“NGR” Plate Rejected by White Woman…

The offensive plate.

It’s been a busy week in the world of license plate news. First, there was North Carolina, with their Lieutenant Governor’s odd proposal for christian license plates (see our story here). Then today, Headline News featured a report on a white woman who was offended by (and refused to accept) an Arkansas (where else?) license plate reading “018 NGR”. No, it wasn’t the “018″ that offended her.

The state of Arkansas, in a predictable turn, pulled the entire series of “NGR” plates. The Headline News piece also featured commentary by a black man, who quite sensibly pointed out the letters were simply part of a license tag, devoid of any meaning: “She’s probably just taking it the wrong way.”

Ms. Kunce (no, we're not making that name up) speaks to Headline News about the horrors of the "018 NGR" tag.

In an effort to spare the good people of Arkansas any further such affronts to their collective sensibilities, we’re offering the following list of offensive license plates in order to allow the state to ban these immediately, before others suffer the indignities Ms. Kunce was forced to endure (and if you’re reading this, Ms. Kunce, please stop now and go here instead!):

ASS          BTC          CNT          DYK          EZY       FAT       GAY       HYM       IBP       JEW       KKK       LZY       MUF       NAP       ORG          PSY       QAK       RAT       SPC          TIT          UGO          VXN       WTF       XXX       YNO       ZIT

We wanted to suggest Ms. Kunce get a vanity plate reading, “Look at me - I’m so sensitive and understanding and evolved!” but we’re told that won’t fit on a plate of the standard-sized variety…

You can find CNN’s report here.

How To Search All Craigslist Sites At Once Using Firefox Keywords…

Craigslist, with its bbs-inspired aesthetic, is a great site for finding things locally; we use it all the time. However there are times when it would be great to be able to search all the individual Craigslist sites at once. This is particularly true when trying to find rare, antique or otherwise obscure items (for example a Ferrrai 246, or just the right wheels for our vintage BMW 6 Series).

Since Craigslist is based on a local model, manually searching the globe via Craigslist would entail searching thousands of sites individually. We present a double shortcut today: a Firefox keyword search that lets you search every Craigslist site by entering just two letters in your address bar plus the item you’re searching for.

For those unfamiliar with Firefox’s excellent keyword feature, it allows you to assign shortcuts for your address bar that populate a web site’s input fields. Here’s a quick example of how it works which you can try right now:

1) Open a new tab or browser window.

2) Go to http://www.imdb.com/

That’s the Internet Movie Database site.

3) Right click in the web site’s search bar and select “Add a Keyword for this Search…”

Right click in the search box and select "Add a Keyword for this Search..."

4) In the box that appears, type “imdb” (without the quotation marks) in both fields. The first field is the name you’ll be saving this keyword as; the second field is the actual shortcut. Click the “Add” button.

Type "imdb" in both fields.

5) Now go to your address bar and type “imdb dark knight” (again, without the quotation marks) and hit enter. You’ll be taken to the Internet Movie Database’s results page for a Dark Knight search.

Try typing "imdb dark knight" into the address bar.

Keyword result: imdb.com's search results.

Now, anytime you want to search for a movie, you need only enter “imdb” into your address bar, followed by a space and the name of the movie - you’ll get the same result as if you’d visited imdb.com and entered the name of the movie in imdb.com’s search bar. This works with any site and is a great time saver.

OK, time for part II: a global Craigslist search with a keyword.

1) Go to www.google.com.

2) In the search field, right click and select “Add Keyword for this Search…”.

3) In the Name field, enter “Craigslist” (no quotations).

4) In the Keyword field, enter “cl” (again, no quotation marks). Click the “Add” button.

Adding keyword information.

5) Open your bookmarks and right click on your “Craigslist” bookmark. Select “Properties”.

Right click your Craigslist bookmark and select "Properties".

6) In the Location field, enter “http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=site:craigslist.org%20%22%s%22&meta=”

Not to be ridiculously repetitive, but no quotation marks please!

Click the “Add” button.

Adding our global Craigslist search parameters.

That’s it.

From now on, whenever you want to search all the Craigslist sites in existence for an item, simply enter “cl” followed by a space, followed by the name of the item you’re looking for.

Searching all Craigslist sites for a Ferrari 246.

Ferrari 246s everywhere!

NOTE: the above keyword searches for exact matches (ie the equivalent of enclosing a phrase in quotation marks in Google). If you prefer to search results with the included words but not the exact phrase, substitute the following for the Location field in your “Craigslist” Properties dialogue:

http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=site:craigslist.org%20%s&meta=

The perfect wheels for our vintage 6 Series - thanks, Craigslist Nashville!

Travelocity’s Bait and Switch…

Nearly impossible deadlines, daily conference calls/meetings and working through the night at least one night in five for three months have made one thing abundantly clear: I need a vacation. And I don’t mean maybe. So it was perfect timing when the excellent Golden Nugget casino in Vegas sent me an invitation: three nights of deluxe accommodation and $300 in slots play or chips, all on the house. All I needed was airfare and I’d be in a four-diamond hotel playing blackjack in no time. Just thinking about it had me feeling more relaxed.

Off to the Travelocity site I went, equal parts guilty and giddy: guilty for allowing myself some unproductive days; giddy for allowing myself some unproductive days.

Mild, low-level irritation set in almost immediately: Travelocity doesn’t render very well in Firefox. Oh well, there’s a price to be paid for using a web standards compliant browser. I plugged in my request for a round trip flight to Vegas, selected a departure date of August 3rd and a return date of August 5th, and clicked the big Search Flights button, grinning while the site spent some time thinking about what to offer me.

While the Travelocity site did its thinking, I was busy imaging myself playing blackjack poolside: a comped Becks in one hand, a stack of winnings in the other. It’s fair to say I was sliding into a pretty damn fine mood.

Four days in Vegas for $449. Immediately above, 5 days for $387.

My flights came up, on the dates I wanted, for $449 - considerably more than I paid for a March trip to Sin City, but not bad, given the direction the price of oil has gone since then.

But wait: immediately above the square where my selected dates intersected, the matrix showed I could depart August 4th, stay five days instead of four, and pay just $387! That seemed like the right flight for me! I reached for my wallet, pulled out the credit card I suspected had the most room on it and prepared to book my flight.

I selected the $387 flights and continued grinning. That is, until the following page appeared, showing the price had increased to $486 (a 25.58% increase!). Suddenly it wasn’t such a great deal after all. I clicked the back button, and that’s where it got really strange.

First the Bait, then the Switch: Price goes from $387 to $486, a 25.58% increase.

I decided to see what the prices were for some other dates, so hit the little arrow button above the departure dates column. This shifts the departure dates back by one day. But what was this? Suddenly my original dates of August 5th to August 8th showed a price of $384! Clicking on that option, however, brought up the same, “Sorry, the lowest price has increased” message, and now the price was $452!

Suckers click here: the dates you actually want always appear more expensive. Here, the original dates of Aug 5 - 8 have been shifted, so that the site thinks we want Aug 4-8. Note the Aug 5-8 flight now shows $384. Until you click it, that is...

It turns out the dates you want (ie the exact center of the matrix) always show a higher price, while various surrounding dates show lower prices. That is, until you click them or move the matrix. Then, suddenly, the price changes, and not for the better.

I don’t know why Travelocity needs to engage in this sort of bait and switch tactic - it serves no purpose but to leave a customer feeling ripped off and manipulated. Here’s what I do know: it’s back to the grind for me - I think I’ll skip Vegas and stay home instead…

Tulalip Casino Resort: Great Hotel; Too Bad About the Casino…

SUMMARY: Outstanding hotel rooms not enough to overcome mediocre casino and extremely poor service.

Off-site management meetings are always a welcomed change of pace, so when it came time for our latest leadership gathering, we decided to hit the road: a trip stateside to the Tulalip Resort Casino, just outside Everett, in Washington State.

These people are hired stand-ins. You will not experience anything approaching such simulated glee at Tulalip Casino Resort.

A two-hour drive south from Vancouver, the Tulalip Resort Casino is located immediately off Interstate 5, next to an outlet mall and not much else. The air has a pungent, manure odor to it, unfamiliar to us city types, which thankfully was undetectable once inside the resort.

We’ll give you the good news first: the accommodations are first-rate: large rooms with enormous, tastefully decorated bathrooms (complete with separate toilet area, in the old British water closet tradition), big LG LCD flat screen TVs, and some of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever had the pleasure of sleeping on.

Access to your floor is governed by key card, room service is available 24 hours a day (and was delicious) and maid service was top-notch and unintrusive.

Some minor quibbles worth mentioning: the entire hotel is non-smoking. This despite the fact one can smoke anywhere on the casino floor. The hotel room windows also don’t open; nor do the rooms come with balconies.

Checked in, delighted with the accommodations and patting ourselves on the back, we headed for the casino.

On the way into the casino, there’s a lounge. We mention that only to point out a strange feature of this particular lounge: there are no seats or tables to lounge at. The bar features no bar stools whatsoever; the only seating available is at one of the slot machines that occupy every inch of wall space, or at one of the table games in the middle of the room. Wanting to relax a moment and have a drink, we got out of there in a hurry.

Instead we found another lounge almost directly across, this one with chairs and tables and servers and all the other things we’ve become accustomed to finding in a lounge in this, the modern age. You can’t smoke in this lounge, although immediately outside the entranceway (which has no doors) you can. Having gotten some business out of the way in the lounge, we headed for the casino floor.

If you’ve ever gambled in Vegas or Reno or Vancouver or, really, anywhere else, you’re in for a big disappointment. The slot machines are all of the late ’80s mid ’90s variety - you know the kind: lots of “7s” and diamonds and “bar” and not much in the way of bonus games. Put it this way: you’re not going to find a Wizard of Oz machine here.

You will not find this game at Tulalip. Nor the previous generation of games. Nor the one before that. Nor...

But wait, it gets worse: the slot machines don’t accept money! This we learned after the little slot where one ordinarily inserts money (that is, after all, what we’re here for!) rejected bill after bill after bill. We finally learned that you need to buy vouchers first. There are no signs indicating this on any of the machines. Why on earth a casino would place obstacles in the way of the gamer is beyond us. Well beyond us.

Gritting our teeth and repeating, “When in Rome…” over and over again, we made our way to the cashier to get some vouchers. It got even worse when we were confronted with, “What size voucher do you want?” That seemed easy enough to answer: the hundred dollar size! Not so fast. The employee behind the cage was literally asking us the dimensions of the voucher. You see, they have different sized vouchers for different machines, which are incompatible! Also, certain cashiers only accept certain sized vouchers! That’s when we noticed the sporadic signs with, “This Machine Accepts the Big Tickets!” on various slot machines. This was quickly becoming exhausting.

With a hundred dollars of the larger vouchers in hand, we made our way to some of the vintage slot machines that populate the casino floor. No worries if the particular machine you want is being used: there are only about eight varieties of machines, and they repeat throughout the casino, everywhere. “Oh look,” we found ourselves saying, “yet another bank of ‘Queen of the Nile’ machines!”.

What passes for the height of gaming technology at Tulalip Casino Resort

We settled in to a few machines, inserted our vouchers and tried to play some slots. That’s when we discovered another goofy feature of the Tulalip Casino: when you hit the button to spin the slot machine’s wheels, they don’t spin! Correction: they spin backwards a few places, then stop, frozen. You then have to hit the button again to get the #%$& machine to play! We’ve never experienced a casino anywhere in the world which in ways none-too-subtle screams out, “Don’t spend money here!”

Finally, a cocktail girl appeared. We ordered beers and learned you have to pay for your beers - no comps here. This was getting very tedious indeed.

After cashing in our large vouchers for smaller vouchers and trying some machines in the small voucher part of the floor (and finding them equally boring, tedious to operate and frustration inducing), we gave up. The casinos in Vancouver have better atmosphere, modern machines (which, horror of horrors, accept money directly!) and spin when you hit the button telling them to spin. In fact, the worst casinos we’ve ever been to are better than the casino featured at the Tulalip Casino Resort. Frankly, we’d rather sit in the parking lot and bet on who can throw a penny closest to the wall.

Fed up with the gaming, we set off in search of food, ending up at the Tulalip Bay fine dining restaurant. This is a place trying very, very hard to exude an air of “upscale”, and they do this by explaining, with great verbosity, every aspect of every item you order, using superlatives they must have found at a bulk sale somewhere. The menu is standard west coast fare, the usual assortment one finds in any number of Vancouver restaurants, usually consisting of a seafood/french cuisine fusion. The wine list is solid, though not spectacular, and God help you if you make the mistake of asking for some advice on a suitable wine. You’ll be there for a long…long…long time.

For more standard eating, Tulalip Casino also features Cedars Cafe. We’d like to tell you about the food there, but can’t: we waited an awfully long time to be seated while the hostess gazed down at her seating plan, finally acknowledging us after no less than three minutes (during which we coughed and rattled keys and said, “excuse me” and nearly reached the point of faking a seizure). When finally seated, we waited another twenty minutes. No one came to our table. Parties at other tables craned their necks and made hand gestures and waved menus wildly. Alas, all such displays were ignored. We left after twenty minutes (we timed it) of trying to get some service, any service.

Having only recently opened the hotel portion of the property, perhaps the staff at Tulalip are still trying to sort out the basics of customer service. Maybe they hadn’t bargained on the possibility of seven parties in the Cedars Cafe simultaneously (gasp!). Maybe the real slot machines are on order and shall arrive shortly. Maybe the native band which owns Tulalip Casino Resort is unaware their casino resort is competing with casinos everywhere, in a faltering economy, running a gaming monopoly no more. Regardless, we can’t recommend visiting this casino resort unless you don’t care to gamble, bring your own food, don’t smoke and stay in the truly amazing rooms for your entire stay. If it’s gambling you’re after, you’re better off two hours north at the excellent River Rock Casino in British Columbia (added bonus: winnings are not taxed in Canada) or the comparable Boulevard Casino, also in BC. Or simply fly down to Vegas.

Having learned our lesson, we’ll be holding our next off-site management meeting somewhere, anywhere, but the Tulalip Casino Resort.

INFO

Directions: Tulalip Casino Resort is located off I-5 ten minutes north of Everett.

Website: http://www.tulalipcasino.com/index.aspx

Pros: Incredible hotel rooms.

Cons: Gaming floor, restaurants, service (at all levels), irritating voucher system, incompatible voucher sizes, terrible variety of slot machines, no drink comps, barriers to enjoyment at nearly every turn.

Suitable for: the non-gamer, non-restaurant eater who will not leave hotel room.

Rating: 2.5/10

Final Word: Don’t bother with this mediocre casino resort.

Sundin to the Vancouver Canucks = Messier Era Revisited?

When we heard of rookie Vancouver Canucks’ GM Mike Gillis’ offer of $20MM for Mats Sundin over a two-year deal, we immediately thought, “oh no, here we go again!”. The similarities to the Mark Messier fiasco of ‘97-’00 were uncanny: in both cases the player involved was in the twilight of his career, in his late thirties, verging on retirement. Even the $20MM figure is the same (although in Mr. Messier’s case, the sum was spread over three long, unproductive and frustrating years, rather than the two being offered Mats Sundin (a one year deal is also on the table)).

You may recall Mr. Messier’s tenure with the Canucks: during his three years with Vancouver, the team failed to make the playoffs, the locker room was filled with turmoil and the team started bleeding money in an otherwise hockey-mad city. Then again, like us, you may have simply blocked it out of your memory.

Mr. Messier, who played 25 seasons in the NHL, posted his 21st, 20th and 18th worst seasons, respectively, during his three years with the Vancouver Canucks (as measured on an average points-per-game basis). Had he retired at the end of those dismal years, they would have been the worst years of his career (excluding his first season in the NHL). Fortunately, he peddled his dimishing services another four years to the New York Rangers (promising fans a playoff berth upon his signing there; alas, the Rangers went without a ticket to the dance for each of his final four years as Captain).

Mark Messier's three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks were among the worst in his career.

We’re hearing the same talk of Mr. Sundin’s leadership that we heard in the days before Mr. Messier was signed: Mats Sundin will bring the leadership, both on and off the ice, necessary to take the Canucks all the way to the Stanley Cup. Mark Messier has built quite a fiction around his supposed leadership abilities. In point of fact, during his final seven seasons, he was unable to lead his teams into the playoffs, let alone get anywhere near the Stanley Cup.

So, should we expect a repeat, another two seasons in the hockey wilderness, should Mats Sundin sign with Vancouver’s Canucks? There’s reason to think not.

Unlike Mark Messier, Mr. Sundin seems to be improving with age: a look at his stats gives lie to the notion he’s in the twilight of his career.

During his past three seasons with the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs, Mr. Sundin has posted the 3rd, 6th and 5th best numbers, respectively, of his 17 NHL seasons (again, on an average points-per-game basis). This coming not on a team with the likes of Alexander Mogilny and Pavel Bure in their prime (as Mr. Messier enjoyed (simultaneously!) while in Vancouver), but rather with a cast of teammates you’ll never see on a Hall of Fame ballot. In fact, if there’s one thing the Toronto Maple Leafs have excelled at since the storied days of Darryl Sittler, Börje Salming and Mike Palmateer, it’s assembling a roster of players that produce the odd situation of the sum being less than its parts.

Unlike Messier, Mats Sundin appears to be improving with age.

Whether Mats Sundin will land in Vancouver (and get a shot at the once-in-a-lifetime chance to captain his country’s team on his home team’s rink in Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics) is something only Mr. Sundin is privy to at this point (Swedish media published a since-discredited report that he has joined the Cancuks). However if Mats Sundin does indeed sign with the Vancouver Canucks, there’s reason to hold out hope that his tenure in Vancouver will differ significantly from Mark Messier’s. For Canucks’ fans, that’s a very good thing indeed.

Good News: South Carolina to Allow Faith-Based License Plates…

State's name goes on top; religious slogan on bottom. Total separation of church and state? About 4 inches. Advertising one's self-righteousness? Priceless!

Tired of settling for a mere Jesus-fish on the back of his car to advertise his self-righteousness, Lieutenant Governor R. Andre Bauer of South Carolina has picked up where Florida left off: Mr. Bauer wants SC to issue custom license plates with a Christian cross and the words “I Believe” on them.

In response, we sent Mr. Bauer the following email, and eagerly await his reply:

“Hello,

I’m delighted to see you’ve approved a license plate design with Christian iconography and the term “I believe”.

In the spirit of customized, faith-based license plates, I too would like to request a specialized design. My design features an inverted cross, with a pentagram at its base. The pentagram should be flaming spectacularly. In the section where the Christian plate reads “I believe” I’ll request you add “Sin is the Answer”. Space permitting, I’d also like to see the numbers “666″ inscribed towards the right-hand side, vertically. These too should be flaming, for added effect, with the numbers themselves in a blood red. Can the blood possibly drip from the numbers, or would that involve additional costs?

I understand the fee for such a custom, faith-based plate is $4,000. Please advise to whom the check shall be made out, and also the turn-around time to delivery - as I’m sure you can imagine, I’m quite anxious to display my new plates!

Thanks again for showing your leadership in approving faith-based license plates in South Carolina - I too agree the “separation of church and state” nuts should quit their complaining and, as I’m sure you, as a good American, will agree, my right to express my faith stands on equal footing with yours.

Sincerely,

Lucifer “Hot Plates!” Beelzebub”

Our version of the “religio-plate”…

Harold Ickes Catches Clinton-itis: Changes His Tune…

Harold Ickes (former Deputy White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton) had this to say at the end of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting today, after the decision was made to seat all of Florida and Michigan’s delegates but allow them only a half vote each: “I am stunned that we have the gall and the chutzpah to substitute our judgment for 600,000 voters.”

Interesting words from Mr. Ickes, particularly given he voted in favour of stripping both Michigan and Florida of all their delegates back in August 2007. In fact, Mr. Ickes voted in favour of going beyond the 50% delegate penalty specified in the party’s rules. Of course, that was before Hillary Clinton (who, not coincidentally, Mr. Ickes supports as the Presidential nominee) desperately needed the delegates from both Florida and Michigan. Back in August, Mrs. Clinton was widely assumed to be the eventual Democratic nominee.

Mrs. Clinton, for her part, signed the Four State Pledge Letter in late August. Here’s a copy:

Four State Pledge Letter 2008
Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina
August 31, 2007

WHEREAS, Over a year ago, the Democratic National Committee established a
2008 nominating calendar;
WHEREAS, this calendar honors the racial, ethnic, economic and geographic
diversity of our party and our country;
WHEREAS, the DNC also honored the traditional role of retail politics early in the
nominating process, to insure that money alone will not determine our
presidential nominee;
WHEREAS, it is the desire of Presidential campaigns, the DNC, the states and
the American people to bring finality, predictability and common sense to the
nominating calendar.
THEREFORE, I _______________, Democratic Candidate for President, pledge
I shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidential
election primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa,
Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as “campaigning” is defined by
rules and regulations of the DNC.

Mrs. Clinton’s camp released this statement at the time:

“We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process. And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role. Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar.”

In October, Mrs. Clinton had this to say:

“It’s clear, this election [Michigan is] having is not going to count for anything.”

What a difference a few months make…

Is Lindsay Lohan Really a Successful Actress? We Look at the Numbers…

No such thing as bad publicity?

Lindsay Lohan sure gets an awful lot of press, admittedly for all the wrong reasons. But does her fame have some basis in a successful acting career? Do the movies she appears in rake in fortunes at the box office? Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

Ms. Lohan has appeared in eleven movies thus far, which together have grossed nearly $434 million in the US and over $678 million worldwide, for an average US gross of $39.41 million and an average wordwide gross of $61.67 million¹. Pretty impressive.

However those number don’t tell the whole story. Ms. Lohan’s average gross per movie figures are propped up by just four movies, none of which was released in the past several years: The Parent Trap (1998; US gross: $66.31 million), Freaky Friday (2003; $110.23 million), Mean Girls (2004; $86.06 million) and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005; $66.02 million). Take those four films out and look what happens: Lindsay Lohan’s average gross per movie drops dramatically - $14.99 million for her average US Gross and just $21.75 million for her worldwide average gross.

Here’s what’s even worse for Ms. Lohan: only a single movie of the past six she’s appeared in has grossed more than $20 million in the US market, and that lone film, A Prairie Home Companion, just barely passed $20 million, finishing at $20.34 million. Meanwhile Ms. Lohan’s salary per film has reportedly climbed to the $7.5 million level (or about a third of what a producer can expect theaters to gross).

Conclusion? Lindsay Lohan may get a ton of press coverage, but it’s hardly a function of her career successes. And contrary to the accepted wisdom, it seems not all publicity is good publicity.

5,000,000 Reasons Hillary Won’t Quit…

The View from the North

***UPDATE***

Make that 11,400,000 reasons Hillary won’t quit - she’s since “lent” her campaign another $6.4 million…

*****

Behind in delegates to Mr. Obama (by 7.8%: 1724 - 1589), losing the popular vote (by 3.5%: 14.418 vs. 13.917 million), well back in fund-raising (by 18.9%: $240.2 vs. $194.8 million) ¹ ² and deeply in debt, one wonders what good reason Mrs. Hillary Clinton has for remaining in a race which, by virtually every measure, she has no reasonable expectation of winning.

Perhaps it’s not a single reason, but rather five million reasons Mrs. Clinton won’t pull the plug on her seemingly ill-fated campaign to be the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States.

In late January, Mrs. Clinton personally loaned her campaign $5 million. As of April 1, 2008, the Hillary Clinton for President committee was $10 million in debt (not counting the $5 million personal loan)³, and that was before some very heavy spending in the run up to the Pennsylvania primary. You can see a list of creditors here. Mrs. Clinton’s only hope of seeing any of the $5 million of her personal fortune she lent herself is not only to keep the money flowing into her campaign coffers, but to accelerate the pace at which it’s flowing. Hence her direct appeal for cash in the early lines of her victory speech following her triumph in Pennsylvania Tuesday night.

That speech seems to have, if not solved her dilemma, at least significantly eased it: in the twenty-four hours following the plea for money, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign claims it raised a record $10 million 4. That ought to at least pay some of the growing list of creditors (including UC Davis, which is owed $6,350 from an event back in January (the campus is contemplating sending the debt to a collection agency 5), and $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign workers 6) and may even give the New York Senator a chance of recovering her investment in her ambitions.

Various Democrats have been publicly pleading for Mrs. Clinton to end her campaign. One proposal which may have a realistic chance of meeting success would perhaps be an offer from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean that would see the DNC pick up any debts of Mrs. Clinton’s failed campaign (including her $5 million loan) if she drops out of the race by a fixed date (the sooner, the better, as far as the Democrats’ aspirations for the White House are concerned). No such proposal appears to have been put forward yet, however such a proposal might, at last, put an end to an increasingly bitter race for the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States, which lately seems to be benefiting one candidate exclusively: Senator John McCain.

Is Bosnia Hillary’s “Swiftboat”?

The View from the North

On occasion, the battle to become the President of the United States features a negative characterization of one of the candidates that just won’t go away, and which sticks with people well after the new President has been sworn in.

In the 1980 Presidential election, it was Reagan’s line in an October debate: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”. Carter, with an approval rating in the twenties, nonetheless was in a neck-and-neck race with Reagan until that point. The comment solidified perception of Carter as a weak and faltering president, a perception popular to this day. Reagan won in a landslide a few weeks later. (Close second? Reagan: “A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. A recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job”.).