QIIME 1.9.0 release candidate 1, redux

Contains the commits in #1814 and #1815.

after this is merged, i'll:
- [ ] publish the rc1 release as a pre-release
- [ ] post to the forum and blog to announce the release candidate, ask people to forward to others who may be interested in testing
- [ ] inform devs and devs of related packages (in the release notes document) by forwarding the above post