I fly out to Washington at 9:25 AM!

But before I do that, I'd like to make a small amount of political commentary, just because I feel like it, bitches. It's about my boy Linc Chafee, who trails Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in the Rhode Island senate race.

Now, you might be wondering exactly why Linc's my boy--sure, the fellow has a liberal-maverick streak, but he's facing a challenger made of Democratic goodness!

Well, it's simple: opposition moderates (especially those who mostly live on the other side of the arbitrary party lines) are much, much more valuable than someone who is equally agreeable but of my party (and I say "my party" very loosely--the way that the Democrats in general have been conducting this whole opposition thing is absolutely dreadful and embarrassing, and I am only somewhat more loath to vote for someone with an (R) than someone with a (D) these days). The only thing Chafee does that's annoying is consistently voting for Republican leaders in the Senate, and that is hardly as important as the sorts of magical things he can do from the inside of the Republican party. I'm hoping with all my heart that idiots like Santorum and Voinovich are booted out of office while the super team of Linc Chafee and Arlen Specter work together to change the Republicans from the inside.

Seriously. (Eric should draw a cartoon of this super team also. How about it?)

Now, of course, if you're a Rhode Islander who supports Mr. Whitehouse's views (on things like... Iraq, I guess? it's sort of vague), you're more than entitled to vote for him. But come on. How can you not love Linc Chafee? How can you not love any man who votes his conscience and screams pragmatic liberalism from the rooftops? (Or quietly hands out pencils asking for people to vote for him--whichever.)

Hasta la Byebye officially endorses Mr. Lincoln Chafee! Hurray!

By the way, I did that early-voting thing last Friday. I don't think any ballot initiatives were on there except for some Katy ISD school bonds issue, but I'm pretty sure there were supposed to be more. And seriously, do we have the shittiest candidates for governor or what? We can choose from the jackass son-of-a-bitch Republican who has continued the tradition of mismanagement, the stiff-as-a-board and extremely unappealing Democrat who inspires fear in the heart of no one, the comedian who might crack funny jokes but has the attention span of a gnat and policy ideas hardly much better, or the populist fuckwit who's trying to sell herself as a tough, uniting grandmotherly force instead of showing off her true penchant for mindlessness. Jesus!

And apparently most of the Republican people things are running unopposed unless libertarians suddenly count as opposition (ba-dum-pish). That's okay, though. I voted for those libertarians. Especially the judges--that's a no-brainer in Texas.

That's all for this edition of Hasta la Byebye. It's time for me to pack. But don't you stray too far, as more political commentary is sure to follow!

Hasta la byebye!