, tough Barack Obama shows us this truth after pandering to the Mommy Vote and declaring that as president, he would ban all Chinese-made toys from these shores.

After his aides pointed out that China might react badly to that, and that China's holding a lot of our treasury notes, and that so far it hasn't attacked Taiwan, and that it's American toy companies and retailers that profit from the toys, and that there's this thing called "contractual obligations," and that the Christmas retail season is pretty darn important to the IRS, and that parents just might be able to choose safe toys since there is, you know, some semblance of oversight, well, Obama rethought his tough stand:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday stepped back from a pledge to halt U.S. imports of Chinese-made toys because of safety concerns.

Instead, the Illinois senator, who is in a tight race with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York to win the Democratic presidential nomination, reiterated his longstanding call for barring toys with more than a trace amount of lead.

"Now, don't get me wrong: As president, I'll work with China to keep harmful toys off our shelves," he said in Greenfield, Iowa, according to a statement from his campaign for the November 2008 election, .

On Wednesday, Obama had told voters in New Hampshire: "I would stop the import of all toys from China," which supplies about 80 percent of U.S. toys.

All toys?! Send in the spinmeisters!

A spokesman for Obama, Josh Earnest, said the candidate had been referring in New Hampshire to banning "toys that contain more than a trace level of lead, coming from China or anywhere else."

Great name this guy's got, since he might be "Josh"-ing us, even though he appears so "Earnest." But earnest as he may try to be, "all toys" does not equal "toys that contain more than a trace level of lead."

I'm not a fan of selling out quality and safety for the cheapness of Chinese products, as I've written about here, here, here, here, here, here and here, but I'm even less of a fan of political wannabees who think they can play in on the big stage but clearly haven't got the stuff for even the local dinner theater.

Barack, tame your problematic ego, go back to the Senate, learn a thousand things or two, then come back and take another shot at it.

You'll not only be less laughable, you'll be less dangerous.

New From China: The Date Rape Drug For Your Kids!

As if poisoning them with lead wasn't bad enough, the Chinese Commies are now drugging our children with GHB, the date rape drug:

U.S. consumer-products regulators are moving to get more than four million sets of arts-and-craft toys called Aqua Dots off store shelves.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to announce a recall of the sets, according to CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese. The CPSC has received two reports of children in the U.S. swallowing Aqua Dots and they slipped into "non-responsive comas." Both children are now fine. (WSJ)

WSJ rewrote its earlier report, but I have a copy because I sent it to Incredible Wife, who produced the Voice of the Victims films on designer drugs. Here's what's missing from this report:

The bizarre nature of the children's symptoms led to speculation that the toys had been intentionally poisoned. But on Wednesday the toy's manufacturer, Moose Enterprise, of Melbourne , Australia , said the problem had been traced to a Chinese factory contracted by Moose that substituted a toxic chemical with a safe type of glue during the manufacturing process.

Moose declined to name the manufacturer but said the beads contained an adhesive solvent called "1,4 butylene glycol," which can simulate the drug gamma hydroxyl butyrate when ingested, causing seizures, coma or death. The toy hasn't been linked to any deaths.

Gamma hydroxybutyrate is GHB, an odorless and tasteless liquid. It is classified as a sedative and has long-lasting anesthetic effects on the user. Users like the relaxed, euphoric feeling it provides, but dosing is difficult. What is OK for one will knock out another. A capful will make you feel intoxicated, but two capfuls can be fatal and the addictive effects are well documented, as this mug shot of a GHB-zapped Nick Nolte reminds us.

The most notorious GHB rape case was that of Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, who fled to Mexico to avoid jail.

So again I ask: Why do we continue to purchase anything from China?

The Green Mr. Putin?

Kurt Vonnegut wrote gleefully of granfalloons, a wonderful construct we've all observed in our lives. His prime example was Hoosiers -- not just people from Indiana, but people from Indiana who, as Hoosiers, felt themselves part of something bigger ... a false community they believed to be real. Sure, there are people from Indiana, but there is no cosmic fellowship involved; it's just geographic coincidence.

Vladimir Putin is doing a big of granfallooning of his own, saying in Iran yesterday that no Caspian Sea nation should allow its lands to be used for attacks against other Caspian sea nations. He was obviously wagging a finger at Azerbaijan, warning its leadership not to allow the US to use bases there to attack Iran.

His Kaspian Konstruct also works well for him not just on global policy issues, but also on economic ones, since it allows him to attack any effort by other Caspian nations to better themselves without Moscow breathing heavily down their necks, sour vodka smell and all.

Putin, whose trip to Tehran is the first by a Kremlin leader since World War II, warned that energy pipeline projects crossing the Caspian could only be implemented if all five nations that border the Caspian support them.

Putin did not name any specific country, but his statement underlined Moscow's strong opposition to U.S.-backed efforts to build pipelines to deliver hydrocarbons to the West bypassing Russia.

It's an interesting theory that doesn't play too well on a world stage. Imagine Egypt telling Spain it can't undertake some project because there wasn't unanimity among Mediterranean nations. What could be his justification? Oh -- it's One Earth drivel!

"Projects that may inflict serious environmental damage to the region cannot be implemented without prior discussion by all five Caspian nations," he said.

That's got to be the Laugher of the Week, given Russia's long history of environmental destruction on the Caspian Sea, the desires of other Caspian nations be damned.

Back in 2003, the UN set up yet another useless task force, this one to help improve the environment of the Caspian, and in announcing the effort, it laid out what Caspian nations (with the exception of Iran, all former Soviet states) had done to their common sea:

The Caspian Sea is under severe stress from industrial pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, agricultural run-off, sewage, and leaks from oil extraction and refining.

Other threats include uncontrolled fishing of caviar-producing sturgeon, the overexploitation of other marine resources, and the destruction of the region’s biological diversity, which includes some 400 species unique to the Caspian. On top of this, water levels are currently rising, threatening coastal communities and ecosystems.

Now suddenly the leader of the world's greatest polluter wants veto authority over any project -- even one designed by Americans with environmental protections incorporated that the Soviets would never have dreamed of -- that steps foot in the polluted Caspian environment. Once the laughter dies down, the Caspian states should tell him they don't care one bit if their oil resources get sold on the world market without Moscow's meddling.

In these statements, Putin shows himself to be a member of something that is decidedly not a granfalloon: that large pack of self-aggrandizing world leaders who put rhetoric far ahead of reason or truth.

Ladies, Check Your Underwear

In Burma, where jobs are as scarce as freedoms, women in the border town of Myawaddy cross the muddy Moei River to Thailand, where, if they are lucky, can work for $4.30 a day sewing together bras that eventually reach our shores labeled as Vanity Fair or Maidenform.

The little tag in your underthings will read "Made in Thailand" if it is their handiwork, but your bra was probably made by Burmese, and to some extent at least, your bra is helping keep the world's longest-going military dictatorship in power. The riots that rocked Burma's larger cities earlier this month didn't ripple the waters in Myawaddy, thanks to its relative (very relative) economic prosperity.

Lest my lady readers burn their bras in protest, its good to remember what the American manager of the bra factory told the WSJ (subscribers only):

"There is nothing over there for them," says Michael Lurer, boss of the Top Form factory. The 32-year-old American argues that his jobs, providing take-home pay of about $3 a day, offer an opportunity for the hungry from Myanmar. "They have no food, no income, no nothing," he says, standing outside his riverside plant, a few miles from the Thai town of Mae Sot.

We free market types see capitalism as the answer to the world's ills, and it is providing some relief to some desperate people on the Burma-Thailand border -- but it is also exploiting people who work for companies less enlightened, if we can use that word, than Top Form. Top Form is, of course, exploiting Burma's desparation to its advantage, but the operators of other factories in Myawaddy are far worse, keeping their workers penned into their factories, paying a fraction of the minimum wage, and offering no health care, as Top Form does.

No solutions are perfect, but the Burma Junta's utter destruction of one of Southeast Asia's most promising economies in the 45 years it has been in power shows that totalitarianism and state-run economies are no match for capitalism if the goal is a healthy, well-fed populace.

If Myawaddy's businesses were to be shut down through economic sanctions on the Junta, only the Burmese people would suffer. Our lingerie may go up a nickel or less in cost, which is nothing to us, but their income may go down a nickel or more, which is profound to them. So, all things considered, wear your "Made in Thailand" bras with a certain amount of pride. You're putting food on some otherwise empty tables.

photo: Andrew Higgins, WSJ

China, Part 3: Chinese Cribs Kill Babies

Q: Who would trust a precious baby to a Chinese-made product?

A: All of us, of course, because it's nearly impossible to avoid these products as long-trusted manufacturers switch their manufacturing to the Peoples Republic of Shoddiness.

Now we have dead American babies, thanks to sloppy quality control:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and a U.S. company announced the voluntary recall of about one million cribs due to suffocation dangers.

The cribs are made by Simplicity for Children Inc., a Reading, Pa., manufacturer of infant bedding and other products. The cribs were manufactured in China.

The CPSC said it is aware of two deaths in the cribs with older-style hardware, including a 9-month-old child and a 6-month-old child, where the "drop-side" of the crib was installed upside down. A 1-year-old child died in a newer model of the cribs, which has not been recalled but is being investigated by the safety agency, CPSC officials said. ...

In all three deaths, the consumer had installed the drop-rail side of the crib upside down, the CPSC said. This creates a gap in the crib that children can slide into and suffocate. CPSC also said it was aware of seven infant entrapments and 55 incidents in these cribs. (See the CPSC announcement and photos.)(WSJ)

This appears more likely to be a design flaw that is the fault of the U.S. product designer, not the Chinese, but until the investigation is completed, this is filed under "China."

Questionable Quote Of The Day

"Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls. And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys."

That's Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel's Vice President of Worldwide Operations apologizing to Li Changjiang, China's chief of product safety.

At one level the apology is deserved, but at another it is troubling.

As you'll recall, many of the Mattel recalls involved a small magnetic clasp that was poorly designed, so it could break free and cause a choking hazard. That, Mattel now lately acknowledges, was their problem, not China's.

But the company also recalled toys with lead paint -- paint that had lead levels as high as 110,000 parts per million, or nearly 200 times higher than the accepted safety ceiling of 600 parts per million.

It is uncalled for to apologize for being over-cautious when dealing with lead and children -- especially if toys are from China, which has had a recent history of lead in toys.

Li was not nice to Debrowski. The AP article says Li "upbraided" the Mattel exec, but only provides us with this quote:

Li reminded Debrowski that "a large part of your annual profit ... comes from your factories in China.

"This shows that our cooperation is in the interests of Mattel, and both parties should value our cooperation. I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents," Li said, adding that Mattel should "improve their control measures."

Not exactly a rant, but still, it stinks as bad as the back door of a Shanghai greasy spoon (chopstick?). There is an implied threat in there: "A large part of your annual profit comes from your factories in China ... (and unspoken at least at the photo session) and remember who controls how long it will take for shipments from those factories to be cleared for export."

China does not appear to be responding to the toxic toy crisis by tightening its controls as much as it's response is tried and true Commie: Shut up the mouths of the complainers.

It's what we can expect from our economic dance with this brute. Our toes will get stepped on, not his.