Always look on the bright side of life

It took a while for me to see the silver lining in the dark cloud of Bush's speech, but there is one. We now know that we will be participating in the removal of a president. The only question is the form it will take: impeachment or recall?

Impeachment is the likely course, but it depends on initiative from above, in the two houses of Congress. But thanks to some vile "right-wingers" in California, the recall option is something we now know can work.

Ever since the stolen election of 2000, the United States of America has been experiencing the surreal phenomenon of the most undeserving, incompetent, malevolent, and criminal presidency in its history, past, present, or future. That is, if the country has a future. If it does have one, another president like Bush will be its last.

So Bush not only must be removed, he will be. The whole country is turning against him. When Republicans abandon ship, it's all over but the shouting. The shouting will be fun to watch.

Looking back at the Bush fiasco, the most curious thing to me is that he has stayed in office so long. If someone this mediocre, this incompetent, this ill-willed, and this delusional can ascend to the nation's highest office and remain there for six years, something is very wrong with the country as a whole.

How is it that the established media have enabled him for so long? Are our corporations so craven that they send huge amounts of money to get him and his supporters elected? Are the people so compiant and gullible that they believed in him for, hmm, about five years? That's a tricky question, because it's pretty clear Bush wasn't elected either in 2000 or 2004. But an effective minority supported him. Whatever the case, a profoundly bad president has remained in office for six years. A brain-damaged drug and alcohol addict. A man with the maturity level of a five-year old child. A corporate criminal. The enabler of the worst attacks on American soil in its history. An international menace. A domestic menace.

It's all over for Bush, but we have much work to do. A solid recall movement can be a great catalyst for taking a good look at ourselves. We can't let this happen again. For now, though, let's cheer up. We will be getting a new president before the year is up, maybe even before the summer. I wouldn't be concerned about Cheney becoming president. He won't be there for long (likely about two months), and he won't be able to do much harm in his short time in office.

Or, as Eric Idle put it, always look on the bright side of life.