Archives
This episode was previewed here.::::::My guests were Jason Kuznicki and Jon Rowe, of the blog PositiveLiberty.com. As of early November, I’m also a commentator there, and Positive Liberty is now part of our Read the Bills Act Coalition. ::::::We also did our Gun Owners of America update about the Law of the Sea Treaty. ::::::We had three callers and one emailer. You can listen to the show by downloading the mp3 “attachment” at the end of this blog post.
Congress is still attempting to fix and perfect the Protect America Act (PAA). We opposed this bill back in August. In haste, it was passed. It was a terrible bill that undermined the already tissue-paper thin privacy protections that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court provided.
:::
:::Some of you are sticklers for detail. That’s good. You should be. But the details in this case are a jumbled mess, full of technicalities. And we would be the first to admit, we don’t understand every detail. But we’ve posted a report on our blog that goes into greater detail about what just happened on the Senate side.
:::
:::But there’s good news, overall. We’re winning!
:::
:::Until last week, leaders of our coalition thought we were on the ropes. They thought a bill nearly as bad as the PAA was going to pass, with immunity for the major telecoms that permitted vacuum sweeps of their networks likely to pass as well. The immunity part was particularly discomforting because we’ve defeated this several times over the last two years.
:::
:::But then,
This message supplements and enhances today’s Downsizer-Dispatch (and so we recommend you read it first). ::::::THE SENATE… ::::::The Senate Judiciary Committee completed their “markup” of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) last week, and issued a bill. The Chairman, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, made a “strong move,” using his power as Chair, to amend the language on his own.::::::Leahy and the Judiciary Committee deserve some applause. Together, they adopted a series of amendments to the FISA Amendments Act that made significant improvements to the bill. Yet they rejected every amendment offered to weaken the civil liberties protections in the bill. Here are some of the improvements:
Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the Day:::::::“It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”:::
— Justice Robert H. Jackson, U. S. Supreme Court, “American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442” (1950)
::::::Subject: Don’t check out for Thanksgiving quite yet::::::We know everyone’s thoughts and energies are turning toward Thanksgiving. Ours too. But please don’t check out quite yet. Here’s why . . .
Today’s Downsize DC Conference Call, my one-hour, Sunday radio show, could be called “audio blogging.”
:::
:::Earlier this month, I joined the team of bloggers at PositiveLiberty.com
:::
:::It gives me an outlet to comment on things that are outside of Downsizing DC, as well as another outlet for telling others about Downsize DC. And I’ve been having fun.
:::
:::Two of my co-bloggers, Jason Kuznicki and Jon Rowe will be my guests for the hour. And this should be a different kind of show. You see, none of us listened to that sage advice to avoid discussing religion and politics. And to make things interesting tomorrow, none of us see eye-to-eye on religion, and although we basically agree on politics, we have some surprising differences.
:::
:::I expect to learn something new tomorrow. These guys teach me things all the time. I hope you’ll join me, not only by listening, but also by calling.
:::
:::Check out Jason’s and Jon’s posts at PositiveLiberty.com and then call with your best questions. The toll-free number is 1-800-259-9231. You can email the show at CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot org.
:::
:::Of course, we’ll also have a Gun Owners Update.
:::
:::The show starts at 4:06 PM Eastern (3:06 PM Central, 2:06 PM Mountain, and 1:06 PM Pacific).
:::
:::And the best way to listen is at GCNLive.com.
:::
:::Happy Listening,
:::
:::Jim Babka
:::Host
:::Downsize DC Conference Call
:::
:::P.S. On Monday morning I’ll be on Freedom Rings with host Kenneth John, on WRMN 1410 AM, Elgin, IL. My interview begins at 9:15 AM Central, and I’ve been told you’ll be able to hear it online by clicking on the words “Listen Live!”
This show was called How to End the Income Tax with my guest Michael Cloud who, along with Carla Howell, is petitioning for a ballot initiative in Massachusetts to end the state income tax. It was previewed here. ::::::You can listen to an mp3 of the episode by clicking on the “attachment” at the end of this post.
Sorry for getting this show posted sooo late. My bad. ::::::This episode was called Potluck, and was previewed here. ::::::And you can hear it by clicking on the “attachment” below.
“You can’t beat a Babka!”
::: – Jerry Seinfeld
:::
:::In this message . . .
:::
:::* Jim Babka to speak in New Hampshire in January
:::* Jim Babka to speak in Cleveland, tonight!
:::* HELP WANTED – Radio Ad Buyer
:::* Jim Babka on Jerry Hughes, today
:::* Jim Babka on air Sunday
:::
:::Now that’s a lot Babka!
:::
:::BABKA IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
:::
:::Jim Babka has been invited back to speak to the Free State Project at their Second Liberty Forum — Thursday January 3 to Sunday January 6, 2008 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Jim was the only “main ballroom speaker” from last year to be invited back this year. He’s proud of that. “They liked me; they really liked me,” said our gleeful President.
:::
:::His presentation will be, “How you can Downsize DC.” Jim will explain how you can overcome all the hurdles and barriers to make your belief in smaller government the winning side in the national debate.
:::
:::”Last year, I spoke to a packed house. The event was very well-attended. The people were positive. Boy, there are so many good things I could say about it,” said Babka. “Sue and I are really looking forward to returning.”
:::
:::Senator John Sununu will speak at the banquet dinner on Saturday night. He’ll be joined by a wide range of other speakers, including . . .
:::
:::* Carla Howell, the co-chair of the Massachusetts Initiative to End the (statewide) Income Tax.
:::* Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance
:::* Bernard von NotHaus, creator of the Liberty Dollar
:::* …and many more
:::
:::And Jim also expects Ian and Mark of the nationally syndicated radio show “Free Talk Live” to be set up, doing their broadcasts direct from the site.
:::
:::On top of that, Jim and his wife Sue (two Babkas!) expect to do another installment of “Breakfast with the Babkas.” We’ll have more to say about that in a future Dispatch.
Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::Quote of the Day
:::
:::”Demanding that the members of Congress take the time to know exactly what they are doing is NOT, in my opinion, a very outlandish or absurd request. It is a position that I think people of all political views can get behind. After all, who among us actually desires irresponsible government?”
:::- Libertarian Jason, Yearning to Breathe Free Blog
:::
:::Subject: Read the Bills Act
:::
:::If you want a bill passed, one easy way to score debating points is to accuse opponents of not reading it. Over the months, we’ve seen this tactic used on blogs and television. We’ve even seen it in Congress:
:::
:::”Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman from Texas, he obviously didn’t read the bill. I recommend that you read the bills before you get up on the floor and make a fool of yourself.” – Rep. Bill Pascrell, on the House floor speaking on behalf of the Trade and Globalization Assistance Act
:::
:::The first thing that springs to mind is, does Rep. Pascrell actually read all the bills he opposes? Does he even read all the bills he supports? If the answer is no to either question, he shouldn’t cast the first stone on a colleague.
Quotes of the Day:
:::
::: “The disclosure of the reports could have a tendency to encourage the public’s consideration of matters on the basis of misleading impressions.”
:::- An Australian bureaucrat
:::
::: “Yes, because nothing quite distorts public debate like the availability of relevant information.”
:::- Australian citizen Tim Dunlop in sarcastic response
:::
::: Subject: Is the USDA Attempting to Impede Watchdogs?
:::
:::Urgent action needed: the Senate may vote this week on legislation containing a NAIS provision
:::
:::DownsizeDC.org and 27 other groups signed a letter, distributed to every member of the United States Senate, calling for the rejection of a provision in the 2008 farm bill, which recently passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
:::
:::That provision, Section 10305, would criminalize disclosure of information from the USDA’s new proposed program, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
:::
:::As readers of the Downsizer-Dispatch know, NAIS is a program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which, if fully implemented, would require all farmers and livestock owners to individually identify their livestock animals and report each time any one of those animals are moved from one property to another, for any reason. This would impose a huge burden on family farms.
:::
:::The USDA says it is implementing the program to