Why is the Globe attacking foreign fact finding missions?

The Boston Globe is often full of great articles but this is not one of them. The Globe is attacking Congressman Michael Capuano for - gasp! - traveling as a member of Congress to see how other countries deal with similar problems. The Amurican-love-it-or-leave-it crowd somehow floated this stupid attack and the Globe bought into siding with ignorance. It reminds me of when I started traveling abroad for work and people in the office always thought it sounded so dreamy traveling to foreign locations. Sorry to break any dreams out there but work travel is work travel. Hotels are hotels, taxis are taxis whether you are in Des Moines, Iowa or Madrid, Spain. Sure it has moments where it can be fun but as people should know, you can find something fun to do anywhere.

If a Congressman is working on a transportation project for the US, wouldn't it make sense to see how a country such as Spain has rolled out new infrastructure? Wouldn't it make sense to see how another city has prepared for security? What complete fool thinks the US has a corner on that market? There is no single city or country that is perfect with everything and it's more a mark of ignorance to pretend as though only in Amurica could people learn something is so old fashioned. I don't know much about Congressman Capuano but attacking him for seeing how the world addresses common issues is silly not to mention closed minded. Surely the Globe can do better than this Fox News-like hit piece, no?