http://www.downsizedc.org/…

“If the court grants our request … then if any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back.” - U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien

“The government can’t ban confederate flags, swastikas, or klan robes, and it sure as hell can’t ban the display of the Mongols’ logo.” - Marc J. Randazza

“What if the government had decided that, because of the Watergate scandal, nobody could use the word Republican again? - Zeichner Ellman

The Justice Department indicted 79 members of the Mongol Nation Motorcycle club for racketeering on October 21. The indictment included federal seizure of the “Mongols” trademarked name.

The case hasn’t even gone to trial yet , but U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper has authorized the seizure of the defendants’ . . .

* Clothing, motorcycles, and other property bearing the Mongols trademark.
* Any similar property bearing the trademark that belongs to the defendants’ “agents, servants, employees, family members, and those persons in active concert or participation with them.”

In other words, many people who weren’t even indicted will have their property seized.

This ruling has serious problems . . .

* In April, Mongol Nation transferred its trademark to Shotgun Productions, LLC, in April, a company that isn’t even named in the indictment.
* Prohibiting possession of trademarked items sets a dangerous precedent. If the government for some reason seizes the Nike swoosh, could FBI agents strip Tiger Woods of his cap, shirt, and shoes?

Civil asset forfeiture was already wrong. The government has no right to seize property without a trial and conviction. But now Judge Cooper and the Justice Department have taken it to a whole new level . . .

* An organization could lose its trademark because of the alleged crimes of some of its members.
* Normal asset forfeiture only seizes property alleged to have been used for illegal purposes, but now the government can take property simply because it sports the wrong logo!
* People completely unrelated to any indictment are now having their property seized too!

Civil asset forfeiture already violates the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution. Now it endangers the First Amendment too. Government officials could trump-up charges against any organization they don’t like, seize its name, and put it out of business! It could happen to DownsizeDC.org!

This will chill freedom of expression.

Civil asset forfeiture must die. Use our Educate the Powerful System to tell Congress to repeal civil asset forfeiture.

Use your personal comments to tell Congress . . .

* About the Mongol case
* That’s its wrong for the government to seize property without due process and a conviction
* And even more wrong to seize property simply because it sports a legally-obtained, trademarked logo.

Demand that Congress abolish civil asset .forfeiture.

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

And a hat tip to The Legal Satyricon blog for providing links to government documents.

James Wilson
Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org

This is really slick. I hadn’t considered such an action. Asset forfeiture has generally been able to continue do to its reach. It effects few and often those who are accused or convicted of a crime taking advantage of the fact that many do not wish to be associated with criminals and therefore will not stand up for their rights. However, should that reach grow as it has in this particular case perhaps there will be more public outrage. Then again perhaps not. Eminent domain has been more and more abused recently with relatively little increase in response.

http://www.reuters.com/…

The Senate agreed to vote on Wednesday night on a $700 billion financial rescue package that will include a sharp increase in the amount of bank deposits insured by the FDIC, but also includes a package of tax breaks the House of Representatives has rejected.

A Democratic aide predicted that “the Senate will pass it.”

Under the agreement to move the bill to the floor quickly, the measure will require 60 votes to pass instead of a simple majority in the 100-member chamber.

The Senate bill would increase to $250,000 from $100,000 the amount of individual deposits the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp insures, seeking to shore up consumer and business confidence in banks and win over lawmakers trying to sell their constituents on an expensive plan funded by taxpayers and seen as benefiting wealthy financiers.

The FDIC insurance money comes from the general account which is in the red already. Any payments would have to be borrowed or printed. In addition the FDIC covers all banks equally which is a distortion of the market. Insurance rates for the banks should be based on their solvency and related factors. Treating them the same incentivizes risky investments.

I’m glad it will require 60% to pass but my feeling is it’s likely to pass. Only a third of the senators are up for reelection and the FDIC and tax breaks may be enough of a carrot to push it over.

You can find the tax components at the Senate Finance Committee site but the FDIC increase is not listed.

Regardless of what we think they may do we need to keep up the pressure. Email the senators of your state and tell them in no way do you support this bill nor anything related to it. If they are up for reelection make sure you remind them this would be an absolute deal breaker for your vote (regardless of whether you would have done so anyway.)

It’s the last thing listed on the schedule so we have all day to overwhelm them with “NO”s.

You can utilize DownsizeDC or go straight to the senators site.

Round one was won but round two will be ugly. I have no doubt that the outpour against this bill had an effect on the vote. It needs to be kept up. Email your supposed representatives. If they voted Nay tell them good job but not to support any such bill in the future. If they voted Yea tell them you will be supporting their opponent if they have one in November or that you will be working to make sure they won’t get reelected next time.

Utilize DownsizeDC.org if you don’t already. Join the Downsize Dispatch. If even half this level of pressure was applied at all times the opportunists in Congress would act less criminally and while most effort spent on the federal government is a waste DownsizeDC makes it too easy not to participate.

http://www.downsizedc.org/…

Yesterday, 19 Democrats, 48 Republicans, and 1 independent voted to violate the Constitution and their oaths of office. Only 28 Democrats, 1 independent, and ZERO Republicans remained true to their oaths. They voted to pass S. 2248, a new law designed to replace the so-called “Protect America Act.”* It permits the President to spy on Americans without a warrant.
* It grants retroactive immunity to tele-communications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration in previous warrantless spying, thereby creating an incentive for other companies to engage in similar crimes in the future (only Qwest Communications insisted on warrants).

All hope is NOT lost. S. 2248 cannot become law unless the House agrees to its provisions. Fortunately, the House version of this bill, while not perfect, is signficantly better. Our best hope, and we must take it, is to tell the House to stick by their version of the bill.

You can go here and use DownsizeDC’s services to send a form letter against this issue to your congressmen. If the Congress and administratation believe the wiretaps were not illegal than why would they need to worry about lawsuits? John McCain voted for this. Continently Senator Clinton and Obama missed this vote. Paul issued this statement on it on January 30th.

• 9:00AM Peymon Mottahedeh’s Live Free off the IRS Lies and Abuse. Not a real lecture. It was really an advertisement for his scam. I’ve read plenty of the arguments from the tax protesters. I’ve read the IRS’s responses to many of them. It’s all bogus. The safest and quickest way to end the federal income tax is to assume it’s all legit and get rid of it by lowering spending, getting rid of the federal income tax and IRS and amending out the 16th Amendment. It disappoints me that those in charge of getting speakers for this Liberty Forum got this guy. I wanted presentations not adverts for possible scams.
• 10:30AM Jim Lark’s Knee-Jerk Libertarianism: A Cure for a Common Disease. It was a well spoken discussion on a common problem in the freedom movement and many other belief systems: poor messenger skills. He was very well spoken and very serious in getting freedom fighters to be better at getting libertarian ideas across. Try not to insult, be empathetic and try to not to convince people your right but give them the info to think about why you are right. Here is the audio from the speech: Jim Lark: Knee-jerk libertarianism
• 1:00PM Barry Cooper of Never Get Busted. He has a bit of that sleazy salesman feel but not like Peymon Mottahedeh. He’s not a full libertarian (though he’s running on the Libertarian ticket in Texas District 31) but he has some good practical instructions on how to deal with traffic cops as a user of marijuana and his new movie Never Get Raided goes further including concealing the growing of marijuana and catalogs police tactics. Sounds interesting but I’m not motivated enough to purchase either movie.
• 2:30PM Jim Babka from Downsize DC. Not sure why I attended this one. I already had met him in the elevator earlier that day. I’m subscribed to the Downsize Dispatch, I very regularly use their services to send messages to my representatives and I donate to them monthly. It was interesting none the less (he’s a good speaker so hearing things over again didn’t feel repetitive) and I got myself a bumper sticker. He presented The Onion’s Bullshit is Most Important Issue for 2008 Voters.
• Glen Jacobs was in attendance at Babka’s presentation. After it was over xyz and I got a photo with him. I briefly talked with him about his contributions to the movement. Acknowledging that given his situation I understood why he was unable to publicly participate in the movement but appreciated his work under his pseudonym and that someone in his position (not to say that professional wrestler is widely looked up to but surely more than I, and he’s got more connections) was very valuable. He seemed genuinely thankful. While I have a guess as to who in the community he is I’ll leave it to you to find out.
• 4:00PM F. Paul Wilson’s Awful Lonely at Times: Being a Libertarian from the 60’s On. Those who know me know I’m not much on reading fiction. I’ve never read any of his books nor did I know who he was till just a few months ago when I started listening to Gardner Goldsmith’s radio show. Gardner is a big fan and was ecstatic to be able to hear him speak and hang out. Mr. Wilson was very well spoken and unfortunately didn’t spend much time on his dealings with libertarianism in the 60’s and 70’s. Many there knew of his work and were fans so it’s understandable that he would also talk about his works and how he integrated libertarian ideas into them. Here is the audio of his speech: F. Paul Wilson
• The dinner was alright. I actually preferred the buffet. xyz and I sat with Mike and Sayh(sp?) from the Manhattan Ron Paul Meetup group and a young freelance writer, Sam, who was at the Liberty Forum to get information on private currencies. He originally just wanted to talk with Bernard von NotHaus but decided that if he was going to make the long trip up from Brooklin he may as well check out the whole Liberty Forum. He’s not a libertarian but was very interested in what he was hearing. If I run across him tomorrow I’ll have to give him a copy of the latest Serf City. The keynote speaker was New Hampshire US Senator John Sununu. A good number of people were not all that thrilled that the Saturday keynote was a federal Republican politician. He was booed when he said we need taxes to pay for needed government. He was called out for voting for the original PATRIOT Act He was heckled to do a Q&A when he finished. Which he didn’t… he grabbed his things and left immediately after his speech was over.

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum

January 3-6, 2008 : Nashua, New Hampshire

The FSP’s Liberty Forum is a convention of liberty loving individuals. Three full days of speakers, food, arguments and fun. Speakers include: Bernard von NotHaus of the Liberty Dollar, Senator John Sununu, Jim Babka of Downsize DC, Peter Christ of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Tom Cryer who’s known as “the man who beat the IRS“, and many others. Word is Ron Paul may be speaking too though nothing has been announced yet. xyz and myself will be there the 4th to the 6th. Just recently they have allowed people to select events individually instead of just the whole event. If you’re planning on going use the promotional code “2008RP” or “2008FTL” to get 10% off. I’d recommend signing up ASAP as the hotel is filling up and if and when Ron Paul’s participation is announced it will likely sell out quickly.

• Register
• Speakers
• Schedule
• Hotel
• Exhibitors