Turnout Down/Number of American Flags Up

Yesterday's "We Hate Gringos Day" festivities were not nearly as well attended as last years. I didn't notice any dramatic drop in traffic like I did a year ago.

Immigration rallies held across the country Tuesday produced only a fraction of the million-plus protesters who turned out last year, as fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many at home.

In Los Angeles, where several hundred thousand turned out last year, about 25,000 attended the first of two scheduled rallies, said police Capt. Andrew Smith, an incident commander. In Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets a year earlier, police officials put initial estimates at about 150,000.

One thing was obvious about this years event - the PR people did their homework. After the blowback from the event in Los Angeles last year in which hundreds of thousands of people waved Mexican flags and chanted "Si Se Puede", this year's specialty was oversized American flags and chants of "U.S.A.!".

They're not fooling anybody.

Oh yes, there was at least one Mexican flag. It was flown by an NBC cameraman in Houston.