Help save homemade toys, handmade kids clothes, and above all, tons of small businesses from the wrath of the CPSIA

Mamas, I desperately need your help.

As we all know, lead and toxic chemicals do not belong in our children's toys. Congress, fortunately, acted quickly to fix that problem. Unfortunately, they did so by passing the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act which threatens to destroy small businesses with prohibitively expensive testing and labeling requirements. In other words, the small artists, toymakers, and WAHM crafters--you know, the people who already make products that we love and trust--are going to go under while the big honkin' toy companies can continue making their plastic crap in China. You can read all about it here. If you are okay with legalese. 

Say goodbye to the beautiful carved wooden toys you find at craft fairs or on etsy, the homemade baby slippers knit by a mom trying to support her family while she stays home with her kids, the cute handmade bows that your neighbor is selling to raise some spending money.

Brought to you by The Partnership for a McCain Free White House

Psst...Pass it on.

I helped write this ad with Laura Dawn and Peter Koechler of Move On, and Doug Liman, who directed. And if you don't recognize the cameos from Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, we'll be doing a follow-up ad called "How to talk to your kids about Gossip Girl."

Liz Gumbinner tries to use her copywriting skills for good, not evil, whenever possible. In her spare time, she blogs at Mom-101.

If "Palin knows more about energy than anyone in the US" we're officially...past tense of that word that starts with f.

At a town hall meeting yesterday, a concerned voter asked that great energy expert, Sarah Palin, whether it was true that 75% of Alaska's oil was shipped overseas. Her answer?

No, "It's not 75%...because Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially."

Hm.

Baskin-Robbins sez: Support your candidate by eating him on a cone, with sprinkles

I've just gotten word that Baskin-Robbins, beloved ice cream purveyor of my youth, has joined in on the ubiquitous "Vote for _______ vs ________ " marketing tactic with two new flavors named for the candidates:

McCain's Straight Talk Crunch - caramel ribbon, chocolate pieces, candy red states, and crunchy mixed nuts swirled into white chocolate ice cream.

Obama's Whirl of Change - peanut nougat ice cream whirled with chunks of chocolate-covered peanut brittle and a caramel ribbon.

I would have paid to have been a fly on that product development wall, as the marketers grappled with the fact that they couldn't possibly make the Obama Flavor chocolate based and the McCain flavor (very, very) vanilla.

Stewart and Colvert Mock the Vote with new Entertainment Weekly Cover

I can't wait to hear the conservative pundits on the new EW cover that features John Stewart and Stephen Colbert parodying the controversial New Yorker magazine cover of a few months ago.

Breaking News: McCain follows Obama's lead, claims it as his own, then drinks some Metamucil.

It's just been announced that John McCain has requested to postpone the presidential debates so that he can "focus on the economy."

Which almost sounds like a good idea. Until you realized that when Obama started focusing on the economy months ago by convening a major economic summit in Florida with a bipartisan team of advisors including Warren Buffet, Google Chair Eric Schmidt, and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil--McCain dismissed it as "political theater."

McCain/Palin press avoidance tactics: More of the same for America

It's now 8 days since Sarah Palin has been "too busy" to talk to the press.

The first question that popped to mind is the one that most thinking Americans are wondering right now: How is she ready to be President, let alone Vice President, if she doesn't even have the ability to talk to a little ol' reporter?

But on further reflection--eight whole days of it--I realized this isn't about prepping (although lord knows she could use it). This isn't about stalling for time while Palin signs up for a crash course on geography at the Learning Annex or sits down for a primer on the policies that McCain keeps claiming he has.

This is about protecting the lies.

Who Needs Nader When You've Got Ricki Lieberman

As a past Hillary Clinton Supporter, I've received troubling emails recently from a top fundraiser in NYC named Ricki Lieberman. No relation to the Republican senator from Connecticut.

She is--how do I say this--enthusiastic about her candidate.

The NY Daily News, which I'm not so apt to side with in matters political, recently referred to her as a fanatic in an article that opened: Some of Hillary Clinton's die-hard supporters are plotting to stop Barack Obama  at the Democratic National Convention, or more realistically, at the polls in November.

The Art and Commerce of Barack Obama

My feeling is that you know a candidate is something special when he (or she as the case may be) is inspiring art. And I don't mean the bad "French Poodles for Obama" buttons on etsy.

Although come to think of it, if there was one for bulldogs I'd probably get it.

When I stumbled across the Ann Arbor-based shop Stories and Divinations I was absolutely awed by the artist's gorgeous narrative Obama collage bracelet for $135 - plus if you tell her a story you can save 20%. How's that for the true soul of an artist?

Her entire political section is a civil libertarian's happy place.

So, have you picked out any Obama goodies to buy yet?

-Liz sits at home in her unfashionable sweatpants seeking out hot trends for parents as the co-editor of shopping blog Cool Mom Picks. She also exploits her life for humor at her personal blog, Mom-101.

One More Place to Dispel the "Obama is the AntiChrist" Emails

I guess I'm just not on the proper right-wing nutjob email lists because for some reason, this "Obama is the anti-Christ ohmygod really it's right there in Revelations!" email didn't get to me until just today.

If you haven't seen it--probably because you don't run in circles where people's IQs are lower than the number of tires on their front lawns--allow me:

According to The Book of Revelations [sic] the anti-Christ is:
The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent,
who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a
MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will
flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and
when he is in power, will destroy everything ..

Is it OBAMA??

So as requested by Obama himself, I'm going to Fight the Smears and graciously permit truth to get in the way of a good rumor.

1. Obama's not Muslim. If we've learned one thing from this Reverend Wright debacle it's that Obama GOES TO CHURCH.

2. The book in the bible is called Revelation. The book of revelations sounds like something from Dr Phil.

3. The non-partisan Politifact does a great job of having religious scholars take the email on point by point. They all point out that the word anti-Christ doesn't appear at all in the book of Revelation, there's no mention anywhere of a man in his forties, and no mention of the word Muslim.

4. Don't believe Politifact? Snopes reprints the entire chapter. (They're staying real busy over there these days by the way, already tackling 18 false Obama internet rumors and counting.)

5. My friend Patrick O'Connor, a brilliant editorial cartoonist, forwarded me his paper's resident biblical expert's point "Revelation preceded Islam by a good 600-700 years." Hm.

6. If there is any anti-Christ at all, it's easily George Bush. Some would argue it's Dick Cheney, but I challenge you to name three people who find him appealing, Mrs. Cheney included.

Final score:
Truth: 1, Ignorant Asshats: 0

You know, sometimes I do have second thoughts on this whole "everyone has a right to vote" policy of ours. 

Liz Gumbinner can be found blogging at Mom101 and really really loves the word "asshats."