Made-In-Burma Jacket Stirs Flap for Bush Campaign

[Dreamer128]

By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A "Bush-Cheney '04" campaign jacket sold on the Internet has stirred controversy because it was made in Myanmar, whose imports have been banned by the United States.

Although the company that shipped the fleece pullover, Spalding Group of Louisville, Kentucky, has said it did so in error, human rights groups blamed President Bush's re-election campaign staff for not taking a more careful look at the origin of the products being sold in its name.

The Bush administration has had sanctions in place since September against Myanmar -- also known by its colonial name Burma -- in an attempt to punish the government over human rights violations.

"Burma is one of the most repressive, brutal dictatorships in the world," said Charles Kernagan, head of the National Labor Committee, a group that seeks to combat sweatshops internationally. "The Bush-Cheney campaign was putting money into the hands of dictators with that purchase."

Arvind Ganesan of Human Rights Watch was also critical.

"The U.S. government, regardless of the administration, has widely condemned the human rights record of Burma," Ganesan said. "One would expect that they would be extremely diligent about where they buy their products."

Spalding Group, which supplies the merchandise for the campaign of Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, took responsibility for the controversy, which came to light after a reporter for Newsday newspaper ordered several items off the campaign's Web site.

Among them was a red fleece pullover, priced at $49.95 and embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo. It carried a "Made in Burma" label.

The Bush administration has been trying to fend off widespread criticism of jobs being moved overseas. Democrats especially have pounced on the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs -- including many in the hard-hit textile industry -- as a presidential election campaign issue.

"I am totally prepared to accept responsibility," said Ted Jackson, president of Spalding. "This is about an honest mistake."

Jackson said a supplier shipped the wrong products.

He said the Bush campaign had asked that all of its products originate from American factories, and his company had listed those instructions when placing orders. Jackson said he had sent an apology letter to the campaign over the flap.

"We are committed to making sure only made-in-the-USA products are sold through the Web site," said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.

© Reuters 1998. All Rights Reserved.

[John D Harris]

I'm glad to see this has been posted, because this is MY world, the field that I work in, and have worked it for nearly 20 years. The manufactures of jackets, sweat shirts, t-shirts,etc. have sewing plants allover the world. And are not the same as the company the does the embleshing, weither that embelishment is screen printing or embroidery. My company is an American company yet the t-shirt I sell are made in many countries. I can tell everybody here with 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% certainty, (alowing for the misicule chance of human error) that how this happend was: The Bush/Chenney re-election team asked for bids from several suppliers of finished apparel (screenprinters/embroiders) that come from a list of companies who have expressed an interest in getting their business. Each of these companies submitted a bid the one with the lowest bid won the contract. I've worked for a major company that did this very kind of contracts. "Hale" if any of you have t-shirts with United Way, Girl Scouts, American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Generanl Mills, Shell Oil, Miller Beer, Plus a poop load more companies and charities that I can't recall right now off the top of my pointed little head. You may have T-shirts that I created the art work for and over saw the printing of. I can tell you for a fact that those shirts were not made in the USA, all were printed in the USA but the shirts were not made in the USA. Same is true for almost any product you want to name, this is a complete non-starter.

[skywalker]

Just another instance where the Bush Administration does sloppy homework. Not surprised one bit.


Mark

[John D Harris]

Originally posted by skywalker: Just another instance where the Bush Administration does sloppy homework. Not surprised one bit. Mark

Wrong Mark, Let me put this in terms that you can relate to: You do computer stuff, this would be like if the Bush re-election team hired you to create a computer game for them and the CD's that you burned the game on, CD's that you bought from a 3rd party distributer were some CD's they had in stock from before the embargo and they were used.

THE EMBELISHER is not the manufacturer of the garments, nor are they the distributer of the manufactured garments. I buy t-shirts, sweats, jackets all the time, it is what I do for a living. And I'll get shirts from last year's dye lots or the year before that's dye lots mixed in with shirts from this years dye lots. I get shirts made in countries where the manufacturer has closed the plant in that country years before. WHY? because when the shirts are made they make LOTS of them and they don't all get sold at the same time. they get sold as they are needed by the customer of the distributer, embelishers like me. the distributer may have inventory around for a couple of years before they get rid of all of it.

I know this business inside out, I dare say as my dad used to tell me when I was a child "I've forgotten more about this, then most of you know about it."

[skywalker]

But this is a very important problem that the President and his people need to be sure it all looks perfect. It is like picking the Labor Czar and afterwards realizing he has opened a plant in China, therefore causing him not to be announced a few weeks ago. I do understand what you are saying John, but the little details ARE important. It's all about image and how things look.

Mark

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Mm... I agree with both of you.
From where I sit, it seems to be an honest sort of gaffe, yes? It could happen to anybody and it doesn't mean that the jackets themselves were ordered from Burma. They were blank jackets that have been sitting around, perhaps, but the Bush people ordered them form a printing company, for lack of a better term, based in the States, correct? So that's sort of all right.
HOWEVER!
Mark is right when he says they need to be sure it all looks perfect. Whether or not it *is* perfect is another matter altogether; all a campaign manager can do is ensure that *looks* perfect, that it *appears* to go off without a hitch. I'm not saying the Bushies are not immoral, but I'm saying that here, the problem is one of percieved immorality. It *looks* like the jackets came from Burma, and, in a campagin, that can be as bad as the jackets actually coming from Burma.
Kind of makes you think, though, what kind of pattern have they been setting if we're all so quick to assume that they did the wrong thing?

[John D Harris]

Looks can be deceiving

As I said I'll order shirts, or other blanks to be embelished and in the shipment I recieve there can be from the same manufacturer items that were made years ago in a country were the Manufacturer has since closed their plants. Yet the items are still out there and have not all been sold. Welcome to the Global economy, I worked at a place that alos sold jewelry to theme parks in addition to embelished garments, In the course of doing inventory I came across Ivory earrings, bought when it was still legal to trade ivory, Those items could still legally be sold because they were brought before any embargo.

Go to my website in my sig. select the material catalog>select jackets> then select any one of those manufacturers and you can probibly see the same jacket. From the description on the Bush website I beleive the manufacturer is Most Wanted, it could be Auburn. "Hale" if I hab the brand-name of the jacket I could order one, It may or may not be from a lot manufactured in Burma. Many of these manufacturers have plants in many differant countries, all making the same goods or can make the same goods depending on what the company needs.

[Skunk]

This is a storm in a tea cup. There are more important issues to seize upon than a simple clerical error by some poorly paid clerical manager...

[skywalker]

They could have read the labels before trying to sell the jackets. I still say it makes them "look" uninterested in their own sanctions and foolish.


Mark

[ 03-22-2004, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: skywalker ]

[Timber Loftis]

Yep, storm in teacup.

They couldn't read the labels until the good showed up. The amount of homework it would have taken to know this before the fact is too onerous to expect of anyone. Especially since a buyer can fairly assume that banned products won't be sold to him.

Waste of our time -- but a good article to piss of Repugs and make them whine about Democratic nit-picking.