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I would bet a few dollars that most of you are not particularly pleased with the president’s performance at the moment. I’d also bet many of you would like to see him out of office. After all, according to the most recent polls, only between 29 percent and 33 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s doing. With the new National Security Agency revelations, zero good news coming out of Iraq, and all the other accusations of President Bush lying to the American people, the president’s approval rating is down in what is known as “the Nixon zone,” the technical definition of which is the point when most Americans would prefer to be led by Cobra Commander than the commander-in-chief. Dan Rather would probably call the president’s current numbers “lower than a snake’s rectum in wintertime.” The point is, Americans are feeling antsy about George W. Bush.

Most of us feel like there’s not much we can do about our disaffection; after all, no amount of rallying, student protesting, or clever mangling of the president’s name on your blog is likely to change the situation in Washington. Marches in downtown Los Angeles are nice, but they only stay in the nation’s consciousness for one or two news cycles. No matter what you or I do, the president will still wake up in the Lincoln Bedroom tomorrow – because Laura has banished him from his own bedroom for misspelling her name on a Mother’s Day bouquet – and get to make the fateful decisions of this nation. Or will he?

Great state of Vermont, stand and be recognized! I have made fun of you before, but you have rushed to the rescue with the most important breakthrough in grassroots activism since the invention of Birkenstocks. Over the past couple months, various townships in Vermont have made national news by calling for the impeachment of Bush. However, such calls made only so much noise until, according to The American Prospect, a Rutland, Vt., man stumbled across an arcane, never-used provision – Section 603 – of a parliamentary manual written by Thomas Jefferson that forces the House of Representatives to consider impeachment proceedings submitted by a state legislature. The Rutland County Democratic Committee adopted the call for impeachment, which became known as the Rutland Resolution, as did several other cities in Vermont. Rep. Dave Zuckerman, P-Burlington, submitted the Rutland Resolution to the Vermont Legislature on April 26.

Other states have followed Vermont’s lead. Illinois Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, joined by two colleagues, has submitted a resolution under Section 603 to the Illinois General Assembly, and California Assemblyman Paul Koretz – who represents Westwood and much of West Los Angeles – has submitted his own resolution to the California Assembly, according to the Sacramento News & Review.

Suddenly, town halls across the U.S. are holding impeachment hearings against the president of the United States. Petitions are circulating, urging the state legislatures with impeachment proposals to pass them. It has the potential to be the most triumphant volley from the poor little states across the bow of the big, bad federal government since Wyoming beat the Department of Commerce in checkers in 1962. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves – once the House of Representatives receives any impeachment proposal from a state legislature, it will of course quash that proposal like a bug. But Section 604 of Jefferson’s manual states that the House must act on an impeachment proceeding before it deals with any other business. In other words, the House will be required to squash the impeachment proposal immediately and very publicly. So it would be a pretty big deal, as far as meaningless gestures go, but it would still be only a gesture.

Some, however, are against the gesture; they think it can only give ammunition to Republicans in the midterm elections. But I fail to see how this is possible; why would threatening to fire the boss give momentum to his management team? Since he won’t be impeached unless Democrats take back the House (and even then, probably not), submitting such articles of impeachment would merely be a pretty good indication to Bush and his posse that we Americans take sucking at your job pretty seriously when it’s the most important job in the world.

So there is something disaffected students can do, after all. Where once we were merely able to call Bush names or to suggest improper places where the president can “stick it,” we can now sign the online petitions urging Illinois and Vermont to pass their versions of Section 603. We can notify Koretz and the other California General Assembly members that we’d like California to pull ahead in the Most Wackjob Lefty Communist State race by passing its version first. In essence, we can stand up and make our voices heard in places where it might actually have some benefit.

And to think we have only Vermont to thank. I, for one, am going to stop buying Canadian maple syrup.

If you are responsible for the random 3 a.m. explosions on Midvale Avenue, e-mail Atherton at datherton@media.ucla.edu so he can forcefully express his displeasure. With a bat. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.