It’s enough to make me send a donation to PETA…..almost.

…the spectator sport China DOESN’T want you to see:

“Baying crowds now gather in zoos across the country to watch animals being torn to pieces by lions and tigers.

Just an hour’s drive from the main Olympic attractions in Beijing, Badaling is in many ways a typical Chinese zoo.

Next to the main slaughter arena is a restaurant where families can dine on braised dog while watching cows and goats being disembowelled by lions.

The zoo also encourages visitors to “fish” for lions using live chickens as bait. For just £2, giggling visitors tie terrified chickens onto bamboo rods and dangle them in front of the lions, just as a cat owner might tease their pet with a toy.”

Zoos like this make me want to boycott everything Chinese,” says Emma Milne, star of the BBC’s Vets In Practice. “I’d like to rip out everything in my house that’s made in China. I have big problems with their culture. “If you enjoy watching an animal die then that’s a sad and disgusting reflection on you.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by their behaviour towards animals, as the value of human life is so low in China.”

One more example of how this twisted, sick culture entertains itself:

“Even worse is in store for the animals of Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village near Guilin in south-east China.

Here, live cows are fed to tigers to amuse cheering crowds. During a recent visit, I watched in horror as a young cow was stalked and caught. Its screams and cries filled the air as it struggled to escape.”

Read the whole article if you can stomach it.

I’m feeling a bit ill.

[Discuss this article with RWS over at RightWing Cafe...]

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Big Surprise from China - word in that there are more recalls of Chinese made toys. Imagine that look on your son or daughter’s face when you have to throw out their favorite Chinese made miniature car. It’s ok though, all you have to do is tell them about the dangers of lead poisoning.

General physical symptoms in children and adults (usually seen when lead poisoning levels are severe)

* Stomachaches, cramping, constipation, or diarrhea
* Nausea, vomiting
* Persistent, unexplained fatigue
* Headache
* Muscle weakness
* Higher rates of tooth decay

Children with chronic low blood lead levels who may not have obvious symptoms of lead poisoning may have learning problems and be smaller in size than children their age who do not have low to moderate levels of lead poisoning. A recent study showed that declines in IQ can even be seen in children with blood lead concentrations below 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (10 mcg/dL), the level of concern defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.11 Chronic exposure to lead may also cause behavioral problems in these children.
Behavioral symptoms in children

* Irritability or aggressiveness
* Hyperactivity, being easily distracted, impulsiveness
* Learning problems
* Lack of interest in play
* Loss of appetite

Behavioral symptoms in adults

* Irritability
* Unexplained changes in mood or personality
* Changes in sleep patterns
* Inability to concentrate
* Memory loss

Neurological symptoms (caused by effects of lead on the nervous system)

* Poor coordination
* Weakness in hands and feet
* Headaches
* Seizures
* Paralysis
* Coma

But hey, they are the lucky ones; at least they are alive (albeit debilitated).

The unlikely children are the ones that ingested the a toy called Aqua Dot Beads.

Aqua Dot Beads are fun filled dots that can be fused together when sprayed with water. Symptoms of Aqua Dot bead ingestion closely resemble that of date rape drugs because the fun filled toys contain the same chemical GHB. The beads have caused several children to fall into comas.

Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound — made from common and easily available ingredients — can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

Aren’t the Chinese such great business partners? Make sure you thank your favorite elected official for thinking so little about the ramifications of unfettered free trade with Communist Red China before selling you and your family’s health down the river.

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Once again we need to thank the Chinese for their continued supply of tainted products. This time, fake Halloween teeth.

The $2 packages of “Ugly Teeth” are only the latest in a long line of Chinese-made toys and novelty items recalled because of lead. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall on Halloween, in a late-morning news release.

I am surprised that the United States continues to allow imported Chinese products. How many recalls do we need before we stop purchasing goods from China?

Update: I find it quite troubling that the fake tooth recall didn’t happen until today. We were out this evening and I saw kids with fake vampire teeth. Their parents were appalled when I told them about the recall.

In the midst of this recall one should ask who should be to blame? Do we hold China accountable? Most certainly. But everyone has known for quite some time that this was a problem. Ultimately the blame should fall on the U.S. government. Politicians have sold out to special interest groups, some more than others. Which begs the question, why aren’t politicians with deep ties to China held accountable for tainted food, lead filled toys, substandard metal, and just about everything else coming out of that country? This issue is not Partisan, both side are to blame. Think of that as you read the following:

About 142,000 purple witch buckets, manufactured by Family Dollar Stores in Charlotte, N.C., were recalled because of toxic lead levels found in the paint coating them. Also pulled were 55,000 candy-filled skull pails, made by R.L. Albert & Son of Greenwich, Conn.

Fears involving flammability were the reason 120,000 “Creepy Cape” costumes produced by the U.S.-based TONY Development and Manufacturing have been flagged. And the 97,000 recalled Mr. Potato Head “Make a Monster Pumpkin” sets were deemed a danger because they contained parts tots could choke on.

Also recalled earlier this month were about 63,000 green Frankenstein cups sold at Dollar General stores across the country.

Fake choppers called “Ugly Teeth” tested positive for lead too, with conflicting reports about whether the levels surpassed the limits set by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Halloween products are the latest in a toy recall blitz that’s reached staggering heights since the summer — with more than 21 million toys and other products manufactured in China taken off store shelves because of hazardous levels of lead and other dangers.

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The Clintons sure do know how to talk the Chinese into donating every last cent they have, and then some, to the election campaign of Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Forget the fact that most of the Chinatown donors don’t make as much per month as they are donating to Hillary Clinton, forget the fact that many said they felt pressure to donate or that some say the donations were reimbursed. That is of course the instances when “the donors” can be found. Unfortunately some are willing to forget; mainly the usual suspects in the mainstream media.

Here is the LA Times report that started it all.

NEW YORK — Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door.

And again not too far away, at 88 E. Broadway beneath the Manhattan bridge, where vendors chatter in Mandarin and Fujianese as they hawk rubber sandals and bargain-basement clothes.

All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate — Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton’s campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.

At this point in the presidential campaign cycle, Clinton has raised more money than any candidate in history. Those dishwashers, waiters and street stall hawkers are part of the reason.

[~snip]

Many of Clinton’s Chinatown donors said they had contributed because leaders in neighborhood associations told them to. In some cases, donors said they felt pressure to give.

Part of this is a ploy to help illegal immigrants. Another part of the plan seems to be rooted in collecting illegal campaign donations, either by ineptitude or a willful act of deception by playing the “we aren’t watching close enough” game. In either case we have a Presidential candidate with a family history of corruption tied to China allowing more of the same.

At best Hillary Clinton is one of the most incompetent people to ever run a campaign. At worst she is corrupt. If I had to choose I’d pick door C for “corruption”; especially considering the LA Times report.

The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.

And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs — including dishwasher, server or chef — that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.

Of 74 residents of New York’s Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.

Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.

Pretty damning evidence. One would think that the mainstream media, naturally following its stated goal to inform and investigate, would feel compelled to pursue these Clinton fundraising scandals further. Especially considering that the person elected to office will be the most powerful person in the free world. Having a corrupt or inept person in that role just might be a little newsworthy.

The NY Times did cover the story in Saturday’s edition (see Clinton Returned $7,000, Campaign Says). Unfortunately the NY Times version of the story doesn’t ask some key questions and actually makes it look like the Clinton campaign took action on their own without any impetus such as an external investigation by the LA Times.

Among other things the New York Times fails to address, how in the world did the Clintons locate these people to give the money back? Also, if the Clinton campaign raked in $380,000 in a single fundraiser (one similar to a previous one held by John Kerry that netted him only $24,000), and 1/3 of the donors could not be found based on information provided, that would put the Clinton campaign somewhere around $125,000 in unaccounted for donations (assuming that the donations were proportionally divided as an example). So why then is the campaign only returning a paltry $7,000

It doesn’t take a reporter to answer these questions. It takes a New York Times reporter to ignore these questions. Think about that the next time you feel compelled to waste $1.25 on the worlds worst newspaper.

It takes a paper like the NYT cross town rival, NY Post to do the real work:

October 20, 2007 — Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been raising huge piles of money in Chinatown, but some of it has come from donors who can’t be located or who were improperly repaid for their contributions, according to The Post and other reports.

A search of Chinatown donors yesterday by The Post found several bogus addresses and some contributions that raised eyebrows.

Shin K. Cheng is listed twice in federal records for giving $1,000 donations to Clinton’s campaign on April 17.

But the address recorded on campaign reports is a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases, hemorrhoids and skin disease.

No one at the address knew of a Shin K. Cheng.

Another donation came from a Shih Kan Chang on Canal Street. But the address listed is a shop that sells knock-off watches and other pirated goods. The sales clerk there did not know the donor.

Hsiao Yen Wang, a cook in Chinatown, is listed as giving Clinton $1,000 on April 13. Contacted yesterday, she told The Post she had written a check.

But it was on behalf of a man named David Guo, president of the Fujian American Cuisine Council, and Wang told The Post that Guo had repaid her for the $1,000 contribution.

Such “straw donations” are strictly prohibited by federal law.

As for Hillary Clinton; what did anyone expect? This is more of the same ol’, same ol’. You get what you see. If anyone thinks that Hillary Clinton offers some hope for this nation I’d like to know why. Up to now all I have seen is fake accents, false promises, a bogus resume and a whole lot of illegal fundraising. That should be all that anyone needs to know about the Democrat heir apparent.

See also: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Right Voices

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Mattel has apologized to China for recalling more toys that were necessary and is taking part of the blame due to “design flaws”.

The New York Times Reports:

U.S.-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.

The gesture by Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, came in a meeting with Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, at which Li upbraided the company for maintaining weak safety controls.

”Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls,” Debrowski told Li in a meeting at Li’s office at which reporters were allowed to be present.

”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,” Debrowski said.

The carefully worded apology, delivered with company lawyers present, underscores China’s central role in Mattel’s business. The world’s largest toy maker has been in China for 25 years and about 65 percent of its products are made in China.

The fence-mending call came ahead of an expected visit to China by Mattel’s chairman and chief executive, Robert A. Eckert. Following the massive recall, Eckert told U.S. lawmakers he wanted to see Mattel’s mainland inspections first hand.

If anyone should apologize it should be China; and not just for lead based painted toys. They should apologize for their faulty tires, tainted toothpaste, tainted wheat gluten, tainted cosmetics, faulty diabetic kits, and the list goes on. Maybe Mattel can apologize and take “part” responsiblity for those things too. What a joke.

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According to the AP, China has vowed to make toys safe for Christmas.

The Chinese-made toys children receive for Christmas this year will be safe, the head of China’s product safety agency said Wednesday, pledging that problems over the use of dangerous lead paint will be resolved in time for holiday exports.

China also had this to say:

Li reiterated the government’s stance that part of the recalls were due to changes in U.S. safety standards and were not the fault of the Chinese manufacturers. Still, he said, the issue “needs the common cooperation of the two countries to unify the standards.”

I see China has become a big political player within the pass the buck crowd. But hey, I suppose we do have to share some of the blame for not checking every toy, cosmetic, tube of toothpaste, tire, clothing, bag of wheat gluten, etc… that comes through our borders from a country that is known to be one of the biggest human rights violators. But this is who we are as Americans, we are all too trusting. Our lives have been good for so long that we take for granted that these kinds of problems can actually occur.

What I find quite interesting about this new Chinese stance is back in August China vehemently defended itself stating that:

Although there are a few problems with some made-in-China toys, generally the safety quality is worthy of being trusted.

snip

The Chinese government and producers pay a great deal of attention to toy safety and quality, and have adopted tough certification standards to guarantee safety

Why the contradiction? If the toys were “worthy of being trusted” and “producers” paid “a great deal of attention to toy safety and quality” in August, why are they making the current statement regarding toy safety by Christmas? If the toys were safe in August shouldn’t they be safe now?

In my August article I eluded to the fact that Chinese toy exports are a big part of their money base and that:

If I had to wager, I would say that China is less worried about the safety and is more worried about keeping its exports at the current numbers.

I’ll stand by that statement now more than ever. With all of the recalls I am sure that toy distributors are seriously questioning whether or not dealing with China was such a good idea after all. Especially if children start to suffer ill effects from Chinese imports…..can you spell lawsuit?

It is no surprise that China is scrambling to save one of their biggest financial bases; what would be a surprise is if the Americans do not wake up from their slumber, take China’s word, and continue to by crap that could seriously wreak havoc on our children’s health.

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It’s time for a boycott. Mattel is out there again recalling hundreds of thousands of toys poisoned with lead paint. I have discovered a phone number and an email address (which was NOT easy) and I encourage you to follow my example and call and email your thoughts on Chinese manufacturing.

Mattel Corporate Communications 310-252-4705
corporate.communications@mattel.com

Please contact them to let them know we will not be buying any toys or products made by Mattel until they move their manufacturing to a country that cares whether or not they are poisoning our children.

Here is the gigantic list of recalled toys CLICK HERE

This is getting ridiculous. The president of Mattel has a video HERE “assuring” parents that they are committed to the safety of their products. HA! If they are that committed, they will get the hell OUT of China.

Mattel’s commitment to safety means nothing when there are 19 million poisoned toys in the mouths of infants right now. There’s a very simple solution to their problem. MOVE the manufacturing to Vietnam, Japan, India…ANYWHERE other than China. There are needy people everywhere who could benefit from jobs. Why are we so stuck in China?

[Discuss this article with Little Fox over at The Intolerant Fox...]

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I have a brilliant, dare I say genius, solution to the poisonous crap coming out of China. Lots of us don’t want to buy lead-laced toys for our kids to suck on, but can’t afford to buy fancy-pants priced items made somewhere else. While listening to Michael Medved today, I had an epiphany. The big problem is that American companies have outsourced their manufacturing to China because the Chinese pay 8-year-olds .08 cents an hour to sew Elmos together and ship them here while American unions force companies to pay uneducated factory workers (with vocabularies of an average 8-year-old) upwards of $10-$15 an hour. This, of course, drives the prices way higher than the general public wants to pay.

Enter my frabjastic idea. I can do better than .08 cents an hour. How about .00 cents an hour? Free labor. Right now, in prisons all over America, capable hands sit idly, lifting weights, making shivs, violating their roomates…and they’re ours for the taking! I say we offer up the incarcerated population to all the toy companies as free labor! Why shouldn’t they earn their keep? I’d rather my tax money go for training inmates on how to build a lead-free Tickle-Me-Elmo than to their cable-porn habits, wouldn’t you? Get them up in the morning, get them on a bus, take them to the factory, put them in shifts around the clock and start pumping out those American-made toys for all of us to enjoy at Walmart!

Not only will this solve the Chinese competition problem, but it will give inmates some real skills they can apply in the world (other than shooting up or shooting folks) and maybe deter some would-be criminals who would rather not work an assembly line for 10 to 20.

This may be the best idea anyone has ever had. (Besides electricity.)

One thing is for sure. Our dependency on China is as toxic as our dependancy on terrorist oil. They’re both killing us. America is a great nation with untapped resources and the capability of being totally self-sufficient. Why don’t we just do it?

[Discuss this article with LIttle Fox over at The Intolerant Fox...]

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Yep, I’ve had to make a Chinese poisoning category for the high number incidents from China. Why the heck do we have to buy products from this country in the first place? Look below for today’s sometimes laughable but potentially dangerous products made in China…

• A Beijing factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection.
• Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have been recalled across Australia and New Zealand
• Retailer Toys “R” Us said on Friday it removed all Hamco Inc.’s vinyl baby bibs
• American bottlers of apple juice have been using concentrate from China in the production of their apple juice for the past five years.

I guess it will take a full blown outbreak of some exotic bacteria or sickness from chemicals to catch the attention of most people as they really just go to work each day and don’t think twice about the seafood they just picked up from the store. As for me, I will not buy anything from China unless there isn’t an American equivalent or it is made from a first world location. The other day I went to Home Depot to purchase a Crescent-type wrench and noticed that the “Husky” brand was a couple of dollars cheaper and marked “China”. Then I looked at the “Crescent” brand and noticed it was only a couple of bucks more but the handle had been dipped in sponge rubber for comfort and it was clealy marked “USA”. Well that settled it for me, I grabbed the American one and off I went. I wonder how many of you scrutinize the same way.

Go here to see that China isn’t the only supplier of poisonous food products.

[Discuss This Topic with RWS at Right Wing Cafe]

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China is now accusing the U.S. of exporting soybeans that are loaded with pesticides in retaliation for their own lack of quality control and regulatory oversight. This is rich. The country that could care less about what goes into food, toys, or eight year olds working as slave labor, is going to try to equate the United States with them. I don’t think so.
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