New bill and seezdeh bedar

I haven't been blogging for a few weeks now. To make the long story short, a combination of work, flu, and exhuastion has made it hard to keep up with the blogging world. There is a saying in Farsi which goes something like this: "You can tell a good year from its spring." Well, my spring has been extremely busy so far and if this is an indicator of the rest of the year, then I am not sure if I can handle a whole year like this!
In any case, rather than nagging about my personal problems, I am going to start my first entry of this Iranian new year with an urgent matter. On April 6th, a bill (H.R. 282) which according to its writer, House Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is introduced "to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran," will go to the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East for mark up.
NIAC has the info. about the bill (both the House and the Senate version) and has drafted two letters in support and in opposition to it, so that people can write to their "representatives" and voice their opinions. I wish they had drafted the opposing bill more strongly. The rhetoric of "Making regime change official US policy on Iran is the equivalent of declaring war," won't go very far, will it? The proponents of the bill could challenge this and say, "no, regime change doesn't necessarily mean war." I guess it is up to those of us who are against any U.S. intervention (military or not) in Iran to draft our own letter and send it to the congress. But I wonder if this "representative" democracy actually works for those whose views do not fit within either of the "options" presented by U.S. law makers or "para-law" entities such as NIAC. But again, I assume it's better to have organizations such as NIAC to engage a certain class of diasporic Iranians with U.S. politicos, than not having any "representation" at all.
By the way, this is like a deja vu! Sam Brownback's "Iran Democracy Act," last year, was very similar to this bill... NIAC's response was also very similar. These shows of democracy are becoming a bit too redundant, if you ask me. But do we have a choice other than going along?

On a more personal note, I am going to "seezdeh bedar" ro rid myself of all inauspicious elements of this year! Only if these things actually worked! Can you imagine? Except for the nuclear family part, and the whole "khaanehye shohar" songs, this event could have a lot of potential for social change!
In any case, I am off to the park to eat watermelon and have kabaab and do away with all evil ;-). This is the first seezdeh bedar in 13 years that as a born-again carnivor I can have kabaab. Happy 13 bedar.