Time to start your holiday toy shopping!!
Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — Mattel Inc. Chairman Robert Eckert blamed the company’s contractors for a spate of recalls of Chinese-made products and told a congressional panel the toymaker has taken steps to prevent further incidents.
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“Our standards were violated,” Eckert told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
Poor Mattel!! Poor Bob!! They are victims, I tell ya, victims!!!!
Today’s Senate hearing follows Mattel’s recall of 21 million Chinese-made toys in the past six weeks because of excessive lead paint or detached magnets.
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Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who heads the subcommittee, said the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission “has been neglected and underfunded, resulting in reductions of staff levels and weakened standards.” Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the CPSC, said the agency’s testing laboratory is housed in a 1950s-era missile testing facility.
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Lawmakers are considering several legislative proposals in response to the recalls, including higher penalties for ignoring product-safety laws, budget increases for federal regulators and requiring all children’s products to be certified as having met safety guidelines.
“It’s time for us to take action,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat. “This has got to stop.”
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Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, is pulling toys off shelves going into the fourth-quarter holiday season, which accounted for more than one-third of 2006 sales. About 2.8 million of its recalled toys have contained paint that may have excessive levels of lead. Lead may be toxic if ingested by children and can cause brain damage and learning problems.
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While emphasizing the company’s stepped-up efforts to test toys at factories abroad, he acknowledged that many Mattel products it hopes to sell this holiday season are already on their way to U.S. store shelves.
Just a side note, this is Nancy Nord (anyone else think of Norton Nork when they see her name?). 
Does she remind you of a certain Stepford wife who resides in the White House?
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Good one, nonnie!
But, the important thing here is whether they are EDUCATIONAL toys. I mean, “Is our kids learning?” If they play with lead-laced hyper-magnetized toys, can they ever grow up smart enough to be Preznit? And, the answer is, “Yes, Dubya, they can!” (snicker, snicker)
the other important thing is that big business be allowed to flourish by finding the cheapest labor they can find, and the hell with everything else (until they get caught). i think i read that eckert has 4 kids. i wonder how many mattel toys he is going to allow them to play with.
Poor Mattel!! And Btarz too near
hi liltoy! 😀
i wouldn’t feel too sorry for mattel. they will just charge their customers more.