McCain takes early lead in Missouri...

SPOILER ALERT! It's about to get political (scroll down 20 or so lines if you don't want to read about politics)

Unconfirmed sources are reporting that McCain has taken a one vote lead in absentee voting (which arrived today!) from Switzerland. Will it hold? We shall see... Brokaw already called, but if you don't see it on the evening news it will be entirely due to the mainstream media's love for "the one".

Any Missouri voters out there have thoughts on the other Propositions and Amendments?

Amendment 1 - English to be the official language of all government business? Really? Isn't it already? Is there a chance this might not pass? (I probably will abstain from voting here)

Amendment 4 - Stormwater control projects? Not sure, but the ballot implies it will cost taxpayers. So my early bet is thumbs down, but persuasion is welcome.

Prop A - repeal of loss limits and prohibition of future casinos. The casino lobby must have been working overtime for this one. Sounds like a gold mine for them and the state. More money for education from casinos means less actual state money for education. Indicating toward a yes vote due to the increased government revenue - people are going to get around the loss limits anyway by going to Illinois or circumventing the 2 hour rule.

Prop B - Creation of the Missouri Quality Homecare Council - Since Liz doesn't have her own ballot (hence the 1 vote lead for McCain) I will allow her to influence me on this one... yes vote.

Prop C - Electric utilities to purchase renewables. Due to my love of coal and nuclear (neither of which were included), the vote will clearly be no. Nuclear produces zero carbon emissions and is entirely renewable, right? Where's the love? Is proposition part of Al Gore's 10 year plan?

In other news, 2 light fixtures were put up today without any electrocutions. We also got the couch set up and an additional 2 sets of curtains hung. The 45 pound (20 kg for all you non-Americans out there) table top that I lugged home from IKEA last night is a bit big, which is shocking. Now I need to find someone with a table saw so that I can slim it down a bit. Not sure how that is going to work, but may involve a little side money. Otherwise things are looking up.

Talk to you all soon. Bis Spaeter!!

(German Note of the Day: Spaeter would typically have an umlaut over the "a" but since our keyboard is not configured for umlauts you just put an e after the umlauted letter - a's o's and u's can have them)