http://www.gregpalast.com/jose-can-y...aco/#more-1999

Away from the heady swirl of FoX inspired slease and Obama speech inspiration, lets not forget that its always coldest just before the dawn, and that Bush(the president in case you've forgotteon) thrives in darkness.

So whats going on in the Crumpled City? Its a NAFTA meet-up, and its time to strip protections down in the name of profits for teh rich- never mind the enviroment or human rights standards, out not-so-hidden rulers aren't beholden to time-frames that include US, now or later. A few choice paragraphs:

"The second reason Bush has kept this major summit a virtual secret is its real agenda - and the real agenda-makers. The names and faces of the guys who called the meeting must remain as far out of camera range as possible: The North American Competitiveness Council.

Never heard of The Council? Well, maybe you’ve heard of the counsellors: the chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron Oil, Lockheed-Martin and 27 other multinational masters of the corporate universe."


"Take for example, pesticides. Wal-Mart and agri-business don’t want to reduce the legal amount of poison allowed in what you eat. Solution: “harmonize” US and Canadian pesticide standards to Mexico’s."


"...the new NAFTA Highway will allow Chinese stuff dumped into Mexico to be hauled northward as duty-free “Mexican” products."


"...the SPP agreement promotes a five-fold increase in the mining of Canadian tar sands for import, as liquid crude oil, into the USA..."


"To underscore the fact that you aren't invited, nor our elected representatives, Barlow related to me that the US Ambassador to Canada told her the legal changes wrought in New Orleans will not be put before the three national Congresses for a vote. “We don’t want to open up another NAFTA,” he told her. So, they’ll skip the voting stuff. Democracy is so, like, 20th Century."