An empty City Council seat was left 2 weeks ago by Randy Filiault, who is leaving Keene. A short filing period was opened for the seat, and Free Keene blogger Nick Ryder applied for the seat. I ran for the council in 2009 and did not win. When filling an empty seat, the full council votes on a replacement councilor. Video of the speech and vote is below courtesy of Cheshire TV:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yes, I know I talked fast. I did not receive any votes; but got a lot of compliments from councilors after the event on my speech.

September 5, 2010 is the annual celebration of "Jury Rights Day" whereby "We the People" commemorate our obligation and duty, as citizens. to protecting our neighbors from the avarice and greed of the corporate governments with which we now are suffering. Our National constitution specifically delegates, by Article 3, Section 2, all "Admiralty and Maritime" jurisdiction to the Federal courts

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This is the video you have been waiting for. It’s Liberty on Tour’s Adam and Pete’s perspective, from their cameras, of their arrests in Denver at the Broncos’ stadium. This is what happens when you refuse to show your masters “your papers” in this supposed “free” country:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The police state is getting worse – join the Free State Project, escape to New Hampshire (here are some reasons to move to Keene) and help us all get free from those who would control peaceful people.

Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.

After eight long draining years, I have to wonder if our government even understands what it is to end a war anymore. The end of a war, to most people, means all the troops come home, out of harm’s way. It means we stop killing people and getting killed. It means we stop sending troops and armed personnel over and draining our treasury for military operations in that foreign land. But much like the infamous “mission accomplished” moment of the last administration, this “end” of the war also means none of those things.

50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and they are still receiving combat pay. One soldier was killed in Basra just last Sunday, after the supposed end of combat operations, and the same day 5,000 men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood were deployed to Iraq. Their mission will be anything but desk duty. Among other things they will accompany the Iraqi military on dangerous patrols, continue to be involved in the hunt for terrorists, and provide air support for the Iraqi military. They should be receiving combat pay, because they will be serving a combat role!

Of course the number of private contractors — who perform many of the same roles as troops, but for a lot more money — is expected to double. So this is a funny way of ending combat operations in Iraq. We are still meddling in their affairs and we are still putting our men and women in danger, and we are still spending money we don’t have. This looks more like an escalation than a draw-down to me!

The ongoing war in Iraq takes place against a backdrop of economic crisis at home, as fresh numbers indicate that our economic situation is as bad as ever, and getting worse! Our foreign policy is based on an illusion: that we are actually paying for it. What we are doing is borrowing and printing the money to maintain our presence overseas. Americans are seeing the cost of this irresponsible approach as our economic decline continues. Unemployed Americans have been questioning a policy that ships hundreds of billions of dollars overseas while their own communities crumble and their frustration is growing. An end to this type of foreign policy is way overdue.

A return to the traditional American foreign policy of active private engagement and non-interventionism is the only alternative that can restore our moral and fiscal health.

["Deadliest Roadside Bombing" photo by James McCauley; CC BY 2.0]

Pete and Adam from Liberty on Tour were arrested in Denver for refusing to show papers. Here’s more video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The last time I tried to vote, they refused to allow me to do so as a homeless man, despite their claims that homeless people have a “right” to vote too.

A couple of weeks ago, I attempted to register to vote again – this time putting down a home address on their form as they had begged me to do in the past. However this time I registered under my current name of Ian Freeman rather than my old slave name. I wanted to see if they would accept that name.

The good news is they claim they will accept the name, but the bad news is that they are rejecting my voter application because I wrote “All Rights Reserved” above my signature, on the advice of one Matt Mavrogeorge from the NH Attorney Genital’s office. Does their rejection of the application on this basis suggest that one is giving up rights by signing their voter registration form? I set out in an attempt to find this answer and left a message on Matt’s voicemail. He emailed back the following:

Dear Ian,

Thank you for your voice message regarding your voter registration application. Voter registration forms are set forth and required by RSA 654:7. Modifying the registration form by adding qualifying language, such as “all rights reserved”, to the applicant’s signature line is considered to be an improper change to the form’s required content. Again, than you for your inquiry.

Sincerely,

Matthew G. Mavrogeorge
Attorney
Civil Bureau
New Hampshire Department of Justice
33 Capitol Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 271-1222 phone
(603) 223-6243 fax

To which I responded:

Matthew,

That is part of my signature for government documents. Are you denying me the supposed right to vote?

If you are saying there is a problem with “All Rights Reserved”, I’ll need you to specify for me what rights one gives up when signing that form. I would like to be fully informed.

Thanks,
Ian

His reply:

This Office does not deny individuals the right or ability to vote. We simply explained our position regarding additions or modifications to the required content of the voter registration form. We do not have anything further to add concerning your inquiry.

My response:

Matt,

Would it be more accurate to say you have advised the Keene city clerk to deny me the supposed right to vote?

I’d appreciate an answer, thanks.
Ian

Hi reply:

Ian, That would not be accurate. I do not have any more to add to what I have already stated. Please feel free to speak with my supervisor, Associate Attorney General Richard Head (271-1248). Thanks. – Matt

I then called Richard Head. (Yes, Dick Tracy and Richard Head work in the same office. Insert your own jokes here.) Here’s the .mp3 recording of that call. As you can hear, he dances around the issue for ten minutes and refuses to answer any questions of substance.

Any ideas as to what to do now? It doesn’t matter what I do, these people refuse to allow me to use the system they claim they want me to use! Three little words seem to mean so much to them, but they won’t explain why. If you don’t give up rights by signing the forms, then what’s the big deal about writing “All Rights Reserved” there? If you DO give up rights, then what rights? As usual, they have no obligation to explain themselves, while they believe we have an obligation to continue funding them. Someday I look forward to testing their claim that we are obligated to obey and pay them, because I’m getting pretty fed up with their violence and their system.

I hope you’ll make the move to New Hampshire and help make this place free.

By Dave Albin

I have written before about people interacting with city government/regulations, which have ranged from downright oppression1 to arbitrary rule making2. With the former, the absolute authority of local government, with a little mercy thrown in for good measure, can be observed; with the latter, the local government seems to exist simply to make random rules that permit trampling on private-property rights. Part of the reason I have done this is that praise of local3 or state4 government is as common as complaints5 against federal government power. Another reason is that I find no shortage of material.
The recent situation of Antonio Sosa is a good example. Mr. Sosa runs an auto parts store in Columbus Junction, IA, and applied for a liquor license, along with plans for his proposed expansion of either a new store, or one to replace his current store in the downtown area - the first news article6 about his ordeal is relatively short, but I believe, very telling.

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By Congressman Ron Paul, TX

Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.

read more

First up, “Rumors of War” featuring Lou, Josh, and Cooper:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Varrin, Luthor, and Hannah with a little jazzy jam session:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For refusing to show their papers. Curtis was also arrested for the same “crime” this weekend on the Seacoast.

Thanks to some mediating by his daughter, Annie, James Callaway and I were able to come to some level of remedy today. James insisted it was not his intention to threaten Sam and seemed to understand how I could have taken what he said to me as threatening to Sam during our phone call a week ago and so I apologized to him for breaking confidence and publicly revealing our conversation. He reasonably requested I relay the information more publicly on the blog, so here it is. I also agree with Annie that my blog post did not help deescalate the situation.

In case you weren’t aware, many liberty activists met with a few of the Free Keene from the Free Keene Stigma members for a few hours in Ashuelot Park this afternoon. I hope that today’s meeting in the park showed James that liberty activists are not all the same. For instance, James seemed surprised when I clearly supported his right to engage in his cup antics. Since Sam was trying to film in a public place, Sam has no right to privacy or right to be free from interference.

Hopefully everyone has learned from this experience. It doesn’t seem like Sam and James are going to find much common ground anytime soon, but most everyone else seemed to get along fairly well at today’s meeting. There was much discussion of a productive nature.

STATEMENT:  In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress.  This law made it possible for the government to use violence to solve the non-violent “problem” of having cheap/free labor for a particular industry.  Like all laws, this one was enacted after lobbying from players in the industries that used slavery.

It is my opinion that the United States Marshal and various other law enforcement organizations should have completely ignored this law.

QUESTION:  Do you agree with me or do you think that the government agents “just doing their jobs” should have continued to do what the law stated. 

I am particularly curious about the opinions of anti-FreeKeene.com’s readers.

Thanks to the Union Leader’s Melanie Plenda for the Free Keene mention in her article about this weekend’s Live Free or Die Festival:

JAFFREY – Call them liberty lovers, Libertarians, radicals or rogues — just don’t call them Tea Partiers.

Those are fighting words — metaphorically speaking — for the peace-loving folk who came out to rally for four days in a field at the 5th annual Live Free or Die Rally this weekend.

Rally organizers and the group that helps sponsor the event — The Citizens Alliance Against Creepy Politics — describe themselves as a non-profit, non-aligned, pro-freedom organization that addresses a wide range of political issues.

Those in attendance may not agree on everything, but the one area there’s consensus: They are not the Tea Party.

“I agree with some of it,” said Stacy Coutu, of Jaffrey, of the Tea Party movement. “But I think with them, if you don’t think just like them, you become an outcast. With us, it’s just the opposite.”

The rally is meant for everyone, said Tiffany Marler of North Conway.

“The tea parties have been hijacked by the more neo con Republicans,” said Marler. “Personally, I’m an anarchist.”

Marler and others maintained the event is somewhat apolitical. They said it was simply an event to speak one’s mind and enjoy the right to peaceably assemble and openly carry firearms just because they could.

Other rally goers echoed the sentiment. Joan Bastek of Manchester said she’s part of the 9/12 party, but that she likes coming to the rallies to mix with Free Staters, Keeniacs (members of the Free Keene movement) and others who may not think exactly as she does.

Participants stressed a big-tent philosophy, saying “even leftists like liberty.”

Not to mention, they said, Live Free or Die has been around for years before the Tea Party movement started grabbing headlines.

Coutu’s husband, local handyman Jean Coutu, started the Live Free or Die Rally. About five years ago he had become disenchanted with what he was hearing when it came to free speech and liberty.

“He just came home one day and out of nowhere he said ‘I think I want to have a rally,’” she said. “At first I was like, ‘A rally? What do you mean a rally? . . . But I was like, ‘Great. Who doesn’t love a party?’”

The first year was anything but a party. Some people in Jaffrey dismissed the event as racist and anti-Semitic and tried to stop it from happening.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Coutu said. “None of us are racist, everybody is welcome . . . But it was new, and that scared people.”

Picketers protested the event.

“But I watched them,” Coutu said. “And the more they saw what was going on and what people were actually saying and that no one was hating anybody, by the end of the day, those people with the signs were walking around with us eating hot dogs.”

Coutu said that’s the biggest difference between their event and Tea Party rallies.

“I want people to feel free to come here to say what’s on their minds,” she said. “And we are not going to hate you for what you think. We aren’t going to hate you if your views are outside of the box of what we think. You are still welcome at the rally.”

After all, she said, that’s what America is about.

“The people who built this country did so by standing on a stump and shouting their ideas,” Coutu said.

“This is grassroots. This country is made up of us. We are the ones who will make change.”

Free Keene blogger Meg McLain is the subject of a recent Ridley Report:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bid on her tattoo auction here!

Capuzzo has written another letter from the jail in Mass. You can give him something to do in there by sending him (and other NH activists) mail via mail-to-jail! Thanks to Aida for the transcription:

Friends in Liberty,

Some of you know me already, but many of you do not. I thought it would be interesting to write letters to have posted on line and give everyone the chance to hear about life in jail. The difference being, I’m here long term. This idea is from Kurt Hoffman’s letters from jail. He is my inspiration in this and also a big part of me becoming an activist from the same letters.
I have been in the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, MA for a month and a half, estimated. I don’t know anyone here but they knew me fairly quick with the nickname of “Hippy”, being an activist and because of all the shit they found in my car when I was arrested with fellow activist and great friend, Rich Paul, and my friend Jackie. Luckily, I get along with most everyone pretty well.
Most of my time passed fairly quickly because of letters from friends, mail to jail, watching TV, and reading. The latest books of interest being the biography of Gandhi, Harry Truman, and the essay from Henry David Thoreau titled Civil Disobedience.
The last couple weeks have been a little tough to handle. The idea of nonviolence is still fairly new to me and in this environment, for me, it is hard to carry through, but I have done well with it thus far.
Also, the stress is finally starting to kick in. I guess you can say that I’m institutionalized. Now that I have the idea of freedom, I’m at a crossroad. I am comfortable here and I spread the word of liberty as much as possible, but I find it difficult to stay comfortable now that I know that there is a real world, so to say, waiting for me, one that can use my help. I’m doing all I can while here to spread the message, but I can tell that this is not what I am meant for like I thought before. I’ll take my leave of this letter now, but I hope it was enjoyed.
To end this letter, here is a quote that I enjoy very much. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but habit.” -Aristotle

Your friend in liberty,
Edward Dantez

Mark Capuzzo
160 Elm St
Greenfield, MA 01301
If you would like to write directly.

The first of the “Trespassive Twelve” faces trial for the horrible crime of walking on “public” property. Of course, he was found guilty, but is appealing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Liberty-minded people called “Talkback” on WKBK last week to discuss negativity in politics, fiat currency, world policing, consequences of cracking down on activists, police discretion, insults toward liberty activists, free market schools, and correcting misunderstandings. A local critic calls in about the city council drinking game and a former cop calls in with paranoid and violent statements about activists.

Grab the archive.

Please join us for our weekly chat and calling sessions on Saturday mornings from 9a-12p. If you’re in the Keene area you can tune in to WKBK 1290 AM or 104.1 FM. The Talkback discussion thread is here on the Free Keene Forum.

I was at the attorney genital’s office to support Ivy Walker in her hearing for “practicing law without a license”, but they would only let one other person into the hearing. I had questions, so Dick Tracy (really!) was sent to speak to me, but decided against it when he saw my camera. He then came out again several moments later only to repeat his earlier actions. Enjoy Dick in full HD:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Her’s a friendly discussion Luthor and I had with the group before the bureaucrat’s meeting  where they upheld their ban on the freedom to possess an  open container of alcohol:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another perspective, thanks to Free Keene form the Free Keene Stigma’s Jeff:

Click here to view the embedded video.