Chris Weber predicts a return to the Gold Standard

The following is Daily Wealth's latest advice on Gold. It start's with a scary question: "Will the government confiscate my gold?" and goes on to explain why it won't happen.

Will the Government Confiscate
My Gold?
By Chris Weber
December 4, 2008

I get this question from time to time, and I suspect that it is something many people worry about.

After all, gold was confiscated back in the 1930s. Why couldn't it happen again? To answer this, we have to go back a few years to show how different things are now.

First, gold was money back then and had been money for thousands of years. In the U.S., that practice went back to the Constitution. The founders had lived through the ruinous paper money inflation of the American Revolution and were resolved that the printing of paper money unbacked by gold or silver would never happen again.

Now, fast forward to America's biggest economic crisis, the Great Depression. When it started, the U.S. was still on the gold standard. People could take their paper money to banks and convert it into gold coin or bars at the old price of $20.67 per ounce.

But this put a crimp on the government's ability to inflate. And the new president, Franklin Roosevelt, came into office believing that massive new paper money and credit creation was the way to get the country out of the depression.

So he believed that gold would have to be removed as money. On March 6, 1933, just two days after he came into office, he barred banks from paying gold to depositors. One month later, on April 5, he outlawed what he called "hoarding" of gold. All gold coins had to be taken to banks and exchanged for paper money, at the price of $20.67 per ounce, with two exceptions – each person was allowed to keep no more than $100 in gold coins, and rare coins were not included.

So now we come to the situation today. Gold is no longer regarded as money in any legal sense. Almost no one has even seen or held a gold coin, or certainly less than 5% of the population. Since 1933, money is whatever paper value either the market says it is or the government says it is. There is no more legal tie to gold.

This is a first in human history. Earlier suspensions of the link between gold and money were short and to be gotten over with as soon as possible. But when the world went off the gold standard in the 1930s, it never went back on. Needless to say, inflation has soared since then. The paper dollar has lost over 95% of its value.

Today, however, unlike 1933, there is no reason for the government to confiscate gold. Indeed, the government is even minting it and selling it. It can't sell gold fast enough, and there are shortages.

(If, for some crazy reason, the government decided to confiscate gold, I doubt many people would comply. The gold would go into hiding and trade in an underground economy, the way illegal drugs do today.)

Gold was confiscated in 1933 because everyone thought of it as money. They used gold as money, and this situation made it impossible for the government to inflate, because you can't print gold.

Now, nothing stands in the way of the government's ability to inflate. The central banks have been doing it at record rates during the last few weeks in order to avoid deflation.

But I think future inflation will so ravage the value of the U.S. dollar, as it did during the American Revolution and the Civil War, people will demand that once again the dollar be backed by gold.

In the world economy I see emerging today, income and cash are going to continue to be sought after. Short-term interest rates will eventually rise, giving your cash a better return. But particularly, you'll be happy to have your gold and precious metals.

Good investing,

Chris Weber

Thanksgiving Message from Downsize D.C.

Here is another messege from DownsizeD.C. about their Close The Gap Campaign.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Downsizer Dispatch <downsizer-dispatch@downsizedc.org>
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Subject: We're About to Go Dark
To: mvfipher@gmail.com

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

---

Subject: We're about to go dark . . .

. . . for the Thanksgiving holiday. But before we go we'd like to ask you to conduct a thought experiment.

Remember, this is a thought experiment -- we're not asking you to actually do this. Quite the contrary. Here it is . . .

If you had the time and energy to go door to door in your neighborhood, explaining to your neighbors the benefits of the "Read the Bills Act" and the "One Subject at a Time Act," how many of them do you think would say . . .

"Hey, I like that."

And of those who responded positively, how many do you think would be willing to support RTBA and OSTA by signing up for a FREE membership with DownsizeDC.org, and a FREE subscription to the Downsizer Dispatch?

* The number who would like RTBA and OSTA would probably be huge
* The number who would want to join Downsize DC would be a subset that

But how much of a subset? More importantly, how many would have to say yes for you to feel good about asking?

More important still, how many would have to say yes in order to be significant to your Congressperson?

If all of your neighbors, and all of the people in the other neighborhoods in your district, had heard about RTBA and OSTA, how much support would RTBA and OSTA garner in polls?

What impact on the thinking and actions of your Congressperson do you think these poll results would have? And what impact would such polling numbers have on potential Challengers for your Congressperson's seat?

At what point does your Congressperson see his or her failure to introduce or co-sponsor RTBA and OSTA as a threat to his or her re-election? 

At what point does your Congressperson see widespread local support for RTBA and OSTA as an opportunity to secure his or her job by introducing or co-sponsoring RTBA and OSTA?

If you think RTBA and OSTA are something most people would support, then the challenge becomes to let everyone in your district know about RTBA and OSTA.

If you think a relatively small portion of RTBA and OSTA supporters could supply enough pressure on your Congressperson to make these proposals issues of concern to him or her, then the challenge becomes to recruit a sufficient number of people in your district to apply the required pressure.

Do you want to do this by going door-to-door in your neighborhood? Do your neighbors really want to stand at their doors listening to you explain RTBA and OSTA? The answer to both of these questions should be no. It takes too much time to walk door-to-door, and it's too invasive to solicit support in this way. It's also too hard. We want something EASY.

END OF THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

So what is the easiest way to reach the point where everyone in your district knows about RTBA and OSTA, and where there are Downsize DC members all around you? Email is the cheapest way, but it isn't the fastest. What we need is something with high response rates. What we need is to . . .

Hire your mailman to do the work for us. He's already going door-to-door anyway, so his mailbags might as well contain a letter introducing people to RTBA and OSTA. Here's what will happen if we do this . . .

* Everyone will see the words Downsize DC, "Read the Bills Act," and "One Subject a Time Act" on the envelope -- think of it as a micro form of billboard advertising
* Those who read the letter will learn about RTBA and OSTA
* Some of them will decide to send us their email address and become members of Downsize DC
* A few will enclose a few dollars so we can send more letters to more people
* Some will get really excited and send larger contributions
* As our membership grows, we'll be able to hit non-responders more than once -- repetition does work
* As we make further progress, we'll have enough members to use other tactics too, like radio and TV ads in targeted districts, picking off members of Congress one by one

Eventually, the benefits to you will be . . .

* Everyone around you will know about RTBA and OSTA
* Fellow DC Downsizers will be all around you too

All we need to do to begin this plan is raise our very modest 2009 budget of $186,000. Two DC Downsizers have committed $50,000 to make this happen. Monthly pledges presently account for $97,000 of our annual budget. In the past couple of weeks other DC Downsizers have joined them with commitments and monthly pledges totalling $12,457.

That means we only need $26,543 more to get started on our ambitious yet realistic outreach program.

To discover how you can help reach the goal . . .

* From the top down with a larger pledge that you'll fulfill when the goal is met
* Or from the bottom-up with a monthly credit card pledge
* And how you can get your own, bold, "I Am Not Afraid" T-shirt with which to silently evangelize at your local grocery or hardware store . . .

GO HERE and learn more about our Close the Gap campaign!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. T-shirts begin shipping next week, right after the Thanksgiving holiday. You really should check them out.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
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CONTRIBUTE to the Electronic Lobbyist project

http://www.DownsizeDC.org is sponsored by DownsizeDC.org, Inc. -- a non-profit educational organization promoting the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets, and small government.

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fipher.blogspot.com
http://www.globalpeacefestival.org/
http://www.downsizedc.org
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/
http://www.upf.org

I.O.U.S.A. on Oscar Shortlist, National Debt on Twitter, and more

A chance to expose how extremely in debt our country is.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peter G. Peterson Foundation <info@pgpf.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:15 PM
Subject: I.O.U.S.A. on Oscar Shortlist, National Debt on Twitter, and more

In This Newsletter I.O.U.S.A. Makes Academy Award Short List | Follow the Debt on Twitter David Walker Roll Call Special | The Government We Deserve I.O.U.S.A. Makes Oscars Short List For Best Documentary Feature We're proud to announce that our critically acclaimed film I.O.U.S.A. has just received another honor - and with it, the film is now a step closer to earning one of the highest awards a documentary can receive. I.O.U.S.A. is officially on the short list for an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category. The film, directed by Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon (Wordplay), is among the 15 documentary features that will now advance in the voting process designating the final five nominees for next year's Academy Awards. An Academy Award nomination would be more than just an honor for I.O.U.S.A. With the audience that the broadcast attracts - more than 30 million for last year's ceremony alone - an Oscar nomination would be another chance to show the entire nation just how alarming our current economic situation really is. Watch I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized - The 30 Minute Version of I.O.U.S.A. So continue spreading the word about I.O.U.S.A., and then watch to see if the film earns a coveted position as one of the final five nominees. The Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009. The 81st Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009. For more information about I.O.U.S.A., or to view our 30-minute "byte-sized" version of the film online for free, visit www.IOUSAtheMovie.com. National Debt Clock Ran Out of Digits Now Follow the National Debt on Twitter. In October, the National Debt Clock in New York City ran out of digits because of the escalating fiscal burden on our government. The clock serves as a reminder to everyone who passes that the government owes more to the public (in the form of Treasury bills and savings bonds), and more to itself (in the form of money it borrows from one pot to spend on another) with each passing single day. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation has found a way for everyone to follow the debt using Twitter at http://twitter.com/nationaldebt. What is Twitter? Twitter is one of the newest social networking services through which each user answers the question "What are you doing?" using 140 characters or less. The answer to that question is known as a "tweet," and it's visible by those who "follow" you. By "following" others, you'll get their latest updates. It's free, easy to use, and by "following" the national debt on Twitter, you'll receive a daily "tweet" of the national debt as reported by the Treasury Department. Although this official number is the most commonly-cited national debt, it doesn't scratch the surface of the actual federal fiscal burden. Click here to learn more. Visit http://www.twitter.com/nationaldebt to start following the national debt today, and whether or not you're on Twitter please help spread the word! Congress, New President Must Put Our Fiscal House in Order By David Walker, Special to Roll Call Great challenges can bring great opportunities, and the current economic crisis is no different. As President-elect Barack Obama considers how best to turn the economy around, he needs to focus not only on today, but also on how to return the country to a more fiscally responsible and sustainable path over time. Our nation's short-term budget deficits will unavoidably get worse before they get better, due in large part to the current recession, recent and future "bailout packages," and a likely dose of additional economic stimulus that hopefully will be targeted, temporary, and reasonably sized and structured. As a result, Obama will need to juggle competing demands in a much tougher budget environment than he and his economic team anticipated during the campaign. Read More... David Walker is the President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, and served as the United States Comptroller General and head of the General Accountability Office (GAO) from 1998 to 2008. You can read David's bio here. The Government We Deserve By Gene Steuerle At last the election is over. Yet there is no rest for the weary. Not two hours passed before President-elect Obama was being called upon to act. Many demand that he immediately propose reforms to their favorite programs, especially those he supported during the campaign. Yet the most dangerous thing he can do at this point is to jump into making individual, one-off policy decisions, especially before he's got a full budget picture of how everything adds together - not just for this year, but for the eight years he hopes to be President. Read More... Gene Steuerle writes The Government We Deserve column regularly, and serves as the Vice President of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. You can read Gene's bio here. *You are receiving this e-mail because you registered at www.PGPF.org or www.IOUSAtheMovie.com, or because you signed up through another site to receive messages from the Peterson Foundation about the fight for fiscal responsibility. If you feel you are receiving this message in error, or if you would prefer not to receive e-mails from us, please click here to immediately unsubscribe.

Press Release for END THE FED in DC, Please Help Circulate

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2008
CONTACT:
Debbie Krueger not12submit@gmail.com
Jordan Page jordanpagemusic@gmail.com
Adam Kokesh adam.kokesh@gmail.com

Growing Movement Strikes at Fed in Washington, DC

National “END THE FED” day of protest calls for sound monetary policy and an end to bailouts

On November 22nd, commemorating the secretive conception of the Federal Reserve System, a growing movement of citizens concerned with this country's fiscal policies will gather in 39 cities nationwide at each Federal Reserve location to demand an end to the Fed, return to sound monetary policy, and an end to corporate bailouts. In Washington, DC, they will gather across the street from the Board of Governors of the Fed at 20th and Constitution at 1pm. Denied a permit to protest on Federal Reserve grounds by the Fed's Public Affairs Office on the basis that it is private property, the rally with a stage and amplification system will be held across the street with a permit granted by the Parks Department. National coordination is being provided by Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic (restoretherepublic.net) and more information can be found at endthefed.us.

Speakers will include Gary Franchi of Restore the Republic to discuss his organizational plans for furthering this issue and the duty of all patriotic Americans to get involved. Kevin Zeese, former US Senate candidate, current Executive Director of Break the Bailout, (breakthebailout.com) will talk about building a broad coalition to stop further “theft from the taxpayers.” Anthony Teolis, veteran of the First Gulf War, member of Veterans For Peace (veteransforpeace.org) will show how the Fed is the primary enabler of our destructive interventionist foreign policy. Rick Williams is a founder of BreakTheMatrix, (breakthematrix.com) and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Basic Media, Inc. From the Center for Economic and Social Justice, (cesj.org) Norman G. Kurland, President of the Board of Directors, and former Congressman, the Hon. Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy will outline an alternative just economic system. Paul-Martin Foss, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Ron Paul, will explain pending legislation H.R. 2755 and what the movement can do to support it.

Organizer Debbie Krueger is a former Marine, and a mother of 5, living in Delaware. She was a real estate agent, when she witnessed the bottom dropping out of the housing markets across the country, and decided something needed to be done. Her research led her to the conclusion that the Federal Reserve System is at the heart of the crisis. “I am devoting my time to help shed light on the Federal Reserve, and to find solutions that will bring us back to financial policies that will benefit Americans the most."

Co-organizer and performer for the rally Jordan Page is a young poet, singer/songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and social commentator who has become an outspoken voice promoting freedom and liberty. The hyper-inflation of American currency, the funding of worldwide interventionist military policies, the unconstitutional income tax, the recent bailout, and the engineered economic depressions the Fed causes have all motivated Jordan's involvement in this most historic citizens' movement. “Please stand up for the Constitution on November 22nd and help us to support HR 2755 calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.”

Adam Kokesh will serve as master of ceremonies at the rally. He is from Santa Fe, NM and served in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and has been a vocal critic of the war since leaving the US Marines. He has continued to honor his oath to support and defend the Constitution by taking on those he sees as its domestic enemies, especially the Federal Reserve System. He has also advocated various forms of nonviolent resistance including not paying taxes. “As long as the Federal Reserver System has the power to create money from nothing, the individual income tax is nothing more than a means to oppress and enslave the American people. As with all forms of tyranny, Americans have a duty to resist this injustice.”

# # #

"Why Ron Paul Would Have Beaten Obama"

Rep. Dr. Ron Raul would have won the election had the GOP backed him instead of Sen. John McCain.  Again, I think Sen. Obama will be great for the country and the world as far as foreign policy is concered and I am sure God will work with him, but Rep. Paul would have been just as good in that area, PLUSS he would have been a true savior of our economic troubles.

Below is a link to an article explaining why Rep. Paul would have beaten Sen. Obama, along with a comment I made on the article.  In posting this here, I am trying my best to follow my own advice given the fact that I'm in Norge (Norway) and will most probably be living in this socialist's haven until 2013 or 2014.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scragged. com <noreply@scragged.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 1:57 PM
Subject: New Comment for "Why Ron Paul Would Have Beaten Obama"
To: "mvfipher@gmail.com" <mvfipher@gmail.com>

A new comment was just added to:  Why Ron Paul Would Have Beaten Obama

Go to article

Christopher D. Osborn said:

What a great article! We aught to get as many Republicans to read this as possible! We should be printing this out and handing it out in the streets NOW so that when 2012 comes around the GOP will know who to call on.

In Liberty,
Christopher D. Osborn
fipher.blogspot.com

at November 18, 2008 6:57 AM

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Best regards to you and yours,

Christopher D. Osborn
fipher.blogspot.com
http://www.globalpeacefestival.org/
http://www.downsizedc.org
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/
http://www.upf.org

History Rymes

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Downsizer Dispatch <downsizer-dispatch@downsizedc.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Mark Twain was right
To: mvfipher@gmail.com

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

---

Quote of the Day: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." -- Mark Twain

Subject: Educate the Powerful!

Mark Twain was right. History doesn't repeat itself, exactly, but often the present does rhyme with the past.

Sadly, the evidence for this is now all around us.

Too much of what the politicians are currently doing rhymes too well with what the politicians did during the Great Depression.

Then, as now, the politicians blamed the economic downturn on the free market. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

The government caused the Great Depression. Even Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, agrees. Here's what he said at the celebration of Milton Friedman's 90th birthday in 2002 . ."I would like to say to Milton (Friedman) and Anna (Schwarz): Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it."

Predictably, government schools don't teach this view. Instead, they teach that . . .

The depression became Great because President Hoover was an advocate of laissez-faire economics who did nothing to intervene. In fact, Hoover was the first president to ever make major interventions in the economy.

The economist Bryan Caplan lists 21 Hoover interventions.

Another economist, Murray Rothbard, has described how President Hoover was the true creator of the "New Deal" approach for which FDR later claimed dubious credit.

Caplan and Rothbard are not alone in this. Roosevelt aid Rexford Guy Tugwell was to say years later . . .

"We didn't admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started." (Source: Paul Johnson, A History of the American People -- New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997, p. 741)

Even FDR himself agreed that Hoover had intervened, he just disagreed with the interventions. During the 1932 presidential campaign Roosevelt repudiated Hoover's meddling, saying . . ."The doctrine of regulation and legislation by 'masterminds' ... has been too glaringly apparent at Washington during the ."

And during the 1932 presdiential campaign Roosevelt constantly criticized Hoover for his huge deficits, promising instead . . .

* "immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures"
* "abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating bureaus and eliminating extravagances"
* "reductions in bureaucracy"
* Implied tax cuts
* And a "sound currency to be maintained at all hazards."

We aren't taught that Roosevelt promised these things. Instead, we're taught that FDR's heroic interventions saved the free market from itself.

But what did his interventions actually achieve?

* The depression became Great under FDR's guidance.
* It lasted more than a decade.
* Prosperity never returned while he was President.
* The economy only recovered after Roosevelt was dead and buried

Even FDR's own economic team knew that his New Deal interventions had been a complete failure. Here's what FDR's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morganthau, admitted to Congress in May, 1939 . . .

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

It's significant that Hoover and Roosevelt were the first to intervene in the economy. Previous downturns had always been allowed to run their course, lasting from a few months to a couple of years. But the first one the politicians tried to stop is the one that lasted more than a decade, and that really hit hard.

If government intervention worked, then why did the 1929 depression become Great, when none had before?

It ought to make you angry. The injustice is so clear. The politicians caused the problem, blamed it on the free market, and then benefited from the disaster they had created by grabbing vast amounts of power and money.

And now it's happening again. History, sadly, is rhyming.

We're being told that the economic downturn resulting from the housing bubble is a market failure, and that massive government intervention is needed in all directions. But the truth is this . . .

* Government housing policies and easy credit from the Federal Reserve caused the housing bubble.
* Companies and individuals who made bad decisions based on these policies should pay the full price for their mistakes
* None of them should be rescued
* The politicians should not intervene

In short, the politicians should stop pursuing policies that rhyme with those pursued during the Great Depression.

In addition, the advocates of Big Government should be asked . . .

* Why, precisely, was the first economic downturn in which the government intervened the only one that became so bad that it earned the name of the Great Depression?
* And why is it, precisely, that the major areas of American life where the government has intervened to make things more affordable -- such as health care, higher education, and housing -- are exactly those areas where costs have risen the most?

Government intervention does not work. It does not make things more affordable, it makes them more expensive. It does not prevent economic downturns, it causes them, and deepens them.

Please use our Educate the Powerful System to tell your elected representatives to stop the bailouts, NOW.

And then do something to make them smarter . . .

Paste this Dispatch into the section for your personal comments and send it to them. Maybe there are a few Congressional staffers who will learn something.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

CONTRIBUTE to the Electronic Lobbyist project

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Fwd: How to Cure Political Loneliness

Latest DownsizeDC.org project: the cure for political loneliness amongst liberty minded individuals (Libertarians, Constitutionalists, True Conservative Republicans, etc.) I really think it might work. Too bad it costs money and I have none to give.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Downsizer Dispatch <downsizer-dispatch@downsizedc.org>
Date: Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 6:02 PM
Subject: How to Cure Political Loneliness

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

---

Quote of the Day: "In the long run men hit only what they aim at." -- Henry David Thoreau

Subject: How to cure political loneliness

* How many Americans want smaller government?
* How many Americans would support the "Read the Bills Act" and the "One Subject at a Time Act," if they were introduced to them?

In today's Dispatch we'll answer the first question, and explain how we can use $50,000 in pledges made by two generous donors to answer the second question. We'll also tell you how you can see and receive our new "I Am Not Afraid" t-shirt.

We start by tipping our hat to David Boaz at the Cato Institute for constantly calling attention to the kind of data we're going to share below, and to Ramesh Ponnuru for providing a good recent summary of this information.

CBS pollsters have been asking the following question for decades, "Would you say you favor smaller government with fewer services, or larger government with many services?"

From 1996 through Jan. 2001 the smaller-government side had an average lead of a whopping 20 points. This lead has slipped in the current decade, but as of March-April of this year the sides were tied.

For most of the past three decades a majority of Americans (often a vast majority) have favored smaller government. And even now, when the propaganda drumbeat for more government in areas such as health care and the financial system has been extremely loud, the support for smaller government is close to a majority, according to this poll.

But there are other polls . . .

A similar Washington Post/ABC poll tells the same story. Public opinion swung strongly toward smaller government in the 1990s, and then back the other way in this decade. "But smaller-government has maintained a consistent advantage!"

According to this poll, as of June 2008, the public still favors smaller government 50% to 45%. But there's more . . .

For many years Gallup, ABC and the Washington Post have asked Americans, "is government trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses" or "should government do more to solve our country's problems?" The answers have usually been in favor of smaller government . . .

* By 8-points in September 1992
* By 12-points in October 1998
* By 7-points in September 2002
* And by a whopping 12-points this September, during the height of the financial hysteria!

But it gets even better, because these poll questions are actually rigged in favor of the big government position, and we still win anyway! As David Boaz points out, these poll questions offer a benefit of larger government (more services) without mentioning the cost (higher taxes).

A fair poll question would mention both the cost and the benefit for each side. Has any polling operation asked the question this way? The answer is yes. When Rasmussen asked the balanced version of the question the results were . . .

* A whopping 64% in favor of smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes,
* 14% undecided
* And only a tiny minority of 22% in favor of more government and higher taxes

But these results are even more inspiring than they seem. What's truly amazing is that the vast majority of Americans favor smaller government in spite of the fact that . . .

* They all learned in government schools that government is the font of all things good
* The drama-mongering media constantly promotes the idea that the latest "crisis" is a cataclysmic danger that only government can solve
* Tax-funded "intellectuals" in our universities are constantly at work, pimping for the State
* Politicians spend billions every election telling us that they are the answer to every problem

The case for small government is hardly ever heard by anyone, and yet it still wins in the minds of the American people!

Can you imagine what could happen if our message was heard to the same extent as the propaganda for big government?

How can we make this happen? We think it would only take the organized assistance of a small portion of the 50-60% who already favor smaller government. How could these people be recruited and organized? We have a simple idea -- JUST ASK THEM!

We want to . . .

* Rent lists of politically engaged people
* Send them a letter describing RTBA and OSTA
* Ask them to join Downsize DC for free, by subscribing to the Downsizer Dispatch
* Make a pitch for funds so we can send more RTBA/OSTA letters to more potential recruits

We think this simple plan could make the Downsize DC Army grow very rapidly. Two major donors agree and have pledged a total of $50,000 to help ignite this fire. Their $50,000 is the final piece necessary to raise our entire 2009 budget of $186,000.

At present, we raise $97,000, annually, through monthly pledges (and the rest through one-time donations, with little to spare for advertising outreach).

To get the $50,000 in major donor pledges, and to achieve the goal all we need is the help of our supporters to "Close the Gap" of $39,000.

There are two ways you could help . . .

Close the $39,000 Gap from the top down by making a large pledge in concert with the two supporters who have pledged $50,000. Could you join them by pledging something on the order of $1,000, $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, or $20,000?

If you choose this route, with a minimum $500 donation, you won't have to fulfill your pledge until we have all the money raised. That way there's no risk of your contributing a large amount and then wondering if the goal will really be met. When the goal is met we'll tell you, and only then cash your check or process your credit card.

Better yet, we'll use your pledge, along with the $50,000, as a matching fund to encourage smaller donations to help Close the Gap from the bottom up. If you want to join our top donors by making a larger pledge please go to our secure contribution forms and choose the page for top down pledges.

On the other hand, if the above amounts don't fit your budget, could you help Close the Gap from the bottom up by making a smaller cash donation, or by starting a monthly credit card pledge? You can do this using the special secure contribution form we've created for this fundraising drive. Pick the bottom up page.

Please note, smaller bottom up contributions and monthly pledges are immediate donations, not pledges to be fulfilled later. It's a cash or credit card contribution now. In return, we'll send you a special gift as our way of saying, "Thanks."

Everyone who makes . . .

* A one-time donation of $76 or more, or . . .
* A new monthly pledge of $12 or more, or . . .
* A $5 or more increase to an EXISTING monthly pledge . . .

We'll send you our new "I Am Not Afraid" t-shirt (you can see a picture of the t-shirt on the contribution page).

Thanks to the help of our two enthusiastic donors we're suddenly $50,000 closer to being able . . .

* Tap intro the vast majority that favors smaller government
* Benefit from the wide appeal of RTBA and OSTA
* Grow at a very rapid rate

All we need to get that final $50,000 is raise another $39,000. We hope you can help.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. There is also a Downsize DC lapel pin available for higher levels of support. And, IF YOU'RE CURRENTLY PLEDGING MORE THAN $50 PER MONTH, just tell us your T-shirt size, and we'll send you one as our way of saying thanks for all that support. See the special Close the Gap contribution form for details.

P.P.S. If tax-deductibility is important to you, or you wish to donate securities, you can make your contribution to the "Downsize DC Foundation."

P.P.P.S. Also, in terms of closing the gap, a monthly credit card pledge is worth the amount of the pledge times 12 months, so this is a particularly powerful way to help Close the Gap.

P.P.P.P.S. If you're going to send a check please print out one of the forms for this in our secure contribution pages. Our mailing address is located on both the Top Down and Bottom Up form.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
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Gold Still A Good Buy

Here's an article from an investment email list I subscribe to about how Gold may still be a very good investment.

Where to Start When You Want to Buy Gold
By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud

"You think people were surprised when gold hit $1,000 an ounce," a
legendary investor told me this week. "Wait 'til they see $5,000."

As we talked, this investor could hardly hold back his enthusiasm. You
see, he has spent his career finding crises, then buying assets at the height of
panic.

Normally, he does this far away from Wall Street in emerging markets.
And he's done it many times in his career. But now, for the first time, he's
thinking about coming to the States.

Most Americans wonder what will happen next. They have never seen anything
like this before. But my friend has seen it many times. He explained it
simply:

"In crisis, banks want safety," he told me. "So they get rid of
potentially nonperforming assets at any price. They don't care what they get, or
how much they lose on a property, for example... They just want to get it off
their books."

Having seen this many times in emerging markets, my friend is convinced the
Great Inflation is coming to the States in the next few years. The last time we
saw double-digit inflation was in 1981. It could get even worse this time
around. "It's already happening," he says, pointing to the U.S. money supply
figures, which have shot up over the last few months. "It will just take time to
ignite."

My friend is buying gold. One of his holdings is 100-year-old gold
coins. He has many millions of dollars worth of them. He has personally
experienced bank closures and currency revaluations, which have nearly
bankrupted some of his businesses.

So he owns physical gold. This is not like money in the bank. The
government can easily seize your bank account... or devalue your currency... or
confiscate your retirement account (which just happened in Argentina). It's much
more difficult for a government to mess with your physical gold – if it can even
find it.

For years now, I have been recommending 100-year-old gold coins. The
price of gold has more than doubled since I started recommending them. And so
have the prices of these gold coins.
It's not too late to buy. Relative to
their meltdown values, rare coins are cheap. But I don't think that's going to
be true for long...

People are finally catching on to the idea of holding physical gold.
Plain gold bars and "bullion" gold coins (coins that don't have value as a
collector's item), which should sell close to melt value, are in short supply.
You either won't be able to buy them at all... or you'll have to pay an
outrageous price for delivery at some undefined date.

Gold dealer Kitco has stopped selling 18 types of silver and gold bullion
coins and bars. The company's not even sure how long it's going to take to fill
orders that are already in. And bullion gold, which is only worth its melt
value, is now selling at premiums not seen since Y2K caused a market
panic.

So I much prefer the rare gold coins... the 100-year-old ones in near mint
condition. With bullion, you only make money if gold goes up. But with rare
gold, you can make money two ways... if gold goes up and if the "collector's
premium" over melt value goes up.

I've heard from a lot of readers who don't know how to start investing
in gold coins. Professional Coin Grading
Service has a website with lots of information, including a link to www.coinfacts.com, which is a good starting
point. If you want a book, Coin
Collecting for Dummies is actually a good starting place, even if you don't
think of yourself as a collector.

I am comfortable pointing you in the direction of a few honest dealers, who
have taken good care of my subscribers for many years. Van Simmons, in
particular, is a mentor of mine (www.davidhall.com). Dana Samuelson and his
team (www.amergold.com) have done my
readers right for years as well, as have Michael, Glenn, and Rich at Asset
Strategies (www.assetstrategies.com).

The Great Inflation is coming, my friend says. And he knows better than
anyone. He believes gold could hit $5,000. So as a part of his portfolio of
assets, he owns millions of dollars of 100-year-old gold coins.

"People told me I was crazy when I was buying them," he told me. "But
the gold was mine, outside of any bank. And now I've made triple-digit
profits."
My friend believes this is just the beginning for gold. Do you have
some gold, or gold coins, in your portfolio? Maybe you should...

Good investing,

Steve

As for my own recomendations for where to buy Gold, I'm not expet at all, but I like the Liberty Dollar as it can actually be used in some stores across the United States, including one place on Martha's Vineyard in Vineyard Haven, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, as Steve said, good investing.

Christopher D. Osborn
Posted from Bergen, Norge

Fwd: The Revolution March!!! (End The Fed! Rallies Nov. 22nd)

Below is an email I received about rallies which will be being held all across the nation on November 22nd, 20888 advocating an end to the Federal Reserve, the bank which has the monopoly on the United States banking and monetary system.

If you'd like to learn more about the Federal Reserve and alternatives to it, check this out: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/edu/sound-money.php

Another spot you can learn more about the Federal Reserve and other ways you can help the cause to have it dismantled, I recommend going here:
http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/85
It start's off telling you a bit about some laws they want to get passed, but if you scroll down a bit it gives loads of information on how the Legal Tender Law creates a monopoly and how the FRN monopoly works.

Here's is the forwarded message.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Revolution March
Date: Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 12:11 AM
Subject: The Revolution March!!!

The Revolution March!!!

End The Federal Reserve Rally! Posted: 08 Nov 2008 12:06 AM CST November 22, 2008: End the Fed! Rallies for Sound Money Will Highlight Unconstitutional Monetary System On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation's leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken."From "Secrets of the Federal Reserve", by Eustace Mullins. So began the dark conception of the Federal Reserve System, a creature which many economists and Constitutionalists argue is responsible for devouring the political and financial wealth of America. The U.S. Dollar has seen a better than 98% decline in its purchasing power since the time of that meeting at the exclusive resort on Jekyll Island, Georgia. G. Edward Griffin summarizes here: "The purpose of this meeting on Jekyll Island was...to come to an agreement on the structure and operation of a banking cartel. The goal of the cartel, as is true with all of them, was to maximize profits by minimizing competition between members, to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the field, and to utilize the police power of government to enforce the cartel agreement. In more specific terms, the purpose and, indeed, the actual outcome of this meeting was to create the blueprint for the Federal Reserve System."From "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin On November 22, 2008, ninety-eight years later, there will be rallies at every Federal Reserve Bank and office in the country. Activists will demand an end to private banker control over the nation's money supply and the return to a hard, commodity backed monetary system. Their slogan is simple and direct: "End the Fed! Sound Money for America!" End the Fed! activists believe that the Federal Reserve Bank, through its inflation of the money supply and the distortion of free markets resulting from its intervention, is responsible for the current financial and economic crisis. They also hold that the current round of "bailouts" and federal government nationalization of large segments of the financial sector further inflates the US dollar and disrupts the proper functioning of the markets and will ultimately serve to plunge the nation into an even more severe crisis, quite possibly even into a serious depression. End the Fed! supports the passage of Representative Ron Paul's legislation which would repeal the Federal Reserve Act, H.R. 2755. Rallies will be held in the following 39 cities: Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Baltimore, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis, Helena, Kansas City, Denver, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Washington, D.C. The End Begins November 22nd Sign Up Here: http://www.EndTheFed.US End the Fed! Organizing Sites:Meetup: http://www.RonPaul.Meetup.com/186Facebook: http://apps.new.facebook.com/causes/121483 Find Your Local Group:End the Fed: http://www.EndTheFed.US/organize.phpRestore the Republic: http://www.RestoreTheRepublic.net Ning: http://endthefedusa.ning.com Cool END THE FED! and Liberty Themed T-shirts and Stuff:http://www.endthefed.us/order.htmlhttp://www.cafepress.com/RonPaulBook PLEASE FORWARD AND POST THIS EMAIL EVERYWHERE!

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Post Election Reactions, Part 1

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h November 4th, 2008

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Quote of the Day: "Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right." Source: "Minority Report" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 [1956]), p. 222

Subject: A state of permanent preparedness for impeachment

It's Election Day. What should we say about it? We're tempted to declare it a day of mourning, but instead, we're going to argue that today is the day to adopt a state of permanent preparedness for impeachment.

As of yet, neither a Democrat nor a Republican has been elected President. That outcome will be revealed later today. But before that happens, we should commit ourselves to closely monitor the actions of the new President, and to be ready to call for his impeachment, should that become warranted.

We should be prepared to do this regardless of partisan loyalties.

What warrants impeachment? Different people will have different standards. We plan to maintain a running "bill of impeachment," listing broken laws, Constitutional violations, and abuses of power. It will be up to you to agree or disagree with the items we choose to list, and to decide whether or not any one item or group of items justifies impeachment.

It's possible, given your level of sensitivity, that the new President could do something on his first day that would immediately warrant impeachment in your eyes, or that he will never do enough bad things to justify such an action.

The call will be yours.

Some people reasonably object that impeachment is too vulnerable to partisan ax grinding. There are also many things for which a president could be impeached of which the impeachers themselves will be guilty. It is precisely these concerns that prevented us from advocating the impeachment of President Bush. But . . .

We have come to believe, after long consideration, that this was a mistake on our part. President Bush should have been impeached. In our view, he richly deserved it, as have many previous presidents, both Democrat and Republican.

The Founders provided impeachment as one of many checks on government power. In doing so they were painfully aware of the dangers of faction, or what we call partisanship. They must also have known that no president would ever be impeached by a saintly Congress. But they provided for the impeachment power anyway. We think we know why . . .

Unchecked government power is so toxic that it must be limited by every means available. Impeachment is one tool for doing so, even when it is tainted by partisanship and hypocrisy.

Which is better, to allow a president to run wild, or to check his criminality through impeachment, even if the impeachers are hypocrites with partisan motives? We would choose the latter outcome.

But there is one other factor to consider. The mere threat of impeachment could itself regulate presidential actions, long before formal impeachment proceedings became necessary. This is especially true if the President and Congress begin hearing a growing cry for impeachment from a large number of citizens.

Calling for impeachment, when each of us feels it is justified, could serve as a powerful warning to both the President and Congress.

As of today, there is no "bill of indictment" for an impeachment proceeding. No such list can even be compiled for the new president until after January 20, 2009. But what we can do today is warn Congress that we intend to be vigilant this time. Toward that end . . .

We've created a permanent impeachment campaign, where we will list, if necessary, any potentially impeachable offenses by the incoming president. In the meantime, the message-to-Congress for this campaign reads as follows . . .

"I'm serving notice that I'll be watching the actions of the incoming president very closely. Should he break laws, violate the Constitution, or abuse his power, I'll be urging you, early and often, to start impeachment proceedings."

If you like the idea of maintaining a "permanent state of impeachment preparedness" then use our Educate the Powerful System to send this message to Congress.

If you feel that President Bush should have been impeached, then you could, if you wish, use your personal comments to state this opinion, and any supporting justifications you care to mention.

This is the most appropriate action we can suggest on Election Day.

Thank you for being a member of the growing Downsize DC army.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

My comments: Sounds like a good idea, but I don't think we'll be needing this provision in the next 4 years. I really hope I'm right.

The Heritage Foundation November 5th 2008

Dear Christopher,

We conservatives have our work cut out for us to hold back the liberal tide, and The Heritage Foundation is prepared to fight back.

Liberals have expanded their control of the Congress, and they have won control of the White House too.

The Left is sure to claim a mandate to impose its radical agenda on America—from the economy to energy to the war on terror, from the Supreme Court to taxes, health care and education.

If we are to fight back against the liberal onslaught, we need your support today. Our goal is to raise $80,000 towards this effort by November 15.

Help Heritage fight to defend conservative principles and advance conservative ideas with your gift today.

Triumphant liberals have already spelled out their plans:

• On the campaign trail, liberals called for tax increases, massive new government health care programs, drastic new environmental controls and more.
  
• Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts said, “we'll have to raise taxes ultimately” as a result of liberal spending increases. He also wants to cut defense spending by a quarter.
  
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she supports re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine—an onerous regulation that could silence conservatives on talk radio.
  
• Liberals of all stripes have pledged to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, a handout to big labor that eliminates the secret ballot in unionization elections.

The Heritage Foundation is ready to stand up to this challenge. We will not stray from our mission to fight for the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.

We are ready to fight back against the liberals and advance our conservative principles. We will build on our 35-year record of success—from welfare reform to missile defense to tax cuts—and help get America back on track.

But we need your help if we are to raise $80,000 by November 15 to make this possible. Will you stand with us?

Make a contribution to help Heritage counter the liberal threat.

In Washington, there are no permanent victories and no permanent defeats. We must remain firmly committed to our principles in both good times and in bad. That’s why your help is so important.

Now more than ever, we are grateful for your support for our conservative principles and ideals. Without the support of conservatives like you, none of what we do would be possible.

Sincerely,

Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President

My comments: Honestly, I won't be donating, and not even for lack of money. If I donate any money to a political cause in the next 4 years, it'll probably be to DownsizeDC.

MoveOn.Org November 5th, 2008

Dear Christopher,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Last night, together, we made history.

In the sun and the rain, from Virginia to Nevada, from New York to New Mexico, you knocked on doors, made phone calls and registered people who'd never voted in their lives. And you helped elect President Barack Obama.

So once again—thank you. Thank you for bringing our country back.

Tomorrow, we'll start on the next phase of this journey. But today, let's celebrate this moment. We've created a "Hope Wall"—a place where you can see what this victory means to other MoveOn members, and share your own thoughts and photos. Take a second right now to share your joy with the rest of us!

Here's one comment that pretty much sums it up:

I am so proud to be an American.—Edna B., Boynton Beach, Florida

Remember back in 2001 and 2002, when so many of you joined MoveOn? When President Bush had an 80% approval rating, when you held candles to stop a war the media was cheering on, when there were few politicians with the courage to stand up for the truth? Back then, a victory like this seemed impossible.

But yesterday you proved that nothing is impossible. If we stand up together and if we fight together and if we believe together, we can change the course of history.

Today, a new day has dawned in America.

Thank you for making it happen.

–Eli, Aaron, Adam G., Adam R., Aisling, Andrea, Anna, Ben, Carrie, Daniel, Dave, Erik, Ilyse, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Lenore, Marika, Matt, Michael, Neil, Nick, Nita, Noah, Patrick, Patrick S., Perrin, Peter, Randall, Ray, Sam, Stephen, Tanya, and Wes

P.S. MoveOn members did a truly heroic amount of work on this campaign. Check out what you accomplished at www.moveon.org. It's amazing.

P.P.S. If the links above don't come through, click here for the Hope Wall:

http://pol.moveon.org/obama/hopeforum/?id=15059-10294791-IesoOXx&t=7

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 4.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

---

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to Christopher D. Osborn on November 5, 2008.

My comments: Uhh... you're welcome! ... ? Again, I actually voted for Bob Barr and would probably NEVER donate or volunteer for MoveOn.org. That said, I am glad of their victory in helping to elect Barack H. Obama.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h November 6th, 2008

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Quote of the Day: "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -- William Shakespeare

Subject: Not your usual post-election commentary

The media describes every election as historic, the most important in a generation, etc. When the voting is done they tell us a new era has dawned, that things will change, that nothing will ever be the same, blah, blah, blah.

One aspect of these claims is true, this time. It is both historic and meaningful that the United States has elected its first African-American president. We applaud and celebrate this. We think the significance of this event transcends mere symbolism. Otherwise, the election was what all other elections have been . . .

" . . . a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Can we support this harsh assessment? Consider . . .

The election thoroughly repudiated the Republican Party. They lost the White House in a landslide, and got clobbered in Congressional races. We might assume from this, if elections really produced change, that many Republican policies of the last eight years will be reversed. We predict that almost none of them will be.

The Republicans were responsible for . . .

* Enacting the largest new entitlement in decades -- the prescription drug program
* Passing social engineering schemes like "No Child Left Behind"
* Starting an un-provoked war
* Gutting constitutional liberties
* Running-up vast deficits

Will the Democrats reverse any of these actions? Sadly, we think the answer is "No." What, then, was the point of the election?

Was it merely to punish the Republicans while leaving their sins uncorrected? Was the purpose to give the Democrats permission to pursue all of their own pet projects for social engineering, and to spend, spend, spend to their hearts content?

Undoubtedly this last item is the message Democratic politicians will claim they heard. After all, they received a mandate, and if the mandate was not to pursue their dreams then the word has no meaning.

Of course, some voters can say, "Don't blame me, I voted Libertarian . . . or for the Constitution Party . . . or the Greens." Didn't these voters, at least, send a clear message about what they want?

We think not.

What does the average person assume when he or she sees third party candidates listed in his newspaper with tiny vote percentages next to their names? We think he or she assumes that . . .

"Those are fringe candidates with fringe ideas that no one supports. Therefore, I need not consider what they have to say."

The system is rigged against third parties. This guarantees low vote totals for those parties. It also guarantees that the ideas those parties represent will always be viewed as marginal.

Third parties don't promote ideas, they marginalize them!

Oh yes, we know all about the exceptions, like the Socialists and the Progressives, both of whom had ideas adopted by the major parties. But please notice, those ideas made the politicians, and even tax-funded intellectuals in the school system, MORE POWERFUL. That's the real reason those ideas were adopted; it wasn't because the Socialists and the Progressives managed to score a few points on Election Day.

So what does voting for partisan candidates actually accomplish? What does it communicate? As far as we can tell the answer is nothing, except that . . .

It gives the victims of the con game -- the American people -- an illusion of control. But we have no control -- no say so.

Voting in the partisan electoral contest merely gives sanction to the con-artists who constantly victimize us. That's the role of the voter, to sanction what the politicians do. That's it. It's like Emma Goldman said, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Is this the way you want things to be?

The ways of the future do not lie in the ways of the past. The ways of the past involved hoping the new boss would be different than the old boss. But many decades have come and gone, and the new boss has always been the same as the old boss. We should abandon the old ways and adopt new ways.

The way to a better future lies in withdrawing our consent and issuing direct orders to our supposed public servants. Votes send confusing signals. But plain talk is rarely misunderstood.

The new way involves building a new social force with the power to make public servants miserable. Withdraw consent. Issue orders. Make the public servant submit.

The politicians are busy right now convincing themselves that the public wants top-down, centralized, Democratic social engineering. Who can disabuse them of this notion? After all, the votes have been cast. The people have spoken.

Only YOU can disabuse the politicians of their self-serving interpretations of inarticulate votes. The Republicans were repudiated. Therefore, the things the Republicans did must also be repudiated. This should be the mandate for the new Congress. Fortunately, we have a vehicle for doing just that . . .

Ron Paul's "American Freedom Agenda Act" would repeal a good chunk of the bad things the Republicans did. Use our Educate the Powerful system to ask your elected representatives to pass this bill.

Use your personal comments to tell your elected representatives that the Republicans were repudiated, therefore the things the Republicans did must also be repudiated.

And stay tuned for new steps in a new direction, starting next week.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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My comments: I don't like their cinicism on voting, but I still like their strategy. It doesn't matter who's in charge, asl long as they know whatWe The People want and that their position in power will be jeapordised if they don't do what We say. Some day I'll have money and be able to support them financially.

Vote YES on Question 1

Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty has endorsed the The Committee for Small Government's Small Government Act. Before you read the email they sent out though, let me show you exactly what it's going to say on your ballot. I'm an absentee voter, so I've already seen it and voted yes. I sent it off in the mail yesterday, and I hope it gets there on time.

QUESTION 1

LAW PROPOSED BY INITIATIVE PETITION

Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or the House of Representatives before May 6, 2008?

SUMMARY

This proposed law would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for all categories of taxable income for the tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010.

The personal income tax applies to income received or gain realized by individuals and married couples, by estates of deceased persons, by certain trustees and other fiduciaries, by persons who are partners in and receive income from partnerships, by corporate trusts, and by persons who receive income as shareholders of "S corporations" as defined under federal tax law. The proposed law would not effect the tax due on income or gain realized in a tax year beginning before January 1, 2009.

The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.

A YES VOTE would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for the tax year beginning on January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010.

A NO VOTE would make no change in state income tax laws.

It is my sincere belief that A YES VOTE on this law would be of great benefit to every citizen of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In fact, I believe that it would have a greater positive impact on the lives of Bay Staters than any other election or law to be decided on on this years ballot.

There are other questions on the ballot which are also very important, such as the presidency (Baldwin or Barr!), as well as QUESTION 2, A YES VOTE would replace criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marjuana with a new system of civil penalties. However, for bay Staters anyway, QUESTION 1 would have the greatest effect, and so I will not be bothered with any further campaigning for any other political cause this voting season.

Now for a message from Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty and The Committee for Small Government.

October 24, 2008

[We wanted to pass along this email from our friends at The Committee for Small Government, who are working hard to end the state income tax in Massachusetts. —Campaign for Liberty]

Two people who share your values. About the writers of the message below:

Carla Howell and Michael Cloud are long-time Ron Paul supporters. They endorsed, campaigned for, donated to, and voted for Ron Paul for President. Carla Howell was a featured speaker at the December 6, 2007 Boston Tea Party Rally for Ron Paul for President at Faneuil Hall (on YouTube). Michael Cloud is a public speaker who has shared the stage with Dr. Paul a dozen times. Both Carla Howell and Michael Cloud joined Dr. Paul as co-plainiffs in the Supreme Court Case against the John McCain/Russ Feingold Campaign Reform Act.

+++++

Urgent Message to You from Two Strong Ron Paul Supporters

from Carla Howell and Michael Cloud

Dear Fellow Supporters of Ron Paul,

Ron Paul campaigned to Repeal the Income Tax – and dramatically shrink the size and power of government. Now you have the opportunity to take the first step to make Ron Paul's dream a reality – by helping us to repeal the income tax in Massachusetts this November 4th.

We are co-sponsors of Ballot Question 1, the legally-binding ballot measure that will END the Massachusetts state income tax.

Maybe you've read articles about our ballot initiative in the 'Wall Street Journal,' 'the New York Times,' 'the Boston Globe,' 'National Review,' 'Reason,' 'CATO,' 'the National Taxpayers Union,' or at LewRockwell.com. Or seen us on CNN or Fox News.

Do we really have a reasonable chance to win? Or is this just another fantasy?

Four different polls show us dead even. One poll shows support for ENDing the income tax at 45% -- with 45% against. 9% undecided. Two other polls show 45% For and 45% Against – with 10% undecided. One strange poll showed 37% For and 37% Against - with 26% undecided.

This is the second time we've put this END the income tax initiative on the ballot. Last time, with a few hundred volunteers - and a total advertising budget of $89,000 – we got 45.3% of the vote. 885,683 votes.

50/50 odds of repealing the state income tax. And a chance of setting in motion a series of state-by-state repeals of income taxes.

Why will Massachusetts voters vote YES – and END the income tax? What are the benefits to them?

1. Our Ballot Initiative will give back over $3,700 each to 3,400,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers. $3,700 average. Each worker. Not just once. Every year.

2. It will take $12.6 Billion out of the hands of Massachusetts Big Government – and put it back into the hands of the men and women who earned it. Not just once. Every year.

3. In productive, private hands this $12.6 Billion a year will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Massachusetts.

4. This will force the state legislature to streamline and cut the waste out of the Massachusetts state spending.

5. This will force the state legislature to get rid of the failed, flawed government programs that don't work – and often make things worse.

6. It'll make the state legislature accountable to Massachusetts workers and taxpayers – instead of the government employees, lobbyists, and special interests who profit from high government spending.

7. With less government and no income tax, Massachusetts will become a magnet to private, productive businesses and individuals. More good jobs and more good workers.

8. And with 3,400,000 Massachusetts taxpayers getting back an average of $3,700 each in their take home paychecks, this just might radically reduce home foreclosures.

Wouldn't these huge, immediate, direct benefits get you to the polls on November 4th?

But there's a huge 900 lb gorilla standing between us and victory.

Who? The Teachers Unions.

Massachusetts Teachers Association, S.E.I.U. (the government employees union), AFL-CIO (who get plush government construction pay), and the other unions who get tax-funded jobs.

Union dues have already bankrolled $2,090,100 of the NO on 1 War Chest. That's 99.93% of the anti tax-cut funding!

In addition, these unions and their allies also reported $443,437 in in-kind donations.

In addition, these unions have mobilized an estimated $1,200,000 worth of paid and unpaid union activists to stop us from ending the income tax.

Plus, with the Massachusetts Teachers Association driving this effort, the unions and their political allies are generating widespread news coverage of Ballot Question 1.

Over 53 newspaper articles and opinion pieces in just the last 10 days!

The unions are very effective. 100% of the newspaper editorials oppose our Ballot Question 1. Over 96% of opinion columns are against us. Over 83% of the newspaper articles are indisputedly against us. The remaining articles usually lean 50% to 70% against Ending the income tax.

Despite our opponents' $2,090,100 in union dues dwarfing our fundraising, despite their several thousand paid and unpaid union activists being over 100 times the number of our volunteers, and despite their overwhelming advantage in Newspaper and TV support –

WE ARE STILL DEAD EVEN IN THE POLLS.

Some polls show us and our opponents each at 45% -- with 10% undecided. One poll shows us and our opponents each at 37% -- with 26% undecided.

With everything they've thrown at us, we're still tied.

With less than three weeks left, we can beat them.

We and our team are doing media interviews, debating our opponents, appearing on talk shows – and we're reaching more and more of the 3,400,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association and their allies have already begun as much as $5,000,000 in Negative Ads and Fear Ads in these last 2 or 3 weeks.

To win, we probably need to run $500,000 in our high-impact ads. Or as close to that amount as we can.

We have $49,816 in the bank. We need to raise $450,000 immediately – if not sooner.

Our ads can tip the scales – and give us victory for the taxpayers.

We've developed and tweaked an advertising language, message and approach that's viral. Contagious. Infectious. Persuasive and unforgettable to Massachusetts taxpayers.

Each $20,000 in advertising will produce an additional $40,000 in positive news coverage, publicity, and word of mouth.

Together, you and we CAN win if you donate as much as you can, if your donation helps us run just 10% of the advertising our opponents are running.

Join us, and be an indispensible member of the Army of Davids that ENDS the Massachusetts income tax in less than 3 weeks.

Will YOU please contribute $500 or $250 or $150 right now – so we can produce and place the first wave of advertising?

If you are successful in your career, if you have enough cash or credit to make a larger donation, you will make a huge difference. Will you please donate $10,000 or $5,000 or $2,500 or $1,000 today?

Your donation is our advertising budget – to END the income tax. It's our campaign budget.

Other Ron Paul donors are counting on YOU to give what they are giving. To join them. They need YOU to donate now. Will you please donate $85 or $65 or $45 today?

Even $5 will help.

Don't wait. Please contribute now by credit card by clicking on "Donate" at our web site:

www.SmallGovernmentAct.org

Or please write your check today and mail it to:

The Committee For Small Government
6 Goodman Lane
Wayland, MA 01778

Make history. Make a donation today.

You will remember this for many, many years. Thank you.

Small government is possible.

Your friends and allies,

Carla Howell & Michael Cloud

Co-Sponsors, Ballot Question 1 to END the Income Tax

Please keep in mind that this project is not run by the Campaign for Liberty. All questions and other items of business should be taken care of by contacting those in charge through the information given on their website. Also‚ because we are not in charge of this project‚ Campaign for Liberty cannot make any guarantees about it. However‚ it is our opinion that this is a worthy cause. By participating in this project, you take full responsibility for any issues arising from that participation.

I sincerely hope that all who read this do what they can to have this bill passed. Most importantly, if you're eligible to vote, please remember to do so this Tuesday November 4th. Your vote DOES matter, especially in reguards to this closely devided issue.