Constituent threatened over tea bag sent through mail? (Congressman John Adler)

Posted Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:51 pm
The video [1] has a recording of a message left on the answering machine of someone who sent a tea bag through the mail to their Congressman. The voice says:
"...envelope from you with a teabag in it. Before we bring it to the police for examination, we thought you'd like to give us an explanation why you sent it to us."
That's followed by a phone number belonging to Rep. John Adler of New Jersey. Per this, the unnamed constituent called and:
"I told her no malice intended and asked if it was illegal to mail a teabag. I told her it was a in protest in response to the votes of the Congressman. I also told her I thought maybe they would enjoy a good cup of tea this afternoon. She was not amused but acted dumb as to why I sent it. She also said a RECORD of this would be made."
Note that this hasn't been confirmed, and there's the slight possibility that it could be a hoax. And, whoever sent it might not have given any indication why they were sending it, and the person who got the letter may have had no clue that certain persons were telling others to send teabags through the mail (!).

There's probably no law against sending teabags through the mail - especially as a form of political protest - and people shouldn't be afraid of or be warned off of doing such things.

That said, sending tea bags is an incredibly stupid thing to do. It's just a stunt. The "tea parties" are just a stunt. Asking politicians stupid questions about hypocrisy is just a stunt.

There are enough stupid stunts on all the reality shows on TV and all the political food fight shows on cable TV. What we need is for politicians to be asked tough questions about their policies to their face on video. That's 100% defensible and if people get in the habit of doing that it will have a huge impact on our entire political system.

We need to back away slowly from our descent into Idiocracy. Get out there are start asking tough questions.

[1] I posted it to Youtube from the original file here: s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq301/ GizmoF69/?action=view&current=0313091445.flv
Tags: 
tea parties
john adler

Comments

dissentispatriotic (not verified)

Sat, 03/14/2009 - 05:54

Dissent IS patriotic. There are no more good questions to ask. We already know the answers. I've even sent nice letters to our senators regarding the bailout and the stimulus and they still proceded with disregard to how the public opposes the spending. If there was no physical threat made to the politician, if there was no harm done, then this is infact an overreaction of the politician. It was not a stunt. The American people are trying to be heard. Regards.

a patriot (not verified)

Sun, 03/15/2009 - 03:18

The average citizen can't get access to a congressman to ask a question. E-mails and letters are ignored. The media, for the most part is in the pocket of the Democrats. Instead of tea bags would you prefer we show up in DC with pitchforks and torches?

24AheadDotCom (not verified)

Sun, 03/15/2009 - 16:38

Political leaders frequently make public appearances and have Q remember Julio? I'll bet if you signup to their mailing list you can get informed when your Rep. or others will be making a public appearance.

JLG (not verified)

Thu, 04/02/2009 - 14:47

Ah. So sending tea bags is an incredibly stupid thing to do. I guess that whole Boston Tea Party thing was beyond idiocy. In fact, that whole taking-up-arms-against-a-tyrannical-government thing was just SO pointless, wasn't it? We've asked the questions. The answer has been, "Shut up. We're the government, and we know what we're doing." We've answered by demanding that the federal government step back into its proper role as authorized by the Constitution. It's not happening. It's time to remind the government, in a very nice but unmistakable way, of what happened to the last tyrannical government that put its thumb on the American people. If the thought of a Second American Revolution bothers you, then by no means should you send a tea bag. Just keep giving them your money, your obeisance, and...oh, yes, hand over the rest of your personal liberties while you're at it. As long as you can get a nice cup of cappuccino, everything's OK, right? Sure, until they start rationing coffee....

fran (not verified)

Tue, 04/07/2009 - 20:09

BamBam already has his militia training in Georgia. He stated long ago he would have a militia as large as the army. We had better start doing something before it is too late, we already know we cannot depend on our elected officials or the cruise media. This man is taking this country down very quickly and we sit back and just fuss not doing anything about it. Tell me why please.