Yearly Archives: 2008

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Change the political environment. Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?”:::– Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Southey’s Colloquies on Society”:::::::::Subject: REAL ID loses in Montana::::::The federal government is slowly but surely losing the fight to impose REAL ID identity cards on the American people. The people do not want REAL ID. Fourteen other state governments have either neglected to authorize cooperation and implementation, or have passed resolutions of official opposition to the Real ID Act. ::::::In response, the Feds have tried everything. They’ve tried to bribe the states, offering money in return for compliance. They’ve tried extortion too, threatening to deny the states federal funds, or to make it impossible for their citizens to board airplanes.::::::None of these strong-arm tactics are working.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue”:::– Edmund Burke::::::Subject: Trying to meet our recruitment goal::::::We want to try something different today. We usually recruit new supporters as a result of current Downsizers forwarding these emails to others. Today we want to experiment with having you specifically ask people you know to join. ::::::In January we recruited 1,114 new Downsizers. Last month we recruited 1,160. This was one of our best two-month period ever. But it can be hard to maintain that kind of pace. So we’ve only recruited 497 new Downsizers so far this month. We’d need another 664 new recruits over the next 7 days to exceed last month’s result.::::::Can we do that?::::::It might seem difficult, until you consider that it would only take 3 new recruits per every 100 subscribers to this list. It’s entirely possible that we might recruit more people faster if you specifically asked others to join. So let’s give it a try and see what happens. ::::::Do you have friends who think the federal government is way too big, and needs to be downsized? Send them an email something like the following . . .

We have something special we want to share with you today — about the big Second Amendment case at the Supreme Court, DC vs Heller.
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:::Yes, today is Easter. Do we ever take a break? Well, can we afford to take a day off?
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:::Well, actually, yes, we’re taking a break (kind of). In my case, I’m going to spend much of my time celebrating this special day with family. But the work of shrinking government continues — and so does my Sunday radio program, the Downsize DC Conference Call.
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:::Fortunately, we have some quality programming in the archives, and we’ll be pulling out an “evergreen” episode from January where we talked about “the things that matter most… if we want to Downsize DC!” The show starts at 3:06 PM Eastern (2:06 PM Central, 1:06 PM Mountain, 12:06 PM Pacific).
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:::The show is on in Montana, West Virginia, and sometimes in Texas AND NOW Canton, Ohio, but the best way for nearly everyone in America to catch the show is at GCNLive.com.
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:::The Downsize DC Conference Call radio show is sponsored by DownsizeDC.org and Gun Owners of America.
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:::Today’s Gun Owners Update is being served up right here

Quote of the Day:
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:::“If we permit our constitutional rights to be watered down out of fear, we have given up our democracy. Congress must stand firm and defend the Constitution.”
:::– Dennis Kucinich
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:::Subject: Standing Up
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:::Every major telecom, except Qwest, agreed to help the federal government spy on Americans without warrant or probable cause.
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:::Two whistleblowers, Mark Klein and Babak Pasdar, have stepped forward and told us the spying was (and may still be) truly widespread, and that in Klein’s case, it went back more than a year before 9/11.
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:::And as if that’s not enough, the federal government has taken several steps to remove our rights and freedoms through fear. As writer/director William Lewis points out, the list includes, “The Military Commissions Act, which ended Habeas Corpus; The John Warner Defense Act, which ended Posse Comitatus; The Detainee Treatment Act, which protects torture; The Real ID Act rider attached to HR 1268, which will give us a national ID card; and a half dozen others . . .”
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:::And as if that’s not bad enough, we have a financial crisis brought on by gross deficit spending, monetized debt, and bad lending laws.
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:::All of these things must be addressed, and at DownsizeDC.org you can find a campaign to address most of these issues. But one issue looms bigger than all of these, and it’s this issue on which we ask you to focus today . . . 
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:::How can we begin to reverse the tide?
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:::Put another way . . .  What is our realistic strategy for actual change?
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:::Many of our ideas seem strange and are marginalized by the powers that be. We need an approach that will make our ideas familiar and accessible.
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:::Only one strategy offers real possibility of success. It’s the strategy of

Last month I posted on Ten Reasons to be Critical of the Federal Reserve. Well, here’s five more, from Bankaholic.::::::I’m not sure I agree with all of the criticisms, but they underscore two broad points. The first is, it is nearly impossible for the Fed to “make the right call” when reading the economy and managing the money supply, because the economy is too large and complex. ::::::The second is, trying to prevent short-term economic downturns will lead to far more serious long-term consequences, which we are now only beginning to experience. As long as the Fed exists, it would do well to focus on controlling the money supply to prevent inflation, rather than come to the rescue whenever some segment of the economy is struggling. Markets are better off correcting themselves.::::::And this underscores the need for reform. We can break the Fed’s monopoly over the money supply by passing Ron Paul’s Honest Money Act and Free Competition in Currency Act. You can tell Congress to pass these bills here.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Change the political environment. Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.::::::Quotes of the Day:::::::NINTH AMENDMENT: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.::::::TENTH AMENDMENT: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.::::::Subject: “Enumerated Powers Act” makes progress::::::The “Enumerated Powers Act” would force Congress to site its Constitutional authority for every law is passes. When we last reported to you on this bill in late January it had 38 co-sponsors. Since then the bill has gained 6 more co-sponsors. Perhaps the 8,328 messages Downsizers have sent in support of this bill have helped to create this progress.::::::Let’s keep pushing.

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Change the political environment. Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.”:::– Dave Barry::::::Subject: What you’re not being told about the current financial crisis::::::You can watch hours and hours of news, or read columns of print in most newspapers, and come away no wiser about the causes and prospects for the current financial turmoil.::::::Most journalists and TV talking heads don’t really understand the subject, and those that do speak and write using so much jargon that the average person must feel he or she is trying to follow a conversation in ancient Hebrew.::::::We’re going to try to cut through the jargon, and explain the situation as best we can, in plain English. If you find our explanation of value, please forward it to others.::::::The current housing crisis, and all that flows from it, comes from two main sources, both deriving from Washington.

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::President Bush and both houses of Congress have each proposed 5-year budget blue-prints. They are based on wildly optimistic economic projections, and revenues will probably not be as high as they expect. The plans also don’t include funding for the War in Iraq after 2009. We would be delighted if this means we’ve pulled out of Iraq by then, but that likely won’t happen. Today, however, we won’t be overly-critical, because these plans would reduce the federal government’s spending and debt relative to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We must encourage Congress and the President to continue in this direction.:::
:::Non-defense discretionary spending is one place each plan foresees some fiscal discipline. Currently, this part of the budget consumes 3.7% of GDP. President Bush projects it will fall to 2.8% by 2013 through a four-year spending freeze. While it probably won’t fall that low, we agree that freezing spending is the next best thing to cutting it. Bush’s plan is preferable to House and Senate plans that would increase spending slightly. Nevertheless, their increases fall well below the inflation rate, and they expect non-defense discretionary spending to fall to 3.2 or 3.1% of GDP.

What happened on the primary Presidential campaign trail, especially with candidate Ron Paul?   
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:::On today’s edition of the Downsize DC Conference Call, my Sunday radio show, I’ll be joined by political beat reporter David Weigel of Reason Magazine and Reason.com.
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:::David will share the agonizing, exhausting, and up-close story of the Presidential campaign — especially the successes and failure of the Ron Paul campaign.
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:::And I’m sure you’ve got some opinions on that! You can call 1-800-259-9231 or you can email me at “CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot ORG” (just type that out like it sounds).
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:::In addition, we’ll talk about the House bill foreign surveillance. On Friday, the House passed their version. It was, frankly, the best deal we could’ve hoped for — short of just leaving well enough alone and letting

Not terrible