Tom Cotton has issued do-not-call-or-write notice to some constituents

[RandySF]

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Ozark Indivisible, an activist group that has been pressing members of Congress from Arkansas on health care, immigration and other issues, the Arkansas Times reports.


https://politicalwire.com/2018/01/18/cotton-threatens-activist-group-no-call-order/

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Eat shit, Tom Cotton.

Criticism comes with the territory; and as a famous Democrat once said: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

[woodsprite]

2. Taxation without representation! n/t

[SCantiGOP]

18. It violates the First Amendment

The 1st Amendment acknowledges a citizen's right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances." Obviously, in a Republic that means the right to direct that petition, whether in writing or verbally, to your elected representative.
They need to take him to court and embarrass him on this.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Wow, I wonder if I'll get one. I've written him 100s of letters and made

dozens and dozens of calls to his Springdale office. I know I've sent a daily one on DACA for a month.

[Va Lefty]

4. This is what we've come to. "Don't contact me if you don't agree with me."

[PatSeg]

17. And

"I only represent the people who voted for me", just like their dear leader in the White House.

[samnsara]

5. Well just fine.. then give the rest of us the info and we will call...

[riversedge]

6. Get of of the Congress if the heat is too much for you little boy Cotton!

[Leghorn21]

7. K&R. nt

[gratuitous]

8. Gee, I wonder if Arkansans as a group are comfortable with that?

Is Sen. Cotton serving all the citizens of Arkansas with this notice? Do the people of Arkansas support their elected officials in picking and choosing which citizens deserve to be served? Will they still feel that way if their elected officials decide they're no longer deserving of representation or even consideration?

[Gothmog]

9. Tom Cotton is an asshole

[Orrex]

10. Is that not a direct violation of the Constitution?

One supposes, for instance, that Sen. Cotton is still happy to receive calls and letters from his billionaire owners.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Yes, a not commonly known clause in the First Amendment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition_in_the_United_States

Right to petition in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The right to petition is protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

In the United States the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".

Although often overlooked in favor of other more famous freedoms, and sometimes taken for granted,[1] many other civil liberties are enforceable against the government only by exercising this basic right.[2] The right to petition is regarded as fundamental in some republics, such as the United States, as a means of protecting public participation in government.[1]

[Orrex]

21. Thank you--that was my exact thought

Freedom of speech & freedom of religion are the sexy, headline-grabbing parts of the First Amendment, and Redress of Grievances too often gets overlooked.

[bluestarone]

36. do you suppose another senator should mention this in

open senate hearing???

[MontanaMama]

11. There is no way this is enforceable.

Cotton needs to be sued.

[Lint Head]

12. Old Cotton Mouth strikes again.

[mtngirl47]

13. Call him NOW! Everyone!

[phone]

OR

[phone]

[LAS14]

29. Excellent idea!

I called both. 479 was voice mail, but 202 was a nice woman who confirmed that the letter went out, but "only in extreme circumstances." So that's the line. I wonder how many really went out?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Do your fucking job Cotton

Which includes hearing things you don't agree with.

This guy's former 101st Airborne? What a snowflake.

[annabanana]

15. That CANNOT be legal!. . . .n/t

[Ilsa]

16. He needs to leave the senate, then.

I heard he wants to be next CIA Director.

[crazycatlady]

20. Any lawyer constituents ready to draft a lawsuit?

This can't be legal.

[Beartracks]

22. Cotton shrinks. n/t

[Fla Dem]

23. Does Tom Cotton realize this constituents, even those who voted against him pay his salary?

Last edited Thu Jan 18, 2018, 04:29 PM - Edit history (1)

He works for them. He cannot tell them to shut up. Tommy Boy, this is a Democracy, not a Dictatorship.

[Paladin]

24. Right-wing snow flake.

Really good at dishing it out, not so good at taking it.

[Upthevibe]

25. He's a piece of trash...n/t

[Leghorn21]

26. Hey Randy - I dunno. Looking at the Arkansas Times blog, which indeed was published today, I

see that the letter was supposedly written on October 17 of last year.

I am just...in these days and times, wondering, why is this surfacing three months after it was written?

...i’m just feeling a tad uncomfy with this info...NOT THAT COTTON WOULDN’T do this!! I’m just skeptical at this moment as to whether or not this letter is the real deal...




The posted article links to today’s “Arkansas Blog”:

https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/01/18/activists-say-tom-cotton-has-a-do-not-call-or-write-list-for-some-constituents

excerpt:

Billy Fleming, a Times contributor, also sent me a copy of the image and an account from a person who reportedly received the letter. That person wrote:

I received a letter from the office of U.S. Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas after calling and expressing my grave concerns over his actions and support of this administration's agenda concerning a wide variety of subjects from the attack on our healthcare, DACA and immigration issues, to national security, to the rise of white nationalist fascism, to the environment, the gutting of our State Department, the attack on the free press...and similar deeply troubling actions & motives I've seen Senator Cotton support & condone. It was odd to receive this letter as I've called other Members of Congress to express my strong thoughts and opinions about their actions and thought this to be not only my duty as an American citizen but my First Amendment right granted all U.S. citizens by our U.S. Constitution, the foundation of our Democracy.

I believe if Tom Cotton's office were to respond as to why they sent this letter, I think they just honestly don't want to listen to any citizen's opposing view or hear the numerous grave concerns U.S. citizens have about the serious & ongoing attack on our Democracy and past election cycle in which a foreign, hostile Russian government interfered, they don't want U.S. citizens to call and speak their mind and truth in a very direct manner and they obviously don't want to be held accountable for their words and actions while serving all the people in this nation. I may have used unprofessional and unbecoming language at times as the anxiety and stress of what I'm witnessing is at times too great a burden to control and I have vehemently expressed my righteous anger at Senator Cotton's complicitness with this harmful regime.


Fleming said he knew several people who'd received such a letter. He said he believed they all had made repeated phone calls to deliver similar talking points, but he said they were unlikely to have made rude or disparaging remarks.


UPDATE- CONFIRMED

UPDATE: Cotton's office, in keeping with custom, refused to respond to our requests for information. But Michael Buckner of KTHV was able to get a confirmation of the letter from Caroline Tabler, Cotton's press aide.

Tabler said that these letters are rare and only used "under extreme circumstances."

"If an employee of Senator Cotton receives repeated communications that are harassing and vulgar, or any communication that contains a threat, our policy is to notify the U.S. Capitol Police's Threat Assessment Section," Tabler said.

via http://www.thv11.com/news/local/sen-cottons-office-says-cease-and-desist-letter-sent-due-to-harassing-comments/509155632

[RKP5637]

27. WTF, do as I say and like it and STFU. Yeah, right, representation. n/t

[avebury]

28. There should be a massiv movement across the country for people to write to him. nt

[LAS14]

30. See reply #13. There are his phone numbers. I just called. nt

[Cha]

31. Who does that?!!!

[C_U_L8R]

32. Cotton fails the basic job requirements

Resign. Now.

[Hortensis]

33. Let's hope they haven't given legal cause to support it.

Let's face it, wonderful as some of these groups are, some of the others can be very badly behaved.

And even a betraying, knuckledragging bastard like Cotton was sent to do a job by those who voted him into office. There are limited to what other voters can do to keep them from being able to do it.

[dlk]

34. More Confirmation That Cotton is Conducting Business Like an Apparatchik in a Totalitarian Regime

Apparently, he's forgotten this is a democracy. He needs a wake-up call.

[democratisphere]

35. I'm sure old TC doesn't like to hear the truth about his alternative facts.

Won't be long until this GOP a**hole is gone!

[Blue_Adept]

37. I'm probably going to get labeled as a Cotton apologist, but folks realize that this probably

happens in certain cases with most representatives?

Or have you, uh, not met a lot of your fellow citizens?

Can you imagine the kind of hate mail that some of them get on a regular basis. And how some, if undeterred in a significant way, could pose a threat?

I can easily imagine of Elizabeth Warren had sent out some of these that she'd be defended because obviously there are those that would go to extremes in how they contact their representatives.

I dunno, having seen some scary things that people do when they can't get the attention they want, you have to have SOME recourse to say enough is enough.