I received my California absentee ballot today.

After all the horror stories I’ve been reading about problems in Ohio and Florida, I was wondering if I would actually get one, and if I didn’t get it, what I would do then.

I vote in California, a pretty safe Kerry state, so at one small level my vote isn’t going to make that much of a difference. But as my folks would say (no, as they drummed into me), “If you don’t vote you can’t complain".

So, here I go, doing my bit to make sure that George Bush gets booted, and the fear and terror mongering sown by the Republicans becomes just a faint nightmare, the kind where you shake your head and wonder if it ever really happened at all.