What’s Up with the Thimbles?

I caught part of the State of the Union address tonight.
I usually watch them just because it’s usually interesting to hear what the President has to say. Plus, the networks usually catch one or more senators snoozing during the speech. Or, this year, there were two-three idiots who clapped when Bush was describing the very real and very scary news about when Social Security would be bankrupt.
Ok, they’ve been saying it for years, but I haven’t seen dates assigned to the social security thing before tonight. By the time I am old enough to retire, at the rate it’s going, there won’t be any Social Security. Period. And if you’re younger than I am, you’re prettymuch equally fucked.
Anyway, it’s been more fun to watch since Bush has been in office because this is a very public presentation and the Democrats have to suck up to him on TV.
What I’m curious about is why some of them had thimbles on their index fingers and were waving them at Bush. I’m assuming there’s some historical context to it, and that it was a favorable gesture.
I didn’t see all of it, but from what I did see Bush is definitely keeping himself busy for the next four years.
UPDATE: After reading an article on CNN this morning, I learned that they did not have thimbles on their fingers, but they had dipped their fingers in blue ink. Apparently, the iraqis used this last weekend as a way to prevent people from voting more than once in the elections.
Rumor has it that John Kerry had all ten of his fingers dipped in ink to show how many times he personally voted in the Iraq elections. However, he was unable to get his name on the ballot in time, where he had hoped to unleash his “I’m not Saddam” campaign. Instead, he has decided that he will try to run for prime minister of France, where he hopes his “I’m not French” campaign will capitalize on the French hatred of everything, including themselves.