Posted on 06/16/2007 3:08:21 PM PDT by jedward
Where's one of the best places to learn about the United States? Let's take a visit to the US Department of State's website and see what we can find. When you first get to http://www.state.gov you are presented with the wonderful colors of Red White and Blue. It's very easy to immediately see that a great deal of effort has gone into this wonderful place of learning. So, back to the goal at hand, let's find the United States. From the homepage you see an option to click on "Regions" and listed under that heading is the "Western Hemisphere". That looks like the place to go, so let's click there. Now, at this point we are at the "Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs". Now along the left hand side we see a link for "Countries and Other Areas", so naturally we click there expecting to find the United States. We see many countries listed like Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia and even Mexico, but for some reason the United States is not listed.
Well, surely the webpage didn't load properly, so we refresh the page and scroll back down and it's still not there. At this point it's easy to say, I've missed something, so let's go back to the Homepage. Now, we click on "Countries" again from the Homepage and immediately see a "Counties A-Z" link. That's it, let's click there and stop all this searching. Ok, the A-Z list is showing now, we see Cuba, China, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and North Korea. We get to the U's and we don't see the United States. Maybe they called it America instead, so let's scroll up and look under the A's. The United States isn't listed there either. While wondering in confusion we see near the "A's" a link titled "Independent States of the World", not Countries, but States. So we click there and finally find the United States listed under the "U" section, only to my surprise there's no link on any of the "States" listed, just a name and number.
Last but not least, let's just go back to the Homepage and type "United States" in the search box and see what shows up first.
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US Department of State - Home Page
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Shown above is what we see. It gives us a link back to the Homepage, so that wasn't exactly helpful.
Let's play one more time. Let's start at the Homepage, Click on "Western Hemisphere". Now stop! Look at the second item on the left side, the one that says "U.S. and Organization of American States". Apparently the OAS (Organization of American States) can be spelled out, but not the United States, at least on the United State's Department of State's website anyway. So click on that link and look for the United States link next to the Organizations of American States. Or look below, and here's what we see:
The U.S. and the Organization of American States
--- OAS Background Information
--- Hemispheric Security
--- Organization of American States' Website
--- OAS General Assembly
--- Releases
Don't worry if your having trouble finding the United States listed above, because its not there.
You have found what the Department of State recognizes as your Country.
http://www.state.gov/countries/
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/
http://www.state.gov/misc/list/index.htm
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rt/oas/
So you don't see the United States, let's see what information is presented.
The U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS) is headed by Acting U.S. Permanent Representative J. Robert Manzanares. The OAS is the premier multilateral forum in the Western Hemisphere. Its 35 members are countries from North, South, and Central America, the Caribbean, and Canada. The charter of the OAS states that its basic objectives are to:
As a member of the OAS, the United States is committed to strengthening and working with the organization. This reflects the U.S. Government's determination to make optimal use of multilateral diplomacy to resolve regional problems and to engage its neighbors on topics of hemispheric concern.
Inter-American Democratic Charter
Remarks on the Occasion of the Special Meeting of the Permanent Council to Commemorate the Fifth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter
The particulars of social and economic development are addressed through the commitments our leaders make at the Summits, and carried out through the Summits of the Americas process. That includes commitments to concrete, measurable actions, such as those which empower our people through property rights, remittances, and small business loans. The IDB’s new initiative, "Building Opportunity for the Majority," addresses these critical needs for the 40% of the people in the hemisphere who live on $3 a day or less, at the base of the pyramid.
Question: Is there an American Union? Answer: Yes, there is and always has been one as originally titled such back in 1890. Today, it's still an American Union, only it goes by a different name (see the "Established" below). That should end any questions regarding whether there is or isn't one. If there isn't, then the Department of State might want to consider including the United States as a Country in the Western Hemisphere some day.
May 30, 2007
Established: April 14, 1890, as the International Union of American Republics. Became the Pan American Union in 1910, then the Organization of American States in 1948 with the adoption of the OAS Charter in Bogotá, Colombia.
SPECIALIZED ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER ENTITIES
Much important inter-American business is conducted by separate entities, some of which are independent, some fully or partially funded by the OAS, and others consisting simply of periodic hemispheric meetings which receive support from the OAS Secretariat. Subjects covered include agriculture, labor, copyrights, private international law, highways, ports and harbors, railways, telecommunications, health and sanitation, statistics, travel, child welfare, women's issues, Indian affairs, and tourism. The conferences are attended by high-level officials and technical experts to further inter-American cooperation in these fields.
The Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN) http://www.iin.oas.org
The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) http://www.oas.org/cim
The Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) http://www.iid.org
The IADB has as one of its principal organizations the Inter-American Defense College http://www.jid.org/en/college/
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) http://www.iidb.org
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) http://www.iica.int
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) http://www.paho.org
The Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH) http://www.igph.org
The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) http://www.padf.org
Question: Is the 2007 Amnesty Bill a joke or a diversion of some kind? Answer: You should be able to answer that question by now...
Message to ALL Republicans & Democrats: Unless you're ok with the dissolution of the United States and your Country not even getting a link on the Department of State's web-site, then stopping this Immigration/Amnesty bill should be your priority right now. This is the first step in "We The People" meaning something again!
jedward
I sure as hell hope not. What’s your question? I’ll see what I can come up with.
“So what does that have to do with amnesty?”
Are you serious? Surely you didn’t read. If you did, then I can’t help you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1851423/posts?page=15#15
I elaborated some on the relevance in that post.
The State Department is responsible for FOREIGN RELATIONS. You might be surprised to learn that we have country desks for every country in the world, but there is none for the United States of America. You can’t be that dense.
It was also very entertaining the way you wrote it : )
lol...I’m aware of that kabar.
And come on’, I know you’re smarter than that comment...
I tried to keep it simple, but it seems to have stumped a couple of bright posters I recognize by name.
Enjoy the humor : )
OAS = amnesty? I guess I must be dense.
Depressing ping.
“So what does that have to do with amnesty?”
***Message to ALL Republicans & Democrats: Unless you’re ok with the dissolution of the United States and your Country not even getting a link on the Department of State’s web-site, then stopping this Immigration/Amnesty bill should be your priority right now. This is the first step in “We The People” meaning something again!***
If you would have read the article, you should have seen the last comment.
That could be because they deal with domestic affairs.
P.S. In support of your idea that this links in with amnesty and the weakening of sovereignty, the website does advertise a Spanish version.
Yes, you are proving yourself to be extremely dense and thus far incapable of reading.
If you want to see the U.S. government’s description of the U.S. go to http://www.usa.gov/ . Also, there are lots of govt. sites ALL OVER the internet with a .gov suffix.
For example, if you want to know anything about demographics go to http://www.census.gov/
The State Department is about the govt’s public description of “International Information”, as they are very happy to state.
“P.S. In support of your idea that this links in with amnesty and the weakening of sovereignty, the website does advertise a Spanish version”
lol...I can believe that :)
I don’t understand your comment. Why should the State Department list the US on the Country list? We don’t have bilateral relations with ourselves. We don’t prepare background notes on the US.
You are stressing out about the OAS? Good grief man! If this is the first time that you have heard of the OAS then you are in need of an education. Here’s a couple other international organizations that the US is in: AfDB, ANZUS, APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS (observer), CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAFTA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC (observer), SECI (observer), SPC, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
This is the site for the Department of State, which to my knowledge deals with foreign affairs, it’s not a site to “learn” about the United States of America. This kind of ridiculous post just makes you look like a moonbat.
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