San Francisco plans to name sewage treatment plant after Bush

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The committee members devised this plan apparently in a bar and want to place it on the coming November election ballot. They say they want to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."

Former presidents get highlighted in a number of ways in the form of a memorial (Lincoln), capital (Washington), highways (Reagan), and some are carved in the mountain for posterity (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in Mt. Rushmore).

Now, the San Francisco commission wants to honor Bush by naming a sewage plant after him. The prize-winning plant is now called as Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.

The commission claims it has enough signatures to qualify this plan and put it to vote on a ballot. The reason given for the plan is to continue the "long and proud American tradition of poking political figures in the eye."

Brian McConnell, one of the organizers told the International Herald Tribune (IHT):

"Most politicians tend to be narcissistic and egomaniacs...So it is important for satirists to help define their history rather than letting them define their own history."

The Republicans in the city are not happy with the plan; Howard Epstein, chairman of San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative abuse of political process.

Epstein told IHT:

"You got a bunch of guys drunk who came up with an idea...and want to put on the ballot as a big joke without regard to the city's governance or cost."

If the initiative goes according to plan, the renaming will start on January 20, 2009, the day the new president will be sworn in.

Even if the plan doesn't go through, the organizers are planning for a "synchronized flush" of hundreds of thousands of toilets that will send a flood of water to the sewage treatment plant on the new President's inaugural day.

Stacey Reineccius, 45, a supporter of the plan told IHT:

"It's a way of doing something physical that's mentally freeing...It's a weird thing, but it's true."