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MEDIA NOTICE: Jim Babka will appear on the Jerry Hughes show today. Check our blog for details on how you can listen in.
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Quotes of the Day: “No doubt we all could have been Rhodes scholars if only we hadn’t sucked on our pens, drawn hearts on our hands, and read our pre-1985 books. It is a miracle we survived thus far.” – blogger Deputy Headmistress
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“When kid’s dirtbikes are outlawed because of lead content, only outlaw kids will ride dirtbikes, er something like that.” – Tom Pearson
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Subject: Pointing Fingers
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If your preteen child aspires to be a dirt bike racer, safety concerns may race through your head. That’s understandable.
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But would lead poisoning be one of them?
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Incredibly, youth ATV’s and motorcycles have been banned by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) because of lead content. The Motorcycle Industry Council says this could mean losses of $1 billion in 2009 alone.
Quote of the Day: “Keep up the great work!! You have a wonderful website and I especially like your e-mail alert system… I am signed up on a few others and yours is always FIRST TO ACT!!!” — Ruth Kabitzke, a DC Downsizer from Iowa
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Subject: Our technical difficulties, plus, tomorrow’s message
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We know that not all Downsizers read the Dispatch every day.
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Yesterday’s Dispatch was especially important, so we’re repeating it below in case you didn’t get a chance to read it.
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For those who did read it we want to draw your attention to tomorrow’s message.
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We’ll be sharing a lot of shocking information about Congress’s recent, ill-considered regulation regarding lead content in American products. If you’ve had a recent problem using our Educate the Powerful System, could you please try to send a message on tomorrow’s action item using the work-around we described yesterday — that we repeat below?
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If the work-around is effective for you then you’re all set until we can put a permanent fix in place. If it doesn’t work, could you please let us know so we can try to get to the bottom of the problem? Thank you.
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Meanwhile, here’s the message about out technical problems, and the work-around, that we sent yesterday . . .
Subject: We apologize
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The Coca-Cola Company had New Coke. Microsoft had Vista. We have our new website.
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Many DC Downsizers have had problems with our new site. We sincerely apologize.
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Like New Coke, our redesigned site tested well before launch. Alas, it’s not serving us well.
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But we’re not standing pat.
Quote of the Day: “Ask and you shall receive.” – Jesus of Nazareth
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Subject: Our recruitment letter
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DownsizeDC.org is not yet five years old. On July 14, 2004 we sent our first message to someone else’s 11,800 member email list. Some loved us immediately, but most of them weren’t interested enough to stay with us to the present day.
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Over the years more than 60,000 people have had a subscription to this list at some point, some for only a day or two. Today, we have more than 24,400, and they are active.
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Nearly all of that growth has come from one source — DC Downsizers who have forwarded our Dispatches to other people.
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This is a very low-cost method of growth. It’s also very slow. Few people who receive forwarded Dispathes join (although there’s a huge educational benefit, so keep forwarding those messages). It’s time to start using new methods that could recruit new people 10, 20, or 30 times faster.
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One of those methods is direct mail.
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Direct mail is an old, low-tech tool. It’s also highly effective. It is the most effective form of advertising ever devised.
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We think the key to rapid growth is as simple as asking the most likely prospects to join our email list. Ask and you shall receive. Given sufficient funding we can use direct mail to ask hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of likely members to join DownsizeDC.org.
:::Here’s the letter we want to send. Please read it and think about how people who want smaller government are likely to respond.
Quote of the Day: “Procrastinate Apathy”
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Subject: Goals
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Thank you to scores of folks who responded to our requests for feedback on motivational growth goals. Your answers will inform our actions in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime . . .
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We want to address those who wrote to express despair and apathy.
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We understand how you feel. But we think it’s best to procrastinate apathy. There will be plenty of time to “do nothing” once we’re dead.
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For those who wrote to assert that the only hope lies in replacing all the politicians or enacting some favored reform, we respond, “You and what army?” If you don’t have an army, how will you replace all the politicians or enact your preferred reform?
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Still others wrote to say that sending messages to Congress won’t change anything. Here’s what we’re sure of: NOT telling Congress what you want won’t change anything either. Neither will sending too few messages. Neither will voting to replace one bad politician with another.
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And NO tactic or strategy can work if it is pursued by TOO FEW PEOPLE.
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We want what YOU want. BUT WE NEED AN ARMY TO DO ANY OF THOSE THINGS.
:::One thing your messages to Congress do change is
Quotes of the Day: “Government price-fixing once started, has alike no justice and no end. It is an economic folly from which this country has every right to be spared.” — Calvin Coolidge, 30th US President Source: veto of two bills establishing federal controls over agricultural commodities
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“If we didn’t have $21 milk last year, we wouldn’t have $9 milk this year.” – John Kaneb
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Subject: Milking us dry
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The politicians keep making big claims about how their big plans are going to achieve big results for the economy. Those tempted to believe these claims may first want to consider how well the government does with their smaller schemes. For instance . . .
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Did you know that the government sets minimum prices for milk? They claim that unregulated milk prices would fluctuate wildly, but consider these wild price fluctuations . . .
Quote of the Day: “Everything not specifically prohibited is mandatory.” — the fundamental principle of government
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Subject: Our prediction comes true
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The Congressional war against small business continues. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875) will create a new food safety bureaucracy, and require a “traceability” program for “food production facilities and food establishments.”
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These new regulations will drive many small farms and restaurants out of business.
Quote of the Day: “One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation” — Thomas Bracket Reed
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Subject: Smelling a rat
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We’ve argued that the stimulus bill was a money-wasting scam. But even the Title 15 provision designed to prevent waste turns out to be . . . another scam. This provision creates two new bureaucracies, the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel (RIAP), and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which we call the RAT Board.
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RIAP will have five members appointed by the President, the very person the board will oversee, so can it really be “independent?”
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It gets worse. The panel can accept gifts of services and property, and the RIAP’s Executive Director and other staff will be hired outside of normal civil service regulations and salary schedules; all can be paid as much as $143,500.
Quote of the Day: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” — attributed to Thomas Jefferson
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Subject: We still want to know what GROWTH goals would motivate you
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Yesterday we asked you to tell us what 2009 GROWTH goals would excite you? We’re starting to get responses. We’ll share what we learn soon. If you haven’t responded yet, please do. Reply to this message and tell us the following . . .
Quote of the Day: “In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.” — Henry David Thoreau
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Subject: What goals would motivate you?
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We want to hear from you. Specifically, we want to know what growth goals would motivate you to take greater action? Please leave a comment below and tell us the following . . .
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“If Downsize DC set a goal for 2009 of recruiting X number of new Downsizers, and bombarding Congress with X number of messages, I would be willing to put in extra effort to make that happen.”
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Also tell us the kinds of things you’d be willing to do to help achieve your goals, and let us know if it’s okay to share your thoughts with others in a future Dispatch.
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In the meantime, can we march to new heights in March?
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Let’s get off to a good start by pounding Congress on the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009.
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The House has