Impeach Bush (already)!

[illusionofjoy]

Elizabeth Holzman has written an article for The Nation calling for and outlining why George W. Bush should be impeached. It's a lengthy and thourough piece, well worth reading. Meanwhile, State Senator Jim Ferlo has started his own home-grown initiative to impeach George W. Bush. The senator is collecting signatures via a website for an ad which will be published in an upcoming edition of Pittsburgh's City Paper before the State of the Union address.

The wheels of progress grind slow in America - especially with neo-cons in charge.

I'm all for impeachment of George Bush. Hell, I'll still argue that he isn't technically the president in the first place (that dubious honour should have gone to Al Gore nearly six years ago). However, I believe that getting rid of Bush alone won't solve the problem. What I propose is a full sweep of the Republican party: it is time for these bastards to face their Nuremberg. In effect, I won't be happy until every regressive neo-con asshole in Washington has to face a baptism of fire.

There are certainly signs of a spark, what with the ethics investigations making life inconvenient for Tom Delay and his buddies. I just don't think the probes are going deep enough and extracting enough suffering from the Republicans being stuck. Furthermore, the beast that is the Republican machine is barely wounded, as it looks as if Samuel Alito is going to have an easy time of being confirmed to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court bench. Just what this nation needs – another double-speaking "conservative."

The impeachment of George Bush should be only the start of something much MUCH bigger. It is time to wipe the slate clean and start from the ground up with most of our elected representatives.

I just doubt the intelligence of the average voter, though. True, one hasn't much time to keep up on current events, given the situation of the average American worker today. Who wants to study politics and government in their spare time when said spare time is rapidly diminishing? However, it is a vicious circle: that apathy towards politics is one of the things contributing towards that diminishing leisure time (and also what one is allowed to do legally in that time, I might add).

In Pennsylvania, there is growing support for Lynn Swann, a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers who is hoping to run for governor on the Republican ticket against Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell. A City Paper article about Lynn Swann's campaign kickoff described it pretty much as I expected: vapid. This guy really has nothing to run on, except his fame with the Steelers. Sadly, there are abject morons out there who will vote for him just because he was a Steeler (though the majority of these votes won't come from Philadelphia).

Hey Lynn – I got some campaign slogans for you:

• "Swann '06: fumble PA's future"
• "Swann '06: tackle common sense"
• "Swann '06: now the whole state, and not just the Steelers can choke before the big event"

Okay, that last one is a bit too long for a bumper sticker. My point is this: celebrities rarely even make effective politicians. Their administrations start out on a wave of inflated optimism and then fizzle out miserably after a short period of time. Arnold Schwarzenegger is suffering the shame is being completely ineffective and irrelevant in California, much like Minnesota's Jesse Ventura did before him. Contrary to what many will say, Reagan wasn't such hot shit as president, what with having slept through his final term in office (thankfully, think of the damage he could have done if he'd been awake). Hell, the best thing Reagon did for the nation was finally dropping dead.

So, America has a choice: wizen up and start cleaning out the political closets and putting some real public servants in, or stay dumb and keep things going the way they are. Just don't expect me to stop bitching about being forced to take a ride down the drain with the rest of the nation.