5th October 2011

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Should Congress Impeach the President?

Quote of the Day: ”It isn’t illegal if the President does it.” — Richard M. Nixon

We have re-launched a campaign to impeach the President. The sample letter below will explain why we have done this.

WARNING: Those who maintain partisan loyalties may wrongly believe we are pursuing this campaign for partisan reasons, or out of personal animosity for the President. Nothing could be further from the truth. We want to make this clear …

• Our organization is legally non-partisan, and temperamentally ANTI-partisan.
• We distrust all political parties, and all politicians.
• We take NO position for partisan political reasons, for the simple reason that we have NO partisan political loyalties, AT ALL. 

Instead, we are doing this because we think the legal situation requires it. The sample letter below will explain in more detail. But … out of respect for those who may disagree … we are placing this campaign on the “Heresies” page on our website. As always, you are a free to disagree with us, and to tell us you disagree.

On the other hand, if you strongly support our position, you may want to help us notify the media about it (see more details below the sample letter).

The hardwired portion of this campaign’s letter to Congress reads …

Please begin impeachment proceedings against the President.

I have added the personal comments that follow. Assuming you agree with our position, you may copy or edit my comments to send your own letter to Congress…

I’m asking you to impeach the President because I believe he is guilty of murder. The President ordered the military to kill an English-speaking, natural-born American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki (ah-law-key), using a drone missile. 

This is illegal. No citizen can be harmed by any agent of the state except through the application of legal due process (Fifth Amendment). President Obama violated this requirement. This makes him a murderer.

The only legal redress available when the President becomes a criminal, is impeachment by Congress. Therefore, the rule of law requires that you make use of this procedure now.

You may think that the President deserves the benefit of the doubt in this case, just because he is the President. I believe the exact opposite.

With great power comes great responsibility. The President must be held to an even higher standard, precisely because he is the President, and exactly because he has so much power over the lives of others. No person with the power to order missile attacks on individuals can operate free from the strong constraints of legal due process.

Remember, the President, and every other agent of the state, including all members of the military, were required to presume that Awlaki was innocent. The President assumed otherwise, and took upon himself the powers of a vigilante, making himself the judge, jury, and executioner (Separation of Powers).

The President has failed to honor his legal and moral obligations, so now the responsibility falls on you. You must use the impeachment process to prosecute the President for murdering an American citizen.

I well understand that the thought of this action must make you squeamish. I understand that you operate in a hypocritical and lawless environment, where citizens are held to high legal standards, but politicians are allowed to get away with anything and everything (except perhaps posting naked pictures of themselves). I understand that nearly all members of Congress violate the law, especially the Constitution, nearly every day. But this situation is unique …

* An American citizen has been murdered
* Congress, for once, is not complicit in the crime
* So this is Congress’s chance to be on the right side of the law for a change
* Democrats can show that they aren’t partisan hypocrites by leading the charge
* And Republicans can show that they’re through excusing wanton criminality in the name of national security

I am waiting to see if the political class will hold itself to the same standards you constantly apply to “mere citizens.” The President has confessed to murder. Impeach him.

END LETTER

You can send your own impeachment letter to Congress here. 

This morning, during the 9 AM hour, DownsizeDC.org issued a press release to thousands of media outlets.

Your contribution can help us send more releases. 

Perry Willis
Vice President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. A call for the impeachment of any President is considered by many to be an overt partisan act. But it’s NOT in this instance. DownsizeDC.org President, Jim Babka, explains why on our blog.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

27th September 2011

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Take His Gold

Fact of the Day: Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 on April 5, 1933, “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States”. The order criminalized the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation. 

Statists hate gold. Gold weakens their power to monopolize your money. This is one reason we’re proud of our relationship with Bill Haynes of CMI Gold & Silver.

Bill is helping us make budget this month, by offering a matching pledge. We still need to raise another $1,480 over the next 4 days, to reach the goal, and take all of the money he’s offered us.

I’m proud to be one of Bill’s customers. The things Bill sells — gold and silver — can help all of us defend ourselves against the ravages of statism (just like Downsize DC does). I have purchased silver coins from Bill — though not nearly as much as I wish I could.  

I want to protect my family from inflation. I want to be prepared, should things gets ugly. I believe owning precious metals is part of that preparation.

I hope DC Downsizers are doing the same thing. Just think how much more credibilty and influence we’ll have if we’re personally ready when the statists cause the next economic calamity. So, not only do I hope you own some gold and silver, I hope you consider Downsize DC part of your self-protection portfolio too.  

Thus far this month, DC Downsizers have invested $3,520 in NEW one-time contributions and NEW monthly pledges. And Bill has matched them. 

But $1,480 remains, and we’re at risk of losing it.

If there was someone reading this who could give $1,000, or two individuals who could give $500, we’d almost CERTAINLY make the goal.

But permit me to fantasize for a moment… 

Contributions of all sizes help. But they become investments in our future when they’re made as monthly pledges. We have dozens who put in as little as $1 per month. Hundreds of people give more than that, all the way up to $250 per month. 

Those pledges are THE FOUNDATION on which we build this organization. Thanks to pledgers, we can plan ahead.

And it would be TREMENDOUS progress for DownsizeDC.org if the remaining $1,480 gap we need to fill came in ENTIRELY in new monthly pledges.

Whether one-time, or monthly, will you see to it that DownsizeDC.org doesn’t miss out on the remaining (and very achievable) amount of $1,480?  

Let’s do it today, with three days to spare in September!

Thank you for your support, 

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc. 

P.S. The mailing address for checks, as well as the PayPal contribution link, can be found on our secure contribution page. If you’re sending a check, please hit reply, so we can add it to the count BEFORE it arrives.   

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

27th August 2011

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Hurricane Irene Could Sprout Bumper Crop Of Magic Mushrooms

Everyone knows the potential destructive power of hurricanes, but few people are aware that storms like Hurricane Irene encourage growth of psychedelic mushrooms.

Yes, it sounds trippy, but one of the strange aftermaths of a hurricane is an increased amount ofmushrooms popping up — especially the psilocybin — or “magic” kind — the ones that cause hallucinations.

According to Dr. Casey Simon, an addiction expert based in Orange County, Calif., hurricanes create the perfect climactic conditions for the mushrooms to grow.

“Mushrooms are spores and they multiply in moisture and are spread by wind,” he told HuffPost Weird News.

Dr. Suneil Jain, a naturopathic physician in Scottsdale, Ariz., goes even further.

“The moisture, humidity, the wind and the temperature during hurricanes is the perfect climate for mushrooms,” he told HuffPost Weird News. “Also, both hurricanes and mushroom growth are associated with new or full moons, so there may be a lunar element as well.”

Jain says, generally, psychedelic mushrooms are noted by their bluish-gray stems, but stresses that many mushrooms can be toxic and ones picked in the wild should not be consumed unless they’ve been examined by an expert.

However, despite the hallucinogenic effects, he says that magic mushrooms are relatively safe.

“These substances have been used for centuries, with just a handful of cases of addiction, or long-term problems,” he said. “Generally, they are fairly benign.”

Recent studies by Johns Hopkins University suggest psilocybin mushrooms may have medical benefits, and Jain is one of those who believes the findings could have a positive impact on humanity.

“There is evidence that it can help in treating OCD, body dismorphia issues and even marital problems,” he said.

Simon says the real danger of the mushrooms isn’t the psilocybin.

“Some mushrooms can attract a fungus that makes them more toxic,” he said. “It looks like a gray mold on the under side. Just a few differences in temperature can make a difference.”

Jain says that’s why experienced mushroom experts pick mushrooms when they are as fresh as possible.

“The optimal time to pick is right after the storm before the other elements can affect them,” he said.

Still, the news that the whole East Coast of the U.S. could soon be awash in ‘shrooms is bound to get every hippie worth his hemp sandals and hacky sack on the hunt for a new high.

Mushrooms are likely to pop up in locations where bark is used for decorative landscaping, like industrial parks and government offices, according to ethnobotanist Clark Heinrich

It’s important to emphasize that wild mushrooms — both mind-altering or not — should not be consumed willy nilly, but Jain hopes to use the fact that so many potentially medicinal mushrooms will soon be popping up all over the East Coast as a way to raise a discussion about an aspect of the medical-pharmaceutical industry he doesn’t like.

“There are a lot of medicinal plants that [have health benefits],” he said. “For instance, the main ingredient in statin drugs comes from red yeast rice. But instead of focusing on the plants that can heal, medical science tries to find the active ingredient, change it slightly and then market that so they can charge a lot.”

“Besides that, singling out one ingredient in the plant, like psilocybin, doesn’t take into account that everything in the plant, and that they all work together.”

David Moye