Pikers:ÂÂ
An emerging segment of highly engaged, tech-savvy, and vocal voters is poised to impact the outcome of the 2008 national elections, according to new research from Yahoo!, HCD Research, and Hall and Partners. The study, entitled “The Rise of Citizen 2.0: Radically Rethinking Democracy in the Digital Age,” examines the changing role of the Internet in shaping political activity and discourse. “Citizen 2.0” represents a slight majority (51 percent) of Americans, who crave information about politics to a greater extent than traditional voters, and are much more likely to use technology to share their political views and opinions. According to the study, presidential candidates should be tapping into the $5.4 billion political advertising market to reach these voters online.
Here at PW, we’re already working on Citizen 3.8, with enhanced enhanciness.
Anita Esterday, a waitress at the Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa, told NPR’s David Greene in a report that aired on Morning Edition Thursday that “nobody got left a tip” on Oct. 8, when Clinton sat at the lunch counter and ordered up the restaurant’s famous loose-meat sandwich.
No hypocrisy was involved, though, since she supports increasing the minimum wage.
JD, though, adds:
Dan, I read elsewhere that the Clinton group, in this particular instance, had a bill around $50, and left a $100 tip for the entire staff. I think someone shafted this waitress. I dislike Hill as much as the next, but in this instance, she should be criticized for trying to purchase votes, not for not tipping.
So, a 200% tip is pretty generous, I’d say.
MayBee chimes in, and the plot thickens:
The always fabulous clarice at JOM posts this follow up (via NPR)
A Clinton campaign staffer called on Esterday at the restaurant Thursday after the story aired. The staff member apologized to her and gave her a $20 bill, according to Esterday. The Clinton campaign confirmed that visit. The campaign also produced photocopies of receipts showing $157.46 was paid to Maid-Rite on a VISA card on Oct. 8 for meals consumed by the candidate’s entourage. The tip was supposed to have been paid in cash, and the campaign insisted such a payment was made but has declined to make available a staff member who was present at Maid-Rite and left tip money.
Maid-Rite’s manager, Brad Crawford, said Thursday that while he was not present at the restaurant on Oct. 8, he knew that a bill was paid by the campaign that day. He also said that he believed three of six servers working that day received tips from people he thought were working for or affiliated with the Clinton campaign.
Crawford said he didn’t know if campaign staffers meant “for their tips to be distributed to everybody†or whether they were meant only for individual servers.
The manager said he can’t say for sure if Esterday was tipped for serving Clinton and her guests, Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin. (Vilsack is the wife of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Harkin is the wife of Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin). But Crawford said he believes Esterday’s account that she received no tip.
“Where Hillary was sitting, there was no tip left,†Crawford said.
The restaurant has a lunch counter, where Clinton and her guests were seated. Esterday and several other servers were working behind that counter. There are a dozen or so other booths and tables around the restaurant, and other servers were helping diners seated there.
Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton’s visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared.
“I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn’t add on the tip,†Esterday said. “And she said, ‘Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.’ And I said, ‘Well, it didn’t get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.’
“She just said, ‘Well, there was one left,’†Esterday said. “She just kept repeating, ‘There was one left.’
[b]After the campaign staffer stopped at the diner Thursday, Esterday said, the $100 tip was a hot topic.
“Two others that had worked with me that day turned around and said, ‘We didn’t know about any $100 tip,’ because they both turned around and said ‘We didn’t get a part of it.’ And they didn’t. So, it’s like ‘OK, where did it go?’ That’s the mystery question: Where did it go?â€Â
Esterday said it would surprise her if money that was intended to be split among the staff was never shared.
“The ladies that were working that day have been working there for years  some of them for 30 years, some of them for 25 years,†Esterday said. “And I’ve known a lot of these ladies most of my life living here, too. And I can’t imagine them pocketing it.â€Â[/b]
(Emphasis supplied.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143435>NPR
Clarice observed:
I can’t believe that it helps Hillary more that her staff is obviously trying to peg Iowa minimum wage earners as thieves rather than accept blame for not having taken care of this properly themselves.
Holy Mother of God. This is just so Clintonesque. I mean, who else can make going to lunch such a grotesquerie?
Sgt. Ted has thoughts on this matter.
Here at PW, we’re already working on Citizen 3.8, with enhanced enhanciness.
It’s still provoking, however, some sort of router conflict with danciness.
Whoa. 82% of Citizens 2.0 use search engines. This is seismic.
Yahoo. Those would be the guys who gave information about a Chinese journalist to Chinese authorities. I’ll continue to avoid them. Not because I’m worried that they might give information about me to Hillary, but because some acts deserve retribution.
Anita Esterday, a waitress at the Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa, told NPR’s David Greene in a report that aired on Morning Edition Thursday that “nobody got left a tipâ€Â
Politicians in general, and Democrats in particular are only interested in being charitable when they can use other people’s money. On paper, candidates are spending their own money when they campaign so, you know, fuck a bunch of tipping. You could pay 10 hobos living under a bridge a carton of cigarettes to go vote with what that tip would have cost.
Dan, I read elsewhere that the Clinton group, in this particular instance, had a bill around $50, and left a $100 tip for the entire staff. I think someone shafted this waitress. I dislike Hill as much as the next, but in this instance, she should be criticized for trying to purchase votes, not for not tipping.
Nobody should confuse that David Greene report with hard-hitting journalism. He’s like a snuffling puppy when he gets around democrats.
Hm… one wonders who might be the beneficiary of candidates tapping into the newly identified better than modern multi billion dollar market?
It could be … hmmm … I don’t know … maybe … YAHOO?
Feel free to insert your own Dana Carvey voice.
The NPR story doesn’t sound very sure that a tip was left.
But, color me TOTALLY FREAKING SHOCKED that a professional woman (lawyer) wouldn’t leave a tip. Not to go all judgmental, but I was a bartender for 15 years. We never fought over who would wait on a group of professional women (teachers, nurses, and lawyers were the worst.)
Unless, they had worked in the industry at some point. But, the odds were against you that you were going to get a good tip.
AND, they would make you RUN. Ugh. Give me a group of business men any day.
Dude, you made me look like I was defending the Hildabeast. I feel all icky.
All negative stories about Hillary will be believed in their entirety. That’s just the way I roll.
Ya.. the tip thing is a cheap shot..Sounds like something the lefties would come up with to dog a republican.. They left a $100 tip at the register rather than tipping by person on the table.. Who carries bucks for tips anymore? There are enough REAL issues to slam Hilly over without stooping to playing gotcha over tips… We’re not progressives..
So, they were trying to buy votes.
Overheard in an Iowa Maid-rite cafe:
Nice Guy Eddie: …I don’t even know a fucking Jew who’d have the balls to say that. Let me get this straight: you don’t ever tip?
Ms HillyPink: I don’t tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I’ll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it’s for the birds. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just doing their job.
Mr. Blue: Hey, our girl was nice.
Ms HillyPink: She was okay. She wasn’t anything special.
Mr. Blue: What’s special? Take you in the back and suck your pussy?
Ms HillyPink: I’d go over twelve percent for that.
Someone perhaps hosed the waitstaff – the manager conceded a tip was left, though he mentioned no amount. Clinton staff say they left a $100 for a $157 bill, ( no mention if Hillary’s on-the-house meal is a part of that total, but that would be a quite acceptable even if you tacked on the price of a diner meal for her). It’s possible someone pocketed the tip, or that it was not distributed to the waitresses in any form…but there are less sinister possibilities as well.
The two waitresses who “didn’t see any tip” were later, directly and individually given $20 by a campaign staffer.
Probably someone embezzled the tip portion of it. It’s politics, after all. I’d execute a search warrant on their freezers.
I can see bragging about how generous one happens to be, but bragging about being mean and cheap, I don’t get.
My husband’s grandmother, RIP, was that way. She bragged about how, when she went on vacation and send obligatory ( free hotel) postcards to friends and family, she had saved some pennies sending them with 1-cent stamps, postage due. She thought that stratagem was just too clever to conceal.
Ourosboros:
Thanks for that. One of my top ten movie dialogues/scenes of all time.
Dan, I read elsewhere that the Clinton group, in this particular instance, had a bill around $50, and left a $100 tip for the entire staff. I think someone shafted this waitress.
The Clinton party took up 6 tables — no way they spent only $50.
For what it’s worth: According to NPR, The campaign spent $157 total, and said they left $100 tip, but three of the six waitresses report that they got stiffed. First the Clintonians claimed they left the tip on the credit card, but when informed that the credit card slip had no place for a tip, they said, “Oh, then we tipped in cash.” Doesn’t sound exactly airtight to me.
Who’s running her campaign, Mr. Pink?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcjPxkv7vA
strategem, that is.
Stratagems are those emeralds I hope to find when I try to terrace the back garden.
Bender, weasely wonders, I guess. They won’t get away with it again.
“…no way they spent only $50…”
A sandwich at Maid-Rite is pretty reasonable. Really reasonable. Us folks in the heartland have a nice cost of living.
If they took up 6 tables – average 4 per table, 24 people … they spent $2 a person? I live an hour from Toledo, and have been there plenty. You can’t even get a soda for under $1.50.
Duh, Toledo IOWA. Details, details. Still, I can’t believe things were THAT cheap over there.
The sandwiches were like $2.75 last time I was there, and the full meal combos were around $5.
YOU”RE TEARING ME APART!! Meals in Iowa diners are reasonably priced, and the bill was, according the the campaign $157 for the large group of grifters.
::applies cold bottle of milk to forehead::
I really need a hobby, but here’s the menu. I see $6 for (cheapest) looseburger, fries and drink.
Hey, our six waitresses were nothing special.. We were there a long time and they only refilled our coffee maybe three times.. When I deign to grace a proletariat diner with my presence I expect to have my coffee refilled at least 6 times… and maybe a backroom tongue bath as well..
The always fabulous clarice at JOM posts this follow up (via NPR)
(Emphasis supplied.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143435>NPR
Clarice observed:
I can’t believe that it helps Hillary more that her staff is obviously trying to peg Iowa minimum wage earners as thieves rather than accept blame for not having taken care of this properly themselves.
“I mean, who else can make going to lunch such a grotesquerie?”
Hannibal Lecter.
Maybe it only applies to somewhat bigger operations but since sometime in the 80’s at the modest place (less than 50 employees) I work all tips have to be turned in at the end of the shift and are then paid back in the normal paycheck after taxes are deducted from them. The IRS cracked down on cash tips not being reported by wait staff all over the USA and new rules for handling tip money came about then I believe. Also in a small place wouldn’t a $100 bill be a little unusual to find in a cash drawer and be somewhat memorable?
I saw the words “going to lunch” and “grotesquerie” and immediate thought of Michael Moore, but yours is better.
Funnier.
Well, a little, anyway…
Good lord, who cares how much of a tip Hillary Clinton leaves? If anything I want a stingy president.
What’s your point, Christopher? Do you think we should pass up a good snarkage op just because it’s immaterial?
Chris: The sun just flared because you used the words “Hillary Clinton” and “stingy” in the same comment. Please refrain from future collisions in order to protect the space/time continuum.
Beacuse we just can’t afford it,, no wat ah meen?
I think Chris means he wants a president who is stingy with his/her own money, because Hillary has promised not to be stingy with the public purse.
Christopher- I want a personally generous president that is stingy with taxpayer money. Hillary used this woman’s story on the campaign trail as an example of why the US should be more generous with the taxpayer’s money while she (Hillary) was being personally stingy.
That’s why I find it so fascinating. It’s what I don’t like about the Democrats in one little anecdote.
ah. Mike beat me to it.
BJ – Didn’t we annoint someone as THE space/time continuum last week?
gortesquerie is Michael Moore at an All-you-can-eat Buffet.
JD: Kucinich is not exempt from the very fabric of the universe being torn to shreds by the those words in close proximity.
Think Ted Kennedy and a bottle of Jameson’s…
Ah, yes. The marian Kucinich. Would he implode or explode if he started hearing chants of “Hillary is stingy” and “Hillary is HOT”?
BTW – Kennedy doesn’t drink the good Irish anymore. Jameson’s does not taste too good over Cheerios and bran muffins, and when you are mainlining Gin and Tonics, what is the point of carrying around a bottle?
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
This means you, Anita.
“Think Ted Kennedy and a bottle of Jameson’s…”
And an Oldsmobile.
Gotta remember the car.
Putting Kennedy and a bottle of booze together will not cause the space/time continuum to explode. That is the rhetorical equivalent of declaring water to be wet. All that Teddy and a bottle of Jameson’s will result in is a death that the Left will overlook because Teddy is such a loyal soldier, much like Byrd and his calling people white niggers and sporting his Grand Kleagle hoodie like Bellicheck.
#43:
That, right there, is why I can’t stand HRC. That gets a big, hearty, gut-level Fuck You from me to her.
Good lord, who cares how much of a tip Hillary Clinton leaves? If anything I want a stingy president.
It’s the difference between what she does with her money versus what she wants to do with my money.
Isn’t anybody going to say anything about how Ms. Rodham-Clinton herself sat at the lunch counter rather than a table? I saw all sorts of attempted symbolism there… but of course I’m superstitious Irish and see symbolism in every damn thing.
As for the tip, it’s not as if the group had to go overboard, just follow common practice. Common practice does not include either giant tip, or no tip at all from a huge group, followed by carping over whether one actually existed. A bill of $157 – give the standard 20%, fair without spending too much of the war chest, and ta-daaa! No embarrassing story. (The point about the rarity of finding a $100 bill on the table of a diner is, it seems to me, an excellent one.)
I ranted a bit on this one at my blog..
/pimp
One for Hillary, one for her ass, and one for her ego only leaves three for the entourage. I wonder if her ass had it’s own loose meat.
Kind of related is how the AP likes to post these things after 5:00 on Friday.
If you read that, ask yourself, what was the question?