WHILE WE WERE AWAY

Kerry flip flopped again on Iraq this week, but that's not really new.

Yeah, saw where he was struggling to figure out what to say that would be different from what the current administration is doing. But he still seems to be unable to come up with anything positive.

Sadly, sometimes going away for a while puts things in perspective.

We deliberately tried to stay away from reading and discussing U.S. politics and instead explore the feelings of the folks in the former East Germany, Poland and Czhek Republic about their central governments.

All we spoke to were none to happy with them.

All we spoke to were none to happy with them.
How come?

The usual. The Germans in all regions felt they were not getting their fair share of welfare distributed to their region.

The Poles are in desparate financial straits and have high unemployment. The ones we talked to stated a preference for a benevolent dictator like they had once previously in the 1800s (can't remember the name, but his statues are all over Poland).

But I have to say the Czheks are quite prosperous, unemployment is low and they had not complaints that we heard.

Thanks Larry. Sometimes it pays to remember that no matter how the election goes we have it pretty sweet here.

I'll say. We were paying $5/gal for gas in our rental car in all countries visited. But then there are bargains...especially in Poland. My wife found crystal there that was the same numberical price in Polish money that it was in the U.S. in dollars and the exchange ratio is 4 PL to 1 USD.