Monthly Archives: December 2008

While our attention is elsewhere . . .

Quote of the Day: “A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.” — William O. Douglas, (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Source: New York Times, 20 January 1980

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Subject: While our attention is elsewhere, the sins of the past become entrenched

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Can you remember when our biggest concerns were . . .

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  • The war in Iraq and the threat of war with Iran
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  • The Patriot Act
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  • Torture
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  • Habeas corpus
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  • Warrantless spying
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  • The REAL ID Act
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It was just a few months ago.

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Do we still care about these things? We should. These issues are now more dangerous than ever, because . . .

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What is a troubled asset?

Quote of the Day: “[The bailout] was socialistic in every way. It  rewarded market failures. It ripped off average families for the sake of billionaires. It was the worst form of Keynesian planning. It was an open conflict of interest, as the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs funneled vast sums to Goldman Sachs. It had exactly zero chance of helping the economy. In fact, by draining productive private resources necessary for economic recovery, it makes a bad situation worse.” — Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. 

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Subject: What is a troubled asset?

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When Congress passed the Big Bailout they thought they were giving the Treasury Secretary nearly a trillion dollars to save the credit markets by purchasing and re-packaging bad mortgage securities.

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Secretary Paulson didn’t deliver the plan he sold. Instead, he invested $250 billion in the nation’s largest banks. 

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And now Paulson has declined to spend the final $350 billion of his authorization.

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This means that only $100 billion of the original $700 billion Bailout will have gone to purchase bad mortgage securities.

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Don’t get us wrong. We like it when the government doesn’t spend our money. But we won’t applaud Paulson for “fiscal responsibility.”

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The Great Citibank Robbery of ’08

It’s been said that, “Taxation is theft.” Perhaps then, this is a parable about government bailouts…
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:::The government gave Citibank (CITI) a bailout package of $306 billion — $20 billion in cash, and the rest in loan guarantees to cover the last 90% of their losses.
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:::The stock itself closed at $3.70 on Friday November 21. One week later, “Black Friday,” it closed at $8.29.
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:::And the only thing that changed was the government bailout, which drove up the price of CITI stock. . .

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November results

Quote of the Day: “Utopia is not one of the options.” — David Bergland 

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Subject: November results

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November was a good month. We . . .

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  • Recruited 654 new Downsizers, up 350 from November of last year.
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  • Sent 27,398 messages to Congress, up 21,075 from the same time in 2007.
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In addition, we’ve already covered a huge chunk of our 2009 operating budget of $186,000. We have …

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  • Top-down pledges from major donors of $10,801
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  • Bottom-up monthly pledges with an annualized value of $2,020
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  • Add in our wonderful current monthly pledgers and the promise to finish-off the campaign with $50,000 by two major donors.
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  • That means we’re ONLY $26,179 away from having all of basic 2009 expenses paid for!
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  • Nearly every cent above that amount will be focused on OUTREACH and RECRUITMENT
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But all is not completely rosy with our scenarios.

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