CPSIA Cheerleader?!?

[Former_Member]

Yes, this is a REAL blog entry I just came across. Only one comment so far. Anyone want to have a go at it?

http://cpsiacheerleader.com/2009/01/29/take-your-thumbs-out-of-your-mouths-grow-up-and-accept-that-t...

[Former_Member]

SHE is on our side, quoting something she came across... so breathe, read the whole thing and THEN reply.

[meredithdillman]

I saw that from twitter. Many people commented but that guy is not posting any of them.

[Former_Member]

Or maybe link it to their blogs? Lots of info there!

Just to clarify, this is to cheer folks like US on during this mess!

[Former_Member]

It's OK, my comment was supporting her stuff! (Now I'm second-guessing whether it came across that way..... EEK!!!)

After I feed the kids and get them to bed I want to go back to the one she quoted and comment there too!

Just wanted to put it out there!

[Former_Member]

Generations...
I LOVE your avatar. So, that's all they have to do to test?? Scan it with a gun???

[Former_Member]

OOops, that was in reference to the flick'r pictures of the lead testing party...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34599465@N02/

[Former_Member]

This refers to a blog article by Andy Hoffman, other articles I have read by him are just as toxic. He is a lover of Government control and regulation and usually misrepresents the issue at hand and invariably blames the right wing, Big business, Conservatives, etc...all the usual people who are routinely blamed for everything...

[Former_Member]

As someone who is so far to the left I make Rachel Maddow look mildly fascist, I have to say, the bizarre contention that this is a right vs. left issue is, well, BIZARRE.

All us crazy arrogant liberals are routinely blamed for everything as well. But not this CPSIA bit. Heck no. This is actually pro big business and pro big government. Big business can afford to test, and the fact small businesses can't will help them to eliminate their competition. Big government is something that the right wing is crazy happy about, as long as it includes things they can make money off of, like requiring testing be done in a specific way by specific means, but, once again, only for small business, not for, say, China. The right wing in this country just loves big government, when said big government is helping the wealthy get more of the pie, but if it helps regular people, they're the first to scream commie.

Anyway. The Hoffmans of the world exist to shill for the very people they claim they are against. It would be ironic, if it weren't so sad.

Thanks for the link, by the way, OP!

[Former_Member]

OK, managed to put food in front of my children long enough to comment on the original entry as well. It's hard to write comlete sentences, let alone complete comments, with a 3YO on one's lap.

Love the pics of the XRF lead testing party, BTW! :-)

[Former_Member]

Marking to read later - I get to go home now!

[Former_Member]

This is my comment to the PopTarts blog:

"I find it offensive and arrogant to lump small businesses like myself together and publish it under the assumption that we want to give children toxic toys.

Excuse me? I began my company last year in RESPONSE to the toxic toys flooding the market. I have a child and wanted to create baby blankets and clothing that I knew were much higher quality than the usual suspects you find in big box stores. Let's get one thing straight:

Every single one of my suppliers test their items for lead. All of my buttons are tested by Dritz, all of my fabric is tested. My organics collection is among the highest quality you can find on the market.

Yet you stand there and imply that my items have lead in them because I cannot afford to have them tested. Can you afford $600 to test a bib for lead and phtalates (which is impossible for the bib to have, since I do not use plastics!)? Consider that I might product 10 bibs out of a particular fabric -- that translates to $60 a bib, not counting materials and labor.

Let me say another thing: the exemption for "natural, undyed fabrics" is ridiculously narrow. Are you telling me that my GOTS-certified organic fabric from Harmony Art are DANGEROUS (they are dyed with all-natural plant-derived dyes), but the beige organic flannel is not? Ludicrous. You're telling me that if I make a blanket and a burp cloth out of the EXACT SAME MATERIALS that I have to test them BOTH? Where is the LOGIC in that sort of redundant testing?

Why don't you get your head out of your behind and start looking at the true implications of this act? Look at the *thousands* of mom-owned, home-based businesses that will be permanently shuttered because of this act. Look at the impact you will have AT HOME. Where has the majority of lead-tainted toys come from? China. Where will be the only place that will still make children's items after February 10th?

China.

Thank you for your staunch support of the big businesses and large-scale companies that can afford to pay for this testing at the demise of the thousands of home-based businesses who can't.

Your hubris is truly stunning. You want testing? You pay for it. Send me your address and I'll send you a bill to test every line of blankets, bibs and burp cloths I have. Thanks for helping eliminate my "dangerous" products from the market -- especially my organic blankets, those are truly "toxic" and dangerous."

Notice how there are no comments published. I bet he's avoiding posting them because they're all negative.

Jen

[Former_Member]

Oooh...... you were a lot more incisive than I was - and I totally applaud you for it!!!

For anyone who wants to see the blog that got the Cheerleader riled (and very rightfully so!), go here: http://www.thepoptort.com/2009/01/gimme-back-my-toxic-toys.html

No responses posted yet now either, but there is this response to the responses he's read so far:
http://www.thepoptort.com/2009/01/the-safety-nanny-responds.html

[FayeMaloneDesigns]

Marking

[Former_Member]

Rats, the guy STILL hasn't posted any of the responses to his post on PopTorts. :-( Thought about calling him on it.....but wasn't sure if it'd be a good idea or a BAAAD one, KWIM?

But lots of good responses for the cheerleader! :-D

[bdoll]

here is what i wrote in response to his post about people's comments. i think it's pretty polite (although i have been wrong about how my writing comes across before) so we'll see if he posts this:

you know that ellipsis right before "will all rot in hell" is a little suspect, but that is beside the point. while i understand not wanting to post anything particularly nasty on your blog i also think you omitted the main message in many of the comments: that the people who will be punished are not the problem and that our outcry about this law is not because we are enthusiastic baby poisoners. it is real right-wing marginalizing type speak to make broad and sweeping accusations of an entire and hyperbolic and outrageous assumptions of their intentions. i make children's clothes with natural materials. i buy certified lead-free zippers. if the law isn't amended i would have to have one of every dress or overalls or shirt i make destroyed in a testing process that will cost hundreds, even up to thousands, of dollars to tell me that my lead free materials managed to stay lead free when they were put together. i think it is easy to be confident that they will change the law and everything will be fine if your livelihood doesn't literally depend on it. i am not making any excuses for angry or aggressive language but i do think a little sensitivity on your part isn't too much to ask for. at the very least, can you not accuse all of us of peddling toxic products to poor unsuspecting babies? it's presumptive, unfair, rude and simply not true. thank you

[bdoll]

"entire group" i meant to say "about an entire group". that is in my comment to him.

[Former_Member]

of course he took the messages out of context... he didn't realize that people were posting them elsewhere so that we could see what was actually written.


no one that supports this law, as a whole wants to be wrong.

so they turn a blind eye to testing redundancy, the general safety of american toys, and instead turn us into profit hungry toxic toy makers.



who's pocket is pop tort lining? do you wonder?

safety will mean nothing when our economy finally topples completely over. safety will be a faint dream in our realities.

they will start to feel it at the top. though. they will. right now they think, i have my job, my home, my car. who cares? it's not so bad for me.

wait.


if the purpose of the law was to limit lead and make criminal and civil punishments for violators, that's what the law should have done.

instead, they overwrote it with not one single realistic thought as to what they were asking the entire country to do.


if nothing changes, i hope the backlash is so big that all these spiteful, word twisting bloggers find themselves speechless. because i will love to hear how they twist it into a good thing.

hahah.



i really hope that congress takes the seriousness of the issue to heart and gets a reality check between then and now. but, i doubt it.


so, bring on doomsday.

and yeh... give us our bail out. we better get ours long before the porn industry gets one.

[Former_Member]

and i don't just mean small businesses going under, i mean, all the trash and banned toys, clothing, books, shoes, school supplies, and everything else.

the economy is just the beginning... the very tip of the ice berg.

[Former_Member]

marking

[Former_Member]

Here's my next comment:

""I love how you're refusing to post the actual comments on the other post you're referring to. That's pathetic, in my honest opinion. Show them. Show your readers the DAMAGE this law will do to businesses like mine -- go ahead. But you won't, will you? You won't publish anything that might actually make your readers think that the law, as written now, is not the greatest thing in the world since sliced bread.

Quote: "That’s because the law includes mechanisms for legitimate exclusions for those who are unable to comply. "

Really? That's not exactly what Nancy Nord is saying -- she's saying her hands are tied. So... who is lying here? People are dragging their feet and my business is at stake. That's awfully nice of them. I guess if they decide to exempt things (like organic fabric) in July, I'll just start all over again, then. I can't wait to sell off my stock, I can't wait to sell off my fabric, those things will have to be liquidated immediately... so I guess I'll just start all over again when they realize that (gasp) organic fabrics DON'T HAVE LEAD IN THEM.

Quote: "And finally, we just have to note that at the time this law was being drafted, none of its opponents ever raised these concerns. "

Your arrogance truly strikes me here. I am, almost, at a loss for words. Almost.

Can you get, in your little brain, the idea that (perhaps) small, one or two-person businessess run by mothers, out of their homes, DON'T HAVE THE F-ING TIME TO FIGURE OUT ALL THE LITTLE NUANCES OF LAWS THAT CONGRESS MIGHT PASS? Are you kidding me? I didn't even find out about this until November, three months after it was singed into law. I don't remember anyone soliciting my opinion, nor (I'm sure) do the other thousands of crafters and artisans on the market.

The fact of the matter is this: the BIG BUSINESSES had a say. Big business, NOT small business. Don't try to play coy, people like you hate all business -- large and small. They had a seat at the table -- Mattel, Gerber, Fisher-Price -- not us. Those are the companies who are secretly laughing with glee at the demise of all small business competition.

Quote: "So, to all the small businesses out there, take up your concerns with the law’s original opponents, who are trying to use your issue to fuel a high-voltage publicity campaign to scrap the entire law. "

No, we'll take our fight everywhere. I've done an interview on the Natural Moms' Talk Radio show, with much support from the host. We are going to the media and our Congressmen -- Democrat and Republican -- and demanding SOMEONE do SOMETHING before Feb. 10th.

Hmmm... Where's your article banning high fructose corn syrup? It's been found that those items have mercury in them.

To think... Yoo Hoo is more dangerous than my organic burp cloth, yet kids will still be able to chug Yoo Hoo in gallon quantities while my organic burp cloth is a "hazardous material."

Nice hypocrisy there. I like it.""

God, this woman is an idiot. I loathe people like her.

[Former_Member]

http://cpsia-central.ning.com/profiles/blogs/take-your-thumbs-out-of-your

PLEASE JOIN CPSIA-CENTRAL TO FIGHT TO AMMEND THIS NEW LAW

[Former_Member]

I have joined instead of just continuing to lurk. :-) Also just got done responding to PopTort's response myself.

Now to spend a lovely day with my kids, one of whom has a birthday, so I can get back to it refreshed in the morning! (or tonight)

[Former_Member]

thewhimsytrove says:
Big government is something that the right wing is crazy happy about, as long as it includes things they can make money off of, like requiring testing be done in a specific way by specific means, but, once again, only for small business, not for, say, China. The right wing in this country just loves big government, when said big government is helping the wealthy get more of the pie, but if it helps regular people, they're the first to scream commie.
********************

Sorry, I try not to engage, but I have to on this one. whimsytrove, please check your facts. Definition from encarta: interventionist style of government: government perceived as being excessively big-spending and attempting to control too many aspects of people's lives) This is the purview of the left. At its worst, the CPSIA and other legislation aimed at regulating most aspects of our day-to-day lives; essentially, protecting us from ourselves.

Small government is well-known to be the arena of the right. At its worst, little or no regulation on those industries that really SHOULD be regulated in order to protect environmental and consumer concerns (for clean air, clean water, banking regulations, safe working conditions, etc.)

I was very liberal until my mid-20s, and now I live with one foot on either side of the line, so to speak. Very much an independent centrist (just so you know that I am not chastising from an uber-right standpoint).

Sorry, off topic, but needed to be said.

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone for reading this post and for all of the comments. It was comforting to see that others are as upset as I am about the original post on PopTort.com (and it was very entertaining to read everyone's comments).

Keep fighting, cheer for component testing, urge your reps to hold Waxman to his word, join cpsia-central, join the cpsia discussion on Fashion-Incubator.com. And don't give up hope!

The Cheerleader ;)

Olivia
Baby Candy
Congrats from Colorado
CPSIA Cheerleader