It may have been a day late, but hoots and hollers over the Wall Street bailout plan -- and the honks of agreement from passing cars -- were an encouraging sign on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Doty Street over the noon hour Friday.

Finally, people in Madison shaking off the deer-in-the-headlights paralysis in the face of a careening stock market and limping economy.

There probably weren't a dozen protesters: mostly students, mostly third-party supporters. Students for Ralph Nader, Students for Ron Paul, Libertarian Students waved signs as the two-party Congress voted on the landmark legislation.

Not only will the bailout turn over $700 billion to corporations, but it will expand the power of the executive branch, giving the Secretary of the Treasury a license to print money and set off hyper-inflation, said organizer William Merrick, of the Libertarian stripe. And the resulting devaluation of the dollar will put the true cost of the bailout at something like $3 trillion, he said.

"Economic terrorism has been underway. People are confused, they think they're going to lose their 401Ks," said Merrick, adding with the insolence of youth that anyone who tied their retirement nest egg to the stock market deserves what they get.

"Slow things down," organizer and Nader operative Caleb Kulfan advised Congress. "If you do something, make sure there's a way people get paid back."  And puncture those golden parachutes.

A passing car stopped to tell the group it was all over -- the House had approved the bailout.

One on-looker was as happy as I was to see the protest. "People need to stand up and be heard," said the 50-something woman who declined to give her name. And who, with the humility of middle-age, said she was very worried about her savings in the wake of the financial crisis.

When it' s over, the country will be a different place, she said. And we the people, chastened, will be living a lesser standard of living, she predicted. "We're going to look back on this as a turning point," she said.

Honk. Honk.