We are in the Finger Lakes right now monitoring the hyped up Watkins Glen protest.  You can follow us on Twitter at #WatkinsProtest but for those of you who don’t “Tweet,” here are some updates (we’ll do our best to be quick about it, but we’ll be busy):

8:10 AM   It’s only 23 miles till we leave reality and land on Planet Ithaca

8:21 AM   Friends of Natural Gas sign right next to where antis are assembling for #WatkinsProtest

9:25 AM   Ready for the show to begin (see picture)

10:10 AM   Sign on motel next to where antis are assembling – owner says bring it on!

Pro-Gas Sign at Anti Assembly Site

10:20 AM   About 150 assemblying. EarthFirst! is present. Should start heading to the site shortly.

10:41 AM   They are leaving now. First car went down 13 south, but others have not left yet. There are 2 state troopers and a sheriff who are making them move their cars from the hotel’s property.

10:48 AM   Heading on 13 south towards Route 17

10:57 AM   Turned right onto West 223.

10:59 AM   Right turn onto County Rd 21.

11:00 AM   Crossing County Rd 5 on 221 west. At Pepsi plant in Horseheads.

11:08 AM   They have stopped and are getting out of cars at Sclumberger.

11:26 AM   The same self-satisfied preening seen at Talisman a few weeks ago:

11:53 AM   The protestors are waiting for trucks to come in to try to stop them…police are here

1:18 PM   No trucks, no chance at getting arrested protesters are beginning to leave

And, so the whole ridiculous thing ends with a whimper, like every other hyped up anti-gas event.  Natural gas opponents have convinced themselves their message is invincible and they are omnipotent, but the only ones deceived are themselves.  This was a complete dud.  They simultaneously  tried to brag up their efforts and keep things secretive.  They failed to surprise anyone in the end, despite their head-fake attempts to make this look like an Inergy protest.  Schlumberger was not surprised, nor was anyone else.  It was, in a word, a pitiful failure, although we’ll surely see 1,001 pictures on the web where the participants bask in their self-reflected glory.

Let’s just say we weren’t impressed.  If this is the best this rag-tag group of has-been protestors and Cornell students from outside the area can do, the anti-gas movement is on its last legs.