There will be at least 1,245 U.S. Bush parties and 1,531 world Bush parties, according to Bushlastdayparty.com. That would be a conservative estimate. In the Triangle, there are dozens of public and private inauguration/ end of Bushocracy celebrations. Here is how several locals will be spending the day, as posted on our site:

“I’ll probably do what I have been doing almost daily for eight years: lobby for impeachment and prosecution of all the Bushies and restitution of all money stolen from us, and also for comprehensive election reform so we never get these people back.” thrasher, Hillsborough

“I think I will clean out my closet by throwing out all of my old shoes! LOL!”Smart1, Fuquay-Varina

“On Jan. 20, 2005, I began a piece of art, making origami cranes from the first fold of the first section of the New York Times each day. The work would be completed after four long years. On Jan. 20, 2009, I will be making the last crane of the series and celebrating the departure of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney et al with an installation of the cranes, approximately 1,461, at the Carrboro Century Center, 100 N Greensboro St, Carrboro, NC from 6 to 8:30 pm. Everyone is welcome!” hcl, Chapel Hill

“I will spend Bush’s last day ashamed of myself and my fellow countrymen. I am ashamed because for the past eight years, we have witnessed our country’s wealth squandered, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children at the hands of our own leaders, and have seen our civil rights crucified, sodomized, and openly disregarded. And not ONCE did I, or any of my fellow Americans attempt to take to arms and rise up against the TYRANNY we have all been the victim of.

The way the Bush presidency was won in 2000 would have been referred to as a ‘Bloodless Coup’ had it occurred in any country in the world other than America. That one act would characterize the next eight years of American politics, and WE DID NOTHING about it.

Had you told an average American 60 years ago (The Greatest Generation) that the American people would sit idly by while the events of the last eight years unfolded, and the harshest recourse any American would take is threatening to expatriate, you may have gotten yourself into a fistfight. But alas, as the country socially and politically devolved, and our constitutional rights were trampled, WE DID NOTHING. Our founding fathers added the Second Amendment to the Constitution so if a situation like this ever arose, we could take to arms, and take our country back. But we were cowards. I was a coward. My rifle remained under my bed. So did everyone else’s. When the situation arose, the question we all thought we knew the answer to was asked, we all surprised ourselves and chose not to die for our country.

Jan. 19 will mark the completion of an eight-year test that every American failed. I and every patriotic American should be humiliated we just bent over and took it. And no matter who succeeds Bush, nothing can erase what we have endured, or the cowardly way we handled it.”goldendawn7, Raleigh