THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY OCTOBER 31, 2008
NEWS
3A
HALLOWEEN
Supporters' Web site offers 'Barack-o'-lantern' patterns
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
Halloween's usual Jack-o-lantern faces are gleaming out with sneers and smiles from Lawrence porches, apartment complexes and small businesses. But one face this year is different.
Barack Obama's face, along with his campaign slogan "Yes We Can" and other familiar designs from campaign posters decorate pumpkins this year as Halloween is only three days from election day. Yeswecarve.com, a Web site not affiliated with the Obama campaign, displays photos of pumpkins featuring Obama-related themes. The candidate's supporters contributed the photos and stencils they used to make their own designs.
Gretchen Wieland, Sterling Ill., graduate, said she received a link to the site from a friend.
"The name is interesting in itself," Wieland said. "Yes we carve. So, I went on the site to check it out."
Wieland liked what she saw and decided to carve the horizon campaign symbol into her
"Barack-o'-lantern."
"There are so many examples of other pumpkins from people across the country that are supporting him," Wieland said.
Jonathan Earle, associate director of programming at the Dole Institute of Politics and professor of history, said of all the amazing election memorabilia from the past, he had never seen pumpkin carving.
"It's what the Obama campaign seems to have done that's new," Earle said. "It's encouraging supporters to go out there on their own and create viral messages."
Although the site wasn't sponsored by the Obama campaign, Earle said he thought the campaign probably encouraged it.
"It's encouraging people in your generation to participate in these things," he said.
Earle said he would personally carve a pumpkin with Vice President Dick Cheney on it.
Yeswecarve.com is free and visitors can download and print off stencils that others have submitted.
"What's the scarier than Dick Cheney?" he questioned.
Wieland will be working with the Kansas Democratic Party election night, but said she would light her pumpkin before setting off.
"Hopefully, I'll watch TV throughout the night and see an Obama victory, or in the morning if need be," she said.
Addy Ehling, Hutchinson graduate, said she also participated in the Obama pumpkin carving. She decided to carve the stencil titled "Obama ghost stencil" that spells out Obama with ghosts in place of the As.
Ehling said McCain supporters had said off-the-wall things about the site.
Ehling said that claim was silly because the pumpkin carving was creative, not malicious.
"Someone was saying it was weird people were using pumpkins," she said. "They were saying it was some kind of cult thing."
- Edited by Briun Scott
HALLOWEEN
Palin costumes popular among women this season
Stores see a boom in Palin-esque wigs and glasses
BY MICOLE ARONOWITZ
editor@kaplan.com
editor@kansan.com
Sarah Palin is proof that topical Halloween costumes never go out of style.
With the presidential election drawing near, many employees from costume stores in Lawrence have noticed a marked increase in sales of Palin-esque wigs and glasses.
"She is a character," Mihalevich said. "She is not just a normal person."
At buycostumes.com, an online costume retailer, those searching for a costume can find a variety
Amy Mihalevich, St. Louis senior, works at Sarah's Fabrics, 927 Massachusetts St., where there has been much interest in Palin wigs this week. The shop sells wigs modeled after the vice presidential candidate's signature hairstyle. Mihalevich said the look consisted of bangs in the front, half up, half down style, with brown hair and auburn highlights.
of accessories for a colorful Palin ensemble. The Web site features latex Palin masks, paper masks, a kit that includes a wig, glasses and a campaign button, and separately sold glasses and campaign buttons.
little time to order Palin items.
Karen Van Ert, director of marketing for buycostumes.com, said that in less than a week the store was sold out of its 200 Palin kits. It sold 4,000 paper Palin masks in a month and a half.
Kyle Billings, owner of Fun and Games, said the popularity of dressing as political candidates was a way for people to express either their like or disdain for the candidates. The sales for Palin
"It is fun for women to dress up as her because they can be creative with the look."
VamFrt said another feature of the site was the opportunity to vote with the purchase of a political candidate mask. She said since 2000, the poll had successfully predicted the next U.S. president.
KYLE BILLINGS
Fun and Games owner
INTERNATIONAL
Fun and Games, 1601 23rd St., has sold multiple Palin wigs and glasses daily. But they also had
attire are consistent.
"It is fun for women to dress up as her because they can be creative with the look," he said. "She is definitely in the top ten."
W i t h
the constant coverage of the presidential race, it would seem that the political spirit would carry on over to Halloween. Billings said that aside from the interest in Palin costumes, this has been a slow political Halloween season.
— Edited by Arthur Hur
1702-2014 Nintendo Entertainment System
Congo government urged to end violence by U.N., U.S. Most fighting has stopped, but government still being criticized for pillaging and other crimes in the region
BY MICHELLE FAUL ASSOCIATED PRESS
GOMA, Congo — With a ceasefire appearing to halt most fighting, a rebel leader said Thursday he wanted direct talks with the Congo government on ending violence in the region, and envoys from the U.S. and U.N, were dispatched to help set up negotiations.
Sporadic gunfire could still be
heard Thursday night in Goma. the provincial capital of eastern Congo, but the city was calm for much of the day.
That was in sharp contrast to Wednesday, when tens of thousands of residents, refugees and government soldiers fled in a chaotic torrent ahead of advancing rebels. When the sun went down, drunk soldiers pillaged and raped in Goma, killing at least nine people in their homes, according to U.N. Radio Okiap.
"We want peace for people in the region," rebel leader Laurent Nkunda told The Associated Press by telephone after halting his advance on Goma and calling a unilateral cease-fire.
Nkunda also wanted to discuss his objections to a $9 billion-dollar deal that gives China access to vast mineral riches in exchange for a
railway and highway.
He also wants the urgent disarmament of a Rwandan Hutu militia that he says works with the government and preys on his minority Tutsi people.
Nkunda launched a low-level
"It's not acceptable for government soldiers to be fighting alongside genociders," Nkunda said. "We want peace for people in the region."
rebellion three years ago claiming Congo's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi. Despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, he resumed fighting in August.
He alleges the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter half a million Rwandan Tutsis in 1994's genocide.
Congo has charged Nkunda himself with involvement in war crimes, and Human Rights Watch says it has documented summary executions, torture and rape committed by soldiers under Nkunda's command in 2002 and 2004.
Rights groups have also criticized government forces for atrocities and widespread looting in Congo.
PILIPPUR MAHVAT