Protesters at a Tax Day Tea Party in downtown Asheville wave their signs late in the afternoon on April 15 at passing vehicles along College Avenue, across from City Hall and the Buncombe County Courthouse. Their signs express strong opposition to what they term out-of-control government spending, bailouts to favored businesses and the amassing of an $11 trillion national debt. The record deficit, they contend, amounts to generational theft. Hundreds of similar Tea Parties were held across the United States. Some of the Asheville organizers wryly say that, to them, “tea” stands for “Taxed Enough Already.”

From Daily Planet Staff Reports

Despite a brisk wind and chill, an estimated 1,000 people — at the peak — attended a Tax Day Tea Party in downtown Asheville to join a nationwide grassroots movement to protest the government’s alleged irresponsible and possibly ruinous spending of United States taxpayer dollars.

Event coordinator Erika Franzi of Weaverville said the protest opposed federal “pork” spending, high tax rates, skyrocketing national debt, devaluation of the currency and bailouts of favored businesses.

From atop the steps of the Buncombe County Courthouse, Franzi poked fun at the news media and bloggers, telling the crowd gathered below that as a result of their efforts,  “people think this is a Republican-sponsored event. But I’m here to tell you that I’m a little sick of my party.” She emphasized that the protest was nonpartisan since both parties have let down American taxpayers with their irresponsible policies.

Bernard Carman, one of the protest speakers, wore Colonial-period attire to the Tax Day Tea Party.

She introduced about eight other speakers, all of whom used a handheld bullhorn to give their five- to 10-minute addresses. The speakers occasionally roused the crowd by shouting “We the people” and calling on the U.S. government to cut the $11 trillion deficit.

With a chilling, whipping wind forcing shivering protesters to cling tightly to their signs, many chose to depart after about an hour of speeches. However, hundreds stayed to socialize and display their protest signs until the event officially ended at 7 p.m.

Besides the speeches on the courthouse steps, other protesters stood along nearby College Avenue, waving their signs at drivers-by and urging them to honk in support. Many of the drivers appeared to be enthusiastically supportive, based on the Daily Planet’s observation.

Besides Franzi, the speakers on the courthouse steps included Bernard Carman, Gary Shoemaker, Barrett Otis, Jeffrey Lane and Matthew Hoagland.

Carman addressed the Continental Congress that is being organized by the We the People Foundation; Shoemaker, the 10th Amendment resolution in North Carolina concerning state sovereignty; Otis, the perspective of a business owner and family man; Lane, exceptional events and exceptional people; and Hoagland, auditing the Federal Reserve.

One unidentified speaker asked everyone with a cellphone to dial a certain number, which he later identified as that of the White House, and asked if anyone got through the busy signal to tell him. He went through the same routine with having everyone call Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville. This exercise generated much laughter among the protesters.

The crowd had a family look, with a balance of age groups, genders and social classes in attendance.

Despite rumors that an opposition rally would be held and that ACORN operatives would inflitrate the rally and wreak havoc to discredit the Tea Party protesters, no opposition was seen.

WLOS-TV reporter Heather Graf posed a large group of the protesters in front of the courthouse in a surreal scene intended to simulate their earlier anti-government demonstration.