REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu failed to appear Wednesday for a bail hearing and a judge issued a new warrant for his arrest.
Hsu forfeits the $2 million bail he posted last week.
Hsu's lawyer said he doesn't know where his client is. "Beats me"
Hsu had been a fugitive in California for 15 years during which time he became a top donor to Democratic candidates, including presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
Hsu pleaded no contest in 1991 to a felony count of grand theft, admitting he'd defrauded investors of $1 million in a bogus investment scam. Prosecutors say he was facing up to three years in prison when he skipped town before being sentenced.
Federal Election Commission records show Hsu donated $260,000 to the Democratic Party and candidates since 2004.
#1
Just vacationing in China, and the $2M bail was chump change to the Chicoms. Next revelation will be that Winkle Paw and Ma & Pa Paw will be mysteriously missing from the empty house in Daly City. Bill and Hill will remain 'shocked' and keep the money, as will JFK jr et al.
#2
I predict his decomposed corpse will be found in a few weeks, with a bullet hole in the head. He became a liability to someone, and he was sanctioned. Wait...what is that sound? The ghost of Vince Foster laughing?
Posted by: Natural Law ||
09/05/2007 15:44 Comments ||
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#5
Actually, Mr. Hsu made his fortune in the Chinese laundry business.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2007 16:42 Comments ||
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#6
In retrospect, they should be able to lock up the lawyer and get the FBI in on this....his 'assistant' spent 90 minutes LAST WEEK going through Hsu's apartment (he had a key?) "looking for the passport". While looking, he probably helped Hsu pack for the trip to Ft. Marcy Park? MSNBS headline is 'Discredited Dem Donor Misses Bail Hearing' Yep, move along...
I don't know how to categorize this, but it seemed post-worthy.
One might even postulate that it wasn't a 'mistake', and that the flight was actually bound for somewhere other than Barksdale - say, Qom or Bushehr - but word leaked and it was called off? Even if that story is not true, it is certainly worth 'leaking', as a signal to certain Muslim leaders.
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 5, 2007 5:36:22 EDT
A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.
The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. Interesting that we a trashing 400 deliverable nukes while countries like NK & Iran are struggling to build their first lab version. You'd think that little fact ought to make them pucker a little as they try to royally p**s us off.
But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles were mounted onto the pylons of the bombers wings.
Advanced Cruise Missiles carry a W80-1 warhead with a yield of 5 to 150 kilotons and are specifically designed for delivery by B-52 strategic bombers.
Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said the transfer was safely conducted and the weapons were in Air Force custody and control at all times.
However, the mistake was not discovered until the B-52 landed at Barskdale, which left the warheads unaccounted for during the approximately 3 1/2 hour flight between the two bases, the officers said.
An investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of Air and Space Operations at Air Combat Command Headquarters, was launched immediately to find the cause of the mistake and figure out how it could have been prevented, Thomas said.
Air Force officials wouldnt officially specify whether nuclear weapons were involved, in accordance with long-standing Defense Department policy regarding nuclear munitions, Thomas said. However, the three officers close to the situation did confirm the warheads were nuclear.
Officials at Minot immediately conducted an inventory of its nuclear weapons after the oversight was discovered, and Thomas said he could confirm that all remaining nuclear weapons at Minot are accounted for.
Air Force standards are very exacting when it comes to munitions handling, he said. The weapons were always in our custody and there was never a danger to the American public.
At no time was there a risk for a nuclear detonation, even if the B-52 crashed on its way to Barksdale, said Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who worked on nuclear weapons policy in 1993-94. A crash could ignite the high explosives associated with the warhead, and possibly cause a leak of the plutonium, but the warheads elaborate safeguards would prevent a nuclear detonation from occurring, he said.
The main risk would have been the way the Air Force responded to any problems with the flight because they would have handled it much differently if they would have known nuclear warheads were onboard, he said.
The risk of the warheads falling into the hands of rogue nations or terrorists was minimal since the weapons never left the United States, according to Fetter and Michael OHanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent research and policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
The crews involved with the mistaken load at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot have been temporarily decertified from performing their duties involving munitions pending corrective actions or additional training, Thomas said.
Air Combat Command will have a command-wide mission stand down Sept. 14 to review their procedures in response to this oversight, he said.
The Air Force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously, he said. No effort will be spared to ensure that the matter is thoroughly and completely investigated.
#1
If we were going to hit Qom or Bushehr, it would not be with a B-52. Although a wonderful airplane, it is not stealthy, and would easily be spotted before it arrived. With a B-2, the first indication the Iranians would have that something was nearby was when the bombs went off.
#3
The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs.
Nuttin' says decommissioning like dropping them over Qom or Bushehr to me.
An investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg
Name's too close to rantburg. Is Fred moonlighting again?
Posted by: BA ||
09/05/2007 11:32 Comments ||
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#4
Interesting that we a trashing 400 deliverable nukes while countries like NK & Iran are struggling to build their first lab version. You'd think that little fact ought to make them pucker a little as they try to royally p**s us off.
It's always been about will, not about resources. You can have the biggest scariest monster on the block, but if everyone knows you won't release it, it has no 'deterrent' value and gives a false sense of security and power. Meanwhile the out of control neighbor, with a serious case of arrested adolescent development swinging a baseball bat while the 'authorities' keep passing the buck on getting him/her under control, has a heck of a lot more influence on the hood and how everyone else conducts their daily business.
#7
They're built to fly with Nukes aboard, big shit, not worth reporting.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/05/2007 12:06 Comments ||
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#8
Even if we aren't the adolescent with the baseball bat, can't we take advantage of this exercise to cause the adolescent bullies to pause and wonder whether, just maybe, there ARE some adolescents loose in our house? Adolescents with MUCH bigger baseball bats?
#10
With all Putin has been up to with new flights and such if I were running the Airforce I'd release a few harmless mistakes to the media. Let Putin realize we're armed, and also scare him with the reminder that when playing with big guns mistakes happen.
#12
I like the idea of this being a 'message' to somebody. Perhaps there was to be a candygram for somebody, but it got scrubbed, as postulated earlier. And altho' not stealthy, there isn't much that could reach a high flying BUFF, and that assumes there would be no fighter or ECM assets on its wing at run in to target time.
methinks there is more to this story that meets the eye......
#13
Guys, the problem is not that the nukes were onboard the BUFF, it is that no one knew it until the missiles were downloaded at Barksdale. This is the end of career for the wing commander, the squadron commander, the five officers on the crew (the EW might skate, but I think he is probably toast as well), the maintenance squadron commander, and every yo-yo who got anywhere near this. The cardinal rule of Strategic Command is that you know where your nukes are at ALL times. This degree of carelessness is absolutely totally unforgivable. If the officers and men at Minot charged with the care of nuclear weapons were so incompetent that they did not know that five of their warheads were gone until the phone rang, what is to keep someone from driving one out the back gate. They committed the worst sin imaginable in the Air Force, they were UNPROFESSIONAL.
#14
RWV is absolutely correct. BUFFs carrying nukes over the continental USA is about as amazing as an anti-Bush editorial in the NYTs. What do you think they were carrying when we were 24/7/365 running the circle route during the cold war. Are the media so naive as to think we have given up our strategic air capability and just have the crews sitting in alert shacks waiting for a telegram from the POTUS? Geez I think these guys believe Slim Pickens is the pilot.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/05/2007 15:53 Comments ||
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#16
Heads are going to roll! I once witnessed a crew member violate the two man control rule while preflighting a B61 on an F-4. He was immediately decertified and went through hell getting recertified. It was nearly a year before he could participate in nuclear exercises and briefings and his permanent record still had the decertification.....Oh, by the way, the B61 in question was a 'dummy' inert test unit used for training purposes. These guys are toast.
Posted by: Total War ||
09/05/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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#17
B-52 Mistakenly Flies With Nukes Aboard
Man, I hate it when that happens!
The risk of the warheads falling into the hands of rogue nations or terrorists was minimal since the weapons never left the United States
I doubt that terrorists had anything to do with this or could have taken advantage of it. But this sentence is kind of odd since the terrorists would love nothing more than to both have a nuke and to get it inside the US somehow. If they were to have been able to know about this beforehand, it would have been a scenario made in heaven for them.
#18
Yes, Gorb, but if the terrorists knew about it, and hijacked the B-52, and knew how to launch the weapons, and target them, think of the devestation they could've caused!
Posted by: Dan Rather ||
09/05/2007 18:37 Comments ||
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#19
That aroma you smell is several careers turned to toast.
Badly burnt toast.
That said, remember that the Army Times has been owned for a while by a group that isn't all that supportive of the military.
#21
Is it just me, or why does it seem like in every major US war since the 1950's a US heavy bomber, usu a B52, finds itself involved in a potentially dangerous nuke accident invol on-board nuke weapons??? ANYHOO, RIAN > Russia to begin [armed?]routine remote-area/peripheral heavy bomber patrols on September 6th.
#23
We've all been duped, that operation was no accident...they wanted those missiles in Louisiana to load an awaiting submarine, for the upcoming Iranian showdown! Mark my words, they won't confirm that the birds will be back in Minot just as fast as they got to Barksdale!
A small plane carrying aviation adventurer Steve Fossett has been missing since Monday night, federal officials said Tuesday.
Fossett took off in the single engine Bellanca at 8:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) Monday at a private airstrip on a ranch in western Nevada and did not return as scheduled. A friend reported him missing, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Maryland. "The Civil Air Patrol is looking for him. One problem is he doesn't appear to have filed a flight plan," Gregor told The Associated Press.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And Guam Senator Mark Forbes to receive treatment for cancer in the Philippines, ala 1960's-70's Guam Taotamonas.
#2
A flight plan, though not necessary by law, is a good thing. Even a flight notification to a friend or associate is good. At the very least, it is a courtesy to your potential rescuers. Knowing your destination helps. And if you give position reports to the FAA flight service station every 30 minutes, you really narrow down the search area.
Knowing where you are going for, say, a 300 mile trip makes the search down to a strip, say 20 miles wide x 300 miles long, or 6000 sq miles. Not knowing where you went makes it a circle of at least 300 mile radius, or 283,000 sq miles.
I have been on searches like that. Pilots with no notification to anyone of their plans pi$$ me off.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/05/2007 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
The plane took off from a private airstrip on Barron Hilton's ranch, after it had been checked out by his personal mechanic to look at possible land speed trial locations. He left his sat phone behind, flew low and didn't trigger a transponder signal, nor give off a satellite signal upon impact. FOX also said this area is used by the military to train as it resembles Afghanistan, and the National Guard is looking with sophisticated technology. Just seems like there should be more to the story with all these wealthy pilots, as the pictures of Fossett almost always include Branson.
Hurricane Felix slammed into Nicaragua's Miskito Coast as a record-setting Category 5 monster storm Tuesday, whipping metal rooftops through the air like razors and forcing thousands to flee. "The winds are horrible," Red Cross official Claudio Vanegas said by phone from the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Cabezas shortly after Felix struck land nearby with winds of 260 kph (160 mph). "They send roofs flying through the air, so we aren't going outside because it is too dangerous."
Meanwhile, off Mexico's Pacific coast, Hurricane Henriette bore down on upscale Cabo San Lucas, a resort popular with Hollywood stars and sports fishermen. The US National Hurricane Center said it had winds of 120 kph (75 mph) and that the center would likely hit land Tuesday afternoon.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
This thing spun up more like an oversized tornado than a hurricane - real fast growth time and real compact core. Devastating, but not over the kind of area trashed by an Andrew, Rita or Katrina.
Felix struck land nearby with winds of 260 kph (160 mph). "They send roofs flying through the air, so we aren't going outside because it is too dangerous."
Guess what, Delbert - 160mph winds are too dangerous to go outside in even without roofs flying around.
Yeesh.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/05/2007 19:23 Comments ||
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#4
"We aren't going outside" > hope many are staying in some kind of concrete shelter(s) lest the outside comes inside to them.
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced.
An area almost twice as big as the UK disappeared in the last week alone.
Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone.
So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.
If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030. Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver, said: "It's amazing. It's simply fallen off a cliff and we're still losing ice."
The Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.
The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began thirty years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002. Dr Serreze said: "If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our childrens' lifetimes."
The new figures show that sea ice extent is currently down to 4.4m square kilometres (1.7m square miles) and still falling. The previous record low was 5.3m square kilometres in September 2005. From 1979 to 2000 the average sea ice extent was 7.7m square kilometres.
The sea ice usually melts in the Arctic summer and freezes again in the winter. But Dr Serreze said that would be difficult this year. "This summer we've got all this open water and added heat going into the ocean. That is going to make it much harder for the ice to grow back."
Changes in wind and ocean circulation patterns can help reduce sea ice extent, but Dr Serreze said the main culprit was man-made global warming. "The rules are starting to change and what's changing the rules is the input of greenhouse gases."
#2
"Different place ...within our childrens' lifetimes" > MADONNA's "League of Their Own" -"This used to be my playground ...Used to be the place I ran to ..."etc. Another place in [future] past time???
#4
Interesting information. I wonder how long it's been since this has occurred before?
All the pollution in the rivers of China pouring tio the ocean are acting as an anti-freeze in the Arctic. (See you can blame it on US consumers for you are nuts enough.)
#5
And if the global warming predicted by the "Hockey Stick" continues, all the water in the oceans will be vaporized by 2312 and the land will be molten by 2793!
Get your carbon indulgences here!
Posted by: A. Gore ||
09/05/2007 6:01 Comments ||
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#6
I wonder how long it's been since this has occurred before?
What is different this time is the Asian Pollution Cloud from primarily unscrubbed Chinese power and industrial plants, and to a smaller extent India and Indonesian fires. Contrast the small fraction of man made CO2 as a fraction of total CO2 vs. the amount of light absorbing soot deposited on snow vs. just 50 years ago.
Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases In the past two centuries, the Arctic has warmed about 1.6 degrees. Dirty snow caused .5 to 1.5 degrees of warming, or up to 94 percent of the observed change, the scientists determined.
So in a way, it is America's fault. Without the $300 billion/year purchases from China and the wholesale transfer of the US industrial base to unregulated China, the particulate emissions have increased many times.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2007 7:33 Comments ||
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#7
Except it's not true. Experts would be even more stunned if they went to try it out.
#10
If ALL the sea ice melted, it would not raise the sea level one millimeter. The glaciers on Greenland and Antartica are a different matter, but as rjschwarz pointed out, they are increasing.
#13
At least now I know where to plan my summer vaction in 2030.
Maybe the time has come for the "experts" to admit that they have no f*cking clue why these global changes are occurring, how fast they will progress or what to do about them.
#16
I'm starting to worry about the coming flip of the magnetic poles. I hope the Greens will soon devise a plan by which us little people can help keep the compasses working.
#17
TW you got that right. I'm a figgering that we'll get one of those magnetic shifts that create more than one set of poles like I saw on the Discovery Channel.
Kinda does a number on the Van Allen belts and lets in all kinds of nasty radiation. Then we'll see REAL glowball warming.
Sorry, Anonymoose, but it's either you or me, and I have the opposable thumb! However if you will just change your diet, you may be carbon-neutral enough that you won't be a problem. :-)
Ten thousand Congolese refugees have fled to neighbouring Uganda following clashes between the Congolese army and renegade troops in its eastern provinces, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The displaced said they were fleeing fighting between the government army and militia led by General Laurent Nkunda, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement. Congolese officials reported killing 28 soldiers loyal to Nkunda, a renegade army officer, in exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasting several hours on Monday. Refugees often flee violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been a tinderbox for armed conflict since neighbours Rwanda and Uganda invaded in 1998, sparking a 5-year war that aid agencies say killed 3.8 million. Many refugees return after a few days. With the prevailing insecurity in eastern DRC, such back and forth movements are likely to continue, UNHCR said, adding that it was organising shelter.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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In a step likely to anger Saudi Arabias royal family, a prominent Saudi prince said he plans to form a political party in a country that bans such groups, and that he will invite jailed reformists to join it.
Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, half-brother of King Abdullah and the father of Saudi Arabias richest private business tycoon, also criticised, in an interview on Monday with the Associated Press, what he termed an alleged monopoly on Saudi power by one faction within the Saudi royal family.
He did not name members of the faction, but was apparently referring to some of the countrys most powerful princes Crown Prince Sultan, Interior Minister Prince Naif and Riyadh Governor Prince Salman. Those princes, all likewise sons of the Saudi founder, King Abdul-Aziz, as are Talal and the king, are referred to as the Sudairies after their motherrs family.
Such a call for reform by someone inside the royal family is rare. Prince Talal holds no government post and is considered something of an outsider within the royal family, because of his past pushes for reform dating back decades, which forced him into exile briefly in the 1960s.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
democrat alert. Once they get started, they are hard as heck to stop.
#2
Ah, it's been a while, but royals have no problems with offing members of their own family when it suits them. Can I have some habanero butter for my popcorn, please...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/05/2007 12:59 Comments ||
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#3
Pushing a rope, if you ask me.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/05/2007 15:58 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2007 13:55 ||
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#1
Saying anything negative about China brings out the bully in China. Repressive governments can't help it. It is how they continue to keep their population under control.
#5
China is rapidly becoming the elephant in the economic henhouse. The West and all other trading nations have been absolute idiots to facilitate the unprecedented growth of such a huge military dictatorship.
Giving China any advanced technology permits them to sidestep laborious and expensive years on the technological learning curve. In light of China's institutionalized theft of intellectual property, they must be prohibited from obtaining any further specimens of critical hardware and software that speeds their growth.
So long as the Politburo keeps the playing field tilted so steeply in its favor, there is ZERO benefit to doing business with China. All cost savings vanish when the price of doing business comes back in thwarting Chinese sponsored proxy enemies like North Korea and Iran.
Whatever billions saved by purchasing inexpensive Chinese garbage are just as quickly pissed away in military actions, foreign aid or weapons support packages to our allies in order to counterbalance China's malign influence. The world community continues to pump untold millions of dollars in assistance into North Korea, whose murderous regime is propped up by Beijing. In effect, China creates a black hole for global wealth while it just as deftly hollows out the world's industrial base.
Similarly, China continues to thwart efforts at imposing serious sanctions against Iran and, instead, provides them with technology and weapons which are directed against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are nothing but arsonists scurrying about lighting fires that we must hurriedly extinguish. While we are preoccupied with such firefighting, China marches under the false banner of Free Trade and steals the money it spends to drain us of so much wealth. This is a classic no-win situation and we are playing the all-day sucker.
By funneling so much economic wealth into China's coffers, we are effectively financing a distinct segment of support for terrorism, despotic tyrannies like Zimbabwe and rogue regimes such as North Korea. It's time to halt significant trade with China and curtail their ability to make so much trouble on the world stage. No amount of cheap plastic crap we buy from China can possibly negate the immense outflow of Western wealth required to combat the Politburo's malicious meddling in foreign affairs.
#7
DV: Repressive governments can't help it. It is how they continue to keep their population under control.
China is a continental empire disguised as a country. Its thousands of years of existence have been exercises in the maintenance and expansion of empire. Anything less than trembling obedience is regarded as an insult to the Chinese. It's got nothing to do with government repression. It's just part of Chinese culture.
#8
"Anything less than trembling obedience is regarded as an insult to the Chinese."
Then as far as I'm concerned, ZF, they can consider themselves insulted. Big-time.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/05/2007 19:30 Comments ||
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#9
Clothing made in China also contains an unbelievably high level of the chemical Formaldehyde. There was an news report on how it makes kids sick, gives them horrible skin rashes and can even cause cancer.. I've already trashed everything in the house that is made in china.. Time to buy local products.. Sick of sending my hard earned cash overseas to countries who don't give a damn
#11
From what I understand formaldehyde is used as a sizing agent. However the following article traces it to being a byproduct of the Permanent-Press or Dura-Press treatment. The exact mechanism is a bit complex as indicated by the following excerpt:
The additives and contaminants which occur in textile fibers vary widely, depending on the type of fiber and the pretreatment which it has received. Synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester contain trace amounts of contaminants such as catalysts and catalyst deactivators which remain after the synthesis of the basic polymers. In addition, there are frequently a number of materials which are added to perform specific functions in almost all man-made fibers. Examples of these would include traces of metals or metal salts used as tracers for identification of specific lots of fiber, TiO2 or similar materials added as delustrants, and a host of organic species added for such special purposes as antistatic agents or flame retardants. There may also be considerable quantities of residual monomer or small oligomers dissolved in the polymer matrix. The situation becomes even more complex after the fibers are converted into fabric form. Numerous materials are applied at various stages of fabric preparation to act as lubricants, sizing agents, antistats, bleaches, and wetting agents to facilitate the processing, but these are normally removed before the fabric reaches the cutters or the ultimate consumers and therefore usually do not constitute potential hazards. However, there are many other chemical agents which are frequently added during the later stages of fabric preparation and which are not designed to be removed. Aside from dyes and printing pigments, the most common additive for apparel fabrics is a durable press treatment. This generally involves the use of materials capable of crosslinking cellulosics by reacting through such functions as N-methylolated amides or related compounds such as ureas and carbamates. These materials pose some potential hazards due to both the nitrogenous bases and the formaldehyde which they usually release. There is usually also some residual catalyst in fabrics which have received such treatments. Other types of chemical treatments which are often applied to fabrics to achieve special effects include flame retardants, soil release agents, antistatic agents, softeners, water and/or oil repellents, ultraviolet absorbers, bacteriostats, and fungistats.
All I know is that on a 1999 business trip to CLEO in Baltimore, I purchased some socks and did not have time to launder them first. After a day's wear the itching was so bad that I had nearly scratched the skin off of both ankles. From then on I have always laundered new clothing before wearing it for the first time.
#12
See also SPACEWAR > THE [new?] GREAT GAME OVER BURMA, between USA-China. Lest we fergit, also from SPACEWAR 04/2007 > ASIA IS CRUCIAL FRONT IN WAR ON TERROR. *All things equal, may yet end up being the DECISIVE FRONT FOR FINAL US SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN THE GWOT.
#13
I've already trashed everything in the house that is made in china.
There seems to be a lot of that going on, Oztralian. Mattel apparently recalled one of the Barbie doll houses yesterday, as a result of a program just instituted to test all of their products coming out of China. Fisher Price has apparently done the same, and has also started recalling products, I understand. The toymakers and sellers are expecting a difficult Christmas -- it's too late to place orders with other-than-Chinese manufacturers, if I understand the reports correctly.
This may be the beginning of a world-wide backlash against Chinese products. The Politburo and their cronies may not have the twenty years they'd planned on to prepare their epic war against Taiwan and the U.S.... not to mention funding all their little jihadi and other proxies in the meantime.
China strongly denied reports on Tuesday that its military was behind a successful hacking attack on the Pentagon computer network earlier this year. Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday the accusations against China were absurd. The criticism is unfounded, which represents cold war thinking, she said.
Ms Yu was responding to a report in Mondays Financial Times that the Peoples Liberation Army in June successfully penetrated an unclassified computer network serving the office of Robert Gates, the US defence secretary.
The Pentagon is still investigating to see exactly how the attack occurred. But current and former US officials told the FT that the PLA had managed to obtain information from the network, which was then shut down for more than a week for repairs. US officials said they were less concerned about the leakage of unclassified information although they concede that classified information is sometimes sent on secret networks and more worried about the growing ability of China to disrupt key Pentagon computer systems at a time of conflict.
Some experts argue that China is simply catching up with the abilities of other countries, including the US, for cyberwarfare. The US military has openly declared that it wants to be dominant in cyberspace. The air force is preparing to create a fighting cybercommand to improve US defence and offensive capabilities.
President George W. Bush is due to meet Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, tomorrow in Australia ahead of this weeks Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation group meeting. China has come under scrutiny recently following reports that it hacked into the computers of German government ministries and the office of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, last week promised during a press conference in Beijing with Ms Merkel to investigate those reports, and expressed grave concern about them
Ms Jiang said: The Chinese government always opposes and fights any crime which would destroy computer networks, including hacking.
She said China and the US had been developing a constructive, co-operative relationship that had gained good momentum over the past year. China would like to strengthen the co-operation with other countries, including the US, to clamp down on crimes against computer networks.
Mattel Inc., whose reputation has been battered ... but not nearly so badly as China's
... by two high-profile toy recalls this summer, will announce on Wednesday the recall of a third batch of Chinese-made toys because they may contain excessive amounts of lead paint, The Associated Press has learned.
The latest recall by the world's largest toy maker will be for a Fisher-Price toy and accessories to a Barbie playset and involves several hundred thousand units, according to two persons briefed by Mattel executives who asked for anonymity because the company has not yet formally announced the action. It could not be learned whether the toys were made in different Chinese factories. Expect to see a lot of BOT Made in China stickers on the toys for Christmas this year.
With more than 80 percent of toys sold worldwide made in China, toy sellers are nervous that shoppers will shy away from their products in this year's critical holiday season.
Late last month, Toys "R" Us announced it was recalling thousands of art sets made in China due to excessive levels of lead in some black watercolor paints. In June, toy maker RC2 Corp. voluntarily recalled 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line. The company said that the surface paint on certain toys and parts made in China between January 2005 and April 2006 contain lead, affecting 26 components and 23 retailers.
In July, Hasbro Inc. recalled faulty Chinese-made Easy Bake ovens, marking the second time the iconic toy had been recalled this year. The Aug. 14 worldwide recall covered more than 400,000 die-cast cars modeled after the cartoon movie character "Sarge" that contained excessive amounts of lead paint. Eckert told reporters the correct paint was sent to a subcontractor, who apparently chose not to use it. Bad timing, after Labor Day. Wonder if there will be a question about protecting American Children from Dangerous foreign toys at the debates.
#4
Oh Joy, less Barbie shit on the market. (You'd never guess I dislike Barbie, Would you?)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/05/2007 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
Ya know, while the Chinese have the pie on their face, there is an awful ot of glossing over the negligence of Mattel. Whatever happeded to their QA program? Seems to me that when you have a vendor the botches it, you ( the customer) slap a Corrective Action on their little pinko asses. Twice you start an internal investigation into your own house and clena out the rats. This tells me that Mattel ain't so swell.....
#6
ANd in other related Chinese-Made defective toy news: the WAPOST on line today is reporting the return of many condoms that have defective wrappers and may cause the product to be defective. No word as to whether this latest slap to Chinese product will put any lead in your pencil, so to speak....
#7
Boy, its about time some young entrepreneur from the good ole USA steps into this breach and starts making toys here again. I'd pay $$$ more to know that they are not using lead paint etc.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/05/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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#8
condoms that have defective wrappers
So a lot of Inadvertent-Americans will have the Made in China label.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2007 16:13 Comments ||
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#9
Mattel Inc., whose reputation has been battered ...
Hey, Mattel. Here's a nice big fat hairy clue at no extra charge.
Why not rehabilitate your corporate name by being the first major American toy manufacturer to declare a five-year moratorium on producing toys in China? You'd have the moral highground and people would readily pay an extra few bucks if they knew there was a much lower likelihood of toxic ingredients being present.
As this scandal farce continues to play out, it rapidly takes on Ford Motor Company's legal approach to the Exploding Pinto Problem. The idiots at Mattel view these toy recalls as part of the cost of doing business rather than the commercial market-share poison that they are.
Consumers could easily drive Mattel out of China by threatening a total boycott of all their products. Within seconds after starting such a consumer boycott the next thing heard would be a loud popping sound of air rushing in to occupy the space once occupied by Mattel in China.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has promoted Trade Minister Sten Tolgfors to the post of defence minister, following the resignation of Mikael Odenberg, who quit in protest at cuts in the defence budget. Tolgfors's appointment has raised eyebrows after it emerged that he refused on principle to carry out military service. Accepting the job of defence minister, Tolgfors said he accepted the prime minister's vision for the future of Sweden's military.
Tolgfors refused to bear arms when called up for military service in the 1980s, and was forced instead to perform his national service in the community sector. He later worked for the Red Cross. There, he changed his view of the use of military force after a Kurdish man showed him photographs of Saddam Hussein's massacre in Halabja.
Announcing Tolgfors's appointment on Wednesday afternoon, Reinfeldt said that there was broad agreement between the parties on the need to reposition Sweden's military. He added that he was prepared to reevaluate how every single krona in taxpayers' money was spent. "Odenberg and I do not reach the same conclusions about reductions in the proposed budget," he said.
Reinfeldt rejected Odenberg's claim that the proposed defence cuts of 4-5 million kronor were baseless. They were based, Reinfeldt said, on the conclusions of the 2004 defence review.
#1
Were I a Swede, I think I would much rather have my tax dollars spent on the military than on supporting all the Islamist leeches bleeding my country and culture.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - A special panel investigating Bulgaria's communist-era police files said Tuesday that the country's current president and 19 lawmakers who once collaborated with the secret service. The panel began its work in April after a law passed in late 2006 forced open the pre-1989 communist-era secret service archives. The list of collaborators - 138 in all was published on the panel's Web site.
President Georgi Parvanov, who was named by the panel as a collaborator in July, appeared again on Tuesday's list because he is a former member of parliament. Parvanov, a communist historian, has denied being an informer, saying he only wrote a book review for a man who turned out to be a secret services officer. Opponents, however, claim that many files in Parvanov's dossier are missing and were destroyed on his orders.
Also on the list were the names of 19 current members of parliament and 23 others who have held high positions under Parvanov or previous heads of state.
The commission is expected to eventually open the files of all key public figures, including politicians, senior officials, judges and journalists. The legislation does not stipulate any punishment for those named as collaborators. The former communist State Security, disbanded after the 1989 collapse of the communist regime, included intelligence and counterintelligence offices, as well as political police.
Bulgaria is one of the last former communist nations to tackle the records of its past. Other countries with former communist regimes, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, already have taken measures to open communist-era secret files.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated that no one could prevent him from returning to Pakistan, adding Gen Musharraf and his government cannot bar people from receiving him at Islamabad airport on September 10. In an interview with Geo News, Sharif said he had never bowed before any dictator and the people were with him. I will not leave any stone unturned to solve the peoples problems, Sharif said, adding that September 10 would change the political scenario of Pakistan. He criticised US President Bush, saying that instead of interfering in Pakistans affairs, the US should take stick to its own boundaries. He said only dictators bowed before every US order, while the democratic rulers took their decisions independently. Sharif claimed he would oust Gen Musharraf from Pakistani politics after next general elections, saying Musharrafs tenure was ending on October 15 and he had no right to stay in presidency after that date.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, that's not entirely true. Perv could order his plane shot down.
* Shujaat says dialogue moved forward 'from 9 to 10pc'
* Talks to continue today or tomorrow
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I was wondering "what ever happened to Tariq Aziz." BB and Musharraf; trading a headache for a stomach ache? Under BB, steal this country by the ruling elite was the policy. Under Masharraf, the policy is to ignore the terrorist problem on the northern border and to provide haven for the Taliban--ostrich in the sand policy.
Saudi Arabia does not support former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs plans to return to Pakistan and wants him to stick to the agreement he signed not to get involved in Pakistans politics for ten years, Geo news quoted a spokesman of the Saudi government as saying.
According to the channel, the spokesman rejected reports in Pakistani newspapers last Saturday saying the Saudi government supported Sharifs return to Pakistan. The spokesman said that Sharif and his family were offered asylum in Saudi Arabia on humanitarian grounds after General Pervez Musharraf dismissed his government in a military coup in October 1999.
The spokesman said Gen Musharraf and the Pakistani government accepted the offer because of the cordial and brotherly relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He said Mr Sharif should stick to the agreement, signed in 2000 before his exile to Saudi Arabia, that he would not return to Pakistan or participate in the countrys politics for ten years.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Saudi Arabia does not support former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs plans to return to Pakistan and wants him to stick to the agreement he signed not to get involved in Pakistans politics for ten years
Hoo boy, does it get any richer? The Saudis are taken in suckered by another Muslim's use of taqiyya. The irony is thick enough to spread on toast.
Jakarta and Moscow are set to sign weapons, mining and oil deals valued at billions of dollars during the first visit to the country by Vladimir Putin, Russias president, on Thursday.
Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesias defence minister, said his country will sign contracts to buy $1.35bn (990m, £670m) of Russian military equipment as part of its policy to diversify arms procurement. Jakarta will use a $1bn soft credit facility repayable over 15 years to buy 10 transport helicopters, five assault helicopters, 20 amphibious tanks and two Kilo-class submarines from Russia. A $350m commercial loan will pay for six Sukhoi fighter jets.
The trip will include the signing of preliminary agreements in the energy and mining sectors that could bring $10bn of Russian investment into Indonesia. This will include several deals between LukOil, Russia's biggest state-owned oil company, and Pertamina, Indonesias state-owned oil company to develop fields in Indonesia. The arms deal was brokered during a visit by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, to Russia last year.
Mr Juwono said the large order of Russian equipment, was opening another [procurement] door. Its a logical policy that we have adopted in light of the issues we have faced over the last seven years, he told the Financial Times.
The US and EU froze contacts with the Indonesian military following the 1999 East Timor crisis
The US and European Union froze contacts with the Indonesian military following the 1999 East Timor crisis, when Indonesian forces and their militias waged a campaign that cost 1,400 lives to prevent the territory voting for independence in a referendum.
In the last two years western powers have lifted some of the embargo, such as on non-lethal equipment. Indonesia last week received the first of four navy corvettes ordered from the Netherlands. The government hopes to buy 40 from various countries by 2015.
But theres still difficulty in getting spares for things like fighter aircraft because theyre seen as lethal, Mr Juwono said. Were adapting to the new reality.
The Sukhois will complement the five or six functioning US-built fighters the Indonesians still have.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Hurricane Felix slammed into Nicaragua's Miskito Coast as a record-setting Category 5 monster storm Tuesday, whipping metal rooftops through the air like razors and forcing thousands to flee. "The winds are horrible," Red Cross official Claudio Vanegas said by phone from the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Cabezas shortly after Felix struck land nearby with winds of 260 kph (160 mph). "They send roofs flying through the air, so we aren't going outside because it is too dangerous." 
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. 
In a step likely to anger Saudi Arabias royal family, a prominent Saudi prince said he plans to form a political party in a country that bans such groups, and that he will invite jailed reformists to join it.
China strongly denied reports on Tuesday that its military was behind a successful hacking attack on the Pentagon computer network earlier this year. Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday the accusations against China were absurd. The criticism is unfounded, which represents cold war thinking, she said.
Saudi Arabia does not support former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs plans to return to Pakistan and wants him to stick to the agreement he signed not to get involved in Pakistans politics for ten years, Geo news quoted a spokesman of the Saudi government as saying.
Jakarta and Moscow are set to sign weapons, mining and oil deals valued at billions of dollars during the first visit to the country by Vladimir Putin, Russias president, on Thursday. 
