Guerilla theater: Meese nominated for President

At the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation's annual Resource Bank meeting in Chicago last Friday, in light of Bush's shortcomings, former Reagan Attorney-General Ed Meese was nominated for president.

The sound of a wine glass being dinged by a spoon fills the banquet room (the microphone has been left on). The conversation of 650 zealots ceases as Andy, his face filling two screens on either side, announces a toast (video here [4.1 Mb .mp4 file]). "To that very brave woman, Virginia Walden-Ford, who yesterday proved to us that through individual initiative and free markets, all of us can rescue our children from shoddy government education so they can learn what they need in order to compete in a free American marketplace.

"But there is a nine-hundred pound gorilla in the room. Instead of fighting in the free American marketplace, this brave woman's son is fighting for what I think we all, or many of us here agree is a case of crony corporate welfare, a market distortion on a truly gigantic scale.

"Ms. Walden-Ford's story convinced me that our political choices in the next election are simply not adequate. And I propose that on this historic anniversary of The Road to Serfdom, we take a giant step for Hayek's free markets by drafting a real free-markets candidate. And why not Ed Meese?"

"To the next President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America, Ed Meese III!"

Meese, sitting directly in front of the podium, screws up his face very strangely as he hears his nomination. Applause rings out for nearly ten seconds.

Later, Mike dons a gorilla suit (rental: $20) and tries to get attendees to sign a "draft Meese" petition until he's kicked out by angry Heritage employees. (Fee for dropped gorilla foot that Heritage person refuses to return: $10.)

All that remains is to get the hell out, and to tell the world what great, cheap fun this can be....

All in the name of identity correction, brought to us by the Yes Men, where "honest people impersonate big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them" [props to Sam Frantz].