LA Times: Republicans stage 'tea party' protests against Obama

Thousands of demonstrators in Southern California and elsewhere in the nation demand lower taxes and less government spending. But some GOP pollsters warn that the tactic could backfire.

By Michael Finnegan and Janet Hook
April 16, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Santa Ana -- Republicans sought to ignite a popular revolt against President Obama on Wednesday by staging "tea party" protests across the nation to demand lower taxes and less government spending -- but the tactic carried risk for the party.

With half a million or more jobs vanishing each month, many Americans are less concerned about how much Washington deducts from their paychecks than whether they will have a paycheck at all.



* Tax Day Tea Parties
Photos: Tax Day Tea Parties

"Nothing is as pressing a concern as the economy," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, adding that even among Republicans the political salience of taxes is not what it once was.

In California, where the Proposition 13 tax rebellion of 1978 sparked a national conservative resurgence, the rallies carried extra resonance, thanks to the nearly $13 billion in state tax hikes enacted in February.

But for Republicans nationally, the issue is whether their call for shrinking the federal government in the depths of a severe economic downturn makes them seem out of touch or tone-deaf to the harsh reality of the jobs crisis.

Gallup polls released this week found that 53% of Americans approve of the expansion of the U.S. government to help fix the economy, even if most of that group wants it scaled back once the crisis abates. And 48% think that the amount of federal income taxes they pay is "about right," a finding that shows anti-tax sentiment near a historic low for the last five decades.

Nonetheless, protesters gathered in cities across America to mark the April 15 tax filing deadline with rallies inspired by the Boston Tea Party and promoted by Fox News, conservative blogs and talk radio.

Among the top grievances were the hundreds of billions of dollars in recent taxpayer subsidies to automakers, banks and Wall Street investment giants.

"All these bailouts, it's just money that's never going to reach the common people," Dan Kipp, a 31-year-old stay-at-home father, said at a demonstration outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver.

Like scores of other protests, from Boston to San Diego, the one in Denver served as a forum for a broad range of attacks on Obama and fellow Democrats who control Congress. Demonstrators waved signs saying, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for the American" and "Our Soldiers Didn't Fight and Die for Socialism."

The California rallies offered a fresh display of upheaval within the Republican Party over the new sales, income and other tax hikes approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature.

In Santa Ana, more than a thousand protesters cheered as speakers called for the Republican governor's recall.

"The guy's got to go," Allan Bartlett, a member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee, told the crowd gathered on a plaza outside the county courthouse.

To dramatize the anger of many conservatives, Colin Gomes of La Mirada brandished a plastic sword piercing a hollow rubber Schwarzenegger head.

"We need to punish him for what he's done," Gomes said shortly before the crowd joined in singing "America the Beautiful."

Gomes and others denounced the budget measures that Schwarzenegger is promoting in the May 19 statewide election, most forcefully Proposition 1A, which, in part, would extend the tax increases for two years.

Still, most of the anger at the California rallies was directed at Obama and the vast expansion of government that he has overseen as the economy has worsened.

Yet the president's high approval ratings for his handling of the economy suggest that most Americans accept his argument that a major increase in federal spending is needed to blunt the crisis.

Obama sought to inoculate himself by building modest tax cuts for most Americans into the stimulus bill, while saying that today's higher spending must give way to frugality and deficit reduction once the economy rebounds.

And so far, Obama seems to be controlling the debate.

"A lot of the discussion has been focused on government spending, but the voters are still focused on one number: the unemployment number," said David Winston, another prominent Republican pollster. "Any time you are not talking about jobs, you are talking about topic No. 2 for Americans. Republicans need to translate the tax and spending issue into jobs."

At least since the days of President Reagan, Republicans have thrived on the anti-spend, anti-tax message -- even if Republican presidents have presided over expansions of the federal deficit.

Today, however, the economic climate is worse than it has been in decades. In November, the country picked a do-more, spend-more presidential candidate over a do-less, tax-less opponent.

And though Republicans insist that Obama's budget will ultimately put upward pressure on taxes, for now Obama is cutting taxes.

But that fact carried little weight with the demonstrators.

"We're just Americans trying to get our voices heard -- about too much taxation and spending, the swelling size of government, the bailouts for big business," protester Robin Todd said at a rally outside the domed Capitol in Sacramento. "That's European-style socialism."

In Glendale, signs bobbing over a crowd of 250 outside City Hall proclaimed: "Taxed Enough Already" and "America, No Left Turn."

In Temecula, where hundreds gathered at a duck pond, a sign warned: "Back Away From My Wallet!" An elderly man wore a blue shirt with "No We Can't!" emblazoned on the back, a rebuttal to Obama's "Yes, We Can" slogan.

Sara Dotson, 17, dressed like an Indian for the occasion. The leader of a local Republican club for teenagers, she helped people hurl mock Styrofoam crates of tea into the pond.

"The sons of liberty dressed like Mohawks for the Boston Tea Party," she said. "That's why I'm wearing this."

michael.finnegan

@latimes.com

janet.hook@latimes.com

Times staff writers Eric Bailey in Sacramento, Ari B. Bloomekatz in Glendale, Richard Cooper in Washington, Richard Fausset in Atlanta, David Kelly in Temecula, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver, Catherine Saillant in Ventura, and Michael Oneal in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.

BlackBerry Bold Surpasses Expectations

After about 10 days with my new Blackberry 9000 (BlackBerry Bold) I am really impressed with the ease of use, power and design of this Research in Motion product. I’m not tech-savvy enough to be a geek, and I have avoided smart phones for a while now. But this device has made me a believer.

For a long time I resisted the urge to get a new phone because I really wanted my phone to just be a phone – not because I’m a technophobe, but because I hate to give up my phone at military sites (a requirement if your phone has a camera or recording device built in), really loved my plan with T-Mobile (which worked in Europe as well), and felt I didn’t need extra services offered in smart phones.

The iPhone changed that. We bought my wife a 3G last year and she loved it. We added cool apps to it and it was a joy to use. However, once she started texting me I couldn’t keep up with my old Motorola. And once the decision to switch was made, it narrowed down to BB or iPhone. One factor made the choice obvious: Enterprise email. And my employer had a killer deal through AT&T and so two days after making that decision my new Bold arrived.

Before I opened the box I was impressed. The “Made in Mexico” tag was encouraging. I’ve been in more than one contract manufacturing plants (such as produce Research in Motion devices) in Mexico and they are very well organized, ultra-modern electronics assembly plants staffed with highly trained locals. So I was confident in the assembly, test and packaging of the device. After unboxing the phone I was amazed at the sleek design and clear layout of the keys and hot buttons. And the screen was very dense with pixels, and provided a rich and clear interface. Wow. The best display I’ve ever seen. Following that, set-up was easy with AT&T and I ported my number over from T-Mobile (goodbye old carrier). For me, the real test of the design is how easy the device is to use without reading the manual.

So before cracking the manual open (and avoiding as much as possible the set-up wizard) I put the BlackBerry Bold to the test. Email loaded and synced with my laptop (through the exchange server) instantly. Within seconds I was downloading Google Maps and Gmail. Minutes later I had moved icons around and personalized my home screen and the full apps menu. At home I was able to sync with my Mac’s addresses through Bluetooth immediately, and joined the wireless (Airport Extreme) network effortlessly. It couldn’t have been easier and as a compliment I’d say the elegance of the design and interface rivals the iPhone in its intuitiveness.

In some ways I like it more than the iPhone: There is an escape key that functions like a go-back button, something I wish for at times when using my wife’s iPhone. The dedicated menu key puts options and actions at your fingertips from within apps and makes switching tasks a breeze. Now to the other apps. Just this week the BlackBerry app store opened, but even before that if you did a little googling you could find these FREE applications easily:

Twitterberry - a decent way to Twitter from your BB although the print is teeny tiny on the screen, and is only really readable if you click through a post to see the full text (it shortens longer tweets to a preview).

Flycast and Slacker Radio – two nice Internet radio programs that are handy, but you should have the unlimited data plan (I do) because they require data downloading. I tends to use Flycast more because they have talk radio and I like to catch up on technology, sports or political news when I’m on the go.

Beyond411 - this search app which is for BB what Urban Spoon is for the iPhone. But it's less fun and not synced to location (though it might do that; I just don’t forage for grub much).

PocketMac – very handy program for syncing the BB with Mac programs (Calendar, Addresses, etc) and very easy if you download the installation to your Mac. I had trouble doing OTA with the BB, but encountered a nice customer service (Lauren) person who pointed my browser in the right direction. This is not necessary for addresses, as that works through Bluetooth, but is a must if you want to sync Entourage or music or bookmarks.

QSMS – a sweet little app that makes the “Q” (on the full qwerty keyboard) act as a hot key to start an SMS text.

Pocket Express – the fastest free app I could find to put weather info on my Blackberry. (I read a review where a lady mentioned another app that places temperature on your home screen, but I’ve been unable to locate that since the day I saw it and this was the second-best option.) It is now my right side hot key.

There are many more, including free themes and ringtones, and even a cheap app that makes your BB screen look like an iPhone with the same icons and interface. But these are the ones I found really useful out of the gate.

After a week of heavy use I love this Bold. You can surf the Web (a real browser) while on the phone and the radio or music functions automatically pause while you take calls. Overall, a well thought-out and (I’ll say it again) elegant design. Battery life is good (all day with continuous use in multiple functions). Charging times are pretty short. Once I had exhausted my ability to sort out the features and functions I used the manual. Great keyboard shortcuts (space space puts a period and capitalizes the next letter. Neat!) and some tips on subtle difference detectable in icons. And there are few downsides to the device.

One downer is the desktop manager. There is little functionality and I still haven’t been able to transfer my extensive (8.5 years) Palm records over. Once connected by cable the desktop utility is slow, weird and set in its ways. This is an area where the geniuses at RIM should apply their skills. But for what it is supposed to do, it does pretty well. Items from Outlook (calendar and email) are uploaded. Events from iCal on the Mac upload as well, and so far no data was lost. Back-up gave an ominous warning and did not complete but I think I’ve fixed that now.

All in all, a pleasing experience and a pain-free migration from dumb phone to smart.