Day trippin' -OR- Today's primer on teh Stoopid

Residents of opposite world would be hilariously funny if they weren't so sad and delusional.

More than 3/4 of the crowd who gathered in Chicago's Federal Plaza yesterday really didn't know why they were there. They could neither ennunciate nor communicate their specific grievances. Tea Bag? WTF? Fascist? Double WTF? Taxes? Trifecta!
Abortionist, socialist, pirate, destroyer of worlds? The Anti-Christ of biblical prophecy? Really?!? Just another Chicago politician? How so? Besides actually WINNING an election...
Q>How so? HOW TF is BHO like the rest?
A>Grunt, squeal, TEA BAG!

While I'm happy for them that the kool-aid has finally worn off, I must say they should resist jumping back into the vat until the cobwebs have cleared from the first batch.

The steady "crowd" numbered in the hundreds. It surged during the lunch hour (which in and around downtown stretches from 11 a.m. until 2p.m. staggering the fast food onslaught)so that when the cameras were rolling, the plaza was full. I don't say this to diminish the "movement". The people who came out were responding to something. They were pissed, but weren't sure at who. Even those who knew WHO didn't know/couldn't say WHY.

That left 1/4 who DID know why they were there. Of these, roughly half could be identified by the sadly embarrassing teabags with which they festooned their bodies.
Another 1/4 of the crowd were there protesting against something specific. The Quakers were there as they have been every year. Their protest, the same as every year, was against military spending. This caused some less than flattering epithets tossed their way by mostly white, mostly suburban, mostly clueless males who had their "support the troops" mantra workin'. There may have been a veteran or two in the mix, but it'd be a safe bet that the rest of these young republicans had never, EVER, considered volunteering for anything military related. The anti-nuke and anti-war sect were also representing. Some veterans groups as well.

The remaining quarter of those who knew why they were there were media related. Stringers, photogs, indy media, reporters and bloggers. A job and an adventure.
I had fun standing with the Friends and a few anti-Clean Coal/Ethanol activists.
We had a running commentary going on about the whole tea-bag thing, about Faux News' semi-futile attempts to animate the crowd.

On the "L" ride home, there was a strange buzz. Several small groups who'd attended were discussing, among themselves, what I can best describe as "(another)Mission Accomplished!". There were high fives and "wasn't that great" and "I guess we showed them,eh?" Grunts and growls and making plans for some Humpday cocktails. They'd made their statement.

So where does it go from here? A thin patina of populist outrage? Scratch the surface and you get eleventeen flavors of ugly. The last eight years forgotten.
The clusterfuck affectionately coined the Bush Years? Never happened. We're right back to blowjobs. From mute to full-tilt boogie in record time.

That was then. THIS is now. Fuckin' cattle. They no doubt mooed it up at the pub last night all over town. Clueless fuckin' cattle. But they're gonna save the day.
Ay-yup. Git `er done!