I just got my first piece of franked spam.

It came from Rep. Madilyn Musgrave of Colorado. (That's her, from a Congressional Web site.)

I don't know how, but my Mindspring address somehow landed on her Congressional e-mail list. The spam is filled with news of her efforts on behalf of Colorado's Fourth Congressional District, about 2,000 miles from my home in Atlanta.

You know what I can do about this spam? Absolutely nothing. That's because the federal CAN-SPAM Act (wonderful name, since it means you can spam all you want) states that I must opt-out of this spam, by hitting a link inside the letter.

The law she passed says her spam is not spam.

If I were an idiot I might just unsubscribe. But everyone with half a brain (which means most people outside Washington D.C.) knows that if you try to unsubscribe from an e-mail list the result will be a lot more e-mail.

If you're pitching something legal, and you follow unsubscribes, you can spam all you want. And I am certain there's something in there, somewhere, that lets Congresscritters spam like mad, and holds them harmless from, say, trading my address with other Congresscritters, and their favorite interest groups, etc. etc.

If the folks at Cong. John Lewis' office want to send me e-mail, that would be spam, too, even though I'm in his district. Lewis hasn't sent me anything, so I like him very much.

But vote against Rep. Marilyn Musgrave at every opportunity. Give money to her opponents. I have no idea what her stands are on issues I care about. I just know she's a spammer.

As to the rest of you, clean up your lists. There are services you can use to audit your lists, like Whitehat. Use them. You should also match all your e-mail addresses to physical addresses, so you don't make the same mistake Rep. Musgrave did.

The bottom line is this. If you're not following opt-in policies you're a spammer, and I don't frankly care what office you occupy.