...here is the letter I just fired off to Levin (Glenn, I borrowed some of your phrases. Hope you don't mind as your prose just rules over my own):

Dear Senator Levin,

You may wonder why someone who is not a constituent of yours is contacting you. I am writing because you have recently made public statements regarding supposed "improvements" you witnessed while on a 2-day tour of Iraq. Your statements have been eagerly seized upon by the right-wing noise machine and turned into a vindication of the ill-advised surge strategy of the administration.

Setting aside the dubious conclusion that a 2-day trip to Iraq, engineered and tightly controlled by the US military, wherein the only conversations that occurred were with those same leaders of the military, who all have a vested interest in projecting positive information at present, can you tell me what independent information, or conversations, you were able to have that would lead you to claim that the surge has lead to actual, tangible improvements in security and the overall performance of the Iraqi Army?

Perhaps you are familiar with the op-ed piece published this past Sunday by the New York Times, written by seven soldiers serving in Iraq titled The War as We Saw It.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html

If you have not read it, then I suggest you do. It will supply you with some unvarnished truth from the soldiers who are on the ground actually fighting this war. A truth vastly different from what the hand-picked, administration water-carriers at the top want to project.

Senator, you are deliberately and willingly serving as an spokesman for the dubious claims of the U.S. military regarding our supposed ‘progress’. If this is a signal of the strategy that Senate Democrats are preparing to embrace in preparation for the upcoming report from General Petraeus, then you and all your colleagues will need to get prepared for a huge backlash against you.

It is also not acceptable to attempt to place blame for the lack of progress in Iraq on the elected government of Iraq. The political failures in Iraq are not due to failures by Prime Minister Maliki’s government. They are not responsible for the fact that Iraq has become a nation of fractured city states. That fact is solely the responsibility of the United States and our continuing occupation of Iraq.

The United States has broken a sovereign country and the only way that we can even begin to atone for this horrific error is to leave Iraq at the first opportunity and support a multi-national effort at reconciliation. Anything less is a gutless capitulation to the Bush administration and the Democratic leadership will be held to account if you continue to spinelessly reject demands for accountability.

Commendatore - you need to understand that the fact that FOX selectively cherry picks quotes is very much a problem and Levin has no excuse for giving them any kind of material to hang their hats on at all. He knows better, and if he doesn't, then maybe he isn't so wonderful after all.

Oh, and this just takes the cake...

If the Iraqi government cannot pass...an oil law...

Have you read that law??? It's just resource rape on paper. You should be ashamed for even mentioning it.

The entire idea of writing to your Congressmen and Senators is complete bologna...the only people the Reps and Senators are serving are the big money lobby interests whom they are beholden to.

I didn't really write because I thought Levin would be hanging on my every jot and tittle. I've received enough of those form letters to have an understanding of how the process most likely works.

I don't disagree with you about the unholy alliance between our leaders and the corporate elite, however, I think you are wrong if you think that every Congressperson out there is unresponsive to this sort of pressure or isn't even paying attention. Someone here in Glenn's comment section recently posted that Pelosi is now stating that the House will revisit the FISA legislation as soon as they reconvene, instead of letting it sit for the 6 months stated in the bill. Why on earth would she do that if she weren't feeling the heat from us 'wee folk'?? Granted, those powers may not be repealed as they should be, but it still is an example that our stated objections are not entirely falling on deaf ears, or blind eyes as the case may be.

I wish I could channel me some Sysprog here and find a reference to the freshman Congressman whose constituents called him to heel when he started making wishy-washy noises about the Iraq war. That was a recent phenomenon too, and I can't remember where I saw it, so you'll have to take it with a grain of jaded salt I guess.

I will still write my letters, if only for the not inconsiderable need to let off steam, and will also get involved in any manner I can to let these folks know that WE put them into office and, if we are greatly dissatisfied, we can also take them OUT of office.

BTW, thanks for your compliment on my letter. Even if I'm being largely ineffectual, it's still nice to know that I'm doing it forcefully and semi-coherently.;->