Anti-tax "Tea Party" protesters take aim at Olympia

Thousands of people jammed onto the steps of the state capitol this afternoon to lash out against proposed tax increases.

One state trooper said the crowd of 4,000 was eight times larger than what rally organizers planned for. The trooper said it was the largest rally at the Capitol in years.

In stark contrast to the Olympia protest stood a Lake City rally at the same time, which had a draw of two dozen.

However, another rally that is expected to draw a large crowd is scheduled in Seattle at 5:45 p.m. at Westlake Center.

The Olympia crowd cheered when speakers called President Barack Obama a socialist and waved their American flags and signs reading "Save Our Children Stop Spending" to "Party like 1773," in reference to the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

Though the event was part of a national tax day tea party movement, there were no attendees dressed in colonial garb. Janice Gammill of Graham wore a necklace fashioned out of tea bags — peppermint and green tea "for the greenies" she added.

"I'm just worried about the direction our country is going," said Gammill, who attended the event with her daughter and her domestic partner, who also were adorned with tea bags.

Jon Allsop of Lopez Island said the federal government is "totally out of control."

"I don't want us to head toward fascism," he added.

Some of the loudest cheers erupted when Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, took the microphone. She said that Democratic lawmakers' response to the sour economy was been "a sudden lurch toward socialism."

"We have had years and years of irresponsible spending in Washington," she said.

The tea parties may have brought out thousands in Olympia, but only 24 people showed up at the one advertised for noon today in Lake City.

It was an older crowd that also was a bit baffled by the appearance of three younger individuals from the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.

The supporters of the fringe political activist came with a fold-up table, signs and leaflets.

"They're piggybacking," said Alex Myrick, 53, a mental-health professional. "They couldn't get a demonstration of their own without someone else."

Liz Monta, 69, of Ballard, a retired bartender who said she was upset with bank bailouts, "nationalizing health care and Obama's socialist agenda," did take one of the 3-by-3-foot signs the LaRouche supporters were handing out.

But she folded the bottom part that had LaRouche's name, so she was only waving a sign that said, "End the bailout. Dump Pelosi."

As the protesters waved their signs at Lake City Way Northeast and Northeast 88th Street motorists drove by; a few honked.

It was a sunny lunch hour, and members of the small crowd chatted among themselves.

Monta told a joke she had read on the Web: "Men, if you think you've got problems, somewhere out there, there is a Mr. Pelosi."

Many at the protest said they listened to conservative talk radio, and said they had heard about the tea parties on those shows.

Arnold Gans, 70, a retired mechanic who lives in Lake Forest Park, said he listens to KVI-AM and watched Fox News.

He was holding a homemade sign that said, "Taxed Enough Already."

As for the small crowd in Lake City, Alex Myrick said, "I was hoping for a few hundred. But if only five people had shown up, I'd have been one of them."

Under sunny skies in Bellevue, more than 200 people gathered in a grassy park adjacent to city hall over the lunch hour, protesting government spending and taxes. People cheered speeches by local politicians and waved signs that said: "Can we bankrupt the country? Yes we can," and "Give our kids liberty, not debt."

Mary Wilson, 44 of Auburn, wrote "Can we lay off Congress" in purple, on a sign just before the rally started at noon.

She came out because she is frustrated by government spending and increases in income taxes that will affect her and her firefighter husband.

"If you don't come out, you can't really complain about the way things are," she said.

Heather Renner, 58, of Renton, who has been looking for work in human resources, was critical of President Obama's efforts to have the government bail out banks.

"Let free enterprise and capitalism take its course and not bail everyone out," she said. "I know he thinks he's right, but I believe that he's wrong and going to get us in deeper trouble. We'll find out in the next couple of years."