Out and about on Election Day...

So Mrs. Drang's ankle was bothering her this morning where she broke it several years ago, so when I stumbled out of bed this morning she was sitting in her wing back chair with a heating pad instead of on her way to work. So I went ahead and drove her to work. First time I've had to deal with morning rush hour traffic in a long time, one up side to my hours is that I'm at work long before rush hour starts, and home before the evening one usually gets going.

• So it's been raining pretty much continuously since Friday--I know, you thought it rained here continuously, didn't you!--so everyone has gotten back into wet-road mode. Native Washingtonians are so happy to see it stop raining that they immediately do a brain-dump of rain driving skills; the Californians immigrants are so outraged at the thought that it rains that they never learn how.

Onward, more or less...

• On the way home--and traffic headed out of Seattle is much lighter at 0800--I saw a banner on one of the highway overpasses in the Capital Hill area:

REVOLUTION NOT REFORM
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?
REVCOM.US

Thanks to zomblog's "parent" site, zombietime, I now know that revcom.us is the web site for the Revolutionary Communist party, USA. And, no, I'm not going to make the link hot.

And it kinds puts all those arguments about whether or not there will be mass rioting if Barack Obama loses--or wins, for that matter--into perspective, don't it?

(I would have gotten a picture with my brand-almost-spankin' new smartphone, but I wasn't about to stop traffic on I5* for it.)

• Anyway, that's what I hate about election day--it brings out all the loons. I mean, regular (I almost said "normal) politicians are bad enough, but shouldn't these idiots be down at Fort Lewis trying to pick fights with Airborne Rangers?

• Most of Washington State has gone to 100% mail-in ballots. King and Pierce Counties are the exceptions. I got my ballot in one envelope with the voter's pamphlet, weeks before Mrs. Drang got hers. Evidently the state thinks I'm still on Active Duty, and mailed mine out with those of the guys who are actually still serving their country.

• Evidently "Early Voting" is all the rage. You go down to wherever before Election Day and step into the booth and cast your vote. Now, I don't have any heartburn with Getting It Over With, but yesterday--Monday, that it, Election Day Eve, if you will--I opened the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up and read the headline: EARLY VOTING RESULTS BODE ILL FOR GREGOIRE!

• Now, I'm not particularly fond of our current governor--I've described her as a cross between Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno--but is it really proper for the press to release "Early Voting" results that early? Shouldn't they sit on any results from early-bird voters and absentee ballots, not to mention the King County Graveyard Vote, until after Election Day?

• Actually , I feel that no results should be released until after, say 8 PM Pacific Time on Election Day. (Maybe Hawaii Time.) Yes, that means the Least Coast would be on edge all night, but it would also not influence the vote on the Left Coast. I would say "that's just me", but I suspect that if you polled the populace west of the Allegheny's "Who cares about the Least Coast?" would win. (Oh, all right, it would be in a very close race with "Who cares about the Left Coast?" )
  

*Note to Californians (and other immigrants here to Washington AC): It's "I5", pronounced "Eye Five". Not "The I5". Not "The Five Freeway" or "Greenway" or "Parkway" whatever other bizarre local dialect you want to try and import. If you can't talk like us, go back where you came from.