American Politics-Understanding by Misunderstanding?

There are lots of British phrases that have different meanings in "American English".  Plus, some accents are a little hard to make out.

So, when I heard some of my fellow diggers talking about "99" I assumed it was a continuation of our previous discussion of American politics and that they meant something like this:

It seemed a logical assumption, certainly when I was in France last fall it was the subject of very active interest.  But as the conversation went on it became clear that what they meant was this:

This is a "99", a traditional version of English ice cream!  Nobody could actually remember where the name came from.

So, as to the nebulous goals of the Occupy Movement and their frenetic, disruptive energies a theory comes forth.

They WANT some ice cream and they will throw a FIT until they get some!