Fire! Fire! Fire! by Eric Schwartz and Eliza Jane Schneider

We now interrupt this Pity Party for some creative, inspirational and well-timed political song YouTube videos, 3 of the 4 composed by friends of mine - nine more days, people (VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!).

Fire! Fire! Fire! by Eric Schwartz and Eliza Jane Schneider


50 Reasons to Vote Obama by Gregg Cagno


They Lost My Vote by Ellen Bukstel and Nancy Wuerzburger


Talkin' Right Wing Politician Blues by Chris Dingman & TR Hunt

BOOK: Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It) by William Poundstone

POEM: Pledge by Elizabeth Powell

Republic, your cool hands
On my schoolgirl shoulders.
Not sure what allegiances meant
Until the vows were held by heart,
By memory, by rote, by benign betrothal.
Republic, you were mine, I knew
Because of Mother's religious pamphlets:
Lindsay for Mayor.
McGovern for President.
How to Register Voters.
I didn't ever want to go to school
On Saturdays. The baby-sitter said
If Nixon won, I'd have to go. Me,
Your most cherished child bride.
I wanted a white communion dress
Like the ones the Catholic girls wore.
Republic, you know I wanted to play
Cards with Mother. Mother smoking
Marlboros, watching Watergate all week.
Citizen Mother all consumed at that confessional.
I liked the name Betsy Ross.
I liked the idea of sewing flags.
I liked the tattered textbook about the colonies.
So tender, so tender. My Republic,
I am pledged by my childish troth
So strangely to you.

QUOTE: "A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation." ~ James Freeman Clarke