One Last Chance to beat H.R 10

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

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Dear friends,

It's always harder to undue - to repeal - a bad law,
then it is to stop its passage. And our Electronic
Lobbyist system at DownsizeDC.org just set another
record. I'll tell you about both in this action
bulletin and progress report.

The House has passed HR 10. They've officially rejected
the Senate's version. Now, the ball is in the Senate's
court. Either they must approve the House version, or
the House and Senate go to Conference Committee to
hammer out the differences.

That's why our NEW campaign is so important. We must
hold each Senator's feet to the fire. And we must give
each House member an increasing sense that they're on
the Titanic with this issue.

We must "Attack, Attack, Attack" now. You can attack
from your laptop or PC at www.DownsizeDC.org

By now, everyone has heard John Kerry's famous flip-
flop line, "I actually voted for the $87 billion,
before I voted against it." Kerry used that line
because he didn't expect it to cause him any trouble.
You see, legislators butter both sides of the bread all
the time. It's routine.

That way they can go home and appeal to any constituent
they meet. To those who were for Issue X they can say,
"I commend you're passion, that's why I voted for it."
To those against Issue X they can say, "I feel your
pain, that's why I voted against it."

According to "The Hill", a Capitol Hill Newspaper, in a
story titled, "House GOP dares Dems to vote 'no'," HR
10 was all about political grandstanding right before
Election Day. They've voted.

Now their grandstanding is done.

Now, they can tell their constituents they were tough
on terrorism - they fought for national security.

Now, we can give them the chance to remove the most
heinous portions of this bill, which, according to Gun
Owners of America includes...

(1) The government database is created by section
2173 of HR 10. It would allow airline passengers
to be screened against lists containing "all
appropriate records." What would be "appropriate"
would be within the exclusive discretion of the
bureaucrats, but could include medical records,
confidential financial records, library records,
and gun records - maybe even your politically
incorrect public statements and affiliations.

Note: regulators have already signaled that they
will take this as a mandate to create a national
ID database, and the House has done nothing to
counter this idea. This is one of a host of tricks
politicians use to be able to claim that they're
not really doing what they are in fact doing.
Don't be fooled!

(2) The driver's license standards are in section
3052. They would allow the federal government to
set standards as high as desired to determine who
may or may not obtain a driver's license. Please
note that you need a driver's license (or
similarly regulated state-issued photo ID) to
purchase a gun from a dealer. But, increasingly,
you also need it to travel on any form of
transportation (airplane, bus, train, car), to
get a job, to open a checking account, to cash a
check, to check into a hotel, to rent a car, or
to purchase cigarettes or alcohol. If the federal
government can set standards so high as to deny
you a driver's license or photo ID, it has
effectively turned you into a non-person.

(3) Section 2142 would allow the U.S. attorney
general to promulgate any regulations he
desires concerning
(a) what employers must submit the names and
fingerprints of all employment applicants
to the FBI,
(b) what standards the government will use in
approving or disapproving the employment
applicants, and
(c) whether or not the government's "disapproval"
will prevent the applicant from being hired.

There is nothing in section 2142 which would prohibit
an attorney general from
(a) requiring the resumes and fingerprints of every
employment applicant in the country,
(b) disapproving them on the basis of gun ownership
or, for that matter, any factor he viewed as not
being politically correct, and
(c) prohibiting any employer from hiring an
applicant thus blacklisted.

(4) Plus this bill is so full of hastily- and ill-
conceived anti-gun, anti-freedom provisions that
you would need hours to learn them all.

And as if that's not enough,

(5) H.R. 10 will seek more integration of our foreign
policy with that of the U.N. (Section 4032).

(6) H.R. 10 will train U.S. diplomats to be more
attuned with the United Nations and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) and other anti-democratic globalist
organizations (Section 4034).

(7) H.R. 10 will create a new U.S. "ambassador-at-
large" to work with U.N. nongovernmental
organizations or NGOs. This would set a very
dangerous precedent (Section 4035).

On top of all that, according to _Wired News_, HR 10
would also do the following...

(1) allow employers to run background checks on
employees that could include records of arrests
and detentions - not just convictions - as well as
no limitation on republishing such information

(2) speed up the implementation of the newest airline
passenger screening system, Secure Flight, by
requiring congressional approval after it is
deployed, not before

(3) require the State Department to study the
feasibility of a worldwide database tracking
American citizens'' and foreigners' 'lifetime
travel history,' including information on what
countries Americans traveled to

(4) require the State Department to intervene with
foreign media outlets and foreign governments to
influence media coverage

(5) make it easier for the government to deport
immigrants to countries where they might be
tortured or to countries to which an immigrant has
no relationship

(6) expand Patriot Act wiretap provisions and the ban
on material support to designated terrorist
organizations

(7) make it tougher for illegal immigrants to get a
hearing to protest deportation

(8) prevent states from issuing driver's licenses to
undocumented aliens by changing what documents are
acceptable at Canadian and Mexican borders"

You can see why I call it, "the Patriot Act on
Steroids." That's why you must take action now - before
it's too late - at www.DownsizeDC.org

_Wired News_ also reports that,

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut), who co-authored
the Senate's version of the bill, has serious
concerns about the House bill, according to
spokeswoman Leslie Phillips. "The House bill includes
several provisions regarding law enforcement and
immigration that were not raised by the 9/11
Commission and (that) the commission has explicitly
asked be removed," Phillips said. The Senate bill is
also superior because it contains a number of civil
liberties and privacy protections, including an
independent civil liberties board, according to
Phillips.

As you can see, we've got a chance but only with
MASSIVE ACTION RIGHT NOW.

Step 1) Go to www.DownsizeDC.org and use our Electronic
Lobbyist System to tell both your Representative and
your Senators what you think. In the P.S. below, I have
some important instructions for first time users of our
site.

Step 2) Use our "Tell a Friend" procedure at the
website, OR send this message. The more people who join
you, the greater our likelihood of success is.

Step 3) Make a contribution, or better yet, a monthly
pledge. We have no ads on the air right now. We've gone
"you-know-what to the wall" on this issue and we're
spread thin. Here's the link
http://www.DownsizeDC.org/contribute.shtml

I promised at the beginning of this message that I
would tell you about another new Electronic Lobbyist
record at www.DownsizeDC.org. Our previous best months
for first time users were September, where we
registered 513 new users, and July (our first month),
where we registered 593 new DC Downsizers. Yesterday,
we broke that record - even though October isn't even
half over.

The record-breaking figure as of 12:28 PM Eastern is
619 (remember, MoveOn started with just 100 people).

Please join the now more than 1,850 registered DC
Downsizers and take action now. You don't have to
dislike every portion of this bill. We've given you 15
bad provisions. If you only hate a dozen of them, that
should be enough to get you fired up and ready to do
something. Please, go to
http://www.DownsizeDC.org
right now and use your Electronic Lobbyist system to
make your voice heard.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. If you're a FIRST TIME USER of our Electronic
Lobbyist system, these tips will be VERY HELPFUL to
you.

1) Go to http://www.DownsizeDC.org

2) Click on the first campaign listed there titled,
"New Stop National ID Database"

3) First time visitors need to register. This
registration process will identify your representative
for you, AND will put your contact information on your
PERSONALIZED letter to your Representative and Senators
- in other words, they'll know this message is coming
from a constituent.

4) Skip over the section labeled, "Already registered?"
if you've never registered before. This step is for
repeat users who are registered - a time saver so they
don't have to register again, and again, each time they
visit.

5) Fill out the section COMPLETELY under the heading,
"Visiting for the first time? Then go through this
simple form..."

6) To take advantage of the time-saving benefits of
registering, check "Yes, please register my account."

7) Note: YOU need to choose your own password. The
system will NOT do it for you. CHOOSE A PASSWORD YOU
CAN EASILY REMEMBER. We're making improvements in our
system all the time, but this last step easily causes
the most problems for new, and first-time returning
visitors.

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