October 2009
41 posts
WatchSex TV show in Japan
Schwarzenegger Flips Off Lawmakers in Hidden...
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is ticked off.
He’s tired of signing bills that don’t address the pet causes he deems important. So when another unworthy bill crossed his desk recently for signing — addressing funding issues for the Port of San Francisco — the guv vetoed it and sent lawmakers a little note saying why. Only the note said a little more than lawmakers were expecting.
...
October Progress Report
Media Announcement: Today
(Friday), Jim Babka is scheduled to appear on Straight Talk w/ Jerry
Hughes, 3:05 PM Eastern time (2:05 PM Central, 1:05 PM Mountain, 12:05
PM Pacific). Details are available at this blog post.
Subject: What you accomplished in October
With two days still to go, DC Downsizers have …
Sent 59,927 letters to Congress,
21,716 more than last month (and we’re...
The End of Statism (after its rise)
Quotes of the Day:
“The State is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.” — Frederic Bastiat, French economist of the 19th Century
“How did I go bankrupt? Two ways. Slowly, and
then all of a sudden.” — paraphrased from “The Sun Also Rises” by
Ernest Hemingway
“May you live in interesting...
Israel levels Palestinian homes
Israeli
authorities have torn down several Palestinian houses in occupied east
Jerusalem, defying international calls to halt the demolitions in the
disputed city. Gidi Schmerling, a Jerusalem municipality
spokesman, said the houses in the Shuafat, Zur Baher, Silwan and Jabel
Mukabar neighbourhoods were pulled down on Tuesday because they had
been built...
Duplicate yourself!
We’re near the end of October. It’s been a great
month. Let’s make it even better by creating a membership surge.
Personalized recruitment is the best and easiest way to do that, and
we’ve shortened and improved the email letter we use for that purpose.
Please send the following message to anyone you
know who would like the Read the Bills Act and the One Subject at a
Time...
Do you prefer a real audit, or a fake one?
We’re pleased to welcome BJ Lawson to the pages of the Downsizer-Dispatch as a Commentator.
Here’s BJ’s first call to action …
Your success promoting the Audit the Fed bills has scared the banking cartel into offering a fake alternative, the so-called Federal Reserve Accountability Act (S 1803).
Please send Congress a letter opposing S 1803, and favoring the real Audit...
McDonald's pulls out of Iceland
McDonald’s is to close its business in Iceland
because the country’s financial crisis has made it too expensive to
operate its franchise. The fast food giant said its three outlets in the country would shut - and that it had no plans to return. Besides
the economy, McDonald’s blamed the “unique operational complexity” of
doing business in an isolated nation with a...
F.B.I. Is Slow to Translate Intelligence, Report...
The F.B.I.’s
collection of wiretapped phone calls and intercepted e-mail has been
soaring in recent years, but the bureau is failing to review
“significant amounts” of such material partly for lack of translators,
according to a Justice Department report released Monday. “Not reviewing such material increases the risk that the F.B.I. will not detect information in its possession that may be...
US Religious Freedom Report Hits Speech Curbs
The U.S. State Department’s annual report on world-wide religious freedom, released Monday, was critical of what it says are international efforts to limit free speech in the name of combating defamation of religion. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, has been pushing such anti-defamation measures in U.N. bodies. The State Department report says the United States deplores...
Health Care and Cap & Trade both require the Read...
The healthcare bill and the cap and trade bill
both threaten to completely remake two of the largest sectors of our
economy. The President and Congressional leaders tell us these massive
makeovers are so urgent that these bills must be passed soon — so soon
that they can’t allow time to read them, even for 72 hours. But notice
…
They’re taking months to work out the...
GeoCities: The end of an era
If you’re internet age makes you too young to remember, way back in 1994 there was a little something born called GeoCities. I’d be very surprised if you hadn’t stumbled on a GeoCities eyesore at one time or another during your time online.
GeoCities, as the name does not suggest, was a pre-cursor to the Myspace phenomena where people could easily publish a web page for just...
Huge blast at Puerto Rico oil site
About
350 people have been evacuated from their homes on the outskirts of San
Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, after an explosion and fire at an oil
storage and refinery site.
Two people were hurt after the blast on Friday morning at the
Caribbean Petroleum Corporation facility, which supplies petrol and
other products to the US.
...
American belief in global warming plummets
Richard Fisher, deputy news editor Global warming scepticism among US citizens appears to be on the rise. According to a survey of 1500 people by Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press,
only 57 per cent of Americans believe there is solid scientific
evidence for global warming. In 2007, the figure was 77 per cent. The
decline has been sharpest among independent voters and Republicans. ...
Prisoner abuse cover-up passed under false...
The Homeland Security appropriations bill passed both houses of Congress. It had one good provision that we cover on our blog.
However, the bill also included a provision to cover-up the prisoner abuse crime we told you about last week.
This cover-up provision couldn’t have passed on
its own merits. That’s why the Congressional leadership attached it to
the completely unrelated DHS...
Copenhagen Treaty, Cap and Trade... Will...
Will President Obama sign a treaty in Copenhagen
this December that will give international bureaucrats control over the
U.S. economy?
Our own James Wilson has analyzed this issue on our blog.
The good news is that President Obama isn’t going
to Copenhagen to sign a treaty, but he may sign a proposal that could
lead to a treaty at a later date. The Copenhagen proposal is designed
to...
Dell refunds PC user for rejecting Windows
An enterprising PC user has been refunded on his copy of Windows, after he rejected Microsoft’s operating system and license
Reg Reader Graeme Cobbett was paid $115 (£70.34) by Dell after he bought a Studio 1555 notebook with Windows Vista already loaded and complete with a free upgrade to Windows 7.
Rather than accept the Windows 7 upgrade, though, Graeme installed Ubuntu-based Linux Mint...
Read the Bills: Hear Babka talk to Congressman on...
Hear Jim Babka talk to a Congressman on the Gary Nolan Show.
Jim and Gary want to discuss the “Read the Bills
Act” with this Congressman, and if time permits, the “One Subject at a
Time Act” too.
This is a rare opportunity to see how a member of
Congress reacts to these proposals in public, with a big audience
listening. We hope you’ll want to be a part of that...
REAL ID: Show Congress you're paying real close...
REAL ID: Congress is cutting the appropriation for the REAL ID national ID card — by $40 million. That’s good! But they’re still planning to spend $60 million on it in 2010. That’s bad!
Please send Congress a letter objecting to any further funding for REAL ID.
You can copy what I said in my letter to Congress …
I’m upset that Congress just appropriated...
More Questions For Congress
Two weeks ago, we asked you to write Congress about the Constitutionality of the War on Drugs. Some in Congress responded, but none answered our questions.
Even so, we must keep asking such questions. The
more we ask, the more nervous Congress will become. Eventually, they
will be forced to either answer our questions or admit publicly that
they don’t care what the Constitution says.
We...
Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro
Ben Bernanke’s
dollar crisis went into a wider mode yesterday as the greenback was
shockingly upstaged by the euro and yen, both of which can lay claim to
the world title as the currency favored by central banks as their
reserve currency. Over the last three months, banks put 63
percent of their new cash into euros and yen — not the greenbacks — a
nearly complete reversal of...
Is Your Bank Shorting the Dollar?
It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve sent
Congress a letter on a given issue, or even if you sent one yesterday
— every new fact we give you is a new opportunity to tell Congress
what you want. Seize the opportunity!
Send Congress another letter telling them to break the Federal Reserve’s monopoly control over your money.
My sample letter to Congress gives you three...
Start school at six, key schools report recommends...
Schoolchildren should not start formal lessons until they turn six, and Sats
should be scrapped to relieve the damaging pressure England’s young
pupils face, the biggest inquiry into primary education for 40 years
concludes today. In a damning indictment of Labour’s
education record since 1997, the Cambridge University-led review
accuses the government of introducing an educational...
More evidence that your pressure works
Your constant pressure can make a difference, as evidenced by this email we just received from DC Downsizer Nick Hasulak …
“I’ve used the Educate the Powerful system to
send probably over 30 messages to Senator Boxer regarding HR 1207/S604
(the Audit the Fed bill). As recently as August 27th, her response was
basically “I’ll keep your opinions in mind”....
Israeli youths reject army call-up
More
than 80 Israeli students have announced their refusal to serve in the
Israeli military because of what they call their nation’s track-record
of oppression in the occupied territories.
The conscientious objectors issued a letter declaring their
determination not to join up during a news conference in Tel Aviv in
protest against the...
If you trust them now you'll play for it later
Please send another letter to Congress opposing the Big Government health care bill.
Here’s what I said in my letter (you can crib from it for your letter) …
I don’t believe the cost report from the
Congressional Budget Office on the healthcare bill proposed by the
Senate Finance Committee. I do not believe the claim that any Big
Government health care scheme will reduce...
Give them leverage
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee set
aside Russ Feingold’s JUSTICE Act, which would have amended the PATRIOT
Act to protect civil liberties. It then replaced Senator Pat Leahy’s
already weak bill with an even weaker one.
Several safeguards found in the JUSTICE Act are not in the new bill The
Committee defeated amendments requiring evidence that targets of
business records...
Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership
While the energy of the anti-tax and anti-Big Government tea party movement may yet haunt Democrats in 2010, the first order of business appears to be remaking the Republican Party.
Whether
it’s the loose confederation of Washington-oriented groups that have
played an organizational role or the state-level activists who are
channeling grass-roots anger into action back home, tea...
Plutonium production site hosts radioactive rabbit...
Michael Marshall, reporter The more we find out about the Hanford site in Washington, which the US used to make plutonium in the early stages of the cold war, the more it sounds like a 1950s sci-fi B-movie. Earlier this year researchers discovered radioactive wasp nests, and the world’s first (more or less) weapons-grade plutonium turned up in a glass jar on a rubbish dump....
Why Can Foreigners Do What You Can't?
This week the UK Independent newspaper reported
that a host of countries are planning to abandon the use of Federal
Reserve Notes, for oil purchases.
You should ask Congress to give you the same
option for your own transactions. Otherwise, you risk losing everything
you’ve worked for.
Send another letter to Congress asking them to
repeal the legal tender law that forces you to do business...
Asking the Right Questions
Media Alert: Downsize DC
President Jim Babka will be the featured guest speaker on the
ValYou.org teleconference, tonight, at 9 PM Eastern. Call details are
made available to subscribers, and there’s a form to subscribe right there on the home page.
Quote of the Day: “Quality
questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better
questions, and as a result, they get better...
World's largest dino footprints found
Jessica Hamzelou, reporter A pair of amateur fossil enthusiasts have uncovered the world’s biggest dinosaur footprints. Found in the Jura plateau near the south-eastern city of Lyon, the prints are thought to belong to a giant vegetarian sauropod. The round prints are about one and a half metres wide, which palaeontologists at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)...
You should accuse Congress of fraud
We’re all exhausted by the
healthcare debate, but our exhaustion is dangerous. Congress may
exploit our fatigue to pass a bill that will change your life forever!
Do not relent …
Send Congress another letter opposing the boondoggle healthcare bill.
Here’s what I said in my letter …
The Senate Finance Committee finalized a healthcare bill without knowing what it will...
Don't read this if you don't care about the...
Quote of the Day: “I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.” — DownsizeDC.org co-founder Harry Browne (1933-2006)
Subject: Drugs and the Constitution
Our last Drug War Dispatch generated some concerned emails.
You can read our response here.
What we didn’t mention in the previous Dispatch was the Constitutional problem of the War on Drugs....
Surgeons offer eyesight tailored to an...
There are sportswear firms offering bespoke trainers and funeral
companies that sell personalised coffins, but this latest extension of
Savile Row principles may shock even the staunchest devotees of mass
customisation.
Laser eye surgeons are now offering tailor-made corneas. Two decades
after the first laser eye treatment in Britain, in November 1989, the
quest for perfect vision has been...
US commission urges broadband socialism
By Rik Myslewski Comment A long-awaited US report studying access to online information was released Friday. One of its recommendations is that the government radically step up its efforts to ensure broadband access to all. The report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, was developed in a partnership of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen...
Here's What We Want to Tell the Media
Subject: Our first press release to the national media
Your work has made “reading the bills” a national issue. You
accomplished this with zero help from the media. Now Congress and other
groups are piggy-backing on your work, attempting to steal both your
steam and your thunder, pushing non-reforms like H. Res. 554. Do you .
. .
* Want to stake a claim to the results of your work...
Increase In 'Academic Doping' Could Spark Routine...
ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2009)
The increasing use of smart drugs or “nootropics,” to boost academic performance, could mean that exam students will face routine doping tests in future, suggests an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Despite raising many dilemmas about the legitimacy of chemically enhanced academic performance, these drugs will be near impossible to ban, says Vince...
Falling in Love… Creatively
Does falling in love make us more creative? According to a new study, the answer may well be yes, because love makes us think more “globally” (sex, meanwhile, has the opposite effect — triggering local processing).
Scientific American has the write up:
“Why does love make us think more globally? The researchers suggest that romantic love induces a long-term perspective, whereas sexual...
Whatever happened to "presumed innocent?"
Quote of the Day: “While few
would argue that criminals ought to be able to keep the proceeds of
their crimes, civil forfeiture allows the government to seize and keep
property without actually having to prove a crime was committed in the
first place… . Proceeds from civil forfeiture at the state and
local level usually go back to the police departments and prosecutors’
offices,...