Yearly Archives: 2006

Latest conference call…

Today (Sunday) there’s a brand new episode of the Downsize DC Conference Call (a radio show) with host Jim Babka; sponsored by Gun Owners of America, the Marijuana Policy Project, and DownsizeDC.org. ::::::This show will focus on targeted messages one might use to persuasively share the Downsize DC message with gun advocates, anti-war activists, environmentalists, and relatives. Persuasion expert Michael Cloud will join Jim to give his insights. ::::::Another subject will be Islamo-fascism. Does the label fit? Jim will explain what fascism really is, and whether or not it applies to the terrorists. ::::::Plus, we have our first major Downsize DC victory to talk about! . . . and much more. An hour will barely contain it all. It’s action packed and you won’t want to miss it. ::::::Jim calls the show a “conference call” because YOU can participate. You can call toll-free 1-800-259-9231 or email CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot ORG ::::::This hour-long program starts at 5:06 PM Eastern (4:06 PM Central, 3:06 PM Mountain, 2:06 PM Pacific, 1:06 PM Alaska).::::::To listen on the Net . . . :::

We had to share this news immediately . . .::::::On September 5th we launched a campaign for the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. This bill requires the government to create a searchable, online database of “who, how much, and why,” for everyone who receives more than $25,000 from the federal government.::::::This bill would make it possible to know, for the first time, who is feeding at the federal trough. Having this database would be a major step forward in exposing government corruption, special favors, corporate welfare, and waste. ::::::It’s exactly the kind of thing people say Congress would never pass, because it threatens Congressional power. We hear it all the time about “Read the Bills,” “Write the Laws,” and our proposed “One Subject at a Time Act.” Nearly everyone likes these proposals, but many are certain they could never pass.::::::The people who say that are just plain wrong, and the fate of the Transparency Act proves it. :::

Specter-Wiretapping Update

It’s a time honored tradition. Summer ends, school begins, and teachers ask students to write an essay about what they did during their Summer vacations. My “summer vacation” essay follows, only we didn’t take a vacation this Summer. Instead, we made progress! Here’s a slightly altered version of something I recently sent to our Board of Directors . . .

DownsizeDC.org is joining with a host of other organizations to bombard the Senate Judiciary Committee with phone calls. Purpose? Stop the Cheney-Specter bill that would gut 4^th Amendment protections against Presidential surveillance of your phone calls without a warrant.

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Our day to make phone calls is today!

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You probably already know that the President has an easy, rubber-stamp exception to the 4^th Amendment called the FISA Courts. But even this easy approach was considered too difficult by the President.

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Bush and Cheney are advocates of something called the “unitary executive” in a time of war. This doctrine ignores all Constitutional limits and protections in the name of national security. Bush and Cheney have tested how far they can go with this doctrine in a number of ways. Ignoring the FISA courts and doing phone surveillance without a warrant is one of them.

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An email message from the Marijuana Policy Project informs that White House Drug Czar John Walters is illegally using taxpayer money to interfere in state politics::::

Just this week, White House Drug Czar John Walters traveled to Nevada, where he held a news conference to attack MPP’s initiative to tax and regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol. Walters called marijuana an “addictive, accident causing, dependence-producing substance” and urged Nevadans to vote against MPP’s initiative on November 7.

:::I laughed when I read that, because Walters was making MPP’s argument for them. Alcohol, much more so than marijuana, is an “addictive, accident causing, and dependence-producing substance,” yet MPP wants marijuana to be taxed and regulated just like alcohol.::::::It’s maddening that our government pays the salary for a guy like John Walters. The MPP message continues::::

This isn’t the first time Drug Czar John Walters has attempted to scare and mislead voters. He campaigned against the medical marijuana laws that MPP successfully passed in Rhode Island in January of this year and in Montana and Vermont in 2004, and he has a history of barraging the TV airwaves with inaccurate and fear-mongering ads during the last few weeks of MPP’s initiative campaigns.::::::Walters was also rebuked by Nevada’s then attorney general for “excessive” and “disturbing” interference in the state’s vote on MPP’s first initiative in Nevada in 2002 … and Walters has refused to file with the state government any campaign finance reports detailing the amount of taxpayer money that he spent attacking MPP’s 2002 initiative — even in response to a written request from the Nevada secretary of state to do so.

:::This is all the more reason we should Depose the Drug Czar.::::::

Just what are the Porkers up to?

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch…:::We have an URGENT ACTION ITEM today that includes “egg on a Senator’s face.” But first, two quick housekeeping matters . . .

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch…:::Yesterday we extolled the virtues of radical ideas versus controversial subjects. This should have raised a question in the mind’s of thoughtful Downsizers, and so we’ll respond to that question today.::::::If radical ideas are superior and controversial subjects inferior, why are there so many seemingly controversial subjects on the DownsizeDC.org homepage? More specifically, why have we weighed-in on U.S. foreign policy when it’s so controversial? ::::::It must be stressed that the following answers are merely the guidelines we use. This is an art, not a science. We recognize that our judgments are subject to error. So having said, we’ll begin with two simple answers . . .