This week, we did our civic duty (and waited anxiously, drunkenly for the results), thanked our men and women in uniform, and generally felt patriotic. We also welcomed the first frost, finally composted our pumpkins, and turned our eyes toward the winter holidays. Oh, and we kept right on Occupying. more ›

• Since doing your civic duty (not to mention voting in a historical election) might not be enough to get you to vote today, the Big Blog brings you 7.5 things you can get for free on Election Day.
• Capitalizing on tragedy, local gangs are in the midst of a string of retribution shootings, presumably in response to the shooting we mentioned in yesterday's Neighborhood News. What's that saying? It seemed so trite, but now so true: "two wrongs don't make a right."
• If you live in Phinney Ridge, Wallingford, or Fremont, and you didn't have power yesterday morning, you can blame it on a goose. The bird paid the ultimate price for flying too close to your neighborhood power lines.

• Forgive us if we only post cool neighborhood pumpkin photo links from now until Friday, because we can't help our Halloween-loving selves. Today's splendid carved creations come from West Seattle Blog.
• Capitol Hill Seattle wants to know what your Election Day plans are, besides, of course, you know, voting.
• It worked! After 6 missing days, Seattlest posted about a missing True Value truck yesterday and it was found. We kid, we kid, but we are glad that the Greenwood True Value got their truck back.

It seems that another year will pass without a Pearl Jam concert in Seattle. So it goes. Of no small consolation: Between trips to the studio to record their next album, the band's members will appear all over town in the coming months. Here's who, where, and when: more ›

• The Belltowner is the bearer of wonderful and awful news. The very, very good? H&M opens in downtown Seattle on Thursday...as in tomorrow! The not at all good news? A policeman on bike was attacked with a surgical instrument in Belltown this Saturday.
• A West Seattle "Thriller" dance team is practicing to participate in a dance-off to beat the world "Thriller" record.
• Blogging Georgetown wonders if there's a real estate glut in the neighborhood.

ARTSY TAILGATE PARTY: Let's hang out in the parking lot of performance space On the Boards with actors, dancers, season subscribers and the staff of On the Boards at their season opening tailgate party. We'll defy artsy-fartsy stereotypes and indulge in free hot dogs, birthday cake, and $1 beers while we sit in the beds of pickup trucks and blast our music loud enough to piss off the entirety of lower Queen Anne. We can guarantee that everyone there will be as hot as Otb's upcoming season. more ›

Clinton is up by a smidge in Texas, it's neck and neck in Ohio, and Rush Limbaugh fans are going big for Hillary. more ›

Prop. 1, the roads and transit measure. Supporters say it will help solve our gridlock problem. Anti-tax opponents say"no it won't" and environazi opponents say "roads are killing the planet, it's transit-only or nothing." Tomorrow's election day. Here's how Seattlesters are voting. more ›

Those who attended the Issaquah Village Theater’s matinee of The King and I today may have come away a little disappointed. Dino Rossi used the stage to announce his candidacy for governor. more ›

On Election Day last year the people of Seattle killed the monorail project by a margin of 65% to 35%. Mistakes and incompetence by Seattle's leaders had turned the public against the once popular project. more ›

Mike McGavick has decided that trying to get Subaru-driving, fleece-vest-wearing, city slickers to vote for him is a waste of time. He is yanking all of his ads off Puget Sound air waves. more ›

To make your own political campaign lawn sign. more ›

Those sad, wet, cold people holding signs and waving to you this morning means that it is Election Day. more ›

Democrats supporting the proposal fired back with partisan shots of their own. "I think that's a bunch of right-wing blog nonsense...I think what's important is the answers he gives when he appears before the council," said the council's ranking thinker Dow Constantine. more ›

There are many things that Seattle liberals hate: the increasing price of fleece vests, driving over 25mph on arterials, and when one of their senators votes for war in the Middle East. more ›

Anyone who thought that our state legislature had any chance at all of forcing Wal-Mart to act less like Wal-Mart raise your hand. Yeah, none of you. House speaker Frank Chopp sat on the "Wal-Mart Bill" yesterday instead of allowing a vote on it, despite a big push by his traditional allies in organized labor. The bill would force employers of 5,000 or more in the state of Washington to allocate 9% of their payroll to health benefits. Chopp alternately doesn't think it will help, doesn't want to piss off businesses and doesn't think it has the votes, or, some say, he made a deal with someone. The world may never know. The P-I speculates that he may be killing the bill in favor of a voter initiative which could help bring out the progressives next election day, but screw that. Progressives will already be out (or mailing it in) to stand up against the homophobes and their jackass king Eyeman. To Seattlest's knowledge no such initiative campaign currently exists and even if it did it's an abuse of the initiative process because the legislation is sitting right there on his desk staring him in the face and all he has to do is put it to a damn vote. Ahem. more ›

We think a lot of people consider the day Dave Chappelle announced the cancellation of his Comedy Central show to be up there with some of the huge bummers of all time. Black Tuesday, election day '04 or even April 8, 1994 - mere footnotes in history when compared to the end of the Chappell Show. Personally, as many times as Dave made us laugh out loud it only took a few instances of someone doing David doing Rick James loudly and badly in public to make us wish the whole thing would just go away. When it did, we shrugged. more ›

If it's the first (or second) Tuesday in November, it must be Election Day. more ›

At Seattlest, we read the candidate endorsements so you don't have to flip that far into your paper. In our thorough research, certain themes emerged. At the P-I, they wrote endorsements as if they were late for a meeting. For Seattle City Council--return all the incumbents, they say. Statewide Initiatives? Say no to everything! Port Commission? It's time for change! more ›

The theme of Port commissioner Paige Miller's campaign to defeat incumbent city councilman Richard Conlin has been this: when it comes to transportation, Conlin flip-flops, he dillies, he dallies, he waffles, he wavers, he can't make up his mind. In other words, he's your average Seattleite (have you been at a four-way stop lately?) more ›

As the governor’s race grinds into its sixtieth straight month, things are now in the hands of the courts, lawyers, party donors, and--of course--statistical work done by political science professors. The state Republicans are citing a recent report by two college professors which shows that Dino Rossi would have won the election by 100 votes if all those pesky ineligible voters were thrown out. more ›