Brick wall hits brick wall
So much for the revenue potential of gun nuts and other assorted wing nuts sending bricks to Congress to build an American Berlin Wall along the Mexican border. It turns out that rather than a grass roots campaign to get individuals to actually mail a brick to their congressmen, the scheme uses a web site where you have to pay $11.95 to have a contractor ship your brick via UPS Freight to Washington. (Apparently even grass roots movements contract out these days.) That does seem a bit pricey for bricks- could the contractor be another Halliburton subsidiary?
Unfortunately for the brick senders, the Congressional Post Office (not part of the USPS) has so far declined to run down to the UPS depot to truck the bricks to the Capitol. At least not until someone pays $3.95 postage for each brick.
You can read more of the brick saga in the Atlanta Journal Constitution story linked below. The story also explains where the ‘grass roots’ group got its start- in a “chat room for a Web site dedicated to assault weapon aficionados”. It also points out that the groups co-founder, Kirsten Heffron, is a former worker for the anti-union National Right to Work Committee. Interestingly, the Send a Brick web site omits Kirsten’s anti-union past, referring only to a stint as ”Public Affairs Director for a 2-million-member national grassroots advocacy group”. Grassroots is certainly a popular (and flexible) word!
May 30th, 2006 23:51
There’s nothing wrong with Kirsten’s anti union past. There’s not one thing wrong with the idea of people being forced to finance political campaigns they oppose. If you’re in the union, you pay union dues. You don’t have any say in how the union spends the money even if they’re going to spend your union dues to support a candidate you don’t like.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of my taxes going to support people who come here to defraud the welfare system. I’m tired of government doing nothing to stop the thousands of drug smugglers and gang members that come over the border anytime they please.
I have a better idea than sending the bricks to their congressional offices. Find their home addresses and send the bricks there.
June 7th, 2007 07:14
There is no such thing as the Congressional Post Office. It was a statutory congressional organization which was “disbanded” in 1993 under the new Republican leadership because of midmanagement and scandal. Since that time, each Chamber manages their mail independent of the other.