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

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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
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

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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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.

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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.

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

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IF you have difficulties or inquiries, simply hit reply to this message. We're eager to help, including with requests to unsubscribe.

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.

Seeking redress, M.V. Times Letter

Hey, gues what? I sent a letter to the editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, the Cape Cod Times, and the Vineyard Gazette, and the M.V. Times published it. I don't know if the Cape Cod times published it... I'll have to find a copy, and the Gazette doesn't come out 'till tomorrow, so we'll see then.

For now, here's the text of the letter:

Seeking redress

To the Editor:

Monday, June 30, may be remembered in history as the day Americans began, in earnest, the moral and solemn process of holding their servant government accountable to the constitution, under threat of withdrawal of allegiance, support and tax money.

To secure this end, the people have begun to claim and exercise a little known, but unalienable, "Right of Redress," rather than depending upon the will of the majority as defined by precinct voters, those who cast votes on Capitol Hill, and those that vote from the inner sanctums of our courthouses.

Most do not know that this profound natural right, first articulated 800 years ago in the Magna Carta, is embodied and protected by the petition clause of the First Amendment, the same amendment which protects your voice in the defense of freedom. Very importantly, academic research since 1986 makes clear that the right to petition for redress is not a redundant statement of the right of speech. It is in fact, the individual exercise of popular sovereignty.

To be sure, the widespread exercise of this Right holds significant implications for our nation and is most worthy of your interest. Here's what some of the Founders, sitting as the first congress, had to say:

"If money is wanted by rulers who have in any manner oppressed the people, they may retain it until their grievances are redressed, and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions or disturbing the public tranquility." - Journals of the Continental Congress, 1:105113

On June 30, approximately 1,200 American citizens will begin the process of exercising the right by formally serving a legal notice and demand for redress upon the president, the attorney general and every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, at their local district offices. This includes our own.

Demanding an official response within 40 days, the notice includes seven petitions for redress of grievances regarding substantial violations the constitution:

1. The Iraq invasion in violation of the war powers clauses.
2. The Federal Reserve System's violation of the money clauses.
3. The USA Patriot Act's violation of the privacy clauses.
4. The direct, unapportioned taxes on labor in violation of the tax clauses.
5. The federal gun control laws in violation of the Second Amendment.
6. The failure to enforce immigration laws in violation of the "faithfully execute" clause.
7. The construction, by stealth, of a "North American Union" without constitutional authority.

We the people cannot elect our way out of tyranny. Any assertion that by electing either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama we can cure the ills that now plague America is simply naive or based on a lack of information regarding the corrupting forces that truly influence and control our government and political process.

Remember, when our president originally led us to war in Iraq, he did so with the majority support of not only Congress, but of the people. Credit or blame for whatever actions our government takes, whether it turns out to be for better or worse, cannot be laid upon just one man, administration, or congressional gathering. Whether through apathy, ignorance, vigilance, or brilliance, all our nation's citizenry have some responsibility for what our government does.

We urge you, the media, to learn about this profound right and to cover this event. Our republic faces a watershed moment no less historically compelling or newsworthy than the emergence of the civil rights movement. If liberty is to survive through peaceful means, you must embrace your ability to bring this critical information to your readers.

I know our local papers don't usually cover national news so much, but this really does have the potential to affect us all personally.

I also must admit that I am not as well versed in constitutional law as some, but in the past couple of years I do feel I have learned enough to support this cause and wish that others would do the same. If you wish you may visit www.givemeliberty.org/revolution for details about the plan to restore constitutional order.

I also recommend that every citizen take a closer look at our constitution than most of us do. Some of it is a tough read, but during a time when there is significant discussion about what it's all about and how important it is, I think it's a good thing for every one of us to take a good look at.

Christopher D. Osborn
Vineyard Haven

I look forward to seeing what people have to say about it in the comments section of the website. Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts in general actually is a great haven for big government Democrats.

Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty | The Revolution Continues

With the primary season now over, the presidential campaign is at an end. But the larger campaign for freedom is just getting started. Therefore, I am happy to announce the official launch of the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty.

read more | digg story

A Letter From Ron Paul:

Dear Supporter,

These past 17 months have been among the most exciting and eventful of my life. Together you and I delivered a message of freedom the likes of which American politics had not seen in decades. I wasn’t sure the country was ready for it. But it was a message, I discovered, that many Americans had been waiting for a long time to hear.

I have been blessed with the most informed, well read, and enthusiastic supporters of any presidential campaign. Your extraordinary efforts in organizing and fundraising grabbed the attention of millions of Americans and shocked just about everyone in politics and the media. I still cannot get over all the fantastic work you did.

Something of great significance has just occurred in our country’s history.

With the primary season now over, the presidential campaign is at an end. But the larger campaign for freedom is just getting started. Therefore, I am happy to announce the official launch of the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty.

The work of the Campaign for Liberty will take many forms. We will educate our fellow Americans in freedom, sound money, non-interventionism, and free markets. We’ll have our own commentaries and videos on the news of the day. I’ll work with friends I respect to design materials for homeschoolers.

Politically, we’ll expand the great work of our precinct leader program. We’ll make our presence felt at every level of government, where just a few people with our level of enthusiasm can make a world of difference. We’ll keep an eye on Congress and lobby against legislation that threatens us. We’ll identify and support political candidates who champion our great ideas against the empty suits the party establishments offer the public.

We will be a permanent presence on the American political landscape. That I promise you. We’re not about to let all this good work die. To the contrary, with your help we’re going to make it grow – by leaps and bounds.

This is the most ambitious venture of my political career, and I think it can achieve great things. But I can’t do this alone. I need you to help me. I need your energy, your creativity, your ideas, and your dedication.

People frustrated with our political system often wonder what they can do. I have founded this organization to answer that question, to give people the opportunity to do something that really makes a difference in the fight for freedom. Please join me by becoming a member of the Campaign for Liberty. Our goal is 100,000 members by September. Can we reach it?

Our campaign netted 1.1 million votes in the primaries of a shrinking Republican Party. Millions more support us. I need you to help me reach them – and to keep making new converts to the cause. What a force we can be, if only we rise to the occasion.

Now what about the Republican Convention in St. Paul? Our delegates will attend, of course, and I expect our contingent to have a visible presence there. Without disruption, we will do whatever we can to influence the party and its platform, and return the GOP to its limited-government roots. This is very important.

This brings me to my second announcement. I invite you to join us at Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, September 2nd, for a grand rally. We intend to draw over 11,000 people. We’ll have live music and entertainment, and special guests. I’ll address you all as well. A massive rally will generate still more interest in our ideas. And what a great time it will be.

Remember that it was Senator Robert Taft, who shared our views, who was called Mr. Republican. But we are not merely the Republican Party’s past. If the enthusiasm of young people for our campaign is any indication, we are also its future.

Right now I will need your patience and input as we develop our program and assemble just the right team of individuals. But it is my intention to launch the Campaign for Liberty in its full capacity at our rally in Minneapolis this September.

Over the past week we’ve learned that the Democratic presidential nominee, supposedly an antiwar candidate, is committed to the same rhetoric, the same propaganda, and the same aggressive intentions toward Iran as the Bush administration. As usual, the major parties refuse to offer Americans a real choice.

The Campaign for Liberty will lay the groundwork for a different America, the kind of America you and I, and millions of our fellow countrymen, want to inhabit.

“Dr. Paul cured my apathy,” a popular campaign sign read. Others said our campaign cured their cynicism. We have now reached a moment of great moral decision: will we let ourselves retreat into apathy and cynicism once again, or will we dig in for the long haul and fight all the harder? Will we retire from the scene quietly, or will we give the establishment the fight of its life?

“In the final analysis,” I wrote in my new book The Revolution: A Manifesto, “the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them.”

The time has come to act on these words. May future generations look back on our work and say that these were men and women who, in a moment of great crisis, stood up to the politicians, the opinion-molders, and the establishment, and saved their country.

Join us, and be a part of it.

For liberty,

Ron Paul

Ron Paul Says, "No"

What part of that message do some of his supporters not understand?

read more | digg story

Now that Ron Paul has no chance of winning, we should focus on three things.

1. Trying to get him a speaking position at the Republican convention so more Republicans have the opportunity to hear what he has to say right from the horses mouth instead of from the little scrapes they hear on the news.

2. Spreading the message, because it's the message that matters most. Ron Paul is a great man, but still only a man. In fact, he's an old man who will likely die in the next twenty years or so, and retire before that. The message should last forever.

3. Finding like-minded individuals to run for congress (as well as other government offices) to help Dr. Paul in actually making a difference in our country. So far Dr. Paul has hardly been able to do anything in his long career as a congressman because he is only only one man whose ideas are very different from most people in politics.

I am very glad to see this article by "rtbohan" and I hope many people in the movement read it and take it to heart.

Sincerely,

Christopher D. Osborn

Don't Raise Taxes!

First, we have something from the Heritage Foundation's email newsletter on taxes and the economy. The Heritage Foundation is, from what I understand so far, a political group focused on keeping alive Reagen conservatism. Honestly, I think I'm even a little more conservative than our past president Reagan, but I think his ideas were definitely a step in the right direction compared to most modern Republicans and Democrats.

Three myths about the Clinton tax hikes

Out on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress, liberals are announcing plans to raise taxes—above and beyond the massive hike resulting from the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. They argue that tax hikes can benefit the economy. For evidence, they point to the economic growth in the 1990s after President Clinton’s 1993 tax hike.

» Take our poll: Did the Clinton tax increases boost the economy as liberals claim?

This is bad economics, Heritage tax expert J.D. Foster explains in a new analysis.

There are three myths at the center of the liberal argument for tax hikes.

• Myth 1: The economy recovered from recession because of the 1993 tax increase.
  
  Fact: “The tax increase probably slowed the economy compared to the growth it would have achieved” without the hikes, Foster writes. While the economy did grow after 1993, this was hardly due to the tax increases, since “much in the context of the 1990s was conducive to prosperity.”

• Myth 2: The late-1990s boom resulted from the 1993 tax cuts.
  
  Fact: The 1997 cuts to the capital gains tax rate, not the 1993 tax increases, sparked the strong growth of the late 1990s. After the prolonged recovery from the 1992 recession, Foster concludes “it was not a moment when one would expect growth to accelerate.”

• Myth 3: The 1990s show we can raise taxes today without economic consequence.
  
  Fact: The 1990s demonstrate that tax cuts, not tax hikes, are the key to economic growth. Congress should therefore, at a minimum, not allow the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire. They certainly shouldn’t pile more taxes onto an already struggling economy. “Taxes are now above their historical average as a share of the economy, and are rising,” Foster notes.

Second, we have a video of Carla Howell, Chairman for the Committee for Small Government, on her organization's movement to end the Massachusetts income tax.



I recommend taking a look at their website, smallgovernmentact.org, for more information.

Ron Paul Announces Grand March on Washington D.C.

In a video released tonight Ron Paul states, “We are at this point where we have to do something major…We have to make a grand stand, we have to stand firm and see where are numbers are…”

I'll write more on it later, perhaps tonight.

read more | digg story

March 1st, 2008
10:45 PM

So, I guess I didn't get to writing more about it that night. Here's a campaign update video witch that digg story refers to.



In addition, I've found a few related links. The first is pretty much just a little news article from Restore The Republic titled WARNING: RON PAUL DC MARCH UPDATE. This first one I think is the most important for Paulites to read.

The second I found is a website called revolutionmarch.com which is a grassroots website to organize information pertaining to the march as well as the actual march.

From the website:

The purpose of our rally is to get many thousands of freedom loving people in one place so we can be heard. An event SO HUGE, that even the Main Stream Media can’t ignore it!

The last is a blogger blog, Revolution March, which seems to fulfill a similar purpose as revolutionmarch.com or even this very blog posting of mine. An interesting feature it has, which I haven't gotten a chance to check out, are two blogtalkradio recordings about the march. I have however registered an account so I can comment on them as soon as I listen to them.

For my final words on the whole subject, I want to urge people to not take this march as a stand for Ron Paul to be elected president, or to attack John McCain or any other politician. This march should be about the revolution as whole. This campaign may have shown there there is hope, that there are a lot more people reseptive to the message of true Liberty than Dr. Paul ever imagined. However, it has also show that we still have a lot of work to do. The primary focus of the campaign is no longer to get Dr. Paul into the White House, but to use th campaign as a vehicle to get the messege of Liberty to as many Americans as possible so we can really start to change this country around back closer to the way our founders might have imagined it.

Let's face it, even if we were able to pull off the miricle of getting Dr. Paul into the White House, he would hardly be able to make many of the changes we would hope without congressional support. We need to change not only the way the Republican Party thinks, but the way the whole country thinks. We need Paulites running for office in every branch of government, from city counsel to Senate.

Basically what I think we should be looking for as a result of this march and book bomb is either a much stronger and united Libertarian party or a changed Republican party, and through this, a stronger and better America. This revolution is not just about one great man, but a great idea for a great nation.

NAACP President: Ron Paul Is Not A Racist

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.

I truly hope that this can be spread around so this rumor of Dr. Paul being a racists can be fully squashed. I don't agree with him 100% on all the issues, but I cannot imagine anyone who believes so strongly in individual liberty could possibly be at all racist. Racism and Libertarianism are completely counter to won another. If you read up on Libertarianism, I'm sure you will agree.

Click here for an article by Ron Paul about racism and the government's role in it.

read more | digg story

"Yet it is the Federal government more than anything else that divides us along race, class, religion, and gender lines.  The Federal government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society." - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, December 24th, 2002