Think Progress

ThinkFast: October 9, 2006

By Think Progress on Oct 9th, 2006 at 9:24 am

ThinkFast: October 9, 2006


After warnings from the U.N. Security Council just two days ago to not conduct a nuclear test, North Korea yesterday announced that it had set off an atomic weapon underground. The test was the first “manifest proof” of the country’s nuclear capabilities. (Timeline of North Korea’s atomic march HERE.)

Yesterday, James A. Baker, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said he “absolutely” agrees with Sen. John Warner’s (R-VA) recent remarks on setting a timetable for redeployment from Iraq. “[T]here are alternatives between the stated alternatives…of ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’” said Baker.

“The United Nations human rights chief said on Monday ’several hundred’ civilians — far more than first thought — may have died in late August attacks by militias in the south of Sudan’s violent Darfur region.”

“Rising concern over immigration has prompted a wave of cities and states this year to try to make English the official language.” Critics charge that the measures are “a way of putting immigrants in their place.”

“Moving with unusual speed,” the House Ethics Committee has started interviews in its probe of the Mark Foley scandal. Longtime Foley aide and former chief of staff for Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) Kirk Fordham will be testifying this week.

There are “compelling reasons beyond the Foley case to call for the speaker’s resignation from the post,” conclude American Progress’s Scott Lilly and the American Enterprise Institute’s Norman Ornstein, who examine Rep. Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) “dodgy real estate deals.”

And finally: Florida’s Projet H.O.P.E. — funded by FEMA tax dollars — is supposed to provide “crisis counseling” for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. But H.O.P.E. officials often cannot locate victims because FEMA refuses to release their names. Instead, counselors “regularly attend ’stress management’ sessions that have included collecting shells on the beach, ‘silly string and art therapy,’ and ‘the toilet paper game.’”

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.



92 Responses to “ThinkFast: October 9, 2006”

  1. big papa says:

    “TESTING! TESTING!”

    …”Can you hear me now?”

    -Kim Jong Il (aka L’il Kim)-


  2. Ben says:

    Who cares about nuclear bomb testing. We need to stay on topic with this Foley is a perv thing.


  3. fgf says:

    “[T]here are alternatives between the stated alternatives…of ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’” said Baker.

    Who ever ststed that “cut and run” is an alternative policy for Iraq? Lots of Republicans, but can Baker name one Democrat who ’stated’ that ‘cut and run’ is an alternative policy for Iraq?



  4. Marge+N.+Overa says:

    “North Korea yesterday announced that it had set off an atomic weapon underground.”

    Clearly this is the fault of Clinton’s penis.


  5. Krazny says:

    Given how damaging the Foley scandal has been to the republican party, I would be happy to stay on message Ben. On the other hand, NK, testing an atomic bomb, is further proof of the massive failure of George W. Bush, and his sycophantic followers. Sort of a win win situation for Democrats. Lets recap: 8 years under a democratic president, North Korea had no nukes, 6 years under republican BOOM.

    Brilliant I tell you.


  6. Briseadh na Faire says:

    So, North Korea has joined the Nuclear Weapons club. Seismologists around the world can confirm its claim. Meanwhile the Bush NotBlackHouse is silent on the issue.

    We’re fighting them in Iraq so they can arm themselves in North Korea. Now Bush can nuke San Francisco, blame it on North Korea and attack Iran in retaliation.

    The “enemy” is no longer “Islamofascists.” Now we have to be afraid of “Buddafascists” and “Extremem Confusianism.”

    Meanwhile, the world waits for Bush to sign his Torture Bill and begin his secret trials and executions of foreign nationals. That’s right. Under Bush’s Torture Bill, Bush can abduct anyone, anywhere, declare him or her to be an enemy combatant, hold him or her in a secret prison, torture him or her in secret, have a Military Commission “trial,” and then execute him or her, all in secret. And Bush can proclaim all such proceedings comport with the rule of law and our obligations under the Geneva Convention.

    After looking at what Bush did to Iraq on a pretext, is it any wonder that the other two members of Bush’s “Axis of Evil” have put a rush on developing a nuclear deterrant?


  7. Marie says:

    The S Korea nuclear test will be used by Reps to denounce Dems as being “soft” and keep the security issue at the forefront of the last weeks of the campaiagn cycle.
    BUT Dems must remind everyone that this has occurred on Bush’s watch – he refused any discussion with the man he referred to as a “pygmie.” Iran is further along on its path toward nuclear capability and this too has occurred on Bush’s “security” watch. The only one who was not a threat was Iraq and that is where Bush has us tied down militarily, and financially.
    Bush’s bellicose and belligerent attitude, the chip on his shoulder, the defiant cowboy approach is primitive and ineffective; it’s time for grown ups to take over, and it will begin in November.


  8. Briseadh na Faire says:

    Anyone find it rather odd that redeployment was a bad thing when Murtha proposed it?


  9. Marie says:

    EEEKS
    Of course, I intended to say N Korea. I think I made a typo – but the post isn’t up yet.


  10. Sharon Cox says:

    Beat the drum’s slowly, by the bush war monger’s most unholy…….Blessings


  11. Super+Flaming+Gay+Republican says:

    Is it me or does ThinkProgress really suck now that it has swept pro torture anti habeas corpus dems under the rug?


  12. Clif says:

    Let’s recap the Bush foreign policy plan.

    I know, stop laughing, I did say “plan”. Yes PLAN, that is what I said. Right I said Plan….yes I know, stop laughing, they said they had a plan.

    See they went into a country which they had NO Intell because they claimed that Saddam wanted to get nuclear weapons, and HE had to be stopped. So Bush took the US there in March 2003, with tanks and bombs to stop Saddam. We searched and searched but NO nukes, no program, nothing. And now Iraq is a Fiasco, on the verge of breaking up, even Jim Baker says so. This will totally destabilise the entire region for probably a decade.

    At the same time Bush warned us about North Korea’s real plans to aquire a nuclear weapon. So what does he do, REFUSE to talk to them unless he can bring a whole lot of people to the talk, looks like Georgie wanted to have somebody to HIDE behind when he was looking at Kim Jong Il, big bad Texan Georgie is after all. But the North Koreans saw the Bush Administration as a paper tiger, because it could add up the troops and see that Bush had overplayed his hands, so Kim Jong Il simply ignored Bush and went ahead with HIS very real program.

    Well six years later Saddam has no nukes and the Iraqi’s have no country, just a civil war, and the North Koreans have a NUKE and last night they unleashed the smoking “mushroom cloud” gun to prove it. So the Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, and other regional players will have to respond. And their responses might lead to someone attempting to aquire nukes of their own. This will probably destabilise the region for a decade or so, until the balance of power can be re-established.

    Heck of a job Georgie….

    Hell at least one good thing for the repugs can come out of this. At this point Bush kind of makes even Denny Hastert look competent doesn’t he?


  13. S.D. says:

    Who cares about nuclear bomb testing. We need to stay on topic with this Foley is a perv thing.

    Comment by Ben — October 9, 2006 @ 9:33 am

    Sadly, the Foley News Story makes more of an impact on the Electorate. Look how little attention was paid to the Attempted murder of habeas Corpus?

    Bet GW pays attention to North Korea now. Any “Orange Alerts” before November??


  14. pluky says:

    As much as I love Bush-bashing, this test has less to do with the incompetence of administration foreign policy than it does with Pyongyang’s discomfort with the idea of improving relations between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo.


  15. S.D. says:

    Briseadh na Faire, is there anythying in the Torture Bill limiting it to foreign nationals?


  16. Hemlock for Gadflies says:

    Can you say, “October surprise”?

    Can you say, “Rally ’round the flag effects”?

    Can you say, “Democrats are weak on national security”?

    Can you say, “It’s Bill Clinton’s fault”?

    Heckuva job, turd blossom.


  17. RealScientist says:

    I always knew that Jim Baker was a cut and runner. Now Bush will have to label Baker an enemy combatant. It shouldn’t take more than a few waterboarding sessions before Baker is chanting “If you aren’t with us, you are against us.”


  18. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    Keith Olbermann will be talking tonight about the death of habeus corpus even if ThinkProgress thinks it’s a non-issue.


  19. DSouth says:

    Now the Grand Ol Pervs will say Dems are weak on security vote for us. We’ll protect you like we do the kids in Washington. We should all feel very safe.


  20. Grand+Moff+Texan says:

    Gee, aren’t you glad Bush isn’t “appeasing” them any more?

    In 1993, North Korea announced it would pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, leaving it free to divert nuclear material from its energy reactors to make a nuclear weapon and setting off a round of crisis diplomacy led by the Clinton administration. The result was the so-called agreed framework, which – in return for supplies of fuel oil to North Korea – froze most aspects of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme for the rest of the decade.

    The agreed framework was in effect consigned to history when the Bush administration came to power in 2001. The new administration argued that although the road to a plutonium-based nuclear bomb had been frozen, the North Koreans were cheating by attempting to develop a uranium-based bomb that was not explicitly addressed by the agreement.

    That five years later, North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon will be widely interpreted as a sign of the failure of the tougher approach favoured by the Bush team.

    Phony-tough backfires again for the phony Texan, not to mention phony Christian. Just when we thought Bush’s legacy was going to be his humiliation in Iraq, now there’s a new madman with a nuke!

    The failure of conservatism is getting more expensive all the time.
    .


  21. Jay+McGinley says:

    Bless you for your concern for Darfur. Join us and we-the-citizens will stop the Genocide. No one else can. No one else will.
    Several of us have decided to begin a RESCUE DARFUR FAST.
    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com/2007/09/join-rescue-darfur-fast-till-it-stops.html
    One of us began 5 days ago, and several others today. Links below for the details.
    Nothing less than a worldwide fast-until-the-genocide-stops will be enough to stop it.
    Nothing less will be a sufficient moral response.
    Nothing less will preserve our humanity, yours and mine.
    Please consider linking (below) to increase the visibility of this effort.
    Jay McGinley jymcginley@cs.com
    Day 134 Darfur Vigil at White House; Day 68 Rescue Darfur Fast (since July 4, 2006)
    DARFUR Dying for Heroes
    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com
    (you would find this a helpful resource)
    Please consider linking here to increase the visibility of this effort.

    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com/2007/09/join-rescue-darfur-fast-till-it-stops.html
    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com


  22. S.D. says:

    Hemlock for Gadflies, You missed “The Democrats don’t have a Plan!!

    Of course they do, but I heard Bay Buchanan say that the other day.


  23. Bruce+Gorton says:

    Tough=Stupid. Plain and simple. Stay the Course is tough, Stay the Course when you are headed in the opposite direction to where you want to be, is stupid.

    The Republicans are basically stupid, point blank thick, and NK ignoring them when they try to make ultimatums just demonstrates it once again. Refusing to talk to your enemies is tough, it is also stupid. It gives you a situation where your enemies remain your enemies and your friends think you are being an unreasonable jerk.


  24. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    TP Typo -

    You misspelled Project in the last item.


  25. Jay Randal says:

    Do not worry this NK setting off a nuke underground will not knock the GOP Sexual Predator Scandal off the newscasts > Karl Rove wishes it would, but talking about Kim in NK is boring unless he does boys too > lol.


  26. Bruce+Gorton says:

    And finally: Florida’s Projet H.O.P.E. — funded by FEMA tax dollars — is supposed to provide “crisis counseling” for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. But H.O.P.E. officials often cannot locate victims because FEMA refuses to release their names. Instead, counselors “regularly attend ’stress management’ sessions that have included collecting shells on the beach, ‘silly string and art therapy,’ and ‘the toilet paper game.’”

    And this is how much the Republican Party respects you, the people of America.


  27. MyRightWing says:

    There are “compelling reasons beyond the Foley case to call for the speaker’s resignation from the post,”

    Turning over a new Page.

    Becoming an exclamation point in history.

    Culture of Corruption turning to Pedophilia.

    Leadership with integrity.


  28. Texas Juice says:

    WOW!!! The real danger here is that Japan will now manufacture a bomb and there will be a pan-Asian arms race. Can’t you see it, a Toyota nuke the size of a coffee cup, then the S. Koreans follow suit with a mini nuke, not quite the quality of Japans, but with a longer warranty! Get real already, America still has enough nukes to lay waste to the entire planet and we are worried about N. Korea getting a few. I mean, who is to say we won’t go f**king crazy and drop a few???

    Texas Juice


  29. Super+Flaming+Gay+Republican says:

    Wayne A. Schneider
    Do you think TP will be around when folks like you and me are ready to cleanse the Dem party?


  30. TerrytheTurtle says:

    Nope, Super @ #12 and Wayne – TP blocked most of my posts last week simply because they asked to deal with the bills passed by the two houses last week. I am done posting on TP until/unless they address these issues. Shame on them all.


  31. SortaLikeJake says:

    I remember during the whole build-up to the war in Iraq, N.Korea was making thinly-veiled threats every single week. While Hussein was screaming about there being no WMDs, N.Korea was threatening immediate retaliation with nukes if it seemed that the US was considering a preemptive attack against them — constantly taunting. I sincerely hope nobody (except Dubya) is surprised at this latest development.


  32. Zooey says:

    Briseadh na Faire, is there anythying in the Torture Bill limiting it to foreign nationals?
    Comment by S.D.

    I believe the bill specifies non-citizens, SD, but remember signing statements? Scary, right?


  33. Zooey says:

    “Moving with unusual speed,” the House Ethics Committee has started interviews in its probe of the Mark Foley scandal. Longtime Foley aide and former chief of staff for Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) Kirk Fordham will be testifying this week.

    Heh heh, heh heh. You said probe. Heh heh.


  34. Zooey says:

    Florida’s Projet H.O.P.E. — funded by FEMA tax dollars — is supposed to provide “crisis counseling” for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. But H.O.P.E. officials often cannot locate victims because FEMA refuses to release their names. Instead, counselors “regularly attend ’stress management’ sessions that have included collecting shells on the beach, ‘silly string and art therapy,’ and ‘the toilet paper game.’”

    Stress management for the counselors? Well, that’s nice, isn’t it?


  35. Wayne+A.+Schneider says:

    Wayne A. Schneider
    Do you think TP will be around when folks like you and me are ready to cleanse the Dem party?

    Comment by Super+Flaming+Gay+Republican

    I think that you, me and the folks at TP will be languishing in our cells at GTMO arguing that we should have done more about habeus corpus first.


  36. S.D. says:

    Zooey, I’m not so sure: See here and Here.

    From what I’ve read in the bill (I’m NOT a lawyer) there is nothing implicitly defining who the bill applies to. Seriously, What prevents GW from defining anyone as an “Enemy Combatant”?

    Remember the Canadian Maher Arar?

    How about the US Citizen Jose Padilla (Who maybe Guilty of Sin, but ANYONE deserves thier day in court!)?


  37. Zooey says:

    Wayne,

    If we’re lucky, we’ll be in Gitmo. Otherwise, we’ll be renditioned to some black hole…


  38. Zooey says:

    SD,

    I’m not a lawyer either, but if there is nothing in the bill specifically defining to whom the bill applies, doesn’t that mean we’re all at risk? So to answer your question — nothing prevents GWB from defining whomever he pleases as an enemy combatant.

    As soon as this bill is signed, Americans will be disappeared.


  39. katy says:

    well… wonder what’s up… this is the longest i’ve seen that another thread did not follow FAST…


  40. Sharon Cox says:

    And here we are again, Coming up on week 2 since the miserable bill’s were passed by the “do nothing good” congress….More pleas by the poster’s for TP to put up a site and do research on the wording…..Well TP.??????? Nothing again.??????? Hummmm…..What’s so progressive about that…Guess I will join Terry….


  41. katy says:

    zooey – you’re still “home sick”? gee, i hope you are enjoying it even a little… take care!


  42. Zooey says:

    katy,

    No! Not home sick. It’s a holiday — Racist, Murderous Explorer Day, otherwise known as Colombus Day.

    Go figure, but I’ll take it!


  43. Dog_named_Boo says:

    The S Korea nuclear test will be used by Reps to denounce Dems as being “soft” and keep the security issue at the forefront of the last weeks of the campaiagn cycle. -Marie

    I don’t think this will happen, Kim Jong said started reprocessing those 8,000 rods in 4/2003. Bush has sat on his hands regarding Korea for 3-1/2 years and has done basically nothing than more than speed up the enrichment program by threatening Korea. As BNF stated it is Bush’s fomented war on Iraq that caused Korea to contunue to create a nuclear detterrent.

    Kim Jong wants money and oil, his country has long been dependent on other countries to feed itself, in fact they have been working on a lightwater reactor with South Korea at the cost of 4.5 billion [US$] and Kim Jong apparently wants money to complete that light water [3% not 97% weapons grade uranium] reactor.


  44. Sharon Cox says:

    Hope Cyra and Zooey are doing well today and alway’s….Some more good weather headed you’re way Zooey…

    Off to do a vet check for the Bear, weeding and tree hugging as usual….Blessings all


  45. S.D. says:

    Actually Sharon, I think that bill demonstrates the “Power at all costs” that the Republican party lives by.

    The Rep. Foley scandal is just the most recent example of this but above is plenty of Examples, most notably the Nuclear Bomb test by the North Koreans.


  46. Dog_named_Boo says:

    Yesterday, James A. Baker, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said he “absolutely” agrees with Sen. John Warner’s (R-VA) recent remarks on setting a timetable for redeployment from Iraq. “[T]here are alternatives between the stated alternatives…of ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’” said Baker.

    So now the Bush folks agree with Murtha…redeployment.

    But now they can’t bring themselves to use ‘that’ word after bashing Murtha for suggesting a ‘redeployment’.
    I tell ya these lawyers and their weasel words.
    Its not ’stay the course’..nor is it ‘cut and run’
    Its the inbetween neo-alternative!!

    It’s Redeployment renamed!!


  47. Sharon Cox says:

    Correct S.D. I’m still kicking and screaming about the unlimited power this bunch of maniacs was given by the patriot act bill…..It’s all in the wording or lack of……All this crap allow’s this bunch to do what ever they want by tagging someone an enemy….I wonder if I will get my S.S. benefits while I am in their camp…..Would do the LOL but it’s no longer funny…..Blessings


  48. Zooey says:

    Sharon,

    If we end up in Gitmo, let’s make an agreement to take as many pairs of nads with us as possible. :)


  49. Sharon Cox says:

    O.K. Zooey. just as soon as you tell this old woman what pair’s of nad’s are.? If it’s gonad’s I’m for it…….LOL…..Blessings


  50. Spudge_Boy says:

    Yesterday, James A. Baker, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said he “absolutely” agrees with Sen. John Warner’s (R-VA) recent remarks on setting a timetable for redeployment from Iraq. “[T]here are alternatives between the stated alternatives…of ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’” said Baker.

    You mean:

    He “absolutely” agrees with Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) remarks in the past on setting a time table fro redeployment from Iraq.


  51. Zooey says:

    You got it, girl.


  52. Spudge_Boy says:

    Yesterday, James A. Baker, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said he “absolutely” agrees with Sen. John Warner’s (R-VA) recent remarks on setting a timetable for redeployment from Iraq. “[T]here are alternatives between the stated alternatives…of ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’” said Baker.

    Not to mention that he will be emboldening the terrorist by setting an artificial timetable.

    This is quite hillarious. The republicans are now using the democrats plan and will try to take full credit for it.

    “Who could have predicted that the democrats were right?”


  53. katy says:

    It’s a holiday…!
    Comment by Zooey — October 9, 2006 @ 11:35 am

    DOH! … it’s monday for me… my kids no longer in school here and being self-employed even longer – i lose track of such!
    mostly, i wasn’t thinking it through… just reacted when seeing your name at this time of day!


  54. Sharon Cox says:

    Zooey, you are a delight and great complement to an otherwise mundane site…Parting comment, those nad’s need one of those to go with the two of them or I’m not interested………LOL…Blessings


  55. bluefish says:

    From the Times article linked in the James Baker section above:

    It was a measure of how much the situation had deteriorated that only one member of the group, former Senator Charles S. Robb of Virginia, ventured beyond the protected walls of the Green Zone, the American and government center of Baghdad.

    Former Senator Robb has big brass ones. I’d be nervous about leaving the Green Zone for fear of drowning in a sea of chocolates and flowers. /sarcasm


  56. Zooey says:

    Sharon,

    My head is going to be clanging on the door frame soon, it’s getting so big. ;)

    bluefish,

    Well said. I knew there had to be a reason…


  57. Zooey says:

    just reacted when seeing your name at this time of day!
    Comment by katy

    I keep track of those important court holidays! *snort*


  58. Briseadh na Faire says:

    #16, I’m no lawyer, but it looks like Bush’s Torture Bill allows him to declare any person an “unlawful enemy combatant.” But it appears that only alien unlawful enemy combatants will be given a trial before a Military Commission, if, and when (if ever), the Administration chooses to do so. The bill seems to be silent on what happens to citizens who are declared to be unlawful enemy combatants.


  59. J. Mark English says:

    Hello,

    This is a great blog. I’m going to be sure to link yours to mine. Would you mind doing the same for me?

    Thank you very much.

    My site:
    http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

    Take care,
    Mark


  60. RUCerious says:

    Sharon and Zooey,
    I thought it was Peter Falk as the ingenious detective day.
    Then somebody told me it was Columbus, not Columbo day.
    So here I am at work.


  61. Spudge_Boy says:

    For those of us with Native American blood, we call this Discovery Day. it is the day that Columbus discovered that there were natives in America already.


  62. Briseadh na Faire says:

    I saw this on a tee-shirt: a picture of native americans, with the caption, “Fighting Terrorists since 1492″


  63. big+papa says:

    Spudge_Boy #51,

    Isn’t that how the Repulsivescum ALWAYS do it?

    …like (among other things) when the Dems brought up the issue of Medicare Reform, the Bushites (after initially rejecting it then hijacked it and claimed VICTORY for it)…

    …although the way THEY screwed it up let ‘em have it…

    …creating reality one issue at a time…

    …Repulsivescam trademark, patent pending…


  64. Spudge_Boy says:

    big+pap,

    That is how we know the NeoCons will screw up redeployment of our troops. It is the Reverse Midas Touch. Everything they touch turns to crap.


  65. Sharon Cox says:

    Thank’s for that BnF, now I have to go find that t shirt…..Where have I been, Columbus found america or rather took credit for it.? I thought it was realy Amergo Vespussi or some one like that…..Any one have the bonafides on that one. I’m confused…Oh well so is every one else..LOL..Blessings


  66. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    #66 Sharon Cox,

    http://www.northernsun.com has that t-shirt (among other places, I’m sure.) They even have a section of environmental messages for t-shirts and bumper stickers. You’ll enjoy those.


  67. Marie says:

    The religious right apparently doesn’t see too much wrong with Foley’s behavior. The lot of them are blind, corrupt, sick and in denial.
    The October 6 broadcast of Focus on the Family, James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, declared that the Foley affair has “turned out to be what some people are now saying was a — sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages” who had reportedly come forward with sexually explicit instant messages that Foley allegedly sent.


  68. sebastian says:

    Why does the korean nuclear blast story seem to be getting buried? Isn’t this the most colossal blunder on the right’s long list of outrageous screwups?

    W yammers on and on about keeping Americans safe and lets NORTH KOREA acquire nukes??? While invading IRAQ– a country with no nukes whatsover???

    This is absolutely insane. It’s like the car salesman screaming that he has the safest cars in the world while they are literally exploding in his parking lot. And people keep buying them!

    Where are the democrats!???


  69. Zooey says:

    Sharon,

    Amergo Vespussi = Amerigo Vespucci

    But really, I like yours better. Northern Sun is a great site, and you can order a catalogue — it’s easier to see all the bumper stickers that way. :)


  70. Spudge_Boy says:

    Christopher Columbus (Italian Cristoforo Colombo; Portuguese Cristóvão Colon; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Catalan: Cristòfor Colom; c. 1451–May 20, 1506) was a navigator and an admiral for the Crown of Castile whose transatlantic voyages opened the Americas to European exploration and colonization. He is commonly believed to have been from Genoa, although his origins remain disputed[citation needed].

    History places great significance on his original voyage of 1492, although he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. However, Columbus’ voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event (Columbus Day) is celebrated throughout the Americas and in Spain and Italy.

    Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1451 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer. He played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the second of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further south than previously known by Europeans. This convinced him that this land was part of a new continent, a bold contention at a time when other European explorers crossing the Atlantic Ocean thought they were reaching Asia.

    Vespucci’s voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504.[1] In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent “America” after Vespucci’s first name, Amerigo. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticisms of Vespucci as trying to usurp Christopher Columbus’s glory. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci has led to the view that the early published accounts were fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.

    But of course, America had already been “discovered” by the Viking Leaf Ericsson around the year 1000AD.

    But America was really discover 19,000-40,000 years ago by migrants from what is now Siberia. Those migrants of course originated in Africa 160,000-200,000 years ago.


  71. bluefish says:

    More on this topic from America the Calendar (A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction).

    In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America. Now, some have argued Columbus actually discovered the West Indies, or that Norsemen had discovered America centuries earlier, or that you really can’t get credit for discovering an indigenous people with a developed civilization. Those people are communists. Columbus discovered America.

    Were you Aware? – The continent of America was named for little-known Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, meaning there was a 50-50 chance we’d all be living in the United States of Vespucci.


  72. Briseadh+na+Faire says:

    Imagine if they’d have used Amerigo’s last name…we’d be living in Vespucciland!


  73. Zooey says:

    we’d be living in Vespucciland!
    Comment by Briseadh+na+Faire

    I could totally live with that, my fellow Vespuccian!



  74. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    But America was really discover 19,000-40,000 years ago by migrants from what is now Siberia. Those migrants of course originated in Africa 160,000-200,000 years ago.

    Comment by Spudge_Boy

    So we’re ALL African-Americans then, aren’t we? :)


  75. Briseadh na Faire says:

    Wayne, some would say we were seeded from a race of beings originating in the Pileadies.

    Then again, we might have been created only some 10,000 years ago, fossil records and all.


  76. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    Briseadh,

    Then I guess I’m more in the former camp than in the latter. We are all stardust.


  77. Sharon Cox says:

    Thank you all for the bonafidies and link’s……Now see how easy this old woman hijacked this thread and how much fun it was, and I was gone after I droped the little funny about Amerigo what’s his name…..I do love it when the good guy’s and gal’s join in…You are all a Blessing to me..

    Poor baby Bear, in surgery for a stick he got in his mouth, gotta go and pick him up at 5 so may miss Keith’s show…Fill me in later Please….Bear weighed in today at 110 pound’s and 1 year 1 week old…The new site look’s great, many bumper stickers to plan for after I pay off Bear’s national debt…..Peace….Blessings and Love


  78. Spudge_Boy says:

    So we’re ALL African-Americans then, aren’t we? :)

    Comment by Wayne A. Schneider — October 9, 2006 @ 5:49 pm

    It would appear that the aryians are just blacks with light skin. : )

    I am a Native American with light skin, that probably comes from my Scottish side. Yes, both sides of my family come from being oppressed. Maybe that is why I have such a profound hatered for fascism.


  79. Sharon Cox says:

    Yep! That’s what we are alright, only my friend’s of color refere to me as a bright girl and they don’t mean smart…Like many of you, most of my tribe came from Ireland to New York then on to Kentucky before California. Realy in the end it doesn’t matter, were here now and the strife continues for freedom and civil right’s……Blessings


  80. Spudge_Boy says:

    I have one tribe and one clan.

    My clan from Scotland came to New York in the early 1900s then headed to St Louis Missouri where they met my tribe, the Quapaw Indians. In the 1950s, my grandpa picked up a small piece of each tribe and headed to Los Angeles. And here we are today.


  81. Sharon Cox says:

    Wow! Spudge- Boy I didn’t know you lived in California….I was born in Pasadena….Not that it matters but suprised how many west coasters there are here posting….Blessings


  82. Spudge_Boy says:

    I live in Lake Forest. Nice republican town. I am taking them out from the inside. : )


  83. Jane says:

    Baker also said you should talk to your enemies


  84. SKdeA says:

    Happy Indigenous People’s Day everyone (that’s the official name for it in Berkeley, where I work – but I didn’t get it off!).
    Hey Spuge, if you ever come to the Bay Area, let’s have a Manhattan and gripe about the govt.
    Zoo, how’s the muscle?
    Going to bed, see you on tomorrow’s thread… but I leave with one thought:
    If English becomes the official language, will Bush have to learn how to pronounce nuclear”?” It might be worth it… Nah.


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