BaseHTTPServer weirdness

[Ron Garret]

I'm trying to figure out how to use BaseHTTPServer.  Here's my little 
test app:

=================================

#!/usr/bin/python

from BaseHTTPServer import *

import cgi

class myHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):

  def do_GET(r):
    s = ''
    try:
      s = cgi.parse_qs(r.rfile.read(int(r.headers.get 
("Content-length"))), 1)
    except:
      pass

    r.send_response(200)
    r.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
    r.end_headers()
    r.wfile.write("""
    <form method=post action=foo>
    <input type=text name=text1 value="">
    <input type=text name=text2 value="">
    <input type=submit>
    </form> %s
    """ % s)

  def do_POST(r):
    r.do_GET()


d = HTTPServer(('', 1024), myHandler)
d.serve_forever()

===================================

Two questions:

1.  The line:

s = cgi.parse_qs(r.rfile.read(int(r.headers.get("Content-length"))), 1)

feels like a horrible hack.  It seems like this would be a better 
alternative:

s = cgi.parse(r.rfile)

but that doesn't actually work.  Why?  What is the Right Way to parse 
form data in a BaseHTTPServer?

2.  Despite the fact that I'm passing a 1 for the keep_blank_values 
argument to cgi.parse_qs, it doesn't actually keep blank values.  Is 
this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
rg