Welcome home, Michael! The Land of the Free has gone pretty much off the rails without you.

Yes, please. Pictures. Observations. Stories of your adventures. Eat any good food?

Welcome home! Glad you're both back safe and sound and everything.

I figured you had been abducted by Libyan agents. Welcome back.

Welcome home. It's been an interesting few weeks here, too, but more on the line of SSDD.

Looking forward to the pics and blather.

Got to repost this:

I feel far more welcome here in the Middle East of Africa than I ever did in Europe. And truth be told, my dear fellow Americans, they are a lot nicer to us when we visit their country than we are to them when they visit ours.

Never a truer word said. Could it be that a positive thing in the Muslim religion is so underplayed? Its called hospitality to strangers. This is a common thing among Muslims. Tunisia is 98% Muslim, 1% Christian, and 1% Jewish and others.

Welcome back, Michael! Hope everything went well for you. Alot has happened since you've been gone...

-Iran
-Darfur
-The revival of the Committee on the Present Danger.

I look forward to hearing more about your trip (pictures please!) and to hearing your thoughts on these issues. Do you think John Kerry will mention Islam by name when discussing terrorism in his convention speech, Thursday? Did you hear about how a resolution passed through the House, 422 to 0, declaring the situation in Sudan "genocide"? Are you as excited about the return of the bipartisan CPD and revival of the Cold Warriors as I am? Take a break for now. I'm sure it's been a long trip. But hurry back!

For more on the CPD, here's the website...

www.fightingterror.org

Members of the third incarnation include Joe Lieberman, Victor Hanson, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Kampelman, and former Clinton CIA Director James Woolsey.

"The one thing that these people have in common is a lasting concern with foreign affairs and US involvement in the world...None of us is an isolationist or ever has been."
-Jeane Kirkpatrick.

Welcome back, Mr. Totten. Reading your posts from Tunisia reminded me how little reporting we ever get from the Middle East on the way of life in the Middle East (and I consider Tunisia the Middle East).

Mr. McEntire, I respect all the people mentioned in that third incarnation. How many of those do you think will end up in a Kerry adminstration?

Welcome back Michael,
Those were some very nicely written reports you sent us - we'd love to hear all about your experiences as soon as you decompress.

Welcome back, Michael. I'm a little north of you, in Seattle, and it has been absolutely /miserable/. I loathe summer in the best of times (biological sensitivity to sunlight and heat, I'm afraid), but this heat wave is just the worst.

Believe me, I'm raindancing my heart out. :)

To answer your question, Peter...

Probably none. Listen to some of the things Kerry has been saying about Iran. "Engagement": It's all sheer Clintonian wishful thinking. He's basically proposing the same treatment we gave the North Koreans. Lesson never learned, I guess.

They don't make liberals like they used to, Peter. I mean, I'm one, and so is Totten. But we are the proud and the FEW, I'm afraid. Contemporary liberalism today needs a Scoop Jackson in the worst way. I had held out some delusional hope that John Kerry would be morphing more in that direction, but he's looking more like Jimmy Carter everyday. Maybe he'll stake out some tougher policy stances in the convention speech, next week. But don't hold your breath.

Just a straightforward welcome back, and thanks for the fascinating travel articles. I too am looking forward to more.

I see you are getting back to a distinctly warm welcome.

Congratulations on your trip, look forward to your report, from a distinctly chilly Australian who waits impatiently for spring.

Global Warming huh? Excuse me while I put another log on the fire.

Peter G,

How many of those do you think will end up in a Kerry adminstration?

Why the pessimism? With Wilson and Berger being snipped out of the family photos, there may be some openings! Richard Clarke is probably doomed as well. So there are three potential openings in the Kerry team that could be filled with grown-ups who are serious about national security.

Grant,

I had held out some delusional hope that John Kerry would be morphing more in that direction, but he's looking more like Jimmy Carter everyday.

I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but so is Bush. I want the Bush back who gave us the "Axis of Evil" and "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists." The new Bush is a cheap imitation of Kerry who is a cheap imitation of Carter.

So glad to see you both back safely, and can't wait to see photos, and hear more

Nice to have you home!

michael, i still think you're a bit paranoid about the Libyans. If you encountered a few more bureaucratic messes in embassies around the world you'd see your belief that as a 'journalist' you are that important a concern to the Libyans was seriously overestimated. You're just another tourist, in a year or two it'll be a lot easier to get in probably. Getting into Vietnam about a decade ago was a challenge too, but that had little to do with security issues as much as bureaucratic departments wanting their share of the tourist kitty.

I feel far more welcome here in the Middle East of Africa than I ever did in Europe. And truth be told, my dear fellow Americans, they are a lot nicer to us when we visit their country than we are to them when they visit ours.

=Euros aren't as desparate for our money, they don't have to be as subservient or worshipping of Americans. That can be hard to deal with, eh?

Welcome back Michael, we missed you.

Reading rparks makes me suspect that caliban is back, too.

Or was is calibar? Bah, I need to brush up on my troll aliases.

Glad you're back safely. I was beginning to worry; it's become a habit since I've become a father.
Children are good to help parents really focus on priorities -- safety, health, being together.

actually i was just responding to michaels odd belief that he was a threat to the Libyan government. seems like delusions of self grandeur?

Rparks, what the heck are you talking about?

before you trip, you went on about the awful libyan bureaucrats at the libyan cousulates, as though that was an exceptional experience and as though it had something to do with your being a threat of some sort to them. and your plan to not blog to Libya was really indicative of some kind of paranoia/delusion of self-grandeur. it's amusing that no one in the echochamber would call you on it.
glad you had fun in Tunisia. don't worry, the ugly euros you think you saw can be balanced easily by ugly americans in europe, mexico, jamaica, you name it. comes around goes around.

Michael: Welcoe bak. I salute you from Boston where Im being held prisoner by the DNC. Gazing at ur great pics were a welome parenthesis while I try to "cover" this event.

Marc,

Thanks for the welcome. I don't envy you for your current assignment. Do what you can!

Rparks,

I have no delusions of grandeur. Libya is a total surveillance police state. The hotel rooms are bugged and the desks are manned by people who work for the security and intelligence services. The tourism "agency" I made arrangements with is an arm of the state.

A journo friend of mine went to Libya and was led by the nose everywhere he went by government "guides," otherwise known as "minders." They controlled his every move and would not let him talk to anyone who wasn't first cleared by the government. You think it's okay to blog under such conditions?

I suggest you learn a little about Libya before scoffing. It ain't Belgium. Only an idiot would waltz in there and act like he was in a free country. You really need to research places before visiting them. It's important, especially when travelling to countries run by a dictatorship.

And yes I know all about ugly Americans in Mexico and other places. I did not mention them in my pieces about Tunisia because I ran into a grand total of zero Americans while visiting that country. But I've seen plenty of them elsewhere, and I use them as an object lesson in how not to behave when visiting someone else's country.

A journo friend of mine went to Libya and was led by the nose everywhere he went by government "guides," otherwise known as "minders." They controlled his every move and would not let him talk to anyone who wasn't first cleared by the government. You think it's okay to blog under such conditions?

--actually i don't buy it, nothing you write or do is a threat to the Libyan government. all you are talking about is the standard fare hyper bureaucratic embellishment that is a great way to engage in rentier profit reaping on the part of government ministries in their interactions with visiting foreigners. the idea that you would be remotely a threat to the Libyans is laughable.

Well, he sure does SOUND like Calibar. Doesn't he, Sortelli?

rparks: actually i don't buy it,

Are you calling me and my journalist friend liars? What do you know about being a foreign writer in a totalitarian country, anyway? Obviously not a lot.

Of course I am not a threat to the Libyan government. Jesus Christ. I know that as well as you do. Perhaps you should write a letter to Colonel Ghaddaffi and tell him to stop following tourists around with the secret police. I'll say it again. Libya is not Belgium.

Of course I am not a threat to the Libyan government. Jesus Christ. I know that as well as you do. Perhaps you should write a letter to Colonel Ghaddaffi and tell him to stop following tourists around with the secret police. I'll say it again. Libya is not Belgium.

-- and so do the libyans know you're no threat. in vietnam back in the early 90's americans imagined they were being followed everywhere by secret police too. the whold thing was abunch of hype, helping to bolster the bureaucrats' role in the tourism milking. i really doubt secret police are following around tourists, or not anymore than in other poor countries that have no logical reason to waste their resources on such folly.