{"id":9418,"date":"2010-03-19T15:14:20","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T20:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9418"},"modified":"2010-03-19T15:14:20","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T20:14:20","slug":"shut-up-they-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9418","title":{"rendered":"“Shut Up”, They Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans have been running the Capitol’s switchboard red-hot this past week, calling by the millions to register their opposition to socialized medicine.<\/p>\n

And it’s obvious the ruling Democrats\u00a0don’t want to disturb the\u00a0Master\/Peasant relationship<\/a>.\u00a0 “Capital Confidential”, writing at Breitbart’s Big Government <\/em>blog, tried calling his representative (Rep. John Garamendi (D, CA-10) .\u00a0 The operator kept hanging up on him.<\/p>\n

I called one more time. This time she said, \u201cIf you call one more time, we will notify Capital Police.\u201d I asked why my conduct warranted involving federal law enforcement agents. She said I was \u201charassing\u201d her. I tried to explain that trying to convince a representative to change his or her vote didn\u2019t constitute \u201charassment.\u201d Before I could fully explain, she hung up again.<\/p>\n

I called back. This time, I asked to speak to her supervisor in order to report her repeated hanging up as well as the threat she made. I was placed on hold. Thinking I was holding for her supervisor, I was shocked when a Federal Agent with the Capital Police picked-up the telephone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fortunatey, CapCon is a former Marine – not easily intimidated…:<\/p>\n

At first, the Agent was curt with me. He claimed I was harassing Mr. Garamendi\u2019s staff by continually calling after being told to stop calling. I asked him when it became a federal crime to lobby a congressman. He said that it wasn\u2019t but it was a crime to \u201charass\u201d congressional members and staff pursuant to 47 U.S.C. 223.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and a lawyer, so he can’t be BS’ed about statutes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0I told him I was an attorney (which I am) and that I would research the statute he had cited.<\/p>\n

After researching 47 U.S.C. 223, I called Mr. Garamendi\u2019s office again and asked to be transferred back to the Capital Police Agent. The Agent picked up the phone and I explained to him that the statute he cited was not controlling since it only prohibits people from calling with the specific intent to harass. I further explained that I was simply trying to voice my concerns with the intent of getting Mr. Garamendi to change his mind, not to harass his staff. The Agent eventually agreed with my position and said he would call Mr. Garamendi\u2019s office and instruct his staff that I was within my rights to call my congressman and voice my concerns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, not everyone who’s calling in is a lawyer:<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m fortunate enough to be able to legally challenge what happened today, others aren\u2019t. The sad part is the democrats know this. They know that Americans unfamiliar with federal jurisprudence can easily be silenced when threats to involve federal agents are made. They know that most Americans don\u2019t want trouble and they\u2019ll go away rather than face the possibility of having to explain themselves to federal agents. That\u2019s why I found this tactic appalling, as a Marine, as an attorney and as a proud American.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s simple, really; if Americans are afraid to contact their “representatives”, there won’t be any complaints or dissent to report.<\/p>\n

November can’t come soon enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans have been running the Capitol’s switchboard red-hot this past week, calling by the millions to register their opposition to socialized medicine. And it’s obvious the ruling Democrats\u00a0don’t want to disturb the\u00a0Master\/Peasant relationship.\u00a0 “Capital Confidential”, writing at Breitbart’s Big Government blog, tried calling his representative (Rep. John Garamendi (D, CA-10) .\u00a0 The operator kept hanging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9419,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions\/9419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}