True, Zowie, but then, ya put two engines in a trash can & it'll scoot!
In the late 60's a Mini Cooper S, all set up & decked out, won the Monte Carlo Rally, two years in a row, against Porsches, Ferraris & all kindsa nasty stuff. The car had a go-cart handling feel, and w/ front wheel drive, you accelerate thru turns, not brake, a gravity-defying sensation! The New BMW MINI, has front wheel drive & transverse mounted engine, and wheels way out on the 4 corners, just like the orig, unlike the new VW Beetle which is only shaped like orig one.
BMW is gearing up for the US ad campagin, now & will include "Mini-esque" features like being able to design personalized graphics for the roof, which will then be factory applied.
Since the new MINI will be sold thru BMW dealers, thier customer demographics are about to get interesting, wide-eyed aging Boomers (like me) dripping ice cream on thier showroom floor yelling " I want, I want!! whats the min down $ & how fast can I get it?"
No Dave, Im not off-topic, the new MINI is owned by BMW, made in England with a Dodge Neon engine assembled in Brazil

Bill Moyer's look at free trade was so infuriating that I still have rage 24 hours later. Just consider these items regarding Chapter 11 of NAFTA:

* Corporations can legally sue any government (and collect billions of your tax dollars) whom they "feel" has denied them profit. This means that if a specific regulation is enacted, such as the state of California banning a known carcinogen to protect their water supply, the chemical company can take billions from California to offset the profits they won't make. This is happening in Cal right now.

* The rulings are made by a private tribunal under NAFTA. No elected officials, no judges, no citizens, are allowed to even view the proceeding much less participate.

* Tobacco companies under NAFTA could be paid off huge to offset what they say they lose as a result of warning labels.

* Delivery companies like UPS are shooting for millions of your tax dollars, simply because, by running the postal service, governments are denying them potential customers.

* State and cities are going to stop protecting the environment, stop banning cancerous agents, and stop protecting Americans, because they fear being pillaged by global corporate lawsuits. This is only the beginning. As the corporations figure out that they now have free "open bar", they will begin bending us over at an ever increasing rate. And the business lobby wants Bush to expand this privelage to 31 more countries via the new free trage agreement being developed for "the Americas".

Democracy is being replaced by UNchallengable and absolute corporate power. It is happening right now, as we speak. Our tax dollars are being slurped away by bastards who have to prove nothing. They simply decide what they want, and we hand it over. This should enrage the left, the center, and the right. We are all losing our rights, and our resources, to greed which knows no boundaries, and has no decency.

Where is the fucking outrage?

I can only hope that most people don't realize it's happening. If they do, and they just don't care, then we really are finished. Please check your local listings and catch this on PBS. It's called "Bill Moyers-Trading Democracy".

After your blood pressure comes back down to normal, please tell everyone you know what is happening, and call your Representatives.

I hope you're right, lcj, that most people (like me) don't know the details. I will look for Bill Moyer's show. I will also contact my reps.

wow, scary stuff, lcj, I didn't see Moyer's show, but have read that, elsewhere. If you can, be sure to see indie film documentary.. "Love & Debt" about IMF sacking of Jamaica's economy...when does the war on corporate terror start, hmm? John Kerry's making good noises, for a "centerist"

Bumper, you make a great reference there. We do need to start the "war on corporate power". Not a war in the violent sense, but through legal means. Corporations are waging war on Democracy and Justice, and if we don't start fighting back, we're all fucked.

Unlike the war on terrorism though, we can't look to most of our Repub and Democratic leaders for help. They're bought and paid for, and currently reside in the hip pocket of Corporate America. We must find other means.

Yes, that's what I mean, lcj, We need a "ideological war" to re-instate a sense of social morality and responsibility, to corporations. Extractive, economically oppressive corporate practices, just won't make it, any more.
Artificial nation-states were created, thruought the mid-east, by European and Amerocan gov'ts, w/regimes put into power, because they would carry out policies favorable to Western oil needs, not for the benefit of indigenous follks, there.
The Saudi royal family just happened to pitch their tents, over huge oil deposits, so ouila! they won the prize! an instant monarchy, w/ no historical basis!
And yet, if anyone even speculates, on the root causes, of Muslim fundamentalism frustration, and alienation, they are labelled as entertaining "treasonous" thoughts.. just follow the trail...
BP, Aramco, Saudi Kingdom, dictatorial Theocracies
Refugee camps, oppressed people, Al Qaida,..mainpulation by wealthy radicals, Jihaad, 9/11!
it ani't no mystery, just dysfunctional history...
"Things are breakin up, out there,
high water everywhere"
B Dylan

Got a letter from my Senator Mark Dayton today.

He said that Sen. Kerry is working on a bill to correct some of the problems with Chapter 11, and that they would press for changes in the next series of trade bill debates. He was pretty vague though, and I doubt that the Democrats ideas of NAFTA's "problems" would be the same as most environmentalists. But we must keep pressing them.

I think that the future of the Democratic party lies in renouncing bullshit organized criminal activity such as NAFTA, and also fighting for Labor once again. The trade Unions which made this country great, and the Environment are two areas for which they could score big points against the Dark Side. I wish them well.