I will keep it anonymous, but I will put every awful word of it here. Of course he is a Repub. And of course he sold himself as pro-life when he was running before 9/11 ever happened. His words now just make me cringe. You'll see:

"Dear "Yank" ,

Thank you for recently contacting my office. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

I understand your concern about military action against Iran. While we have no reason to believe military action in Iran is imminent, we also cannot take foreign policy tools off of America's list of options.

The rhetoric of Iran's leadership deeply concerns me. I was proud to vote for H.R. 282, the Iran Freedom Support Act. This bill, introduced by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, directs the President to assist groups working to spread democracy in Iran. The bill would also continue the economic sanctions against Iran which are meant to coerce Iran into ending its weapons of mass destruction program. This bill passed the House on April 26, 2006.

Again, thank you for contacting my office . I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,
Member of Congress"


The letter on the surface of course is so short & mamby-pamby, who would take offense? But I know the folks on this forum can read between the lines on so many levels:

1) which foreign policy "tools"? Diplomatic? Conventional weapons? NUKES?
2) The rhetoric of MY leadership deeply concerns me!
3) Assist WHICH groups ? (notice he doesn't say!)Neocons ? AIPAC? Military? Halliburton & contractors?
4)"Spread democracy"!!! oh come on>we know that's buzz word to bomb Iranian folks.
5) then there's the name of the act > Iran FREEDOM SUPPORT ... argghhhhh!

WHAT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM???

That Congressman's assertion of a WMD program is based on hear say.
There is no concrete proof. Only allegations. A-la Iraq.

Congress needs to be reminded that it was because of truthiness like that
that we are stuck with a dilemma of Iraq and a rising Taliban in Afghanistan.

American's foreign policy is set to reward those that refuse to follow the NPTA
and set to punish those that abide by the NPTA. Sounds rather questionable to me.

And the best foreign "policy tool" is direct talks. Lets try practicing that, first.
However, chances are Condi will continue to refuse to meet Iran at any table while continue to saber rattle.

Spreading Democracy is always done best at the end of a gun, right?

Another out of touch Congressman.

Yes, he truly is... he ran on the Christian Right ticket before 9/11 , he was no Neocon. Now he sounds as NeoCON as McCain! He just fell into party-line rhetoric without thinking anything through... he is totally out of touch with the majority of Americans now.

I am glad you pointed that out Max ... I was not sure enuf to point that out myself. So another hoax by Bushco, huh? And more Congresspeople and Senators are going along for the LIES ride the second time around?

BTW, what is NPTA stand for?

THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION http://www.un.org/events/npt2005/npttreaty.html
OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
( NPT )
(text of the treaty)
The States concluding this Treaty, hereinafter referred to as the Parties to the Treaty,
Considering the devastation that would be visited upon all mankind by a nuclear war and the consequent need to make every effort to avert the danger of such a war and to take measures to safeguard the security of peoples,
Believing that the proliferation of nuclear weapons would seriously enhance the danger of nuclear war,
In conformity with resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly calling for the conclusion of an agreement on the prevention of wider dissemination of nuclear weapons,
Undertaking to co-operate in facilitating the application of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on peaceful nuclear activities,
Expressing their support for research, development and other efforts to further the application, within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards system, of the principle of safeguarding effectively the flow of source and special fissionable materials by use of instruments and other techniques at certain strategic points,
Affirming the principle that the benefits of peaceful applications of nuclear technology, including any technological by-products which may be derived by nuclear-weapon States from the development of nuclear explosive devices, should be available for peaceful purposes to all Parties to the Treaty, whether nuclear-weapon or non-nuclear-weapon States,
Convinced that, in furtherance of this principle, all Parties to the Treaty are entitled to participate in the fullest possible exchange of scientific information for, and to contribute alone or in co-operation with other States to, the further development of the applications of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,
Declaring their intention to achieve at the earliest possible date the cessation of the nuclear arms race and to undertake effective measures in the direction of nuclear disarmament,
Urging the co-operation of all States in the attainment of this objective,
Recalling the determination expressed by the Parties to the 1963 Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water in its Preamble to seek to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time and to continue negotiations to this end,
Desiring to further the easing of international tension and the strengthening of trust between States in order to facilitate the cessation of the manufacture of nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their existing stockpiles, and the elimination from national arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of their delivery pursuant to a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control,
Recalling that, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, States must refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations, and that the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security are to be promoted with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources,
Have agreed as follows:
Use the link to see the 11 Articles of this treaty

It's a form letter carefully crafted by experts to be sent out to hundreds of thousands.
The writers of these letters have a basic language that they always use.
In effect, it's the ability to say something, with out saying anything at all!

The intent is to make you feel as though you have been heard.
And in all reality, yo have. You did after all, get a reply, even if it was nonspeak!



On line petitions, e-mails, phone calls and all of the other methods of communicating with your congress people does and has had it effect. Again I remind people to look not that far back! Less than 2 years ago Bush was stratospheric in the polls! Now he's rock bottom cellar. Why? Because people just like you and me spoke out! Because we wrote those letters and signed those petitions! Yes, the Average Joe Schmoe DOES make a differance.


Patience and above all Persistance! Don't give up! Change is most certainly happening, and we helped!




This is on the wall here in my office, right next to my left shoulder......

Very inspiring Sky. This is what's been on my bulletin board for over five years:

Oops,
It's NPT
Non Proliferation Treaty
http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/npt/

Bush has admitted that there were no WMD's in Iraq. However he did so in an after the fact kind of way.

In other words, he made his claims, fixed the facts around the claims, outed a CIA agent over her husbands reporting that refuted said claims, took us to war over the claims made by Bush, all the while Bush defended his initial claims that the AUMF was constructed under.
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&...002&btnG=Search
http://oldamericancentury.org/bb/index.php...535&#entry51535

Back on April 6, 2006 Bush did admit that the intelligence was wrong.

So the question is, WHAT IS THE INTELLIGENCE ON IRAN?

That question, unfortunately, was answered the day Bushco leutenants decided to out a working CIA officer
in an attempt to discredit her husband.

Plame was THE working agent with connections and operatives in Iran.
As a result of her being exposed, no one has any idea how many of her people in Iran are even still alive!

Are you serious? I know the operation could not continue, but has there been real news that some of her people might be , ya know, not alive?

No one knows!
Iran is a very closed country and it is assumed, if her people were compromised,
that the Govt of Iran would take a very dim view of anyone who helped the west!

I hate it when my politicians give me form letters back. It means that they didn't even read your letter, most likely. Their secratary read it, went to the "Iran" folder and took out the "Iran Form Letter" and mailed it to you.

Bastards.

They get hundreds, if not sometimes thousands of letters,
and that doesn't even begin to count e-mails.

If they were to personally read every message sent to them,
they wouldn't have time to not read any of the legislation they sign into law.

I lived in a tiny riding in Northern Ontario. Trust me, my MLA wasn't getting "thousands" of anything.

I suppose in Northern Ontario, your rep was just happy to get a letter!

This is wonderful I am going to hang this at my desk!

PS Who wrote this... did you write this sky?

This is great! I am going to put this on back of sky's poem and hang it on my desk (so only I can peak at it.... not the 29% Bush-lovers)

Here are Arvy's thoughts (from Afterdowningstreet.org forum) on the "groups" mentioned in the cookie-cutter letter:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/10894#comment-56259

' "read between the lines on so many levels"
Submitted by Arvy on Sat, 2006-05-20 13:48.
There's so much garbage it's hard to know where to start.

You already know what "foreign policy tools" they're talking about. They're the same ones that have found their way from PNAC into the official "defence" strategies of the U.S.

As for "ending [Iran's] weapons of mass destruction program", we've all heard that before and the lack of evidence of any such program (in Iran just as in Iraq) has been discussed many times here and elsewhere.

Perhaps the least well known aspect is the one you question yourself about assisting "groups working to spread democracy in Iran". We all know that the current U.S. administration has some very strange ideas about what spreading "freedom and democracy" means, but this case may be the strangest of all. It seems very doubtful that forays by the PKK (Kurdish guerrillas) and MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq) will spread much real democracy. They have, however, got NATO ally Turkey very worried along with some of Iran's own progressive groups.

Iran just had an election BTW, but, as with the Palestinians and Venezuelans, we don't like the winners. So that means they're not "democratic" according to U.S. newspeak definitions.
__

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. – Lord Acton'

No, I didn't write it.
I bought it on a plaque a long time ago when I worked at Wal*Mart in Butte and had a 5% discount!
Doesn't say on it who wrote it, though I have seen it else where.