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Anti-tax teabaggers mount a very moist protest at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

April 16, 2009 at 12:59 am 5

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Story and photos by FERN SHEN
There wasn’t a lot of tea, or even tea shtick, yesterday at the Baltimore version of the nationwide anti-Obama “tea party” protest, which drew about 150 people here despite a torrential downpour.

Unlike an earlier Annapolis event, where protesters threw empty boxes marked “tea”‘ off a skipjack and into the water, and a Washington D.C. protest, in which teabags were chucked onto the White House lawn, Baltimore did not seem to be the site of any Oolong-hurling. Perhaps the city police boat, idling right by the Inner Harbor amphitheater, had something to do with that.

Organizers promised that teabags would be tucked in along with the petition to President Barack Obama being passed around for people to sign. But while the Baltimore teabagging remained mostly metaphorical, that didn’t stop protesters from slapping their point home vigorously.

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The rallies were intended to hark back to the 1773 “Boston Tea Party” protest, in which colonists dumped tea in the harbor to protest British taxation. The Baltimore event was one of about about 750 organized by conservatives around the country on the deadline day for Americans to file their income tax returns.

Heavily promoted by right-wing bloggers and broadcasters, especially the Fox News Channel, the gatherings were called Tax Day Tea Parties . Organizers said they were protesting President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package and his $3.5 trillion budget.

Donald Forrest said he thinks government spending is building up an “insurmountable debt for future generations.” A laid-off pipefitter and welder who worked at Bethlehem Steel for 34 years, Forrest said he thinks tax cuts would help move the country out of recession.

“If they had cut taxes for six months they would have put money in my pocket and I would have stimulated the economy,” said Forrest, 58, a part-time community college instructor who said times are “scary” for him right now.

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For some, the protest was as much about Obama as about his policies.
One speaker mocked Obama for needing to use a teleprompter, another held a sign that read: “Obama=New Coke. Big Hype, Bad Taste.”

“He’s not my president,” said David Thompson, of Carroll County, who had a homemade sign juxtaposing Obama with Mao Tse Tung and others historical figures. “He needs to go.”

Or was it about illegal aliens? Speakers complaining about them got big applause. “It has been estimated that 15 percent of that (stimulus) money is going to go to companies owned by illegal aliens or who hire illegal aliens,” Thompson said.

Or was it all really about returning Republicans to the White House, a chant which also got a reliable response? Surely it wasn’t about armed secession (advocated by the guy with the Confederate battle flag draped over his shoulders) or creating an armed citizen militia (the fast-moving guy leafletting the crowd)? Or eliminating the Federal Reserve and getting back to the gold standard (the peppy woman in the tri-corner hat)?

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Perhaps it was all just about bringing people with wallets and appetites to the Inner Harbor, which, after all, is up for sale as its ailing owner tries to stave off bakruptcy.

“C’mon over to the M & S Grill,” said a leafletter from the nearby restaurant, which was offering Long Form specials for $10.40. “Get some real tax relief.”

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  • http://changebaltimore.blogspot.com Patapsco Jones

    Let’s dispense with the niceties. Isn’t this basically just a convention of whiners who can’t get past that their sports team, woops, I meant political party has gotten its clock cleaned in the last two elections? These people should (but won’t) take a good look at the failed deregulatory policies they’ve been spouting off about for years and how those policies landed the country into this financial mess. Meanwhile, their cherished Bush tax cuts accomplished little more than providing more fuel for the 21st Century version of the Bonfire of the Vanities. If the teabaggers had taken the time then to see what was dangling in front of them, then perhaps they wouldn’t need to hold gimmicky, whiny, support group tinged publicity stunts now to cope with reality.

  • Vita

    Nice, Pataspsco. You’re clearly a man without an agenda.

    Consider that many of these true believers who would stand out in the pouring rain might have been very angry with the previous administration for its failure to exercise spending restraint.

    Consider that during the Clinton years, Congress and HUD forced legislation and regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requiring that an increased percentage of their home loans go to families with lower than median incomes. Democratic congressmen were the main proponents of these changes. We all know what has happened with the mortgage mess.

    Nevermind that you completely failed to address the exploding projected budget deficits under Obama (bad enough under the White House’s estimates, even worse under the CBO’s estimates), trillions spent on bailouts that were approved by the Democratic Congress, Obama’s failure to have a coherent plan to address the looming disasters of Social Security or Medicare…

    Nevermind that that city of Baltimore continues to rot under its corrupt leadership and oppressive taxes.

    Change Baltimore, indeed.

  • http://changebaltimore.blogspot.com Patapsco Jones

    Oh give me a break. I am so sick of this ridiculous cop out excuse that the mortgage mess is the fault of Barney Frank…who was in the minority party, with no power, when the major changes went through at Fannie and Freddie. I’m also sick of hearing Bill Clinton, one of the weakest, most compromised, and more importantly most conservative Democratic Presidents of the past century being made the fall guy for a bunch of juvenile, finger pointing conservatives. Are you actually trying to tell me that if Clinton tightened the regulations on the mortgage industry,or on any industry for that matter, you would have been FOR IT? If you say yes, then please stop lying. Now to be fair there have been and continue to be plenty of corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle, completely in the pocket of Wall Street bankers. But the credo of deregulation has been the Republican and conservative mantra for decades and the results are plain to see. Be a grown up for once. Admit you were wrong. Very, very wrong.

  • http://truthandcons.blogspot.com Jim Simpson

    I think the teabagging quips are in really poor taste. Until yesterday I never even heard that “teabagging” referred to something entirely different. Has that slang meaning been around for a while? I must be out of it. Or did someone just make it up for the sake of convenience?

    But I truly am baffled by the media reaction. Why is it so difficult to grasp that unprecedented, irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy should cause a groundswell of protest? I don’t recall anyone ridiculing critics of Republican profligate spending during the early aughts. It WAS profligate, and primarily responsible for their losses in 2006.

    What Obama and the spendthrift Congressional Democrats are doing is magnitudes worse, and the ramifications for the economy down the line are potentially calamitous. This isn’t rightwing ranting. It’s fact! I know it is fact. As an economist and budget analyst for the White House budget office, it was my business to know such things for many years! And financial markets know it. That is why Rick Santelli finally couldn’t take it anymore and went off. That is why Jim Cramer similarly lost it and went on a similar 10 minute rant. They are really scared! As Cramer later explained, he is a democrat and voted for Obama, but what the man has done since November is unambiguously destructive.

    You know, when I was at OMB, our focus was always the “deficit.” And believe it or not, we really tried to restrain spending, in discretionary programs at least. Reagan’s worst year was 1983, when the deficit reached 6% of GDP. Do you recall the relentless criticism, the daily lambasting of his administration for financial irresponsibility? It has been a Democrat talking point ever since.

    While papers tended to overlook the fact that the Democrat controlled Congress was actually much more to blame (remember only Congress can authorize spending), NO ONE thought deficits at 6% of GDP were “okay.” This year it will be twice that! Next year, if you believe the administration’s estimates (I don’t – they are too optimistic), it will be 10%, and so on for years to come.

    At some time we will reach the tipping point, where the only way to pay for the debt will be through inflation. This is a very real danger now, as lackluster recent Treasury auctions and mumblings from China indicate.

    There is genuine, legitimate, justifiable fear out there and it is widespread. People intuitively sense something wrong. And yet so much of the media seems determined to do everything possible to discredit this spontaneous groundswell of protest. WHY? Maybe you can tell me, since you seem to have included all the media tag lines in this hit piece.

    It is an amazing phenomenon to see people who have never ever been involved in political movements suddenly shed their apathy and jump in with both feet. If nothing else it is newsworthy. But to set out from the beginning to discredit the message is incomprehensible.

    The highly organized, deep-pocketed marches for illegal immigration two years ago got vast and generally enthusiastic promotion from the press. Where was your paper on that one? I can name every single organization behind those marches. Can you? Most of them are not people we want running things here, unless you like the North Korean model.

    Fox News stands out only because in this case it did the job every other network failed to do. It COVERED this unique, nationwide, spontaneous and very genuinely heartfelt protest – perhaps the first in modern history. If that isn’t worthy of non-partisan interest from the press, I don’t know what is.

    Please tell me why so many in the press feel inclined to stoop to such infantile, grade school tactics by dredging up slang terms for oral sex that no one, except perhaps the Gay lobby has heard of, and why they feel it neccesary to interject their personal prejudices in every single line of copy, in every single choice of photo, without once bothering to explore what these people actually think and why. It implies such a mind-boggling level of conceit.

    I am with these people, and I will put my knowledge of economics and government up against anyone you can name. It is not for silly or misguided reasons this protest has grown so rapidly. Why did you not interview me? I was one of the keynote speakers.

    I really don’t understand this line the press is taking. It is beneath contempt. Could someone please explain it to me?

  • http://changebaltimore.blogpost.com Patapsco Jones

    First off, it’s the DEMOCRATIC Party…with an IC on the end of the word. Knock it off with the Limbaugh/Luntz word games.

    The term teabagging has been around in mainstream circles (although I would imagine hipper ones than you’re used to dealing with having worked at what I presume was a Republican OMB) ever since the release of the John Waters 1998 film “Pecker”, which includes a teabagging scene at a gay bar. It’s not something people in their teens through 40′s generally discuss during family get togethers, but it’s been around for over a decade. It also plays into the whole Mark Foley/Larry Craig closeted gay Republican subtext that we have so much fun with.

    “But I truly am baffled by the media reaction. Why is it so difficult to grasp that unprecedented, irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy should cause a groundswell of protest?”

    It’s a little difficult to believe this is actually about spending by the administration or Congress. Republicans have been running up enormous deficits for years on end. George W. Bush pushed for TARP last fall. Where were these teabaggers when all that deficit spending was going on? I’m happy to concede that the spending serves as a convenient intellectual justification for these protests, but honestly it looks like you guys are a bunch of crybabies, mad as hell about being out of power, to the casual observer.

    “I don’t recall anyone ridiculing critics of Republican profligate spending during the early aughts. It WAS profligate, and primarily responsible for their losses in 2006.”

    That’s because the criticism of the deficits didn’t involve gimmicky protests organized by FoxNews. It was also muted and never made it onto the street. And while we’re talking about FoxNews, while Bush was in office, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto made a point of ridiculing virtually every protest against GOP policies they could. So stop trying to play innocent.

    Also, you didn’t get your ass kicked in the 2006 midterms over spending. You got it kicked over Iraq.

    “While papers tended to overlook the fact that the Democrat controlled Congress was actually much more to blame (remember only Congress can authorize spending), NO ONE thought deficits at 6% of GDP were “okay.” This year it will be twice that! Next year, if you believe the administration’s estimates (I don’t – they are too optimistic), it will be 10%, and so on for years to come.”

    This amount of debt is troubling, there is no question. However something needed to be done and it was not being done and could not be done by anyone beside the government. The market was paralyzed by fear and would not function. Therefore the government needed to step in. This hard fact is missing from your entire post. What would you have done differently? And to demonstrate the urgency of what was needed, we lost 4% of GDP in a single weekend last September when foreign investors made a run on US investment banks. That was what we were up against and much, much worse if nothing was done. So what would YOU have done to stop this in a world where private capital and credit markets would not function because of fear?

    “Fox News stands out only because in this case it did the job every other network failed to do. It COVERED this unique, nationwide, spontaneous and very genuinely heartfelt protest – perhaps the first in modern history.”

    Ummmmn actually it promoted the entire ordeal incessantly, then staged it while pretending it was covering it. Why do you have to lie and distort facts to make your point? Is it because reality has no place in your worldview?

    “I am with these people, and I will put my knowledge of economics and government up against anyone you can name.”

    Oh really? Well explain why you’re so against Obama’s approach given the FACT that Keynesian economics WORKED in staving off the Great Depression in the 1930′s and why they are working again now as the banking sector is showing more and more each day.

    You are obviously passionate about what you’re talking about, but you’re unfortunately being used by a bunch of wealthy people whose grand purpose in this whole ordeal is to avoid a 4-5% tax hike. Don’t be such a schmuck. Your side had its time and you blew it. That’s why you’ve been marginalized into the minority. Not because you’re “not conservative enough” but feel free to think that way as it will keep losing elections for you.

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