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At the beginning of November I sent out a message from fellow DC Downsizer and nationally syndicated radio host Ian Bernard of Free Talk Live. Free Talk Live is a big supporter of Downsize DC. 

In fact, I’LL BE APPEARING ON HIS SHOW TONIGHT AT 7pm Eastern (6 PM Central, 5 PM Mountain, and 4 PM Pacific). 

You can listen live online or later via archive at freetalklive.com 

In the message from earlier this month, Ian asked you to take a moment and vote for his show at vote.freetalklive.com  

Many of you did and as a result

Here is today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::We know you’re all getting ready for Thanksgiving face stuffing, but . . . ::::::Before you eat you may want to consider what may happen to the vitamins you may take with your Thanksgiving meal, if S. 3546 is passed into law. ::::::Let’s say you feel really sick after eating, so you go to the ER. If S. 3546 becomes law the fine people at the ER may grill you about the supplements you took with your meal. Then, the manufacturers of those supplements will have to file an “adverse incident report” with the FDA, even if the reason you went to the ER had nothing to do with your supplements. ::::::How will all of this work exactly? Who knows. ::::::Will you have to carry a list of your vitamins and the companies that made them with you when you go to the ER, or will you have to call the hospital later, after you return home, to give them this information? Or will someone from the FDA call you to get the information? Who knows. ::::::These are all details and S. 3546 is short on details. The detailed rules and procedures will probably be written by the FDA later. but remember, the devil is in those details.

Welcome to this latest edition of “Last Week in Congress.”::::::The “lame duck” Congress had a (thankfully) brief three-day session between Election Day and Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, they will resume next week.::::::The Senate was particularly inefficient

The following letter is from Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland’s 8th District, replying to a Downsizer who contacted him via our No Warrant, No Search campaign

We’re doing something different in this edition of the Downsizer-Dispatch. We’re going to share some of my schedule with you.

Call this: “What I’m doing to Downsize DC today, and how you can help.”

Please note: There are some simple action items for YOU today.

At 2 PM . . .

Milton Friedman, RIP

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are promising “transparency and open government.” They want the people to believe that things will be different and that they’ll provide greater accountability.

Sorry, we don’t believe it.

* We expect big unread bills.
* We anticipate just as much logrolling.
* We think there will be several “last minute surprises.”

BUT WE’D LOVE TO BE PROVEN WRONG.

Flashback: September . . . Congress was headed out of town for the campaigns and elections break. We fought, alongside more than a dozen organizations, to prevent a particular vote from occurring in the Senate. The subject? Warrantless surveillance of Americans. Our goal was simple: Keep that vote from occurring until after the elections.

We succeeded.

But the work is not done. The fight continues as Congress returns TODAY for a “lame-duck” session. Are you ready to fight for your rights?

Should a warrantless spying bill pass, it will

Impeachment? That was the primary topic and we lit up the phones on this episode of the Downsize DC Conference Call on the Genesis Communications Network. We had seven emails and six callers, and turned two more away — in this less than one hour show! You can listen to this “smokin” episode, available in mp3, and attached to this blog post. The show is sponsored by Gun Owners of America, the Marijuana Policy Project, and DownsizeDC.org.

On Sunday, a human being registered to use our website, sent a message to Congress, and then “ran a script” on our system to generate nearly 50,000 pieces of spam through our server.

As a result, America Online has temporarily blacklisted us. AOL users probably won’t get this message.

We discovered the problem this morning. The offending registration has been deleted and the problem has been patched so the script will not work again. Our database was never compromised or at risk of being compromised.

Blacklisting means we cannot get emails through Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who recognize the problem and take action to block their customers from getting spam. There is a risk that others will blacklist us even today, but since the problem is now solved, with each passing hour that risk diminishes. We’re told the AOL blacklist will expire in roughly 24 hours.

Was this individual attacking us for our views?