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.

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.

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)?

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.”