bulb still works. its just faster now. when i put the emergency flashers on, both left and right bulbs flash at normal speed. then, get this, the signal was working _normally_ this afternoon for 20 minutes, until i got almost home, when it went postal again. jeez, you got me. i can tell you for a fact tho, that the blinker still works. its just faster.
edit: scratch that - front blinkers work normally, rear one IS out. Duh. i dont know about the lever tho. who knows, i guess i can just chalk it up to another quirk of my car