Our Favorite News of the Day
We're fans of this rather amusing piece. Bush campaign gear was made in Burma. His campaign store sells a pullover from nation whose products he has banned from being sold in the U.S.
BY LAUREN WEBER
STAFF WRITER, NEWSDAY.COM
March 18, 2004, 9:49 PM EST
The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military dictatorship.
The merchandise sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a $49.95 fleece pullover, embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing a label stating it was made in Burma, now Myanmar. The jacket was sent to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico and a hat not bearing a
country-of-origin label.
(more)
The Bush merchandise is handled by Spalding Group, a
20-year-old supplier of campaign products and services
in Louisville, Ky., that says it worked for the last
five Republican presidential nominees.
Ted Jackson, Spalding's president, said, "We have
found only one other in our inventory that was made in
Burma. The others were made in the U.S.A." He said the
company had about 60 of thefleece pullovers in its
warehouse, and that a supplier included the Burma
product by mistake.
Bush campaign officials did not return calls seeking
comment. The imports are potentially an issue because
outsourcing has become a hot political topic in the
election.
Bush last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and
Democracy Act, saying "The United States will not
waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy
and human rights in Burma."
Violators of the import ban are subject to fines and
jail, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Burmese textile workers earn as little as 7 cents per
hour, according to the National Labor Committee, a
human rights group.
"If it is true, it is very contradictory because the
sanctions were imposed by the Bush administration,"
said Bo Hla-Tint, a spokesman for the Burmese
government-in-exile in Washington, D.C.
Spalding, which works exclusively with Republican
candidates at both local and national levels, tries to
order American-made products, Jackson said. "Our first
effort is always to source things from the U.S., but
not a lot of garments are made in the U.S. Friday," he
said. He said all embroidery is done in the United
States.
The Bush-Cheney fleece pullovers were imported to the
United States by Denver-based Colorado Trading &
Clothing. President Jeff Schmitt said Thursday the
pullovers were included in one of the last shipments
brought in from Burma last year before Sept. 1, when
the import ban went into effect. "It's a terrible
irony" that the Burmese jacket landed at Newsday, he
said.
Schmitt said Colorado Trading employs an agent in Asia
who conducts checks of factory conditions.
Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of
the National Labor Committee, said the slip-up showed
a lack of conviction on the administration's part.
"Given the debate about outsourcing, it's amazing that
the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most
brutal country on earth, known for things like child
labor and sexual slavery," he said. "It shows a crude
indifference to this issue."
The National Basketball Association recently vowed to
stop selling Burmese-made sweatshirts after a campaign
by the NLC.
Last week, Newsday ordered a hat, T-shirt and fleece
pullover or jacket from both the Bush and Kerry
campaign stores. The Bush merchandise - which totaled
$81.85 - arrived this week. The Kerry products, worth
$62, have yet to arrive because the fleece jacket was
on back order, according to Financial Innovations, the
company that licenses and sells Kerry merchandise on
the Web site www.kerrygear.com.
The campaigns receive no profits from the merchandise
because of federal election regulations.
The Kerry merchandise was made in the United States,
according to Mark Weiner, the president of Financial
Innovations. The company, whose employees belong to
the Communications Workers of America Union, sources
most of its merchandise from union factories.
"It's becoming more difficult to find American-made
union product, especially in textiles, but you just
have to look. We pay more money for them, so we make a
smaller profit margin," said Paul McConnell, Financial
Innovations' vice president.
Copyright ? 2004, Newsday, Inc.