AP: Tea-Bag Mail Protest Worries Post Office

[Eugene]

Tea-Bag Mail Protest Worries Post Office

By JIM SUHR

ST. LOUIS Sep 20, 2006 (AP)— Illinois' lieutenant governor is urging people
to mail tea bags to two electric utilities to protest rate increases an idea
that leaves the post office cold.

The Postal Service on Wednesday encouraged people to make their point
instead with empty tea bags, saying lumpy bags could harm its equipment
and create security scares by leaking brown residue.

"It's absolutely legal for people to mail a tea bag," said David Colen of the
Chicago division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a law-enforcement arm
of the agency. "By no means are we trying to stop what the lieutenant governor
is trying to do. We just want to keep the mail flowing."

On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn urged residents of his state to include tea bags
with their electric bills in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party. After the post
office objected, Quinn's office said ratepayers could send just a picture of a
tea bag.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2469798

[shadowknows69]

1. Keep sending the real bags

we should each be sending one daily to congress.

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Ray Taliaferro (KGO Radio) has been advocating that for years

Turning Tyranny into Tea-ranny

by Ray Taliaferro
March 15, 2004


Graduates of fifth grade should know the immediate goal of the Boston Tea Party was to protest taxation without representation, not to dress up like a bunch of Native Americans and run around a ship. It was a protest done right; a delicate balance of symbolism and panache that was destined to make the history books. What that fifth grader should also understand, hopefully, is that the over-arching goal of the tea toss was bigger than taxes. It was to declare what has now become a fundamental ideology of the United States: we will NOT accept tyranny imposed upon American people by any government, foreign or domestic. King George III got the message loud and clear, as did the rest of the world.

But if the Bostonians of 1773 could see us now, it wouldn’t just be tea they’d hurl over the sides of that ship.

We’ve been living under the tyranny of the Bush administration for over three years now. Disenfranchised American voters in Florida were taxed, but their vote never counted. Gay Americans are taxed, but their love is not acknowledged. Hundreds of Americans have been imprisoned in Guantanamo, but their rights have never been recognized. And in what is the most egregious act of all, the President misrepresented a threat that didn’t exist in Iraq, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Americans and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. Two hundred and thirty one years ago we stood up to the tyranny of one King George, and now it’s time to do the same to another. We must TEA BAG BUSH!

Americans must send a message to the White House that we will no longer stand idly by while all of our rights are eroded by a group of power mad neo-cons. The administration is already in hot water, and now it’s time to add the tea. I’m calling for a national campaign to send tea bags to the White House en masse, as many as you can, for as long as you can. Send one bag a week or one box a week; send one bag a day or ten bags a day, from now until November 2. The Bush administration will soon realize that the public demands a regime change here at home.

Now, it’s possible the President may not understand the symbolism, but hopefully Karl Rove or one of his other henchmen will explain it to him very slowly, using small words. But if you’re still worried he might not understand, there are plenty of pretty color pictures of the Boston Tea Party you can print out and stuff in the envelope along with your tea. For added impact, I recommend sending a nice im-Peach flavored brew, but it’s your call.

The important thing is that you tell your lovers and tell your friends, and that they tell their lovers and their friends, that it’s time to TEA BAG BUSH! Think of the quizzical look on Bush and Cheney’s face when millions upon millions of tea bags inundate the White House. If a picture is worth a million words, that look on Bush’s face is surely worth a million tea bags.

It’s time to make our Bostonian-American ancestors proud again; it’s time to show them that the principles they fought for are alive and well in today’s America. Let us turn tyranny into tea-ranny. It’s time to TEA BAG BUSH!



Ray Taliaferro has been broadcasting to the entire West Coast on KGO radio in San Francisco for almost thirty years. His show can be heard from 1am-5am on KGO AM 810, and around the world at http://www.kgoam810.com/

[verse18]

2. I would hope the tea bags would be unused.

"The Postal Service on Wednesday encouraged people to make their point
instead with empty tea bags, saying lumpy bags could harm its equipment
and create security scares by leaking brown residue."

I like this. It's a novel idea.

[calimary]

4. There's been discussion here about tea bag protests - aimed at

Washington DC - a latter-day Boston Tea Party to show our deep disgust with the government.

Let's remember, in particular, this segment of the story:

"It's absolutely legal for people to mail a tea bag," said David Colen of the Chicago division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a law-enforcement arm of the agency.

[drm604]

5. I have to say that I do have some sympathy for the postal workers.

They aren't the target of the protest. Cut open the bag and dump out the leaves before mailing it.