Friday, March 26, 2010

Tea Party vs. Marijuana Party -- high times in front of the Wyoming Capitol Building

On my way to lunch today, I walked into a smackdown between local Tea Party protesters and activists from the Marijuana Party.

Wasn't much of a smackdown. The Marijuana Party had reserved the space in front of the State Capitol Building in Cheyenne. The Tea Partiers arrived out of nowhere to urge Gov. Dave Freudenthal to join in the lawsuit by some state attorneys general to "nullify" health care reform. Gov Dave has already announced that Wyoming will not be a part of such a loony stunt.

"Nullify" is a popular term with the Tea Party crowd. They want to nullify some federal powers except the ones that fund useless foreign wars, huge pointless aircraft carriers, spy satellites, V.A. benefits, police and fire protection, pothole-free highways, the Border Patrol, dozens of anti-commie nukes in their silos outside Cheyenne, Social Security and Medicare. Other than those few things, they don't want gubment intruding into their lives.

The Marijuana Party advocates for access to medical marijuana. Its members were a lot younger than the Tea Party folks. One of them held up a sign that read "Cannabis medicine is a civil right." A few feet away, a Teabagger sported a sign that read "Nullify Healthcare -- Special Session Now." Sign included a swastika, of course. On the sign's other side was a "Ron Micheli for Governor" sticker. Micheli is a right-wing Republican from southwest Wyoming running for Gov.

Tensions rose when Highway Patrolmen (Capitol Security) and Cheyenne cops arrived to confront the Pot Party people about an information table that was blocking Tea party access to the Capitol. A Tea Party protestor was fuming that the Pot Party hippie had called him an "MF." I assumed that meant "Motherf****r." But it could have been "My Friend."

The Channel 13 and Channel 5 cameras were rolling. I expected a melee to break out, or at least a scuffle.

Much to my relief, Joe Hippie broke out a big bong and everyone had a hit of Cheyenne Green. Even the cops. Pretty soon we were all singing Kumbayaa. The teabaggers and the hippies and the cops pulled out their Glocks and fired celebratory rounds, bringing down an errant black helicopter in the process. Motorists honked their horns in celebration. Gov Dave declared Friday a Day of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.

Next week we'll get back to name-calling and nullification.

4 comments:

joanne said...

Thanks for the laugh, Mike! That's a Saturday Night Live skit waiting to happen.

Michael Shay said...

And most of it is true. Except for the black helicopter part. You can't shoot down a black helicopter due to the fact they are armored with unobtainium, mined only on Pandora.

bigfrank said...

The right is trying to hijack the tea party movement and this shows it. Most of the tea party people that started it would have joined in with the pot crowd. Or at least I would have.

Michael Shay said...

I was thinking the same thing. Wouldn't libertarian-mided Westerners be all for the legalization of marijuana -- or at least "medical" marijuana?