Monthly Archives: June 2007

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
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:::Quotes of the Day
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:::”I’m sure senators on both sides of the aisle are being pounded by these talk-radio people who don’t even know what’s in the bill.” Sen. Trent Lott
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:::”A decent respect for our constituents means when they have very serious problems with an important piece of legislation, perhaps we should back off.” – Sen. Jeff Sessions
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:::In This Issue:
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:::*It Was Just Too Big
:::*Last Week in Congress
:::* New RTBA Coalition Member
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:::It Was Just Too Big
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:::The quotes by Sens. Lott and Sessions above reflect two opposing views not just of the now-defeated Immigration Reform Bill, but of how a Senator should represent the people. Sen. Lott blames the bill’s critics for not knowing what’s in it, as if he had any intention of reading the entire bill himself. This is not unlike President Bush’s condemnation of the bill’s critics, which we wrote about two weeks ago.
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:::But we admit Sen. Lott had a point: many of the bill’s critics really didn’t know everything that’s in it. That’s because the bill was an incredible 762 pages even before the Senate considered amendments.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Please share with concerned friends . . .::::::Subject: Repealing the REAL ID Act::::::Oh, those poor Senators. They’re really traumatized. They heard from far too many of their constituents over the immigration bill. The news is full of quotes about it. Senators feel assaulted, intimidated. ::::::Don’t you feel sorry for them?::::::Maybe we should give them a break? Go easy on them? Let them catch their breath?

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Subject: Victory!::::::The immigration bill is dead. It fell short by 14 votes. Better yet, the whole issue has become so controversial, in so many different ways, that no further action on immigration is expected any time soon.::::::Fox News has reported that the Senate phone system crashed yesterday, from so many calls coming in.::::::We call this overwhelming, inescapable, resistance numbing pressure!::::::But the media, as usual, is getting the story wrong. The professional reporting class seems unable to contain more than one idea or fact in their heads at any given time, so they’re all reporting that the bill’s defeat was due to its supposed amnesty provisions. ::::::It is to laugh. ::::::The truth is that nearly everyone, on all sides of the issue, opposed this bill, for every reason imaginable.::::::The truth is that hundreds of groups like DownsizeDC.org were organizing opposition to this legislation for many different reasons. And one of the biggest objections was the REAL ID provisions.::::::Congratulations to you for the role you played in killing this horrible bill. Now, we have a prediction to make . . .

Today’s Downzier Dispatch . . .::::::Please share with concerned friends . . .::::::In this Dispatch . . .::::::* Urgent new action needed on immigration bill:::* Urgent action needed on Republican presidential debate:::* Please help us::::::Subject: Today is the day to make the Senate dance on the immigration bill::::::The Senate voted yesterday to proceed with the immigration bill. Today they will vote on amendments to the bill. The most important of these is Baucus-Tester #1236, which would strip out the REAL ID oriented electronic background checks this bill would require for you to hold a job. THIS AMENDMENT MUST PASS.::::::THE VOTE WILL BE HELD TONIGHT! SO WE MUST ACT TODAY!::::::* We must do everything we can to make sure this immigration bill fails.:::* We must do everything thing we can to make sure Baucus-Tester #1236 passes::::::EVERYONE must send a message today asking for both of these things, and then, when you see your Senators’ phone numbers on your computer screen, call both Senators and say . . .:::

“I’m urging the Senator to vote against the immigration bill, and for amendment #1236, Baucus-Tester. I am absolutely opposed to electronic background checks as a requirement for employment. The Senator’s votes on this issue will affect how I vote in the next election.”

::::::You can send your message and make your phone calls here.::::::Then, when you’ve done this, contact several of your friends and ask them to do the same thing.

There are a lot of things happening in Congress these days. For one thing, the immigration vote is looming. It is likely to happen this week. 
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:::And, on the campaign trail, so-called “fringe” candidates (likely a code word for “anti-war”) like Congressman Ron Paul are being excluded from an important forum this Saturday. So you can say, that event is also looming.
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:::But we must pause today. Another important deadline is looming. And it matters to YOU.
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:::DownsizeDC.org is in the game for the long term. After the immigration vote is over and the next issue du jour is on our screen, your DownsizeDC.org will be here. After this candidate forum, heck, after the primary season is over, your DownsizeDC.org will be here.
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:::And we’ll be bigger — closer to the day when we’ll be so big that Congress cannot afford to ignore us.
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:::This week, we crossed the 19,000 level for subscribers to this list. We’re up almost exactly 700 net subscribers since the end of March. And our list has an Intensity Factor of 1,968 for the month of June. And we expect to top two messages to Congress per subscriber (the Intensity Factor) within the next 48 hours.
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:::And our monthly pledge level is

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the day:::::::”Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” — Niels Bohr::::::Subject: Vote coming on immigration bill?::::::It’s hard to predict, but the Senate may vote on the immigration bill this week. If that happens the key to the outcome is likely to be the amendment process. Some proposed amendments are good and some are bad. Some may make passage more likely, some may be poison pills. We must . . .

You can listen to this very hot show! It’s “attached” to this blog post in mp3 format. ::::::This was the hottest episode I’ve ever had for my ONE-HOUR Sunday show (actually 42 minutes!). ::::::* We took 16 calls! And somehow, we lost three others (SORRY Roy in MO, Jim in DC, and Anne, Chicago). :::* We read from 8 additional emails and we received 118 messages by the time I signed-off. ::::::Wow. We’ll get to the results in a moment. But first, thanks to my sponsor Gun Owners of America. ::::::The link for the “GOA Update” about the anti-gun immigration bill today was… :::http://gunowners.org/a062207.htm ::::::And that link contains another important link explaining how an anti-gun administration might use the powers found in the immigration bill to close down gun shops. ::::::OK, here’s the poll. ::::::I scored it in the following fashion…

Today’s Downsize DC Conference Call, a one-hour radio show hosted and owned by our own Jim Babka, but sponsored by DownsizeDC.org and Gun Owners of America, is your chance to “vote” in an informal poll.
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:::Who is your first AND _second_ choice for President? (Jim suspects he knows who will win this poll, so to make this more interesting, he wants to know your second choice).
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:::Which candidate scares you the most?
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:::Submit your answers by . . .

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch…::::::Quotes of the Day
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:::“There are two things you don’t want to see being made – sausage and legislation.” – Otto von Bismarck
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:::”A sausage factory in a third world country with no running water has nothing on today’s U.S. Congress.” – Gun Owners of America
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:::IN THIS ISSUE
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:::* How to Pass Gun Control
:::* New RTBA Coalition Members
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:::How to Pass Gun Control
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:::In the week of June 11 – 18, the House passed 8 bills totaling 183 pages. The Senate was preoccupied in an Energy Bill debate and passed just two bills totaling three pages. One bill the House passed is worth special mention, and underscores why we need the Read the Bills Act.
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:::On Wednesday, June 13, the House passed the first gun control legislation in nearly a decade, the 29-page H.R. 2640. They had to do it in a rush, in secret, so no one would know about it in advance. They had to do it by a voice vote, not a roll call, so no member of Congress would be held accountable.
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:::This new legislation will allow the federal government to acquire, from the states, information about gun owners. It will federalize background checks. It will make it harder for law abiding citizens to acquire guns to protect themselves from criminals, but it will have no affect at all on the criminals themselves, because criminals do not obey the law.
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:::This new gun control legislation was passed in a secret, underhanded, unaccountable way. As Gun Owners of America puts it,
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:::”At 8:30 in the morning an email went out to House Republicans indicating that a gun control bill, recently introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), was on the Suspension Calendar (normally reserved for “non-controversial” bills). Many Representatives didn’t see that email until it was too late. Less than three hours later, the bill passed by a voice vote. The bill in question, H.R. 2640, is a massive expansion of the Brady Gun Control law, the subject of many previous alerts by Gun Owners of America.” See the GOA’s full release here.

In today’s message, we’re looking for a few good people. We have two volunteer openings and one service we need, and we’d prefer to work with DC Downsizers.
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:::1) Web video production coach
:::2) Free market economist
:::3) Brokerage account agent
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:::I also have a radio interview this afternoon with Jerry Hughes. Details are below. First, let’s get to those positions . . .