President Obama is most closely associated with the city of Chicago, but he spent five years in New York as a student and community organizer, and a local actor has created a walking tour that shines a light on what he calls Obama's "lost years" here. The AP introduces us to Jeremiah Miller, whose two-hour "Obama's New York" tour takes visitors to some of the places the 44th president spent time during his 1981-1985 stint in the city. ]]>
Normally when you see negative travel advertising about a city or state, it's one locale trying to play itself up as an alternative to another and occasionally you run into a campaign that's more or less being done to punish a place. An example of this is food companies' punitive response to New York's ongoing war against smoking/alcohol/transfats/fun, but it's very unusual to have a campaign that's just pure "don't go to this place" spite. What's been happening in Honduras, where the exiled Tourism Minister is screening negative ads about his own country, is indeed very unusual.
The politics down in Honduras are obviously a mess. Manuel Zelaya was ousted from the presidency with various degrees of legitimacy and justification, the answer to that varying with where you fall on the political spectrum. The US government, along with Honduras' neighbors, insist it was a coup. The Honduran Supreme Court, legislature, and army mostly beg to disagree. None of that matters for our purposes. Instead we enter the story where Ricardo Martinez, Zelaya's former Tourism minister, is invited to act as the country's legitimate representative at the Central American Travel Market.
He was, all things considered, not the best imaginable spokesman for the Honduran tourism industry...]]>
Usually, volunteer vacations are about helping the needy, but for some, they can also have a political agenda. Last year, Travel for Change helped send over 400 volunteers to swing states to work for the Barack Obama campaign. Now, they are helping send volunteers to Maine, where voters will take to the ballot box next month and decide whether to overturn a law that allows same-sex couples to wed. "Question 1," as it is being called, is similar to Prop 8, a same-sex marriage ban eventually approved by voters in California last year.
Travel for Change is working with the No on Question 1 campaign to get volunteers from across the country to Maine to work for marriage equality. The organization is raising funds and airline miles, matching volunteers to share rooms and cars, and placing them in appropriate jobs once they arrive in Maine. ]]>
Washington D.C.-bound travelers hoping to celebrate Christmas with the Obamas may already be out of luck. With its twinkling lights and a new family occupying the world's most famous address this year, snagging holiday tour tickets to the White House is a feat that rivals landing floor seats to a Springsteen concert.
As the Richmond Times Dispatch reports, tour requests are accepted up to six months in advance, but whether you're the lucky winner of tickets isn't disclosed until three weeks before the scheduled date, or thereabouts.
The formal request process and the lottery-like submission for tickets are a result of post-September 11th security measures. Before then, tourists could show up the morning of and fall in line to get same-day admission. Now, ticket requests must be made "through the office of a member of the House of Representatives or Senate." ]]>
It kinda sucks for the airlines that some of their highest-paying frequent flyers just aren't able to travel as often or as expensively anymore. Of course we aren't talking about business travelers, but scandalous governors, most recently South Carolina's adulterous Governor Sanford.
Sanford, who had always portrayed himself as a frugal conservative, is now facing a probe into his pricey travel habits, which extend beyond use of private planes to very costly international flights on commercial airliners. However, the Governor is using that old "they do it too!" argument, claiming that other governors have been similarly lax about traveling in coach class. To prove his point, Sanford sent a letter to a senator all but naming names: ]]>
Thinking about heading to North Korea for the Arirang Mass Games? You better hope that former President Bill Clinton has got your back, just like he has with the two Current TV journalists who were arrested on the North Korean border in March and sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp for "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry.”
During Clinton's brief visit, which focused solely on negotiating the freedom of the women—Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36—and not North Korea's recent nuclear tests, he met with good old Kim Jong-il, who wasn't looking all that ill. ]]>
Whether your heart is still aching over her loss in last year’s election or the fact that she's still around, you better hustle up to Juneau, since time is running out for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Over the long weekend, she decided to light off some of her own fireworks by announcing she wouldn’t be seeking a second term, nor would she even be finishing out her term in office; she’ll be wrapping up her duties and stepping down by the end of July.
Go to Alaska and bring home a souvenir eBay can be proud of: go to Alaska’s Capitol Building and try to get her to sign your ticket stub. The facilities are open all summer, obviously to take advantage of all those cruisers looking for glaciers, moose, and 2012 presidential candidates. The tours last for about thirty minutes, are totally free, and run daily. The state legislature, governor, and lieutenant governor all call this building their home away from home. ]]>