SYRACUSE -- Hundreds of demonstrators in upstate New York cities railed against taxes and big government as part of tax-day protests being held across the country.
More than 1,000 gathered at Albany's Corning Preserve along the Hudson River, carrying American flags and anti-tax signs and singing patriotic songs. Some dressed in Revolutionary War garb and one dressed as Uncle Sam.
About 300 to 400 people listened to speeches and marched around the James F. Hanley Federal Building at a noontime rally in downtown Syracuse. In Rome, a tea party protest was planned outside Fort Stanwix.
In Buffalo, a rally across from City Hall attracted a crowd of about 150 office workers, citizen activists and parents with children. Some carried signs with messages such as "I am not your ATM."
The tea may have been mostly for effect, but people in Syracuse say the message is the same as it was in the 1700's - government spending, taxation and debt are out of control and it's time to do something about it.
The crowd outside the Federal Building was fed up with the way our country is going - and wants to do something about it.
These 'Tea Parties' are protesting what they see as a government gone awry and losing control of the way it taxes, spends and borrows money. The parties did have one 20th century touch that those patriots in Boston Harbor didn't have - a massive group text message to Washington. Ah - if only Ben Franklin had a blackberry.
It wasn't just conservatives attending the rallies. Attendance was a mix of political parties - with most doubting big government. Most of the people have already paid their taxes. It's what's being done with that money that really bothers them.
Organizers say this is just the beginning of what they hope will be a new direction for politics and they're talking about more get togethers and possibly a larger event in Washington, D.C.
Proponents of the government's stimulus plan say the spending is needed to keep the country from falling into an even deeper recession.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
