Hi-I'm back from vacation

How was the world of politics while I was away from Mar 10-17? I've got to go back and read the old threads. I DID see JK on Cspan last Sunday at my father-in-law's house, a nice surprise. I liked seeing JK and Oliphant together.
I read a NYT in the airport yesterday and saw JK quoted twice, once in an article on Wolfowitz, and the other about ANWAR. Nice to see.

How is everyone here? Anything new? I had a nice break from the snowy weather by spending a week in Florida. :)

Great to see you back (even if you had to come back to snow). Ours is melting, melting.

There have been some great discussions in your absence. I hope you don't miss the picture of Ted Stevens's Incredible Hulk tie.

The tide appears to be turning on DU's opinion of JK. People seems to be starting to get over their post-election pique/depression. Kerry's outspokenness and activism have certainly helped the recovery along.

I've been reading old threads but am only up to last Monday or Tuesday. This thread is always so busy--lots to read! I'm up to one page back from the current one...gotta take a break though. But wow, all of our posts here are so encouraging and inspiring and informative! Love it, especially after a time away.

Good to hear about DU--how can they not love all the things JK is up to now? I saw that progressive-rating chart--made me proud of our guy! He is certainly the Real Deal. :)

The thread is good too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=273x19129

things are really jumping in the Senate these days! I can't imagine why the tie--unless it is to settle a bet he lost?

Meanwhile, our hero seems to have a full plate these days--he's going "boldly where no man has gone before"--citing online petitions, saying it is time to "call out" the repubs. It's good to see--keep those majority members looking over their shoulders. I can see that the campaign has done him a lot of good. He has the people of this country fresh in his memory again, and it has renewed his passion for helping them, just like when he was a younger senator.

So who says he couldn't run for president again: what was that RFK quote about looking at things that have never been done before, and saying "why not?" JK is an original,and I wouldn't dream of underestimating him!

back too. My in-laws are RW Faux watchers so I just avoided the news while I was down there. Plus we went to Disney World, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, etc - made the rounds with a 7,6 and 3 year old.

Glad to see that you are back!

It also looks like this forum is continuing to grow. I noticed quite a few new names when I got back.

...at least the parts of it I saw. Maybe not so much in the cities, but I was in a smaller town north of Tampa. We went to some places like flea markets--so super patriotic. T-shirts with eagles and cowboy boots and stuff like that. Depressing--almost made me believe that Florida went red in November for real.
But my father-in-law is a moderate repub who voted for Kerry--yay! He says that Bush left him behind when he pulled the party so far to the right. This, coming from a retired business executive, so you know there must be more like him out there, too.
Yeah, we went to Disney too--just the two of us. We find that we enjoy it even without the kids--it's more like a resort getaway vacation that way. At the parks there are lots of interesting things to do even if you don't want thrill rides or kiddie stuff.

Oh, did you happen to see the Hall of Presidents? They have Bush there--and it freaked me out. It really looked like him--they've got his smirk down, cold! And they had him blinking a lot--haha! Cause he does do that a lot when he talks. But even though it was only an animatronic Bush, I couldn't look at it while it was talking! I looked at the reactions of the other "presidents" while he said his part. I felt like cheering when they introduced the great Dem presidents: Jefferson, Madison, FDR, Truman, Kennedy.

grandkids or tourists so I couldn't get a good feel for the atmosphere. I did see some Kerry bumper stickers which always grab my attention.

I remember going without kids - it is fun, you can do what you want.

We didn't get to the Hall of Presidents.

At Seaworld, they had a big promotion on the Heros in the Armed Forces before Shamu's show. This year they are letting all the vets in free (which I think is great) but I felt so emotionally manipulated.

It is weird because I used to like a lot of the patriotic talk (if it isn't over the top) but now I feel so emotionally manipulated - like it is BushCo wrapping themselves in the flag and saying anyone who questions them is unpatriotic. Iraq is, of course, the same as Afghanistan. I can't even remember the whole bit they did but it went on for a little while.

I got this vague feeling of Germany in the 1930s. I don't usually spout the Bush=Nazi talk (which is seen frequently on DU because I think it is often over the top) but I got this very strange feeling.

But otherwise, it was great.

I am as patriotic as the next person, and have gotten a lump in my throat during flag ceremonies and such, but under the Bush regime I too feel like I'm being manipulated. Like you have to like Bush if you like America. That is what spoils it now for me. It is precisely because I love America that I despise this president so much, because he is threatening it! If anyone hates America, he seems to, because he insists on bungling everything up and making the rest of the world hate and fear us. He'd rather put America through more pain than admit that he did anything wrong and try to reverse it. He doesn't love America or its people enough. :(

Ashcroft is so true.

I do feel like the Republicans have hijack patriotism and Jesus - and it pisses me off to no end because they are NOT representing the true values of America or Christianity. They have warped and twisted them both

Welcome back!

Hope to see you at JKFA now! :)

:hi: