V-O-T-E!!!! Today is Election Day. It's the one day all year when WE actually get a chance to tell our elected officials --- and those who would like to be our elected officials --- what WE think. We do that by casting a ballot. So no excuses, no whining, just go to your designated polling place and VOTE!

And if you don't take our advice and decide instead to sit this one out, well then, you can just STFU button your lips for the next 2 years or 6 years or however long the person elected will serve. Because if you don't vote, you've waived your right to complain. Now if you vote and your guy/gal doesn't win, you can complain all you want! That's the best part of a democracy . . . we get to complain without being shot or thrown into a secret prison (unless, of course, you happen to be a suspected terrorist --- but let's not go there). And just so you know, the BasketCases don't want to hear that yours is only one vote, so it doesn't really matter. (What, are you so special you want to cast a thousand votes?) Now, this higher mathematics may be beyond the ken of some of our readers, but do your best to follow this algorithm (the BasketCases aren't exactly sure what an algorithm is, but the cute mathematical genius on the TV show, Numbers, is always writing them on his blackboard: 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 . . . 1 = a kazillion!!!!!). So, the moral of the story is that your candidate can't get a kazillion votes, unless you add your one vote to the algorithm equation! VOTE! Early and often!

[Speaking of TV shows and buttoning lips, did anybody see this week's Amazing Race ---SPOILER ALERT --- where some of the contestants ate heaping platefuls of cow lips, complete with hair and teeth? Eeeewwwww!!!!! That just had to be one of the most disgusting things the BasketCases have ever seen on television!]