“Boycott France”?

[question everything]

TUESDAY Oct. 12 Hey, person driving that sweet red-and-silver PT Cruiser south on the 405, you know, the one that had the “Boycott France” sticker in the window. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but France wasn’t the only country that refused to send troops to Iraq. There were lots and lots of others. Lots. Germany, for example. You’ve heard of Germany, haven’t you? European country. Happy, peace-loving people. Very efficiently run companies such as Daimler. You’ve heard of Daimler, haven’t you? It’s the company that owns Chrysler, which made your sweet ride. So, Patriot, I expect to see a “For Sale” sign in that sweet P.T. Kreuzer next time I see you on the free(dom)way.

From http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/06/columns-lowery.php

[Inland]

1. Buy Polish, for another week until they too bug out.

[rogerashton]

2. By the way,

the wines of the Pays d'Oc, southwestern France, are getting better -- still unpredictable but the best of them are damn fine value for money. Sample around.

[Lefty48197]

3. Here's one of my favorite Frenchies:

http://www.umkc.edu/imc/lafayett.htm

[Ellen Forradalom]

4. Those bumperstickers are from O'Reilly

Yep, The O'Ribrator Factor is spearheading the Boycott France idiocy.

I've seen two of those on cars whose drivers look as if they've never driven out of state, much less travelled abroad.

[Sugarbleus]

5. LOL!!----->"The O'Ribrator Factor"

I guess I needed to laugh.....I come into DU today and "Oh, no Mr. Bill" is getting reamed right and left. Too funny!

[Kellanved]

6. Never was able to understand it

Germany actually started the "no Troops" line. Chirac got aboard much later.

[Ellen Forradalom]

14. I think it just comes down to competing business interests.

French oil interests had its own deals in Iraq which clashed with American oil ones. Lots of people were willing to do business with Saddam to get at that oil. Then the Bushies just decided to steal it, which didn't do wonders for the value of French deals.


http://www.brookings.edu/fp/cusf/analysis/marcel.htm
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-2-2003_pg4_5

[RollergirlVT]

7. Bush forgot to boycott too.

His personal taylor in French. Wa La.

[gula]

8. GM certainly looks to be taking care of Germany

Opel is said to cut up to 10 000 jobs in its German factories. That will show them.

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,323274,00.html

[Kellanved]

9. there is more about that

The whole thing is quite messy.
Basically it is a multi-party kickback deal to circumvent EU subsidy regulations. The setup is as follows:
-The US government gives a cheap credit to a country (Poland got "caught", others are suspected)
-The money is used for an Arms deal with an US company (Lockheed)
-said company pays another US company (GM) to move the production to the arms-buying country.

Result:
-the US bypasses WTO subsidy regulations
-the buying countries bypass EU subsidy rules
-the companies gain a lot of leverage against Unions in European politics (for instance it would be impossible for GM to let a brand-new multi-billion plant run at half capacity in order claim low productivity)

[gula]

10. Sadly, I am not surprised

[Kellanved]

11. yeah

But even worse is that the "crisis" is really a consequence of incompetence. In the 90s Opel was denied the funds to develop modern Diesel engines - as a result the brand is largely out of the European competition today. But to make things worse, the first department closed this time was the R&D department. They do not seem interested in getting a profit out of the European market by the "normal" means.

[gula]

12. Who denied those funds?

Was it the head office in the States?

A couple of days ago I saw an article (Blick.ch) about a car being tested in Beijing that used 2 liters to 100 kms. It also accelerated pretty fast. It was a Swiss/French cooperation. Unfortunately I cannot find it anymore and I cannot remember the names of the companies. Did you happen to see it?

[Kellanved]

13. GM Detroit

The usual suspects, if you will.