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Protesters at the Harrisburg "tea party" rally wore tea bags to demonstrate solidarity.Jeff Ruppenthal/Sunday NewsThe symbols of revolution were on full display.There was the famous Colonial flag with a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on Me."Another early American flag showed 13 stars arranged in a circle.And then there were the tea bags hung from the brims of people's hats and ears.Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Capitol in Harrisburg on Saturday afternoon to throw a "tea party" against President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package. "You are called to a new revolution today,"conservative talk radio host Gary Sutton, of York's WSBA-910, told the crowd, estimated to have numbered around 1,000 by the State Capitol Police."This is about right and wrong," Sutton said."A government that is big enough to give you freedom is big enough to take it away," state Sen. Mike Folmer (R-48th District) told the protesters.Cries of indignation and outrage against the stimulus plan and the president roared from the crowd. People held signs slamming Obama and other Democratic politicians as communists."End the socialist experiment!" a sign read."This is treason," said Mark Holloway, a self-employed contractor from Red Lion.The consensus among protesters was clear: The stimulus plan won't lift the country out of its economic crisis."This bill is going to reward people who are grossly irresponsible," said David Nace, a Lititz resident and co-owner of Wickersham Construction & Engineering Inc.The president has also called for an additional $75 billion to stem home foreclosures.Blasting Obama's proposals, protesters clamored for more tax cuts and reduced government spending to solve the country's economic troubles.A tractor-trailer driver from Allentown, Dawn Blocker said she only worked 17 hours last week because there's just not enough freight to carry anymore."Rush Limbaugh is absolutely right," she said."The government is out of control. They're spending all this money for themselves."The Harrisburg tea party hasn't been the only one of its kind in the country.The idea for the tea parties started last month on CNBC, when business reporter Rick Santelli, standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, blasted the president's economic stimulus plan."This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?" he asked Joe Kernen on CNBC's "Squawk Box" program."We're thinking about having a Chicago tea party in July.All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan,I'm gonna start organizing."The rant became an instant Internet smash, generating nearly a million hits on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. The rant inspired conservative bloggers and pundits to organize tea party protests of their own.The idea comes from the iconic 1773 event, when American Colonists tossed crates of tea belonging to the East India Co. into Boston Harbor to protest British taxation and commerce policy.With some notable exceptions, including the Harrisburg rally, other tea parties haven't attracted large crowds. The effectiveness and popularity of the tea party rallies is still debated."I'm a realist," said Andrew Emerick, of Baltimore. Asked whether the rallies will have any effect, he replied: "Probably not." Holding a "Don't Tread on Me" flag, the real estate investor is looking to the 2010 congressional elections as the point to direct change in fiscal policy.Joe Sterns, communications director for the Commonwealth Foundation, a fiscally conservative think-tank group that organized the Saturday rally, said a Philadelphia tea party attracted only 50 people. The Village Voice reported a Boise, Idaho, tea party attracted a paltry four protesters."We cast the net far and as wide as we could for this rally," Sterns said. Many in the crowd said promotions by conservative talk radio hosts on WHP-580 and WSBA-910 boosted the turnout.Despite varying turnouts, conservative pundits say the tea parties aren't over.A grass-roots movement sponsored by Eric Odom, a conservative blogger, is hoping to inspire nationwide tea parties on tax day, April 15.
by Paul Franz,Staff Writer
by Paul Franz,Staff Writer
As in the days of Noah..
