When do lies become fraud?

Among the more obscene deceits generated to support Bush's effort to ruin Social Security is a piece I received in the mail today. There was no return address on the small window envelope, but scrawled across the front with a green marker was "Pls. deliver by noon Wednesday!!"

Looked just like one of those neighbor-to-neighbor charity solicitations, so it caught me by surprise to find it contained a letter to "Dear Friend," with a huge caption, where a letterhead should have been: "Save Our Social Security Trust Fund"

I skimmed quickly to find out who sent it; saw on the first page:

"There's an all out budget war in Washington right now . . .

. . . and the Washington Insiders are launching a new attack on our Social Security Money.

Please help me stop them.

At the bottom of page 1: "An Emergency Campaign by The Seniors Center," and the "me" who signed the letter on page 6 is "Gary Jarmin, President."

From the way the letter was worded, with blue-ink handwritten annotations everywhere, it took awhile to figure out which side the sender was on; there were lots of references to H.R. 219, but what ordinary citizen would have any clue as to what a bill is about without at least a title?

It was pretty tricky, since it is absolutely true that Bush & Co. have launched an all-out attack on Social Security!

Then, halfway down page 3, there it was:

Our Social Security Trust Fund is almost all gone -- replaced by worthless government IOUs.

With a handwritten blue-ink notation: "Just imagine paying for your groceries with a government IOU"

There is an "Immediate Action Petition" addressed to Senator Bill Frist, and several pleas for a "one-time emergency contribution" of $25 to "help" pay for the effort.

The return envelope (for the petition and money) is addressed to The Seniors Center, in Frederick, MD.

Google didn't turn up "The Seniors Center" anywhere, and now I googled the small print: "The Seniors Center is a program of Christian Voice" -- yes, THAT Christian Voice, of which Gary Jarmin is indeed the president. [Post post note: I decided after posting to google Jarmin himself, and up popped The Seniors Center in the middle of all the other links to him; it only shows up through him, however. Looks ad hoc to me . . . ]

Needless to say the green marker and the blue ink notations were as fake as the writer's concern.

I believe what we have here is a deliberate effort to make the recipient think there was a connection to the local Seniors Center -- a popular program in almost every community like ours. I'm curious how widespread the mailing was and whether it went only to "seniors" (yes, I qualify) -- The most disgusting piece of garbage I've seen in a long time --- and I live in DeLay country!

Isn't there some rule, somewhere, that is being broken here?

P. S. I scanned the whole mailing into a pdf file
& will send it to anyone who asks.