Yearly Archives: 2007

DownsizeDC.org is one of 60 groups that signed this letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:::::::September 25, 2007::::::Senator Harry Reid:::Majority Leader:::United States Senate:::Washington, DC 20510::::::Dear Majority Leader:::::::We, the undersigned privacy, civil liberties, government openness and faith-based organizations, write to ask you to insist on public hearings on any proposed legislation to alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before either the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence or the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on such legislation. Public hearings with Members of both committees on any proposed legislation involving surveillance that affects the rights of people in the U.S. are greatly needed.::::::This opportunity for public examination is essential.::::::This is especially crucial in the aftermath of what happened in August when substantial changes to FISA, crafted by the administration, were passed by Congress without any public hearings with anyone other than administration witnesses speaking to Senators.

422 pages considered within twenty minutes.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“With $10,000 we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things. Like love!”:::– Homer Simpson::::::Subject: And now, a word for our sponsors::::::So far this month we’ve . . . ::::::* Recruited 727 new DC Downsizers. :::* Pounded the powers that be with 31,974 messages. :::* Transmitted 318,746 educational Dispatch emails.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch::::::Amplify your voice. Forward this message to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“It is not because a part of the government is elective, that makes it less a despotism, if the persons so elected possess afterwards, as a parliament, unlimited powers. Election, in this case, becomes separated from representation, and the candidates are candidates for despotism.” :::– Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part II.::::::Subject: How the calendar will help us, and how it can hurt us::::::A Senate majority voted last week to restore habeas corpus, which is the right of all persons detained by the government to challenge their detention in a court of law. ::::::Sadly, more than a majority, 60 votes, was needed under Senate rules. We fell 6 votes shy. Too many Republican Senators stuck by the President. ::::::Is this bad news? Not so much. We predict that the aging of the calendar will make all the difference. Republicans will continue to stand with the President, because that’s what the GOP base wants, but we expect this to change once the primary elections are over.

8 callers and roughly 70 emails on the subject of impeachment. ::::::Final vote count (as of the close of the show), 66 for impeachment and 9 1/2 opposed (the half, as described on the program, supported only the impeachment of Cheney). Three of the opposed also stated their opposition only to DownsizeDC.org getting involved in the issue — seeing it as a distraction from the Read the Bills Act and the rest of our agenda. ::::::Also, a Gun Owners of America update on the gun-haters attempt to take gun rights from veterans who suffer from battle fatigue. ::::::The show is “attached” to this blog post in mp3 format.

The Downsize DC Conference Call is a not just a radio show; it’s a national conversation. To impeach or not impeach; that is the question.
:::
:::If a President can get away with unconstitutional behavior (with “high crimes” and/or “misdemeanors”), what signal does that send to his (or her) successors?
:::
:::Should THIS President (and/or Vice President) be impeached?
:::
:::Oh, and here’s a question for you . . .  Should DownsizeDC.org call for this impeachment?

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Amplify your voice. Forward this to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::We’ve featured this quote a lot. We need to do so again . . .::::::“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”:::~ George Orwell::::::Subject: Your questions answered::::::Our readers have been asking questions. Here are some answers . . .

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Congress passed relatively few bills last week, as each chamber took a couple of days off.  [The bills are listed at the bottom of this message, below my signature] Most of the bills named a piece of federal property after a particular individual. For instance, one bill designated a portion of Interstate Route 395 “Cal Ripken Way.” Congress passes hundreds of bills like that every year. In their final, printed form, these bills are usually one page each.
:::
:::We like one-page bills. They are the next best thing to no bills at all. They are short and to the point. But there’s something odd about this process.   
:::
:::You see, the Senate also passed H.R. 3074, a 164-page bill funding Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and “related” agencies, costing taxpayers many tens of billions of dollars. If it takes a separate bill every time Congress wants to name a stretch of road or a post office after somebody, shouldn’t Congress also have a separate bill to fund each federal department and agency?
:::
:::When Congress passes a large, multi-subject funding bill, we know that most members probably didn’t like many parts of the bill, yet felt obliged to vote for it in order to keep “essential” services running. We also know that the larger the bill, the less likely it was actually read before Congress passed it. This means the taxpayers were not represented. This means they were cheated. That is why we need the Read the Bills Act.
:::
:::Under the Read the Bills Act, each bill must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and the Senate. This will force Congress to write shorter bills, which means they will stop combining unrelated subjects into the same bill. Unpopular provisions couldn’t be secretly inserted into otherwise popular and necessary legislation. Moreover, each bill will be posted on the Internet for seven days before being voted on, so there will be time for Congress to receive feedback from the people.

Amplify your voice. Forward this to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” ::: — James Madison::::::Subject: Congress to vote on important bill::::::Congress may take action this week to change the so-called “Protect America Act” which permits warrantless Federal spying on American citizens. ::::::We are joining a number of organizations to write and call Congress this week requesting that they repeal this law, and/or change it in specific ways, as follows . . .

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Amplify your voice. Forward this message to others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“It is incumbent on a great nation to remain confident, if it wishes to remain free. We need not be ignorant to real threats to our safety, against which we must remain vigilant. We need only to banish to the ash heap of history the notion that we ought to be ruled by our fears and those who use them to enhance their own power.”::: – Congressman Ron Paul::::::Subject: Bill to restore habeas corpus, plus, more on Iran::::::Senators Leahy and Specter are pushing a bill to restore habeas corpus for prisoners of the so-called war on terror. They are the ranking Democrat and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. They have the institutional standing to bring their measure to a vote.