To clarify a few things about Obama

[Beachcomber]

It was during the national anthem - hand placement is optional on that...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Anthem, pledge: either way he's a an arrogant P/O/S.

[Beachcomber]

wild preconceptions

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Reinforced by his long standing association with his minister of hate. And true to fashion for a spineless, lying politician who has no substantial agenda (at the moment) other than to get elected, he then disassociates himself from him only when said minister nearly derails his campaign by his hate mongering and anti-American comments. Go ahead and vote for him Lan. Let's see if the Civil Liberties Union can help you when he starts his campaign of "revenge" against whitey and favors islamic judicial norms.

[Beachcomber]

Napoleon never made it to America, but his brother Joseph did and lived in New Jersey after 1815 until his nephew took over as Napoleon III. Jerome also came to the US while in the navy and married a girl from Patterson, NJ. Napoleon refused to allow her to land in France and paid her a pension to stay away.
Napoleon sold Louisiana because he wanted to focus his scattered energies on Europe and also saw the young USA as a formidable foe to Britain in the future. After his downfall a group of his Imperial Guard emigrated to Texas with hopes of rescuing him from St Helena and then possible conquest of Mexico. They disbanded and died out before Napoleon even died in 1821.

[Beachcomber]

My only complaint is that we didn't fully reap the benefits of our Imperialist ventures, esp Spanish American War. We should have made Cuba and The Phillipines states. And instead of just taking what we did during the Mexican War we should have taken ALL of Mexico. The American psyche is flawed in this respect. We have these highsounding ideals, but just as greedy as any other nation in the 18th and 19th centuries. We go to war often on the basic emotion of revenge, and then go and rebuild all we destroyed. Grow up already America, do it right...

[Lew]

GL-

I know TJ bought Louisiana from France in 1803, but did Napoleon ever make it over to North America in person? Seeing as they sold such a huge claim for a relatively small price, did France ever have any real plans for North America?

LanD- this is BS. I tried to fly today but they wouldn't let me because of my comments about imperialism.

Like I said, it's not like that land would have just sat there. Had the U.S. not moved west, someone else would have stepped in (be it Spain, or Mexico, or Great Britain via Canada, or even the Russians in the northwest). So I mean, what happened, happened, and it was inevitable anyway. But, we are as imperialist a nation as one can be, and have been ever since the late 18th century. And if you want to get upset at Wright for other comments, fine, but as respects that particular one, he's factually correct 100%.