Librarian's Rant

Carve your own pumpkin online!

...this one made me cry*. A great song and web film.

*Caveat: I also cry at Hallmark commercials and weddings, so...

Thanks to Margaret on my undergrad class listserv.

Seems that Chipotle restaurants are doing their part to Get Out the Vote (sort of). Buy a burrito on October 31st, keep your receipt, and you can get a FREE burrito on Tuesday, Nov. 2nd (election day). Hey, whatever it takes, but for heaven's sake, VOTE!

Thanks to Rebecca on the Chatty list.

...and Dogs are Republicans.

Cuz he still 'gets it'. From an article at CNN.com:

Smothers said he's frequently approached by people who ask him whether he wishes he were on television now because he could say anything he wanted.

"They seem to miss it," he said. "The dirty words are flowing, the sex is flowing and the violence, but there certainly is no social comment, except for the corners of the television spectrum, which is Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. Not in prime time."

The pressure not to offend politically is much worse now, he said.

"People are afraid," he said. "I'm even nervous now."

Maher and Michael Moore "are my heroes," he said. "At one time, in people's eyes, that's what I was doing."

If only he wasn't a Nader supporter. Sigh.

Just got this joke via email from my buddy Todd. A little light political humor:

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to change a light bulb?

1. one to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed,

2. one to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed,

3. one to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb,

4. one to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb your way or for living in darkness,

5. one to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb,

6. one to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light bulb Change Accomplished,

7. one administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark,

8. one to viciously smear #7%2,

9. one surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along,

10. and finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

I think they forgot: claiming that the billion-dollar light bulb monopoly needs a massive tax break; declaring that to change a light bulb is to be with God/freedom/democracy, whether the lightbulb wanted to be changed or not; and creating a new Amendment to keep same-wattage light bulbs from lighting up together.

We've all heard about the harassment suit against Bill O'Reilly. Well, it seems that's not enough for this blowhard. Seems he has to make a conspiracy where there is none by accusing Al Franken:

O'Reilly, obsessed with his left-wing mirror image and nemesis Al Franken, also posits that Franken is somehow behind the charges. However, Franken said on his own show that he takes no joy in the allegations against his conservative rival.

Give it up, Bill. On the other hand, it might sell a few more of your new kids advice books, even if you've decided to not do a book tour<%/a>:

"Because of the intense media scrutiny Mr. O'Reilly is currently facing, he and HarperCollins have jointly decided to postpone the final media interviews planned to promote 'The O'Reilly Factor for Kids,' " the publisher said in a statement. "We hope hope to resume the book promotion with Mr. O'Reilly at a later date and we wish him well during this difficult time," it said.

I'm sure HarperCollins is fuming.

I think Aaron McGruder of Boondocks has it right.

Bill Clinton had (and has) what my father once called "a presidential quality". I had my problems with his administration, I admit, but I really I miss that quality. The current office holder thinks he has it, but he doesn't, not by a long shot. Even those who hated Clinton couldn't deny his attraction to voters. For proof, see yesterday's Kerry rally in Philly where 100,000 people came out--mostly to see Bill. No one was denying it. He's got drawing power.

One thing he said, which was quoted on NPR yesterday, struck me as exactly what I've been saying for months:

"Now, one of Clinton's laws of politics is this, if one candidate's trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope. That's the best."

The thought that a majority of the electorate will vote based on their fears--not on their needs or wants, or the needs of their neighbors--frankly terrifies me (no pun intended).

Meant to put this up a week ago...A great new film about why young women should vote.

Great new Flash film from Planned Parenthood at SaveRoe.com.

More young women voted for American Idol than in the last election. That is sick and sad. When women vote, progressives win.

The Supreme Court has spoken and Ralph Nader is off the Ohio ballot for sure.

What I still want to know is why he's not been investigated in the 34 other states where he IS on the ballot? If they used fraud to get him on in Ohio, why do we assume that every other state was valid?

You might check out votepair.org to see what vote pairing might do to alleviate the "Nader effect" we remember from 2000. There's a box on the right where you can choose your state, say which candidate you'd want to vote for, and it will tell you if voting for another candidate might be more 'strategic'.

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A timely piece of political satire written by mon pere, published in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Seriously, how can anyone think this administration is keeping us SAFER? Where are people's brains?!

From the NY Times today:

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives...are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year. [emphasis mine]

Vanished? 380 TONS of material "vanished"?? Do YOU feel safer? I don't!

If you don't have a NY Times free login, you can see the article at johnkerry.com.

And are we not supposed to care about the 50 soldiers dead just because they're Iraqis? My heart is big enough to mourn them. Is yours?

What a mess. We literally cannot work hard enough this next 9 days.

...it's for a cause. In the last week, I've met any number of prominent politicians, and a few celebrities. On Thursday, I went to an amazing breakfast where, among other remarkable women from politics, the military and elsewhere, I met Roberta Flack. More on that breakfast later (once I get my camera downloaded), but suffice it to say she was very interesting, discussing her past as a schoolteacher in rural North Carolina, then in the inner city of Washington D.C. Fascinating.

We also had Ron Livingston here, stumping for Kerry-Edwards. Literally. They had him out on the streets going door to door. Now, he's from Iowa (grew up in Marion), so this made a certain amount of sense.

I gather Sharon Stone has also been here, again stumping for the Dems. And billionaire George Soros. I gather Rudy Guiliani has been here for Bush.

It really is amusing to be in the capital of a battleground state during a close election race. Saturday morning, I was at the Dem Victory 2004 HQ, getting some precinct captain training and info, and listening to some Gulf vets discussing the war. After the first of the vets spoke, a man came up the side of the room, in sweaty jogging clothes, and was handed the mike. We all realized that it was our Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, out for a Saturday run--he'd stopped by to give us a little rah-rah time (picture to follow). Some out-of-towners who were there, including a couple of the vets, were flabbergasted that the Governor would do that. I said "Welcome to Iowa!".

Thanks (I think!) to Liza for this very odd Flash about...Eggs.