According to this story in today's WaPo, the Washington DC Metro system is so strapped for funds that it has sold advertising rights on the outside of the trains. Today, the first train car fully wrapped in advertising - for McDonald's - rolled out on the Orange Line.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901101.html
This is our nation's capitol. We can spend billions upon billions in Iraq, give Halliburton a $72 million bonus (and that's just what comes immediately to mind) but there isn't enough money for public transit without prostituting for corporations?
And folks - despite what food industry front groups might have you believe - there is an obesity epidemic in this country, indeed, in most of the industrialized world. Just what we need is more McDonald's advertisements. No, it doesn't matter that it's an ad for a salad. McDonald's conjures up so much more than salad.
So this is what tourists will see; whatever tourists show up these days. Why not just make Ronald president? I'll leave the comments on that thought for you folks out there.