george w. bush wins!….by losing!
while most of california’s political scene was centered around prop 8 and gay marriage, there was this other ballot initiative in san francisco….this sewage treatment plant in sf was proposed to be renamed to this:
from the sfist:
Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco Formed to Honor George W. Bush
Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the “George W Bush Sewage Plant.”
The local grassroots movement, helmed by “Wayne Pickering,” is proposing an ordinance initiative for the November 2008 San Francisco ballot in order to get the poop/pee/vomit plant’s title changed. Why? To honor our current leader of the free world with an “appropriate and enduring legacy, for no other president in modern American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.
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from the nytimes:
An Honor That Bush Is Unlikely to Embrace
SAN FRANCISCO — Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.
From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
The plan, naturally hatched in a bar, would place a vote on the November ballot to provide “an appropriate honor for a truly unique president.”
Supporters say that they have plenty of signatures to qualify the initiative and that the renaming would fit in a long and proud American tradition of poking political figures in the eye.
“Most politicians tend to be narcissistic and egomaniacs,” said Brian McConnell, an organizer who regularly suits up as Uncle Sam to solicit signatures. “So it is important for satirists to help define their history rather than letting them define their own history.”
Not surprisingly, those Republicans in a city that voted 83 percent Democratic in 2004 are not thrilled with the idea. Howard Epstein, chairman of the ever-outnumbered San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative “an abuse of process.”
“You got a bunch of guys drunk who came up with an idea,” Mr. Epstein said, “and want to put on the ballot as a big joke without regard to the city’s governance or cost.”
The renaming would take effect on Jan. 20, when the new president is sworn in. And regardless of the measure’s outcome, supporters plan to commemorate the inaugural with a synchronized flush of hundreds of thousands of San Francisco toilets, an action that would send a flood of water toward the plant, now called the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.
“It’s a way of doing something physical that’s mentally freeing,” said Stacey Reineccius, 45, a software consultant and entrepreneur who supports the plan. “It’s a weird thing, but it’s true.”
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how would you have voted?…..only in america can you sully the sitting president’s name like this and not be disposed of……..well, this is how the city of san franscisco voted….
from the chicago tribune:
Bush Sewage Plant plan flushed
The Republican brand may have stunk on Election Night, but not enough for San Francisco voters to rename a sewage treatment plant after President George W. Bush.
Proposition R would have changed the city’s Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
“Proponents got together and thought it would be funny to name a sewage plant after President Bush, as their way to take a shot,” said Tony Winnicker, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which remained neutral on the issue.
But voters apparently did not think the prank on the unpopular president was worth the $50,000 that officials estimated it would cost to not only change the name on the facilities, but also the lettering on materials and publications. The measure was soundly rejected, as 69 percent of voters laid waste to it, according to unofficial results.
Perhaps they didn’t think the sewage plant smelled bad enough. Winnicker said 85 percent of it is underground and that there is hardly any odor.
If that’s the case, supporters could look to the plant’s next-door neighbor: the San Francisco Zoo.
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