Give Me Liberty or Give Me Cake!

I openly admit here to living under a rock, as far as news is concerned, but I knew about Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity this weekend in Washington D.C. on the National Mall. So I joined the other "six million" people who convened for really nothing other than to make fun of political media and see what kind of show had actually been planned by Stewart and Colbert. We were so far from the stage, speakers, and jumbotrons that most of what I got to enjoy came straight from the Rallygoers themselves, rather than the actual show (which I watched part of later on Tivo, and it was totally hilarious). I was literally sandwiched between my buddy Mike, a cop lounging on his motorcycle, and a dude in a banana suit holding a picket sign with hardly enough room for my lungs to expand to breathe, but as far as I know no one was trampled or groped beyond what is generally accepted in those circumstances. The crowd was happy, cooperative, and oddly calm and collected. Many were in costume. Occasionally someone would yell something funny, or point out a good sign that had migrated closer. And as promised by Stewart, whose target audience was people who want to come and show support for something but don't want to pay overtime to their babysitter, it ended promptly at 3, but took another hour for people to dislodge themselves from each other's limbs and actually get off the Mall.

If you look really hard, you can see Waldo hiding in a tree just to the right of the jumbotron. And that second photo IS a bunch of kids collapsing a handicap port-a-potty.





I hear that The Roots took the stage for a good half hour, and also a few of the Mythbusters did some experiments with the audience doing the Wave, but I missed that part because I was waiting in line to pay the fare for the Metro for an hour and 15 minutes. Also, when I finally gave into the food vendors and decided it was time for a hot dog, they had run out of buns, soda, and water, but were still charging the full $4 for a hot dog wrapped in paper. And the Official Merchandise tent had already been taken down by the time I could walk in full strides again, but I would rather get a pair of star-print pants like the ones Stephen Colbert wore with his leather jacket, anyway. All in all, a very good time.

A smattering of the best posters sighted. This post title would have been mine if I felt like making one.