No Future for Textiles in 'City of Looms'

[Tinoire]

(({Not sure this will be considered LBN- but damn, this stuff is important))

No Future for Textiles in 'City of Looms'

By Doug Palmer

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Reuters) - After more than a century of turning out towels, sheets and bedspreads for American homes, there is no future for textiles in this self-proclaimed "City of Looms," and other North Carolina towns fear the same fate.

As part of a 1994 world trade agreement, decades of U.S. quota restrictions on clothing and apparel imports come to an end on Dec. 31.

The U.S. Labor Department forecasts the U.S. apparel industry will shrink by 69 percent -- or some 245,000 jobs -- between 2002 and 2012, due largely to increased competition from China when the quota system expires. U.S. textile industry employment will be down by 31 percent -- or about 152,000 jobs.

Those numbers are probably conservative, unless the federal government takes steps to keep the Chinese from taking over the U.S. market, said Steve Dobbins, president of Carolina Mills, which is based in Maiden, North Carolina.

(snip)

When Pillowtex Corp. shut its doors on July 30, 2003, many Kannapolis residents felt as if they'd been struck by a natural disaster. The town had been built around Cannon Mills, which opened for business in 1887 and became part of Pillowtex in 1997.

(snip)

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=7180549

[Liberal Veteran]

1. I wonder how many textiles from the Kannapolis plants the local Wal-Mart..

...stocks?

[jdj]

22. Only the ones imported from Kannapolis, China.

And sadly, as someone that lives about 30 miles down the road from there I can say that probably most of these folks at the closed plants stauchly defend their habit of shopping at Walmart.

It's sad, Walmart has killed this entire industry, but it did it by letting the workers themselves slaughter their own jobs.

[Career Prole]

2. At LEAST 397,000 jobs lost.

Yeah, you're right...that's important. Holy sh*t.

[indianablue]

3. Of course these are Bush loving states..

[Sara Beverley]

4. What you need to find out is if Cannon has a China plant.

Many US companies closing here are opening in China, some under new names and brands. It's a shell game of the corporate whores.

[NMDemDist2]

5. HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

Now I am a big Bill Clinton fan, but this whole Nafta thing is starting to stink up the joint

[Liberal Veteran]

8. Pet peeve alert: China is not part of NAFTA

That was an agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico.

[NMDemDist2]

11. yes, hence the name "NORTH AMERICAN FTA" but you got my

drift

it was the World Trade agreement, is that what the WTO is all about right?

[Liberal Veteran]

14. Yes. I am just a stickler when people talk about NAFTA...

...and mention China, Indonesia, India, and Taiwan as though it were part of it. I don't why that has always gotten on my nerves. :)

[daleo]

24. It makes perfect sense to consider the distinction

They may both be related to neo-liberal free trade theory, but they are quite different in fact, scale and effect.

[InvisibleBallots]

72. Nafta is used as a blanket term for "free trade agreements" now

Even the Wall Street Journal uses the term this way - but usually, if you say "NAFTA" it means North American Free Trade Agreement, if you say "Nafta" it's a more general term

[Tempest]

59. Bush helped China get into the WTO

Bush lobbied for China's entry into the WTO.

Bush cut the throat of an entire industry.

[0007]

57. God! Ross Perot was right when he said, "wait until you hear that

big sucking sound" - Folks we're hearing it and it has to be silenced.

[lovuian]

6. This is devastating to the people economy and America

What are we doing to ourselves!!!

[sasquatch]

7. You dumb motherfuckers sympathy from ME?!?!?

It's in the dictionary between shit and syphalis you snake handling, toungue speaking, jackasses.

[newscott]

9. Same thing happened in my hometown

Back before any protections existed most of the great northern mills and my hometown, Brockton MA, (aka the Shoe city) got wiped out by companies moving their work south and out of the country about 100 years ago.

This is nothing new and should come as no surprise.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Yes, and now the corporate goons think even Southerners

demand too much in wages, though the South is a collection of "right to work" states with precious few unions and a workforce that has been brainwashed to believe unions are their enemy.

[SoCalDem]

46. ...Gots to have them $4 shoes and $5 jeans...

It's a "death spiral"..

1. good jobs leave
2. shitty jobs replace them
3. gotta have CHEAP merchandise for low paid workers
4. soon, ONLY jobs are in service industries supporting shitty merchandise

[MADem]

17. All the mill towns in our neck o' de woods

...got the same treatment. Lawrence, Lowell, the manufacturing towns in NH....but hey, we're BLUE states, so fuck us, right???

I do feel for those folks in NC....but I have to confess that I sure do wonder if they felt for us lib-rul types back when we took it up the wazoo???

Wonder how many of them will vote GOP after their unemployment runs out?

[Benhurst]

23. How many of them will vote GOP after their unemployment runs out?

Most of them.

[The Zanti Regent]

55. 'cause they got Jesus

Even if...

Jesus won't pay the bills,
Jesus won't clothe them
Jesus won't feed them
Jesus won't put a roof over their heads.

They don't care, just like my idiot family, cannot get work, losing homes, but they got Jesus.

You try and talk to them, stock phrase you hear "GAWD IS TESTING ME"...and they get deeper into bible study...

This country is lost

[Malva Zebrina]

38. same in Maine, as well as the shoe industry

I used to go to several outlets, Pepperel in Biddiford for example, where I would buy material at a great discount--off the bolt. There was another there, but I cannot remember it's name. Gone now. There are none left in Maine, as far as I know. The price of fabric is going up as well as all the notions. The price of pins is outrageous. Walmart sells fabric, but it is thin, cheap stuff . It used to be that sewing one's own clothes, or sewing children's clothes, saved money. Now it cost more to make clothes than it does to buy it off the rack in Wal Mart.

That goes for Pennsylvania also, where I used to shop in huge discount warehouses for wholesale fabric and notions when I lived in New Jersey. No more S. Levine and Sons, as I understand it.

I don't think there is any chance that this industry can be revived here in the US

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Who are you insulting here? And why? If you're insulting

those who work in the mills, do you know with certainty that they all voted for Bush**?

[sasquatch]

16. Some of them move up here and bring they're fundamentalism with them

I've also met people in the Carolina and I'm not impressed. I feel bad for the ones that voted for Kerry.

[Tinoire]

20. I feel bad for them all

I still maintain that if we had fielded a candidate who talked about unfair trade, health-care, you know issues that touch upon ALL Americans, more would have voted for the Democratic candidate.

Why does the democratic party prefer to waste its time on wedge issues instead of addressing the immediate problems affecting people?

Could it be that we dare not talk about NAFTA, WTO, GATT because we rammed a lot of it through and to this day refuse to admit that they're against the best interests of the working class :shrug: thus killing our own credibility?

I know where you're coming from with the rest though and I admit, I don't have to deal with it where I am. Don't think I could either!



:hi:

[sasquatch]

40. Hey Tinoire

Long time no see:hi:

[Tinoire]

41. I know lol

:hi:

Had to take a break until I could square away a few things. Good to see you :hi:

[MADem]

19. It's NOT a question of insulting....

...But our southern union brothers and sisters did not come to the fore when the manufacturing shit was hitting the fan up in "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts" land back in the Nixon era. There's history here. A lot of the jobs were moved from the NE to the south because the people down there would work without health insurance, without a livable wage, without basic safety standards, and whatnot, and there were no southern voices speaking up for the workers up here who only wanted the right to live in dignity--not to make a fortune or live on easy street, just the right to have a working wage and be able to raise a family. In fact, the meme was, "Let water seek its own level." The south was joyful at our misery--they got the jobs, our people got fucked. I was here, and I remember it.

Now, what goes around, has come around. You feel bad for those towel producers down below the Mason Dixon, but then again, when those who had an opportunity to speak on the basis of PRINCIPLE for the workers of our nation failed to so do, simply to enrich themselves, it makes it a little rough for those of us who remember how we too were also abandoned. Why should anyone up here feel profound sympathy for people who were gleeful at their misery?

That's the truth....like I say, I feel bad, but my ENTHUSIASM for their cause is damped by the memory of how my bretheren were treated.

And they were treated like absolute shit!

[bettyellen]

25. Very true, we American workers have ate our own! Every last factory is

going to move out of this country if we keep honoring the free market system over the workers. i remember the arguement years ago saying that this was okay, because we were becoming a an information ecomony? WTF? Like we have the best brains in this country! LOL! A service economy? Of the working poor for fuck sake!

[bobbieinok]

32. info economy...then the big thing was US the breadbasket of the world

ie, the main food supplier

never did quite understand this....altho we have a lot of good farm land

but in the last 30 years, the family farm has been disappearing and it's been becoming corporate owned farmland and profit

[NYC]

44. America is becoming a net importer of food.

Importer. We're up the creek.

[Tempest]

60. Farm imports exceeded exports last year - first time in 50 years

Soon the world will look to China for direction economically and militarily.

[NYC]

64. What happened 50 years ago that imports exceeded exports?

Do you know? Thanks in advance.

[area51]

13. sympathy

I'd guess that not everyone who'll lose their job voted for the Chimp. My sympathies to everyone who voted for Kerry & will lose their job.

[sasquatch]

15. Me too!

I blame Kerry for not running and aggressive campaign.

[InvisibleBallots]

36. yeah, they should have voted Dem, since Clinton passed NAFTA!

As part of a 1994 world trade agreement, decades of U.S. quota restrictions on clothing and apparel imports come to an end on Dec. 31.

Maybe the Southerners aren't as dumb as you think? Clinton signed this "Free Trade" agreement in 1994, and Kerry hardly said shit, and these people are supposed to vote for Dems why?

Democrats LOST the south, ain't nobody's fault but ours.

[Mend]

56. Did bush unpass Nafta in the past 4 years?

what have the repukes done for the workers in the south that would lead them to re-elect bush?

[InvisibleBallots]

58. Bush didn't have to do much of anything

Blame Bush and the GOP all you want - Democrats lost the South. It does no good to whine about the GOP now does it?

[Tempest]

62. NAFTA had NOTHING to do with losing the south

I challenge you to provide one single poll that had NAFTA on the voter's radar.

What lost the south was the abortion and Jesus issues.

[Tinoire]

73. Abortion and Jesus? LMAO!

You really think Democrats lost votes for being too "pro"-abortion and not believing in "Rapture Jesus"?

Wow! :wow:

If people can't understand that having viable jobs paying you enough to keep a roof over your head, get food on the table and shoes on your children's feet is more immediately important to people than "baby-killing and rapture Jesus", it is NO wonder we're going through another 4 years of hell with W baby.

Wow. Bush doesn't even need to steal an election with that type of reasoning! All he needs to do is send a $300 tax "check" signed "I feel your pain".

People are suffering from no money, no jobs, and you're looking for polls? Talk about being out of touch!

:wow: The New Dem movement is more out of touch than even I had thought.

[wovenpaint]

18. Hit me personally

Texile designer with experience in Jacquard design-looked for job for 1.5 years-no luck without re-locating from state. Did find a related job in color, tho. But that might get outsourced also!
Sigh :grr:

[knitter4democracy]

63. I'm so sorry

Nothing makes me more angry than seeing people get hurt like that. We need your skills, and we shouldn't be shipping in crap from other countries when we have the capability to make it right here.

[unkachuck]

21. boo hoo....

....no job?....that's ok, eat 'family values'....I just can't wait to buy all those cheap Chinese textiles at Wal-Mart....what's the matter NC, can't you compete?....this is America, we don't like whinning Commies around here....

[vogonjiltz]

26. dumbfucks

As many have said before, they can't vote right I don't care. They deserve to return to thier squalor. Serves the south right for getting so uppity lately. Let them learn how to vote right and I will give a shit. They won't learn unless we beat it into them.

Besides, they can all go to community college sayeth the chimp.

[Tinoire]

27. They won't learn it unless we "beat" it into them?

You're scaring me.

:scared:

[ngGale]

28. He's scaring me too, I had stop lurking, sign in just...

to come in and say my peace. My town is a dust bowl, but I've never met a mill worker who voted Republican. The Northern boss maybe, but never the peons. Sorry, my Aunt took me to union meetings my whole life - heck, I remember meeting Jimmy Hoffa when I was a little girl. She didn't have any children, so she made me into a political union fighting little witch (by the age of 10). My husband fought for a union too, they closed the plant down and moved it. Watch the movie "Norma Rae" sometime, if you can still get it.
It was the same chain of plants. They fought for wages and unions and died from 'Brown Lung' disease and never got any money.

A lot of Northern people live here that came down with the plants.
Hey, the office workers lost their pension fund with Pillow Tex the same as everybody else. I learned at an early age to go to college and get a easy job. But, not before I worked in a mill my first summer out of high school. That didn't suit me at all and all the old women were so pitiful telling me to get out and get an education.
If you notice the stats, most are women and most never finished high school. The average age was 47 years old, kind of hard to go back to school and find another job at that age.

John Edwards graduated from N.C. State with a degree in "Textiles" before going to UNC and becoming a lawyer. Most men in the South majored in textiles as it was good money - in the office.

What I miss the most is our culture. A 'loom' weaving cotton into cloth is as old as the South. So, maybe the future will be better in another 100 years. I figure with Bush in office that's about how long it will take to get another economy going.

I've always voted "Blue" and only now have these people been brainwashed by their preachers into believing Bush is a good man. What a bunch of 'hogwash.' Not to mention, this state has cheated forever, they just got caught. For the first time in the history of this state, our electors are going to balk. Smile! Smile!

Rove hype: Christian right hides the big cheat. Hey, I'm not seeing any happy people around me. Good strategy, it sure worked. So, we have to stick together and work together. We can't allow them to come between us or divide us. A divided house cannot stand, they have the plan. I for one, being my witchy little political self, don't intend to allow them to get away with it.

John Edwards gave a lot of us a gift - inspiration that can we stand together. And with Elizabeth we learned that, together WE can do and accomplish anything.

End of my rant, for the moment.:)

[Tinoire]

29. THANKS for posting that!

Breaks my heart to read your post because I'm from the East Coast and spent some time in the military where I heard such stories from kids who were fleeing the lack of jobs.

I don't begrudge anyone for not voting for my party in either this or the last election. Our message to the American worker wasn't clear enough to drown out the whisperings coming from the compassionate Christian Right. People were losing jobs and all we could muster (except for one candidate who was marginalized by the Dem establishment) was that we shoud "tweak" NAFTA, GATT & WTO. Tweak? We need to march right to the people and tell then exactly what we are going to do to bring their jobs back and how soon. I'm getting mad as I type this because we really failed. We failed the American people by allowing the Christian Right to get their ear because our party has turned into one big corporate Waffle House. People need jobs NOW. Not in 2040. And I can understand how easy it is for the Right to get their ear when they point out that all this free trade was rammed through by my party which still, despite the evidence, pretends that Free Trade is a success.

You are right. A house divided cannot stand but I believe we have to reconnect with the people whose votes we want, get 'our' priorities in THEIR order, throw out the rotting lumber that weakens our house and fo from there.

I hope you with your insight & the passion you brought to that post, can make your voice heard during the next 4 years because it's only getting worse. We can't let the Right keep running our country & our people into the ground like this.

100 years... You're as pessimistic as I am.

Welcome to DU (since this is the first time we talk) :toast:

[ngGale]

31. Why how nice of you, Tinorie...

I didn't take it personally. Earlier this evening I posted that same article and it's my state. I was already upset from reading the stats again. I could believe most were women, but I couldn't believe most still had no high school diploma. How sad it is that in these times, the South seems not to have changed. Not in mill towns and rural areas. It's the same in the Midwest and Corn Belt, they have been feeding religion because all people feel they can do is pray. That's where my anger comes from, taking people for every dime they have and sending them to church. They have used religion to push their agenda.

But, don't forget they really did cheat. Instead of talking about the vote and election, they cover it up with the gospel. I hate to see the torn lives around me who had preachers telling them how to vote. But, I don't know anybody personally that listened, it made most of them mad. That's a Rove strategy in my book.

Did we fail America, or did she fail us? Most people are trusting and not political. You and I happen to be different, we know a lie when we hear one. This country is so corrupt it has to be cleaned up and we can't allow them to make us think it's our fault. We the people gave our trust to whomever we elected. They abused our trust and they are going to have to earn our vote. Respect is not freely given, it should be earned. These past few elections was nothing but a sham. Because of the net, the technology that gave them the vote also got them caught.

It may take a few years, but we will get our country back. We have Joe Trippi and Howard Dean to thank for forming this 'grassroots' movement. Took the Right by surprise! It also put the power back into the hands of 'we the people.' The last place they want it to be. We have to keep our eye on the net as it's all that is free and I'm sure they are working on changing this.

For the past four years I've worked my buns off and my candidates lost, well not really. After I came out of shock, I knew we had to continue to fight. We just can't give up, we have to keep moving forward. And that's what we are going to do. Throw out the dead, rotten wood and start over. It's up to us to protect the innocent and work to do even better. Without us, this election would have never been mentioned. Jesse Jackson said, "take that new found power back home with you, and use it."

Words of wisdom. And thank you for the welcome, I've been a member for a long time - just too busy to post a lot.

[flygal]

35. Great post!

I agree that a lot of us are getting over our shock and there will an even greater fight coming soon!

[Tinoire]

42. Naw, I appreciate your presence and your passion

There's not a word in your post I disagree with.

Pea green with envy over it lol. I'm really happy your eloquent voice chimed in and I look forward to hearing it often- especially in the trade threads.

Here's to our next 3 years of working together to throw those bums out---hopefully we can do it sooner than that!

Wishing you a good year ngGale.

[bettyellen]

33. huh? WTF?

[MADem]

34. But there won't be any Pell Grant money for them!

Hell, maybe they can get a low interest loan and learn massage therapy or cosmetology--go part time, between that swell job at McDonald's and that night job restocking at Wal-Mart....better learn how to do Asian hair, too, since we'll be under the boot of the Chinese if this shit keeps up!!!

They'd better hope the Chinese are good tippers!

[leftynyc]

37. I'm thinking you're a bit late taking your meds (eom)

[KT2000]

30. How are textiles made in China?

There are many chemicals used in the manufacture of textiles. The laws used in the US are less safe than European standards but probably better than China. Who is in charge of those?

Most fabrics have formaldehyde - and these are but on babies, and used in bedding for all of us. We are all going to breathe whatever is put into those textiles.
This bargain may come back and bite us with illnesses.

[NYC]

45. Keep your old clothing going. Repair, etc.

Try not to buy the Chinese clothing. People used to repair instead of replace clothing. We need to return to that.

[kodi]

66. full moon got you tonight?

you don't know the first thing you are talking about.

"Most fabrics have formaldehyde'??

just what the hell are you talking about? the only presence of formaldehyde you will find is in durable press resins and some polymer coatings. the fugitive limits are < 50 ppm off cotton and polyester/cotton fabrics treated with glyoxal based resins and you exhale nearly that level each breath you take. you ingest more formaldehyde from eating fresh broccoli.

i don't just play a professor of textile science on tv, i was one and you know less about textiles than you do about tuvian throat singing.

i wish you crusader rabbit types would stop with the ignorant knee-jerk responses whenever chemicals are mentioned.

btw: there are many european chemical standards that are less stringent than US standards, and some standards the europeans are loosening because they have been found to be meaningless.

[KT2000]

69. rude response

and you are wrong. formaldehyde is a cheap preservative that is being used for much more than durable press resins.
Please go into the field and conduct tests for the presence of formaldehyde in textile products. I have done that and found suprising levels in baby blankets, cotton flannel, sheets, cotton twill and more.

Arrogance and name calling in your response is a common tactic for objections to the chemical technology.
But failure to address the fact that there are casualties of this technology rests at the feet of those who promote it and drown out opposition with such beligerence. It is intellectually dishonest to assume that all chemicals are used properly.

Are you at all aware that manufacturers cut corners that result in more free formaldehyde from textiles; that the wash-off process not completed to save time results in more free formaldehyde; that formaldehyde is found in so many products, cleaning supplies and building materials? Are you aware that formaldehyde levels in dust is much higher than that found in ambient air? These dust particles sit inside the nasal passages. Know anything about the nasal passages, tight junctions and olfactory bulb? Foramldehyde causes nasal cancer and has recently been recognized as causing brain cancer.

I am sure you know that at least 5% of the population is expected to become sensitized to formaldehyde.

The ethics of the chemical revolution and its promoters are definately failed as proven in our health statistics and neurologically damaged children.

[kodi]

71. what is rude is your complete and utter ignorance on this subject.

no one in the textile industry uses formaldehyde as a perservative anymore. that went out decades ago. cationic perservatives are used at approx. 0.01%, be it softeners, DP resins, or dye-bath auxiliaries.

personally, i have run hundeds of tests for latent formaldehyde on fabric and helped develop the AATCC/ASTM test. we never let out of a plant any fabrics with higher than 50ppm latent formadehyde, which again is quantitatively identical to daily background levels a consumer would face.

and that is the point: you warbled on about latent formaldehyde on fabric, then when challenged switched to formaldehyde levels in chemical products.

the two subjects are not the same.

its not even an apples or oranges debate here, its apples versus walruses.

but you don't seem to understand it, and instead, accuse me as an apologist for cancer when i point out that you don't even know this.

and oddly enough i spent 10 years working in developing non-mutagenic alternatives to industral chemicals found mutagenic. would you like to read my MS and PhD on this? both are available from the U of Michigan archival web site. and i have done more ames testing on chemicals than you will ever know.

background levels of formaldehyde from natural sources are easily mistaken for latent detectable levels. one can breath on a test sample and increase detectable formaldehyde levels...... how do i know? i have done just that to see how germanine the test protocols actually are.... also i ran them at various temperatures and i can tell you that when you test the samples under the colorimetric test one finds that if the protocol is run at lower than ambient temperture levels you get less detected formaldehyde.

i note that comparing your initial post to the next one you finally began to qualify your initial ridiculous remarks about "fabrics" to specifically about cotton. but you did not do so until challenged about it. so i consider your remarks uninformed or a blatant attempt to confuse the issue.

i have no objection to literate, competent discussions on chemical safety, but your remarks show not a scintilla of objectivity that would garner such respect, nor did i state anywhere as you suggest that "all chemicals are used properly."

I did uncategorically state that you do not know what you are talking about. and your further remarks are consistent with that viewpoint.

as to your remarks

"Are you at all aware that manufacturers cut corners that result in more free formaldehyde from textiles; that the wash-off process not completed to save time results in more free formaldehyde;"

what process would that be? what are you referring to? no one in the US uses DP resins with >50 ppm of formaldehyde and if you look at the msds of a glyoxal based DMDHDU DP resin, you find reportable levels even lower, and on the fabrics the levels are detectable only via gc/ms and at those levels one finds natural background levels in the same order of magnitude.

or your

"that formaldehyde is found in so many products, cleaning supplies and building materials?"

name them. and by the way, so what? the topic was latent formadehyde on fabric, not in cleaning supplies or cross-linking polymer resins used elsewhere. you are purposely misdirecting the disucussion because i caught you engaging in hyperbole to satisfy your feeling of moral superiority.

or "Are you aware that formaldehyde levels in dust is much higher than that found in ambient air?"

where? in textile mills where osha regs allow limits of air bourne formaldehyde at 50ppm? after all, your assault on the truth was specifically referring to "latent" formaldehyde levels in fabric, not workplace levels.

you have cobbled together a witch's brew of unsubstantiated or incidental crap that seeks neither to inform nor adequately discuss this topic in a rational fashion.

scientifically uninformed crusader rabbits such as yourself are the real problem with chemical safety issues, for by your careless hyperbole you make scientists such as myself who do care about the environment cringe when you blather on about these topics and set in motion a counter argument that dismisses all chemical safety advocates as uninformed chicken littles and cassandras.

i have spent 12 years in academia working on chemical safety issues and the past twenty as a research director and chemical safety officer for both big international chemical companies and small domestic ones. i have yet to find a single person in the industry who willfully breaks the law on discharges of chemicals at levels above those allowed by law.

while it may well be true that millions of americans are sensitive to formaldehyde, millions more are allergic to commom items like peanuts, yet i don't hear you talking about banning peanut butter.

[KT2000]

75. Academia and industry

are not very impressive when it comes to the big picture. Their job is to promote single profitable products.

So here is a bigger picture:

A baby is born prematurely (not uncommon) and has already experienced exposure to drugs from the mother's attempt to prevent miscarriage. (These drugs have already been found to make the baby more prone to neurological damage when exposed to a certain pesticide).

The baby comes home to a newly painted room. The crib is made of particle board, the home construction is made from strand board and the fiberglass insulation has high formaldehyde content.

The baby is clothed in new clothes and blankets (containing formaldehyde) and placed in a crib that has polished cotton bumpers and a cotton sheet (more formaldehyde). If these products were made in China it is possible that formaldehyde levels would be even higher.

Every manufacturer has found formaldehyde to be a helpful ingredient in their product. But what about the baby? The baby is dealing with the accumulated effect of all the products.

How can people develop and manufacture a product they know that little babies will be exposed to - constantly - without even testing what the effects would be on them? The answer may be that like the 5% who become sensitized to it - it does not matter.
And by the way - formaldehyde is so ubiquitous it is tantamount to being sensitized to air.

Academia and industry have not failed in making money but they have failed to consider the cumulative effect of the chemical miracle on the health and viability of the population.
That is all I have to say to you.

[Bandit]

39. They just need to pull themselves up by their Chinese bootstraps

and vote for more republican trickledown. I have decided I would rather support the chinese than a Republican so I don't mind buying chinese bed spreads. The Red states are the ones going to be hit the hardest by Republican policies so why should I care?

[JVS]

43. North Carolina, eh?

FUCK EM!

[Tinoire]

47. Our VP came from there. John Edwards... And very anti-Free-Trade

John Edwards... And very anti-Free-Trade from seeing what it does to people. Had the Democratic Party espoused his position on Free Trade, we would be kissing North Carolina today.

They like him enough to elect him Senator so I think your reaction is harsh.

Can we blame North Carolinians or anyone else because our party was more concerned about offending big business than it was for the welfare of those people?

We messed up bad by not denouncing Free-trade. If I were an un-enlightened mill worker from that area, watching all my friends lose jobs, I wouldn't be too fond of the Democratic Party either. We caved in to big business. Baaad move on our part.

[JVS]

48. Fuck North Carolina!

That's all. I make no claim that the democratic party is any good, but I can firmly declare that North Carolina is shit.

[Tinoire]

49. Why though? n/t

[JVS]

50. Being shit is part of NC's heritage

it is just an intrinsic property of NC

[Tinoire]

51. Ok.. Being from the East Coast, a few states North, I see them differently

(originally that is).

When I see the yahoos roaming around in California, all the White Supremacists, I label us as shit too.

Free Republic HQ's is right down the street from one of the most liberal cities in the US. How's that for shit :shrug:

And that nazi girl band that's getting a lot of attention & making racism more acceptable - shit, from my state too.

I guess all states have their crosses to bear.

Where are you?

[JVS]

52. "Where are you? "

Wouldn't you like to know?

[Tinoire]

53. Certainly intrigued about where someone who can afford the luxury

of saying "Fuck NC" lives.

I'd hate to do such an eloquent poster the disservice of thinking you were from some inner city ghetto where they haven't been teaching kids to reason or to think for years.

As it is though, don't tell me. I wouldn't want to encourage any intellectual midgets to say "Fuck <insert name of your state here>".

[ngGale]

68. Back to the...if only...

John Edwards had been on the top of the ticket. Not that I dislike Kerry, but it sure held John back. Seeking that middle ground isn't easy.

NAFTA - Big Bill did start that, but it was only with 3 countries. Canada and Mexico were two, can't remember the other one I'm really tired. *W* expanded it and Bill gets the dis-credit for all of it. I've read enough to know Bill was worried about the loss of jobs, he put in a safe guard. Bush took it to a whole new level.

People who lost jobs didn't vote for Bush, I really don't think he won here. We have that ballot problem we share with SC. Vote a straight party ticket and all went to Bush. In fact, Bowles and Burr were really close at the end. Everybody here votes straight party, never would a Repub vote for Bowles. He was in the Clinton administration, remember? I could see Bush winning by 3%, but 15%!
Burr won with a small margin, fishy election here. We worked so hard to get word out about the ballot problem. Most older people are so use to voting a straight ticket.

Jobs are going everywhere - we all have that problem. We need to watch the Dems, some of them have sat around and voted with the Repubs on issues that hurt us. We are on to them this time - they tend to listen more when they are up for reelection. Mid-term election 2006 - We have time to ring their bell until they listen. And we will, this time.

[Wright Patman]

76. Stop excusing Clinton

He was just as enthusiastically for NAFTA and GATT/WTO as any Republican ever was. Remember that he sent Al Gore out to debate Ross Perot over it on Larry King Live. Gore cleaned his clock and all "New Democrats" celebrated the Clinton-Gore victory over outmoded, passe populism.

It amazes me that people cannot see (perhaps because they do not want to research the issue and are afraid of what they will find out about their political "savior") how similar Clinton was in terms of his policies to the first Bush and, to a lesser extent, even the second Bush. He was just a little less trigger-happy, although the 3,000 dead Serbs would not agree with that assessment.

BTW, the third country in NAFTA you are leaving out is the U.S. D'oh!

[Jane Eyre]

65. Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) gave Kerry 53% of their votes

Got a solidly Democratic County Commission in the process too. Something like 23,000 new voters were registered by the 527 groups prior to the election and there was a massive GOTV effort to get people out to vote.

So, how did y'all do? :-)

[truthisfreedom]

54. perhaps it's time to find a new use for cloth.

maybe in the alternative energy sector.

[Malikshah]

61. Take this article add it to airlines ones, and Israel going w/ China

and then liberally sprinkle in the issues concerning Asian bankers and the hold they have on our coutnry's debt...

OK-- now try and sleep.

Looks like Sharon is hedging his bets and cozying up to China just in case.


Jan 1, 2005--- Quotas on textile imports will expire....China et al will be able to flood our markets.... (Scary story on NPR yesterday)

[vogonjiltz]

67. I just have to ask...

Where'll the Klan get its white sheets from now?

[FDRrocks]

70. Thanks, Bill

The best laid plans of mice and men... :(

[Tinoire]

74. Very good quote for this

:(