Bruce Shore, Unemployed Philadelphia Man, Indicted For 'Harassing Email' To Jim Bunning

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bruce Shore, Unemployed Philadelphia Man, Indicted For 'Harassing Email' To Jim Bunning

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/bruce-shore-unemployed-ph_n_588798.html



When Sen. Jim Bunning complained on the Senate floor in February that he'd missed the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game because of a debate on unemployment benefits -- a debate the Kentucky Republican himself prevented from proceeding to a vote -- Bruce Shore got angry.

"I was livid. I was just livid," said Shore, 51, who watched the floor proceedings on C-SPAN from his home in Philadelphia. "I'm on unemployment, so it affects me. I'm in shock."

Instead of just being angry, Shore took action: He sent several emails to Bunning staffers, blasting the senator for blocking the benefits.

"ARE you'all insane," said part of one letter Shore sent on Feb. 26 (which he shared with HuffPost). "NO checks equal no food for me. DO YOU GET IT??"

In that letter he signed off as "Brad Shore" from Louisville. He said he did the same thing in several other messages sent via the contact form on Bunning's website. "My assumption was that if he gets an email from Philadelphia, who cares?" he said. "Why would he even care if a guy from Philadelphia gets upset?"

Bunning might not have cared, but the FBI did. Sometime in March, said Shore, agents came calling to ask about the emails. They read from printouts of the messages sent via the contact form and asked if Shore was the author, which he readily admitted. They asked a few questions, and then, according to Shore, they said, "All right, we just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything to worry about."

But on May 13, U.S. Marshals showed up at Shore's house with a grand jury indictment. Now he's got to appear in federal court in Covington, Ky. on May 28 to answer for felony email harassment. Specifically, the indictment (PDF) says that on Feb. 26, Shore "did utilize a telecommunications device, that is a computer, whether or not communication ensued, without disclosing his identity and with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, and harass any person who received the communication."

[beam me up scottie]

1. How do you think unemployed Kentuckians feel about him? Bunning IS bat shit mad as a hatter insane.

He should have been taken away in a straight jacket and medicated years ago.

This is bullshit.

[SoCalDem]

2. Even MORE scary,is the fact that complaint emails are considered harassment

I bet if that guy had written several complimentary emails, he would be considered a passionate supporter..

Unless there's an implicit threat, people should be able to write members of congress/senate/local govt/etc whenever they choose.. It's an EMAIL...easy to read & delete, if they want.

My guess is that Bunning's staffers are pissed that they may be losing their own jobs, and they are looking for stuff to complain about as their DC job winds down.

[beam me up scottie]

3. Exactly.

The fact that every one of his peers abandoned the whack job is one of the reasons why Bunning flipped out so publicly.

He's a political Typhoid Mary.

[Jkid]

4. Oh, now you can't complain to your own Government?!

Not only your representatives can ignore their emails or stonewall them with various excuses, they can whine to the law enforcement to cover their ass instead of dealing with it. He ought to resign.