A Response From Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)

So I told Orrin not to vote on that one thing, but the House killed it before it even got to him. Then most of them voted for that other thing. And now there's our $7 Billion up for grabs.

Today, Orrin sent me an email in response to my email with this "confidentiality note":

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE:

Please do not respond to this email. This email address does not receive incoming emails. If you would like to contact me regarding a matter of importance to you, please go to my website at: http://hatch.senate.gov and click the link to email me. The information contained in this e-mail is legally privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individuals or entities named as addressees. If you, the reader of this message, are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, publication, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please forgive the inconvenience, immediately notify the sender, and delete the original message without keeping a copy.

Thank you.

It makes me feel like it's a "read this and delete it; DO NOT POST IT ON YOUR BLOG MISSY" warning. But you see the part where it says it is intended " for the use of the individuals or entities named as addressees," well my uses for it would primarily to be for posting on my blog and inform the world how MY politician read my letter and did what he thought was necessary for me. But then there's the whole "any dissemination, distribution, publication, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited." But that was preceded by "If you, the reader of this message, are not the intended recipient," and I am the intended recipient, so am I free to copy and publish??

When I tell MY KIDS not to do something, I tell them what the consequence will be so they can decide if continuing their action would be worth it. Sometimes it is, y'know.

Is there even such a thing as Constituent-Senator privilege??

As if this isn't the exact same form letter he issued to ALL the folks here in Utah who emailed their economic concerns.

I guess I could be democratic and have a vote. If you want me to publish Orrin's email to me (and possibly go to jail or be tortured or something worse, beyond my imagination ... Orrin is a powerful man here in Utah) comment to say so; tell me what you THINK my punishment m,ight be. If a majority of people want to read Orrin's political rhetoric about the economy, not my will, but thy will be done. Well, it is my will, but I'm a little afraid of the word "prohibited" and am also kind of a rule-follower by nature. I live by the Brandy corollary to Newton's law: Brandy will follow a rule unless significant peer-pressure is applied to break the rule.

And yes, this month was supposed to be no politics, just memories ... but it's freaking OCTOBER of 2008!! I intended on writing about my brother yesterday, but the big laptop was/is in the ICU as part of the wreckage from Hurricane Canon. The kitchen PC is taking another mental health day and the office computer is all the way down in the office - WHO'S GONNA WATCH CANON??? (Who's watching him now, as I'm in the office? Gramma, I hope.) I begged Greg to leave me his mini laptop (you know my husband is a computer scientist, right? He programs video games for a living ... the computers are like his children, or at least they are like his naughty disobedient pets), but he couldn't leave me his "brain," so. Baby girl has now spit up on both my shoulders so I'll see if my mom will watch the kids while I cleanse regurgitated breast milk from my person.