July 17, 2008
Breaking News: George W. Bush Sewage Plant Renaming Qualifies for November Ballot
Wayne Pickering (AKA, Brian McConnell), head of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco formed to honor George W. Bush -- which, at the risk of boasting, SFist was the first to tell you about back in March -- just contacted SFist to let us know that commission's ordinance initiative to changing the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility to the "George W Bush Sewage Plant" will, in fact, be on the November ballot. More details to come. Stay tuned.
Pickering was worried yesterday that they might not qualify since there was a spot check of 500 of their signatures. But that's normal since the process works like this: the power that be test 500 random signatures against the voter files. Based on said raw count, if no more than 143 of the 500 signatures (28%) are thrown out, you automatically qualify for the ballot. And: ta-da! Also, according to Wayne, "we turned in 11,999 signatures, of which 11,041 were counted in the official raw count. We need 7,168 signatures from SF voters to qualify, so we went in with over 50% more than we needed."
Congrats, craz poop plant renaming people! For the full press release, follow the jump.
INITIATIVE TO RENAME SEWAGE PLANT IN HONOR OF PRES. BUSH QUALIFIED FOR NOV 4TH BALLOTSan Francisco (July 17th) - Officials at the Department of Elections announced today that the citizens' initiative to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant has qualified for the November 4th San Francisco ballot. Voters will decide on the measure in the general election alongside the presidential election, numerous statewide initiatives, and an expected 20 to 30 local measures.
"We want to thank the dozens of people who volunteered to campaign throughout the city, and the thousands of San Franciscans who lined up to sign this petition to pay tribute to our President," said initiative co-author Brian McConnell. "With over 100 volunteers, we were able to run a citywide campaign with no donations, no paid signature gatherers - it was a 100% grassroots voter movement."
The Presidential Memorial Commission is planning a creative, art-driven general election campaign, and is putting out a general call for support from artists who want to design flyers, billboards and other attention-getting devices. "We're hoping for an election campaign like no other," said Mr. McConnell.
While the measure is only being presented to San Francisco voters, voters worldwide can contribute to the general election campaign by donating artwork and funds at www.presidentialmemorial.org
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I'd honestly be more surprised if it somehow didn't make it onto the ballot.
This is totally stupid and a waste of resources for everybody involved, but this just may be the first initiative I vote Yes on that doesn't have to do with school funding.
I'd like to propose a ballot measure, that everyone with a stupid fucking idea please just STFU. No wonder most of the good, progressive ideas that grow in the Bay Area have a hard time getting much traction. Cos for every urban composting plan we have, we have a GWBush sewage plant, a bunch of hippy treesitters, and pink grannies vs. the Marines.
Progressivism needs more thinkers and less stunters. Be a thinker.
This is asinine.
SF's constituency is already marginalized as a bunch of nutcases. Thoughtful liberals should focus their efforts on bettering our world, not trivializing the democratic process with juvenile, playground-caliber shenanigans.
Retarded.
Hey, even if it is retarded, it is pretty funny. You gotta have a sense of humor--even in politics. Because once you lose that, it is over. And if it gets voted through, then it will represent the will of the people. Say what you want about ideas that are a waste of time and resources, but for having such a clown as a president, I think it is fitting for us to do something clowny in return for him.
Wow... seems like a lot of comments from 28%ers in here. Gotta love Digg!
If you think this measure is a waste of time and money, then what do you call the war in Iraq?
It seems only fitting that George W. Bush clean up our shit, while we're cleaning up his.
"I think it is fitting for us to do something clowny in return for him."
If you want to bring him and his crew up on war crimes charges, then fine. Naming a sewer plant after him is weak city.
Seriously, we need to have a counter-ballot measure process that doesn't involve putting an opposite measure on the ballot. Let's say, a ballot measure has to be submitted and validated by date X. By date X + 60 days, opponents have an opportunity to collect an equal number of signatures to suppress the original measure from appearing on the ballot.
Back on the east coast we don't get to - or want to - vote on all manner of silly bullshit. And because of this our local governments are forced to deal with real issues instead of all this hand-waiving over effete political issues in an endless series of bleeding-heart pissing contests.
"seems like a lot of comments from 28%ers"
No way man. I am left of a lot of the fruit-and-nut crowd out here. But I'm also a pragmatic, and don't think that our electoral process should be submitted to pointedly inane gestures like this.
String these bastards up for the war, but don't do anything stupid in the meantime.
"I am left of a lot of the fruit-and-nut crowd"...
I think you just lost your credibility with the "fruit-and-nut" crowd, lefty.
I can just see it now... "San Francisco Loses Presidential Election for Barak Obama After Renaming Sewage Plant After George Bush".
Puuuuuullllleeeesssseeeeeee! That would be a right-winger's wet dream. It ain't gonna happen!
LOL yeah I probably did. I failed to get my PC badge in the Gender-non-specific Scouts.
According the organizers' web site, the
initiative reads:
"Should The City And County of San
Francsico Rename The Oceanside Water
Pollution Control Plant the George W
Bush Sewage Plant?"
"Should" is not compulsory. "Shall" would be
compulsory. The measure seems to leave the
decision on renaming to the Board of Supervisors,
and I doubt very much that they would vote to
rename.
Why didn't the text read more like this?:
"Shall the Oceanside Water Pollution Control
Plant be hereby[*] renamed the George W. Bush
Sewage Plant?"
*that is, by this initiative itself (leaving the
Board of Supervisors out of it)
Wow... it was only a resolution and now an actual bill? That's incredibly weak. Making it non-binding like that isn't going to increase the people voting on it, just prove that it'll never happen even if it wins.
Y'know, like mayoral accountability.
Frankly I think we need a binding ballot measure to make it illegal to distribute any periodical through unsolicited home delivery. Yes, you can get the Examiner to stop, but we need to keep it from happening to begin with. This is nothing but physical spamming.
It might behoove our 28 percenters to emulate the ancient Egyptians and scrape all images and written record of their Imperial Deciderer to protect their delicate and terrified little girl sensibilities.
How about this instead? Instead of renaming the sewage treatment plant, why not offer a ballot measure to refer to George W. Bush in all future publications as "Waste Water Treatment Facility"?
President 42: Bill Clinton
President 43: Waste W. T. Facility
President 44: Barack Obama
President 45: Zombie McCain (2017-2021; **pure speculation**)
That way it won't just a little local joke, it will be in all the grammar school history books across the country!
Why not just change W's middle name(s) to Waste Treatment Facility. His father had 2 and he always likes to one-up his dad, so he'd love 3 middle names.
Besides, then you get:
42: William J. Clinton
43: George W.T.F. Bush
44: Barack H. Obama
you win the internets ChiTown :-)