well fellas, i solved the mystery!!! i was sitting here at work racking my brain about why these damn tailights werent working, then i started looking at the diagram ranchero sent me for the taillamp harness. i didnt have my miltimeter with me but i went out to the parking lot, and started testing the lights again. the brake pedal lit the light up, and the turn signals were working, so i knew it wasnt the bulb. so i started following the plastic hose from where it connects on the rear left of the frame, to where it makes its way toward the front of the car.
then i noticed a small dent in the plastic hose. it wasnt even severed, just a dent like if a rock hit it. so i cut the plastic hose and what do i see, the yellow, green white and brown wires passing through. guess which wire was severed!? the brown one! it was like a one in a million rock shot that hit that hose and cut that one wire because the rest of them were fine. so i pulled out my trusty leather mean, and reconnected the brown wire together and taped it with box tape so i can make it through the night. im going to fix it properly in the morning but at least i know what happened and now i can get home safely tonight.
just want to thank everyone again who chimed in with tips, advice and help. you guys are awesome. the one thing i want to know is how this shorted out my headlight switch which i had to replace last night as well. now on to that damn ABS light!