Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

I wish someone would ask her why she's using Magnequench as an example of this. They used to produce specialized magnets, used in smart bombs, here in Indiana. Then they were bought by Chinese interests, in 1995.

So, basically, Hillary is saying that her husband was a bad President for letting this company be sold to the Chinese.

Washington Post highlighted the dwindling options in the defense industry, we have consolidated from 20 to 6 in less than 2 decades. If we want to create competition, we need to keep our overseas options only. Hell, the spirit of the Jones Act is violated in every contract, and Boeing played the patriot card when it lost the Tanker deal even though they are sending the procurement of several F-18 technologies to India at the same time. In other words, the political pandering is to a false god, the defense industry already understands the value of foreign markets, and they exploit it. Its about time Congress does so as well.

Anything for a vote . .

Great pickup, Keith.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/30/154932/852/949/506536

From Jake Tapper:

"A memo prepared for [Indiana Senator Evan] Bayh by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service earlier this year stated that the Clinton administration could have objected to the sale under CFIUS, but it did not...In 2000, also during Bill Clinton's presidency, Magnequench purchased from UGIMAG the factory in Valparaiso that manufactured the Neo magnets. President Clinton's administration took no steps to stop the purchases in 2000, either."

The story is starting to pick up some steam with McClatchy publishing it. ABC, MSNBC, and a few others are doing more investigation. I've been pushing it out on the blogsphere since the 24th, though I have no idea how much my meager effort helped.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/35337.html