Hello Everybody!

Enthusiasm for Give Up Blog has diminished a bit after, well, all of our predictions came true. In the end, it's the incompetence of Republicans which has undermined them, rather than successful politicking from Democratic politicians. We believed the inevitable result of people living under Republicanism would be exasperation and contempt for Republicans. And what can we say? We were right.

So we will be taking an extended hiatus from the blog, maybe starting up again before the next election season. It was fun mocking the incompetence and corruption of Republicans for so long, but there really isn't a need to Give Up any more.

One parting note. Do not let Republicans as a whole evade responsibility for the failures of the Bush administration. This is not merely the incompetence of one individual but proof of the general failures of Republicanism and the error of allowing people that hate government to run government.

Goodbye for now, we had fun.

Labels: Goodbye

What do they have in common? They're both similar to gay-rights protesters.

"Osama Bin Laden's threat against the West is milder compared to the movements of [Soulforce founder] Mel White and others who are eating away at the vitals of a traditional society like zombies threatening to destroy traditional families," David wrote. "This is a guerilla war against traditional human marriages."

Well, let me see if I can get this right. Osama bin Laden is less of a threat than about 30 gay guys on a bus staging sit-ins at college campuses?

Does that mean we can come down from Orange Alert now?

HT PZ

Labels: homophobia, idiots

How about firing an AG at the behest of Jack Abramoff? Will that do?

Before Attorneygate, there was Guam.

Back in the spring of 2002, when Guam's then-Governor, Carl Gutierrez, found himself in the cross-hairs of a federal corruption probe, he hired disgraced über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to force out the US territory's longtime acting US Attorney, Frederick Black. "I don't care if they appoint bozo the clown, we need to get rid of Fred Black," Abramoff wrote to colleagues in March 2002.

Eventually Black, a well-regarded prosecutor who'd held the position since 1991, began investigating Abramoff for a $324,000 contract the lobbyist had received from Guam's highest court--and asked for Washington's assistance. The Justice Department forwarded the information to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. Instead of receiving help, Black was pushed out of his job [see "Can Justice Be Trusted?" February 20, 2006].

Can we impeach Gonzales yet? Maybe put him in jail? Really, how big of a crime do these guys have to commit before they act?

Labels: criminals, Republicans

Thanks to Harry Reid, I actually glad Bush is going to veto the emergency spending bill (it's not like he's going to accept it anyway). Have you seen some of the crap earmarks people have slipped into this thing to make it widely palatable? Here's the worst.

Senate debate began yesterday on the bill, which provides $122 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; sets a goal of March 31, 2008, for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq; and -- if Reid has his way -- allows thousands of billboards destroyed by bad weather to be rebuilt.

...

The battle over billboards began in 1965, when the Highway Beautification Act set a policy that "nonconforming" billboards -- defined by states but usually meaning those packed closely together, or in scenic areas -- would be allowed to die of natural causes. As storms and other acts of God destroyed them, their owners would not be permitted to replace them. Recent hurricanes have fueled a fight between the powerful Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), which wants to roll back the federal law, and opponents led by Washington-based Scenic America, which decry billboards as "visual pollution."

On March 15, Reid wrote Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) asking for a provision that "clarifies" the rules governing rebuilding of "outdoor structures" after natural disasters.

Freaking Reid. That's just what we need, in the name of absolute property rights allowing any asshole abutting a highway to ugly up the damn country-side. Who are these people?

I'm going to move to Nevada and vote Republican.

This one may be even more appealing than the prosecutor scandal because it seems to implicate Karl Rove in a violation of the Hatch act - the improper use of federal employees for political reasons. Leave it to the WaPo to dig this up for the world to see.

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.

When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country."

That should be another one at least resigning, or maybe going to jail if they decide to lie about it to congress (which the idiots probably will).

Labels: idiots, Republicans

I saw this on Friday night.



Bill Maher at his best. Probably the best indictment I've heard of Bush and Cheney on a specific scandal yet.

Labels: Bush, Cheney