Prerequiste for Receiving Stimulus Aid: Don’t Be American
So, how’s that economic stimulus package working out for you? For at least 300 workers in south Alabama, it will soon mean a trip to the unemployment line as the federal government has decided to switch to Chinese made condoms in an effort to save on costs.
The story is dripping with irony.
Initially, the basic premise of buying condoms from a nation with more than 1 billion people starts the story off with slightly humorous tilt.
But more seriously and quite troubling is this governmentally endorsed notion of purchasing condoms from China because of better reliability. Lest I remind everyone of China’s less than stellar manufacturing record. Is it beyond the realm of possibility to imagine that dangerously faulty condoms from China could wind up leading to more American children playing with lead-covered, dangerously faulty toys from China?
Perhaps this is all part of President Obama’s admitted intent is a strategy of working with China economically, while simply hoping for the best when it comes to China’s horrendous record with regard to issues affecting human rights, including human rights in manufacturing and production. Consider Secretary of State Clinton’s recent comments:
“Our pressing on those [human rights] issues can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis,” she told reporters traveling with her, adding, “It is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship.”
In the past, Clinton has been an outspoken, staunch critic of China’s human rights stance. But officials have said privately that a new approach to dealing with China’s human rights record, including less public criticism and more private discussions, may prove more productive in changing Chinese behavior.
Of course, this leaves the most troubling, yet immense irony of this report. President Obama’s liberalism criticized President Bush’s belief that the United States could use military force as a means of liberating those under oppressive regimes. He argued such policies hurt our standing as a leader and role model within the free world. Now, without ever having the military fire a shot, President Obama engages in policies that fundamentally tarnish the classical and historical notion of the United States as an endorser of freedom. A stimulus bill that exports jobs to China and implicitly weakening our stance on fundamental human liberties at the exact same time. President Obama is certainly aiming for the fences with his change of America.
For these folks in Alabama, CHANGE means that while they may be unemployed, they will have plenty of low-cost government subsidized condoms to use during all their new free time.
