it's spread too far already in my opinion, both in the US and Germany. I really get a kick out of some Americans banning or boycotting products that have the name "French" in them, because none of them have anything to do with France in anyway. it's a sad world we live in.

I think the boycotting is extremely dumb. I hope this doesn't get too big, it is so immature.

The economic boycott is not dumb or immature. It is a very powerful tool
to accomplish change without violence. The point is that the boycott must
be large enough and long enough to affect the profits of the entity (country,
corporation, etc) been boycotted. Also that entity must be informed why
you are not buying its products. Why do people buy the products of entities
(corporations, countries, etc.) with which they do not agree? You buy from
and deal with your friends; you don't buy from your enemies. Yours truly
has been told that a boycott of the buses in Selma, Alabama did as much to
integrate the buses as any court action. When bus revenues went down, the
buses got intergrated. There is a huge potential power in the economic boycott
(especially with profit orientated corporations). When revenues go down,
policies change.

Well, I think this is just media-drivel: and while people may "boycott" Camembert, I suspect they won't boycott BMW's, Merc's or Porsches.
It's worth remembering that, becaus eof the structure of the EU and the support mechanisms for the euro, it's effectively very hard to single out one or two countries.

Why not boycott gasoline: hit the terrorists in the pocket?

These days, just boycotting something won't do much good. It will get their attention, just like the peace walks. But now they didn't do much did they? We're still at war. And the restraunts in Germany won't really affect the government's decision in any way, so there is no worry about our economy falling even further because we can't get some of our imports from Germany.

Just let it blow over, you don't hear about the people taking anything with the word "French" off their menus anymore do you? That's because it doesn't matter!

Just remember that boycotts and protests and strikes are EXTREMELY common in Germany and France. The populations are always on strike about something-- most of which are domestic affairs (like not getting paid enough, etc). So the fact that they chose to target the US this time isn't a really big deal. I really don't blame them for it, considering the way we've been running this war.

And as far as boycotting or sanctioning trade with Germany, remember that little merger 5 years ago between Germany's Daimler-Benz AG and USA-based Chrysler Corporation. I don't think that we'll be seeing large scale trade embargos with France, Germany or even Canada, because of refusal to support the war in Iraq. The US wouldn't completely shut down trade as they have with the small country of Cuba. Canada alone does somewhere in the neighbourhood of a billion dollars a day in cross-border trading. Though as mentioned, sanctions are very effective, the US is also very capitalistic and are smart when it comes to keeping on top of the economic world. Even though George Dubya is struggling with the economy I am sure as always it will turn around...

The point is a boycott must be BIG enough and long enough to affect revenues (and thus profits).
Boycotts are more effective when used against specific corporations (rather than countries).
However the token boycotts you are seeing in Germany just really won't do much except grab a
little media attention. (I can imagine a sales rep for Coke going to the CEO and saying "Boss,
we are really in trouble in Germany, last month we only sold 9 million cases of Coke, rather than
9 million 100 cases".) Yeah right - you have really hurt them. Which why boycotts normally
don't work. For a boycott to work you got to get a lot of people to stop buying the product and
for a period long enough to affect profits (at least 3 months). Also as stated, this is more
effective when used against corporations whose policies are more driven by revenues and profits.

I have an IDEA!!! Lets BOYCOTT the Government, refuse to use anything even pertaining to it. Cheese, money anything! Even Better lets do it out side the White house/ on the lawn?