I think this crowd on Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown San Jose was organized by the right wing radio stations. I'd learned about it from an email from a guy that doesn't like the Minute Men. He wanted as many liberals as possible to show up. I think the idea was to tell them about the errors in their ways.

     

When I got there the counter protesters were four in front of Wells-Fargo. I said "HI!" and then went to check out the crowd. I wasn't sure I had a problem with what they were doing yet.

     

The guy with the AIG sign was telling everybody "AIG works for you to." Most people didn't really want to talk to me, but they liked having their pictures taken.

  

     

     

     

     

    

     

     

  

By this time the counter-protesters were something of a pill in the crowd. They were chanting things like "NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL" loud enough that it was competing with the very loud sound system on the stage. I didn't want to join in with that kind of thing. Far better to deal with people as individuals in the zone away from that.

  

     

  

        

Sharing my little speech with people, a lot of them cut me off when I said "climate change". It was like hearing me say that was all they needed to know they disagreed with me. The guy with the CHRIST JESUS sign didn't even let me get that far. He said "I had a vision and God told me to talk about Jesus, and to never get involved with talking about politics."

        

     

Funny how nobody put their John Hancock under "Socialism".

     

I think floppy hat's sign reads "tea not kool-aide".

        

When I saw that guy with the hockey stick, I felt glad to know somebody else cares about our runaway national debt.

     

     

  

    

        

     

The woman with the Unite or Die sign told me that her family had been in America since before the 1776 revolution. I told her that back then we were among the Pennsylvania Dutch.

  

By this time there was a police line between the chanting counter protesters and the main crowd.

        

I still think those shirts with Ronald Regan done up like Obama are funny. I wonder what Shepard Ferry thinks about them.

  

     

     

    

Be very alarmed. They are brandishing tea.

  

     

    

   

     

        

The sign on the guy with the feather is supposed to read "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." If the sun hadn't been in exactly the wrong spot it would have been as legible as his son's.

     

     

     

     

  

     

I think this woman was one of the very few who used their sign to share a practical sounding idea. My only question is, who is going to read monthly reports from the government?

        

Now I'm wishing I'd told the guy with the "Global Warming is an excuse to raise taxes" sign that nobody taxes the change you give the homeless on the street.

     

     

       

Are you feeling more-tea-fied?

     

     

  

     

By this time, all that was left of the crowd was a few gaggles of people, mostly seasoned activists from different constituencies that wanted to chew the fat.