Blog
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MEDIA ALERT: Downsize DC President Jim Babka will be on two national radio shows, one today (Friday), and one Sunday night. See the post script for details.
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Quote of the Day: “At the end of the day, we’ll have significant cost controls,” — presidential adviser David Axelrod
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Subject: We were overwhelmed yesterday
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When we tell DC Downsizers something is urgent, you folks really respond! Our site was overwhelmed yesterday. For a few hours many Downsizers found it almost impossible to load the site to send a letter to Congress. Others hit a brick wall trying to log in. Even so, a lot of letters were sent, and we’re now back on track to reach our “letters to Congress” goal for the month.
Quote of the Day: “If every member pledged to not vote for it (the health care bill) if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes.” — Senator Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader
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Subject: URGENT correction
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Yesterday we told you it appeared unlikely Congress would pass a health care bill before the August recess. Things have changed in the last 24 hours. Congressional leaders are once again pressing to rush the bill through.
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This is very dangerous. We must resist this with everything we’ve got. Not only will it be bad for the government to expand its involvement in health care, RUSHING to do so will be even worse.
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If they pass a bill containing nearly 1,000 pages you can be sure that almost no one voting for it will really understand it.
Quote of the Day: “Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” — Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
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Subject: Partial victory in health care fight
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The Democratic leadership wanted to ram through their health care bill before their August recess. They figured the faster they got the bill passed the less time there would be for opposition to build. That’s why it was a major goal for us to delay a vote on the bill until after the recess. Well…
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MEDIA ALERT: DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka will be a guest on Free Talk Live TONIGHT beginning at 7:06 pm Eastern. You can listen at http://freetalklive.com/tunein.php
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Quote of the Day: “If a bill for which there is no copy were to actually pass this body, could the bill without a copy be sent to the Senate for its consideration?” — Rep. Joe Barton
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Subject: The Real Deal
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Last week we told you about a proposed new ruling that would adversely affect the pocketknife industry. The proposal from Customs is 63 pages long. Opponents rightly complained that the 30-day window for public comments wasn’t long enough.
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However, compared to Congress, unelected bureaucrats are models of transparency. Consider how the House passed the Cap & Trade bill . . .
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- The House started debating the bill before even one copy of it was available, and while clerks were inserting another 300-page, last-minute amendment.
- The final House version is 1,428 pages
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Quote of the Day: “Today, the animating principles of the American idea are entirely absent from public discourse. To the new Administration, American exceptionalism means an exceptional effort to harness an exceptionally big government in the cause of exceptionally massive spending. The can-do spirit means … A high-school student in Dillon, South Carolina (writing) to the President to ask him to do something about the peeling paint in her classroom. He read the letter out approvingly in a televised address to Congress. Imagine if … the national bureaucracy in Washington becomes responsible for grade- school paint jobs from Maine to Hawaii. What size of government would be required for such a project? And is it compatible with a constitutional republic?” — Mark Steyn
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Subject: The FEC brief, our accelerating growth, and the latest insanity from the politicians
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We got a fabulous response to our funding request for a Supreme Court brief about the campaign finance laws. We’re writing a check to our attorneys, and work will begin. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In other good news…
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We’re growing so fast that we feel compelled to share the latest numbers with you in the main body of the Dispatch, instead of in the Keeping Score section below my signature, as we usually do. Look at these numbers…-
Quote of the Day: “But does ‘the press’ mean the media….? You think in 1791 there were … people running around with fedoras that had … little press tickets in (them)? Is that what ‘press’ means? Doesn’t it cover the Xerox machine? Doesn’t it cover the … right of any individual to … write, to publish?” — Justice Anton Scalia
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Subject: Supreme Court invites us to make our case
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Do you have a right to Freedom of the Press, or do only the New York Times and the major broadcasters have that right? As it stands now…
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- The major established corporate media companies can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing federal elections, but you cannot.
- You are subject to the limitations of the campaign finance laws, but media companies are not.
- The media companies have Freedom of the Press, but you do not.
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Quote of the Day: “Security is mostly superstition.” — Helen Keller
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Subject: Don’t let them pass the PASS Act
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The American people have rejected the REAL ID Act, and the national ID card it would create. The politicians claim they can fix REAL ID by replacing it with something called the PASS ID, to be enacted by the PASS Act, S. 1261.
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The PASS Act is a fraud. PASS ID is REAL ID by another name.
Quote of the Day: “The ground of liberty must be gained by inches.” — Thomas Jefferson (Source: cover of “Liberty” magazine, March 1998)
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Subject: We’re off to a roaring start
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We grew from 24,000 DC Downsizers to 25,000 in 176 days. Then we grew from 25,000 to 26,000 in just 59 days. Now, in just 8 days, part of which covers a holiday weekend, we’re already 50% of the way between 26,000 and 27,000. Incredible.
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We’re also 36% of the way to exceeding the number of new people who registered to use our Educate the Powerful System in June,
Media Alert: Tuesday, 7:10 AM Central, Downsize DC President Jim Babka will be on The Morning Big Show with Mike Cope and James Williams, KXYL, 96.9FM in Brownwood Texas. The live audio does not stream to the Net, but we’re told the interview will be posted to on the KXYL website after the fact. http://www.wendleebroadcasting.com/NT969.html
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Quote of the Day: “Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism” – Mary McCarthy
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Subject: When bureaucrats rewrite the law
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Customs) has proposed a ruling that would re-define “switchblade” to include all pocket knives that can be opened with one hand. In doing so, they are arbitrarily reversing their own previous rulings. Worse, they are ignoring Congressional intent, will throw thousands out of work, endanger tradesmen and outdoorsmen, and make potential felons of tens of millions of Americans. It is just the latest reason we must pass the Write the Laws Act and prevent unelected bureaucrats from making law.
DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka appeared on Freedom Watch With the Judge yesterday. Jim comes in by phone at around the 8:00 mark of the 5th segment and all of the sixth. You can watch the show here.
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