The Offical White House Photostream on Flickr

The Official White House Photostream on Flickr is essentially Cute Overload for US Politics. There is a type of unabashed sincerity in the Obama administration that I’ve never seen before.

I really love this photo of the President interacting with a young visitor.

And then, of course, there is Bo, shown here visiting the Oval office for the first time. Awww. Hi Bo! Hi!

2:17am – U.S. election

clownswilleatme.pngI should really go to bed instead of hitting refresh on cnn.com every two minutes.

Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Bart gets a scary clown bed and can’t sleep? It’s like that.

“Can’t sleep. Republicans will keep the Senate. Can’t sleep. Republicans will keep the Senate. Can’t sleep. Republicans will keep the Senate.”

Vote early, vote often.

Today is U.S. election day. Today. Tuesday the 7th. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Today you need to find ten minutes before, after, or during work to drive/walk/bike/train/carpool/drunkenly stumble to your local firehouse/school/residence hall/public space and vote. It’s easy. Here are two things that often stop people from voting:

WHERE DO I VOTE?
Call your local Board of Elections to find out where you vote. They have lots of people waiting for your call today. They are happy to tell you. It’s what they do. All you need to know is your address and approximately how to spell your name. Their number is in the phonebook in the blue government section.

WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
If you want to find out what the ballot will look like before you get in the booth, you can check out your local Board of Elections website, or try the League of Women Voters website. Or you can stop by your local board of elections office. Or you can go to your polling place and ask to see a sample ballot, then go home and google everybody.

The keyword here is: research. Open a web browser and type in “yourcountyhere 2006 election”. See what you can find out about which judges are reputable, which sheriff candidate matches your interests, which drain commissioner has actually seen a drain.

You can do this. We’ll all be grateful if you do.

Planned Parenthood bar crawl

I joined the Planned Parenthood drinking team last night, and attended their first ever pro-choice pub crawl.

Highlights included sliding condoms down the bar and engaging large construction workers on the topic of reproductive rights. Much fun was had by all, including the drunken gentlemen who thought we were rushing a sorority with our matching pink t-shirts. Alpha Gamma Roe, man.

For all you librarians out there, wow, what a way to raise the visibility of your infomation services. Why not start Librarian bar crawls throughout this land? I can see it now, schnockered crowds of library workers handing out community health and information flyers in our nation’s drinking establishments. Wear something funny, matching and visible, get a drink at the bar, say something really loud like “Librarians need liquor!” and just start talking to folks.

Social conservatives may use churches to spread their hardline social agendas, but more people go to bars, baby. Let’s take our librarianship to the streets. Let’s put information about Black History Month, HTML workshops, book clubs, and storyhour in the hands of The People.

Plus, beer!

Another Librarian/Interface Designer/Human Against Bush

I may be a bit late on the meme for this one, but you should check out the Librarians Against Bush blog. Great stuff.

On that note, this librarian saw a great yardsign this afternoon on the way back from a meeting. Below the usual “Bush must go” slogan, someone had penciled in “F#$% himself!” Ithaca is such a great town.

March on Washington

You know, for awhile there, I kept meaning to start a new weblog. My job and life has changed so dramatically (for the better) that it really deserves a whole new thing. I’m no longer in the mystery department, I’m settling into Ithaca, we’re getting this great house, and tomorrow, I’m going to hop on a bus with a hundred other activists and go tell the Bush administration that I don’t enjoy having certain cells in my body with individual rights. Screw the new weblog. This works. I’ll post here more often. Hi everybody. I’m back. See you this weekend in DC.