It's over. For real.

[Plaid Adder]

Bush and Cheney are out of office.

Driving to work and listening to NPR I was struck by the difference between the way the media covers this inauguration and the way I, at least, experience it. And this time, I am not sure that my way is any better than their way. It is just different. For them, it's the historic election of the first African-American president, day of change, jubilation, and so forth. What you do not hear in their coverage, except in very muted tones, is what is certainly screaming in my head today:

OH MY GOD, THEY'RE FINALLY GONE.

In general I think it's better, healthier, etc. to look at a situation like this in terms of the positive good coming in (i.e., Obama and what that means) rather than in terms of the vicious wastrel going out. But I can't help it. I respect Obama and am glad that his election has made so many people happy who never felt like they had a stake in the political process. But personally, for me, before I get to being happy about Obama _per se_, I have to get through a whole lot of

JESUS CHRIST, THAT BASTARD IS FINALLY OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE.

They kept interviewing bystanders about why this election was so exciting, and a lot of the time you could hear that they were trying very hard to talk about just Obama and NOT about the debacle that his inauguration ended. But you could still hear it. You could hear it in the way they described Obama's intelligence, temperate personality, willingness to listen, knowledge of the world, and so forth, as if it was a miracle that such qualities should be found in an individual who managed to become president of the United States. And I do not mean to take anything away from Obama, to whom I am grateful for many things, including his ability to win this election decisively. But in addition to the excitement he generates all by himself, when that crowd started losing its shit when he showed up, well, some of that was eight years of Bush/Cheney talking.

I have been trying to stay detached from all this somehow--maybe because I couldn't really believe that it would all eventually be over some day. But it is. It's over. What Bush wants or what Cheney thinks is necessary DOESN'T MATTER ANY MORE. They don't get to run my country.

Yes, they were retired 8 years too late. Still. They're gone. Thank God.

I hope Obama justifies every single piece of hyperbole anyone has ever slung about him. I really do. Because that's what it's gonna take to get us out of the hole we're in.

So, I will sign off now, and go practice hoping that.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard and so long to make this moment happen. And thank you DU, for seeing us all through 8 of the worst years this country has ever seen.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Lint Head]

1. Next stop JAIL!

[JerseygirlCT]

3. Yes, I'm hoping they'll be planning a nice Netherlands vacation

sometime soon...

[whopis01]

38. There is no chance in hell of that happening. n/t

[Mosaic]

44. Come on,

Why do you people need to say that every time someone projects their hope for justice?

What satisfaction does it give you? That you are a superior cynic, or worse a closet apologist?

For every post crying for justice I see a dark echo that wants to let him off for war crimes.

Good thing there are serious people seeking justice, not anonymous bloggers who hate the idea of a white man receiving justice.

[whopis01]

45. I am being realistic.

I am not a so-called 'closet apologist', nor was my post a 'dark echo that wants to let him off for war crimes'.

It is simply realism. If you think that Bush (or any of his administration) is going to be put on trial for war crimes, then I believe that you are ignoring the reality of the situation.

It gives me the exact same satisfaction as when I point out that a person with my skin color has a damn hard time getting a fair trial in a lot of parts of the country. None at all. But that does not make it any less of a truth.

It is as if I had asked you (or the other poster, more correctly) 'What satisfaction does if give you to act like this is a country where the rule of law is enforced equally for all people regardless of the level of wealth and power?'. Saying 'Next stop, Jail!' is exactly that. It ignores the reality that Bush is not going to be prosecuted for his crimes. And therein lies the bigger problem. One crime (or set of crimes) has already been committed - and now the people who are in a position to do something about that are going to sit back and do nothing. And that in itself is (or should be, or is complicit in) a criminal act.

I refuse to believe that the people in power in this country are going to do a damned thing to make a white man receive justice when that white man is someone as powerful as Bush.

I will (perhaps incorrectly) assume that your last line was not directed to me, but towards others who's posts you have read. Otherwise I would have to take great offense to the implication that I as a black person would hate the idea of a white man receiving justice. I realize that there are those out there who think that people like me should still be loyal to out white massah. However, just because they want us to be that way and just because they want us to believe that justice is for all doesn't mean that I have to buy that line of bullshit.

[JerseygirlCT]

2. You said exactly what I've been thinking.

Thank goodness. They're gone.

I liked the slaps at them in Obama's speech today, too!

[LakeSamish706]

4. I sure hope they have fumigated the hell out of the White House prior to our.....

new Mr. President sleeping there tonight.

[Ilsa]

DUer MorningGlow is ready to do a smudging ceremony to drive out the evil. nt

[Ilsa]

5. dupe

[WilliamPitt]

6. (((LOVE)))

Thank you for everything you have done.

[vanboggie]

7. Well said, Plain Adder - k&r

You put my thoughts into words. Thank you.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Did we get the Nuclear Football from him before he left?

I sure hope so.

Don

[Chulanowa]

9. Nuclear football?

All this time he thought it was the Nookuler Foozball

[hunter]

19. I hope somebody thought to search Cheney's wheelchair...

Bush's Nuclear Football was just an old football novelty phone. They told him there was a secret code to activate it, but he forgot the code and was too embarrassed to say anything the few times he tried to use it.

[ms liberty]

10. Off to the Greatest with you, because I agree...

the celebration is more than Obama, it's also about the departure of Bush and Cheney and the fact that we got thru it. As I told mr liberty earlier today, we've earned this celebration, just by surviving the the last 8 years.

[DCKit]

11. The chest-thumping over "The First Black President" is fading fast....

in favor of "The Right Man for The Job."

[amyrose2712]

12. THANK FUCKING GOD!!!

I still would have liked to see them taken out in shackles.

[soupkitchen]

13. Good-bye

In a symbolic act I made a point of flushing my toilet at 12:00 p.m. To say good-bye to the effluence.

[CrispyQ]

32. Good thinking!!

[Starry Messenger]

14. K & R!

[Moonwalk]

15. Felt exactly the same! When Obama completed the oath of office...

I breathed this huge sigh of relief. I didn't cheer, I didn't cry, I didn't jump for joy. I sighed with profound relief, as if I'd been hanging off a cliff all these years, holding on by my fingernails, and finally been offered a hand up.

I've read a lot of posts on other forums from nay-sayers poo-pooing all the "hype" and saying "wait till it's over!" They're gleefully waiting to rub their hands over our profound disappointment.

They don't get it. They'll never get it. We have a sane, intelligent, ADULT running this country. Whether he can live up to the hype, do all he can do or not is almost immaterial. The country is back in the hands of someone worthy, someone we can trust, someone who respects it and us and all it stands for. And the man who for 8 years held our country captive and tortured it nearly to death is gone.

Great big ~sigh~ of relief!

[Karenina]

16. They're NOT GONE by any stretch of the imagination.

Still I revel in the moment of collective hope.

[Kajsa]

17. The long nightmare is over,

and it's time to repair the damage.

[johan helge]

18. Well said! (nt)

[calimary]

20. What you said!

I've been feeling as though a very small part - maybe a molecule or two - of the sentiment proclaimed by Dr. King in that historic speech, "free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty! I'm free at last!", is something I can share, and kind of understand, and to a VERY miniscule extent, feel is my own. I in no way can possibly presume or really grok the depth and agony and desolation in the Black Experience in our nation's history, being Anglo myself. But I swear, I have felt like a Frickin' HOSTAGE all this time, a stranger in a strange land in every sense of the world, as though I've been time-warped into some nightmare bizarro parallel universe.

I couldn't believe how bad it could get, and how bad it kept growing. I couldn't believe it. Whenever you thought something really sucked that was happening on his watch, somehow things just grew dramatically WORSE from there. Astounding. I became doubtful that I'd ever see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe we were too far gone for there to be a light. We weren't a train going through the mountains, we were miners in the Crandall Canyon disaster. Or so I feared. It just seemed never-ending. Eight years like that seemed like an eternity.

But not so! We HAVE broken through. We ARE free! We ARE liberated! Ready to heal and move ahead boldly and with brains, conscience, backbone, and solid morals. This is going to take some getting used to. I've known it up here (in my head) but not down here (in my gut and my heart). Reality hasn't quite sunk in yet.

But I do already know and accept that I can now freely and proudly refer to the man who is My President. I haven't been able to say that, in all honesty and good conscience, for eight years. What we had was nothing more than a cheat, a liar, a thief, and an imposter. It wasn't real. It wasn't supposed to happen - ANY of it. That's why I've found it so damned maddening and for so dreadfully long a time. But no more!

And the music's gonna be a LOT better, too!

[Plaid Adder]

43. "Free at last..."

I seriously think that one reason Obama got elected is that Bush and Cheney spent the past 8 years teaching the white middle class what it's like to be disenfranchised and oppressed by your own government. Because typically, that's what electoral politics is normally about: the needs of the white "middle class." But Bush and Cheney truly never gave a shit about ANYONE's needs, rights, wants, privileges, or freedoms. So I think there are a lot of people in this country who 'get it' just that smidgen more than they used to.

The Plaid Adder

[PurityOfEssence]

21. Hey, considering their capacity for evil and fuckup-edness, I think we got off light...

...don't you?

A mere financial calamity, environmental crisis, a couple of lingering wars, untold deaths and all that, but think of what these dicks could have done if they were competent.

Regardless of what's in store, it's going to be better.

[madrchsod]

22. now we have to go back to work.....

[orleans]

23. "maybe because I couldn't really believe that it would all eventually be over some day"

i know. i felt the same way.

[FourScore]

24. I was thinking of posting something like this

but I'll kick and rec yours instead since you summed it up so well!

[Oldtimeralso]

25. I Hope It Is NOT Over...

until justice is done, here or in The Hague or both!

[Seldona]

26. K&R

Always a good read.

[Rowdyboy]

27. I hear the Hague is a great spot for war crimes trials....

[defendandprotect]

28. Unfortunately, it will never be "over" --

Bush, Reagan, capitalistic crooks who want to buy government . .

will always be with us. JFK said something about that -- I'll look for it.

But, the right-wing will always be there waiting for their next opportunity to destroy/steal.

Don't forget that--!!


Here it is . . .

YOU MUST WONDER WHEN IT IS ALL GOING TO END
AND WHEN WE CAN COME BACK HOME.
WE HAVE TO STAY AT IT.
WE MUST NOT BE FATIGUED.

~~~~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy November 1963 ~~~~

[Holton]

30. It's been more than eight years.

The USA saw fit to repeat Bush 41 (war, bank bailout) with Bush 43 (war, bank bailout). After that long nightmare, some of us are not ecstatic at the moment. Hopefully, some of us are wide-awake.

[defendandprotect]

37. Agree ---

and we have to pay a lot of attention to who the candidates are who the party is

soliciting to run -- especially watching Emmanuel and influences from DLC/AIPAC.

We have to disconnect Israel from America's weapons production and end the $15 MILLION

a day they are getting from us for warmaking in ME.

We've been arming their right-wing fanatics for decades now and its buried the

liberal/peace loving Israelis.

[truedelphi]

40. Same here. i have an agenda, and for one thing,

I know, and you know, who the crooks are.

And if Obama isn't willing to see them swinging, or at least prosecuted, in my mind he is aiding and abetting.

[petersond]

29. Thank heavens he is gone,

we have all endured a lot the past 8yrs....

Cheers

[LibDemAlways]

31. The highlight for me yesterday was removing the

black ribbon that I affixed to my porch light eight years ago. I knew chimp co. would be a colossal fuck-up, and they didn't disappoint.

[BrklynLiberal]

33. i watched virtually all of the proceedings on MSNBC and it seemed that the folks there were

downright giddy. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann in particular were having trouble containing themselves. I know their commentary can be distracting, but it was enjoyable to hear their obviously happy chatter and actual giggling at times.

[xxqqqzme]

34. I feel like a relieved survivor....it is finally over.

I lost 2 friends, in the last 8 years, because they lacked health insurance.

A huge thank you to DU, and all its members...the trolls and the tombstoned too. This place was a haven on some of the darkest days.

[road2000]

35. It was my first thought upon waking this morning.

Everything feels different today. Life itself feels different. What a transformation.

[tblue37]

36. And yet the damage they did lives on and on and on.

It isn't a clean break, because there is still so much sheer crap left to clean up, and I believe a lot of it isn't fixable.

[The Wizard]

39. Watching that helicopter lift off with The Decider aboard

was like the collective finger being shoved down the collective throat and the purging of eight years of sickness and poison.

[VOX]

41. Since the 2000 "selection," I found myself ruminating about BushCo *every* day...

And probably a few times per day at that. The blatent deception, the blind stupidity, the bald-faced cronyism, the criminal malfeasance, the colossal blunders and whopping insanity made all that rumination very easy to do.

Everything I'd been taught in public school, Sunday school and in the Scouts had been turned on its head and perverted by the right-wing, neocon government. Basic, common-sense wisdom seemed like a thing of the past -- acts such as helping those who are less fortunate or physicaly frail; not being a bully and starting fights, and being quick to stop one; picking teams fairly and democratically, so no one feels left out; being honest and truthful in all actions; being a good neighbor; and being a good steward of the Earth -- it's the only home you'll ever have. And so on.

Now, thank God, after eight years of the top echelon of American government running contrary to everything I learned as a kid, I can finally stop chewing on that slipper, figuratively speaking.

[Tsiyu]

42. Your thread title

Sweetest four words I've ever read