Politics...

As all of you know the presidential elections are coming up in November. So far I have not had that many political discussions, at least not about the presidential candidates. We have discussed constitutional amendments against same-sex marriages (at the brunch in Lousiana), guncontrol (with Tom) and other topics.
Still the upcoming elections are (almost) ever present. I have seen lots of advertisements in people's frontyards (Bush/Cheney 04 or Kerry/Edwards) and similar bumper stickers. I have seen more pro-Bush advertisements in Texas and Wisconsin, a lot of signs directly against Bush in New Orleans. On the plane to Minneapolis a guy in front of me was reading a hunting magazin with an ad against Kerry by the National Rifle Association...
Monday though I accompanied Helene (Karen's mom) to a lecture here in Appleton held by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of "The Progressive", a very left-wing magazin. It was called something like "The new McCarthy-ism" (McCarthy was an infamous Communist-hunter back after WWII and he's from Wisconsin). It was very interesting, especially to me as someone working with human rights. Rothschild talked about the Patriot Act and other Acts diminishing the people's civil liberties (among them freedom of speech, a right the USA has always been proud of and that used to be protected to the highest amount). I do not know what was scarier: his examples or some questions from the audience afterwards...