By Felipe Franco

read more

Find a police officer out in public and ask them what the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution is.  After that, ask them about the 6th.  Just for kicks, ask them how many rights the 1st Amendment restricts the government from infringing on.

I guarantee you that ninety percent (plus) of the police officers you ask wont know the answers.  Why?  Well, the police academy does not teach the entirety of the US Constitution or the NH Constitution.  Doesn’t this seem like an important thing to teach the people who are the “boots on the ground” portion of the government?

I’ve attended both the New Hampshire full-time and part-time police academies and neither taught anything more about the US or NH constitutions other than the basics about searching and seizing.  Were I able to re-attend the police academy I’d love to ask the instructors from the Attorney General’s office what my responsibility is to Part I, Article 10 of the New Hampshire Constitution.  Clearly, these words on paper combined with my required oath to defend them mean something, don’t they?

Question:  How can someone take an oath to uphold and defend something that they know almost nothing about?

(the oath to uphold it is almost as much of a joke as the law enforcement officer’s code of ethics is …  nothing more than a PR trick.)

The Union Leader is running an article about an individual who was arrested by the Rockingham County Sheriffs Department for driving without state permission:

“A Nottingham man was ordered held without bail after he argued that the county sheriff’s department had no constitutional right to arrest him for driving from the courthouse without a license.”

Drive, without state permission, eventually what happens?

“That prompted prosecutors yesterday to have Porter’s bail revoked until his new trial on Sept. 27 for the Exeter charges.”

Caging, like an animal.

This man is a New Hampshire native, mind you.  His license issues began back in 1999…  before the Free State Project began.  These comments in the Union Leader, to me, show just how apathetic people are towards the ever increasing police state in which we live:

Prime candidate for permanent residency in the the psycho ward. People like this don’t belong out in society without one-on-one close supervision.
- Brian, Farmington

Sounds like one of those Free Staters to me.
Nut jobs, all of them!
- John, Manchester

People who believe in reducing the infringement of government into the liberty of individuals who are not harming someone surely makes them “nut jobs.”  I refer you John and Brian to the following Wikipedia article: Punitive psychiatry in the Soviet Union.

I’ll agree that the “free staters” can appear to be “out there” on the fringe sometimes, but we need people like them to protect us from the Governments increasing encroachment on our freedoms.

P.S the “free staters” are some of the staunchest defenders of your constitutional rights, especially the 2nd amendment in NH.

I have found them to be very strict constitutionalists and Libertarian in their thinking, and I don’t have a problem with that, why should you.
- neggy, hudson

Without the Free State Project here in New Hampshire… it would only be a matter of time before New Hampshire descends into another Massachusetts. As a New Hampshire native, I feel blessed that the Free State Project is here.

Another Freestater on the way to the looney bin. The Freestaters are a bunch of crazies who want to drag us back to the stone age. They are all a bunch of anti society radicals. No laws, no taxes. The roads will fall apart and people will starve but the Freestaters will be able to grow pot. Thats what they want. Its time for them to go away.
- Mel, Manchester

Wrong, Mel.   This fellow is a New Hampshire native.  He’s not on his way to the “looney bin” either.  He is on his way to a cage…  for doing something that caused no harm to anyone else.

Anyone can believe anything they want? Freestaters or not… Okay, then believe this: if you don’t recognize the authority of the police, or the State then why do they still pay their taxes? If they won’t get a license, get Off the Road!! It’s paid for by the state, town, etc with tax-payer money, guided by elected officials… Want to be FREE, then WALK!!!! Ride a bike! Get a life while you are at it and find better things to protest about.
- Scott, Portsmouth

People still pay taxes (not “theirs”) because of the threat of violence if they don’t.

neggy, hudson, the Free Stater nutballs were the reason for the ban on weapons in the State House, because they made a big show of going in covered with guns like children.

They need to be encourage to go home. Loudly.

- Dave Sims, Derry

This is their home… and not a single incident of violence or anyone being harmed at the state house ever occurred. All that happened is people exercised their rights as sovereigns to carry firearms. The symbolism of carrying a firearm is more important than actually carrying a firearm for protection, in my opinion.

Oh free staters… when will you learn. Defenders of our rights? I must have missed the constitutional right to be willfully ignorant and endlessly self indulgent.

These people are the personification of how civic responsibility has taken a backseat to mulish entitlement. There is no free lunch, someone has to pay for the police, the roads, etc. Free staters benefit from the trappings of society for their entire lives but believe that they are above the laws that keep that very same society functioning.

I’d love to hear the free staters and sovereign citizens explain what they think the constitution says to a law professor. Would the professor laugh or cry?
- James, Manchester

Hmm… President Obama is a “constitutional law professor” who recently authorized the extra-judicial killing of American citizens so long as a bureaucrat labels them a “terrorist.” With this type of thought being the mainstream opinion of constitutional law professors, I’m not so sure what justification a constitutional law professor can come up with for anything really means anything.  I’m sure the founding fathers would have approved of a king president having the ability to order an American citizen be whacked, simply because he said so.

How did he escape from Keene?
- Happy in, Portsmouth

Last week I was pleased to see my Republican colleagues take up the cause to fully and completely audit the Federal Reserve by including my language from the Federal Reserve Transparency Act in a Motion to Recommit the financial regulation reform bill. Although this effort was defeated by the Democrat majority, there were many good reasons to support it.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would eliminate restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve and open Fed operations to Congressional oversight. Additionally, audits could include discount window operations, open market operations, and agreements with foreign central banks, such as the ongoing dollar swap operations with European central banks.

Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight, while Congress has kept its hands off and its eyes closed. The Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve System.

However, House and Senate negotiators failed to include the full language of my legislation in the conference report for the financial reform bill, and the full Congress missed yet another opportunity to demand accountability from the Federal Reserve by defeating the Republicans’ motion to recommit. Over 320 members of Congress from both parties cosponsored my original bill, which was incorporated into that motion to recommit. Almost 200 members of Congress who care about Federal Reserve transparency voted for this motion to recommit. Unfortunately, they found themselves in the minority.

Any legitimate objections to the audit proposal were addressed in the language of the motion to recommit. Thus, it is clear that the real reasons for opposing it are unstated and indefensible. The real reasons are that politicians like to spend money far exceeding income and it is convenient to have an enabler of this in the Federal Reserve. The easier it is for the Fed to create money, hidden from public view and accountability, the easier it is for politicians to spend that money and make sure their friends and interests are taken care of through shady political processes.

The broader reasons for supporting this entire financial regulatory reform bill are just as sinister. This is not about cracking down on big banks as some claim. Rather, this is about not wasting a crisis. This is about using a traumatic event to increase government power and control over the economy. If it was really about addressing the causes of this recession, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have been dealt with, or abolished. Failed companies would just fail, rather than being bailed out. Instead, a permanent bailout mechanism is being established. The Fed, and its ability to control interest rates and create cheap money, would be reformed or better yet, abolished. But instead its power is being increased and this Congress refuses to even fully audit it!

So yet again in the midst of a crisis, government insists on acting, and in ways far outside the scope of the Constitution, hoping that the crisis gives them cover. The truth is that in crises is when we need Constitutional limitations the most.

[Photo by Arnaud Klamecki; CC BY-SA 2.0]

Perhaps this means the quality of people attracted to such employment will improve.  You know, so there aren’t guys like this intentionally hurting people who only want to exercise their so-called “freedom of the press” by filming in a public building.

Court security officers were getting $65 for a full day and $35 for a half day.  According to the new law, they’re now going to be paid $80 for a full day and $40 for a half day.

We can only hope this pay increase marks a new era of respect for the rights of individuals.

(the legal-eeze is here)

… they would strike at the root of the cause of so much crime that plagues their communities: drug prohibition.

In Farmington, NH there has been a rash of burglaries:

“Police have nabbed three men and continue to make headway on an investigation into a burglary and theft spree plaguing the town.”

“Farmington is a town that averages 35 to 40 burglaries annually, Willey said, but in a monthlong period from early June to early July, there were nine reported break-ins, he said. Between June 1 and June 6, there were additionally 15 reported thefts from motor vehicles, he said.“

I feel I must repeat myself continuously here for the truth to hopefully one day sink in: Why, oh why, are these innocent people being victimized?

“Among those arrested was Sheldon J. Wallace, 36, of 68 Swan Lake Trail in Alton. He was charged with felonies of possession of burglary tools and Oxycodone, two counts of burglary and misdemeanor criminal mischief in connection with recent burglaries at 485 Route 11.”

Opiate addicts, again.

“Currently, Card faces two counts of burglary, two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and two counts of receiving stolen property, Willey said. He was allegedly involved in break-ins at 59 Sycamore Blvd. and 50 Peaceful Pines Circle, he said. Willey said Card is a suspect in two other downtown burglaries and is a “very strong suspect” in a third.”

Wow, this guy has harmed a lot of innocent people. He should be stopped. Better yet, why don’t we make sure that this entire crime problem comes to a halt?

“Card, who is currently on probation and has a history of burglary and theft, had bail set at $5,000 cash during arraignment. He is due in court for a probable cause hearing on July 12 at 1 p.m. Christofore had bail set at $1,000 cash and has an Aug. 19 trial on the misdemeanor charge.“

Q: Why would someone ON PROBATION with a history of burglary do something so stupid as to continue to burglarize homes?

A: He’s an opiate addict who, like most, will stop at nothing to get money to get the drugs he needs.

““It’s good old-fashioned police work,” Willey said.“

No, it’s not.  It is stupid and needless police work.  I suppose it is job security as crime = job.  If you really wanted to protect your community Mr. Willey, you’d come to realize that drug prohibition is causing this problem.

You’re either two things:

1) Uneducated on why this crime is happening; or

2) Too afraid/uncaring to stand up to try and make your community safer.

In this first of a series of programs, the Liberty Conspiracy begins to look more closely at the mirage of liberty the US Constitution has led many to believe they possess. Gardner Goldsmith takes the occasion of Independence Day to study how many icons and myths are now associated with the anniversary of the issuance of the Declaration of Independence, and how it was the acceptance of government in the first place that led the society of the United States on this path towards acceptance of the myriad government structures that have been created since that first era of the “founding”.

Stay tuned, all!

Be Seeing You!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Citizens Realty Advisory Program (C.R.A.P.)

in association with

LiveFreeAndComply.org

Presents
“TMP”
Tamworth Millionaire Program

Visit http://www.livefreeandcomply.org to download the TMP form, and join the elites in Tamworth, NH!!

LEARN MORE about the back story of the “Tamworth Millionaire Program”.

Local-turned-activist leader Mark Capuzzo is still jailed in Massachusetts on drug charges. You can send mail to him courtesy of Mail-to-Jail.com. Mail-to-jail makes it easy. Write your letter or pick a postcard and MTJ takes the time to print, address, and mail it. You don’t even have to pay the postage, though MTJ would appreciate a donation – look for the chipin in the right column of their site.

If you want to do it the old-fashioned way, here’s the current address where he can be reached. Visit this thread on the Free Keene forum for the latest.

First, big thanks to all who contributed to the FK Porcfest advertising campaign. Also, we’ve recently had a couple of new signups from people who want to support us for as little as $3 per month. Thank you!

Now I’ve launched a new chip-in to help FK continue to sponsor great liberty oriented programming like Free Minds TV/Radio, Liberty Conspiracy, Ridley Report, and LCL Report. We’re also becoming a sponsor of Liberty on Tour. See the right column of the site for the new chip-in, and thanks for your help in advance!

That star-spangled banner no longer waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave. The banner is still there, of course, but the freedom and the bravery are long gone.

What remains today is a thinly veiled police state which has, over the past century, adopted some of the worst elements of both fascism and socialism in a unique American blend which, while it still retains a few of the old formalities of a freer society, is steadily losing them, until one day you will finally wake up to find that we are once again in bondage, with no idea how you got there.

The only aspect of those failed societies not yet fully adopted in the United States is the mass killing of dissidents, though President Barack Obama placed that option on the table earlier this year. That’s right, you now live in a country where the government can kill you without so much as a show trial, if you disagree with its policies and take any action that the government thinks will threaten its stranglehold on you and your fellow Americans, not to mention the rest of its world hegemony.

It has always happened like this throughout history. It starts with something seemingly small and reasonable, like “stopping terrorists” or “economic recovery.” Like every other government program, it expands. Ultimately, anyone who voices disagreement with government policy winds up blacklisted, in prison, or dead.

Oh, it can’t happen here? You think a goddamned piece of paper is going to protect you, when the government’s own courts redefine that piece of paper to mean anything that the government thinks is convenient? The Soviet Union had free speech in its constitution, too. We all know how well that piece of paper protected Russian dissidents. What makes you think your constitution is any more bulletproof?

It has already happened here. Today the government can take your home and give it to anyone it wants to, with no restrictions, as it did to Susette Kelo and her neighbors. It can imprison or kill you for taking medicine to save your life, as it did to Steve Kubby and Angel Raich. Its “law enforcement” agents can commit murder with impunity, as they did to Sean Bell, Frank Jude, Jr., and many others.

That’s what you were celebrating by launching those fireworks? I was mourning the failure of the so-called great American experiment. Or perhaps it was a success. After all, the experience of the United States did prove that a republic is no better than a monarchy, and in some ways is worse. Either way, the experiment is over.

Today the United States government is headed for either total collapse, an even bloodier civil war, or World War III. It’s still hard to predict which will happen first, though it’s no longer possible to say that none of them will happen. If we’re going to survive, it’s time for a new experiment.

The government of the United States has proved destructive to stability, justice and order. Indeed, all governments ultimately devolve into some form of tyranny, chaos, or both. It is time to discard government as we know it entirely.

The only viable system is the one by which everyone lives their lives most of the time: by voluntary interaction, mutual exchange and explicit consent. Much has been written already about how such a system would work. See for example The Market for Liberty, Complete Liberty and Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression (free downloads available).

On June 26 at the Porcupine Freedom Festival in Lancaster, N.H., dozens of people took the first steps toward such a voluntary society by signing a Shire Society Declaration which states the nature of human rights, holds that explicit voluntary association is the only legitimate social order, and the signer’s commitment to the outlined principles. I am proud to be one of the first people to have signed it, joining the Shire Society, a voluntary association of individuals who believe in “peace, individual sovereignty and independence” and are actively working toward building that society.

The only way to save ourselves now is to recognize government for the unnecessary evil that it is and to commit to living our daily lives on a voluntary basis. Down any other path lies only oppression, chaos and utter destruction.

["ObamaNation" image by Fletcher Warren; CC BY 2.0]

It has been said of anarchism/voluntarism—the idea no group can be given greater rights than its members if all members are beings of equal moral nature—that it is the effort to build the first human civilization. (Keene being very much an epicenter of that transformation in human thought.)

Thanks to a liberty activist posting on Facebook a reference to a particular academic presentation, I became aware that a certain speaker (Jeremy Rifkin) at the British Royal Society for the Arts has done a far more credible job articulating that perspective than I could presently hope to.

Further, having done a small spot of research into it myself, I found that RSAnimate also did an excellent exception of the total talk, further encapsulating and better communicating the topic even more so.

[Viewer-discretion advisory: this animation contains some cartoonish nudity in scientific context.]

Click here to view the embedded video.

…and finally, here is the talk in its entirety:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I know there are quite a few Free Keene readers who are reading this not because of their participation or belief in the movement towards a society that respects individual freedom, but because they want to keep tabs on what we’re doing and saying.  I want to make sure those of you who disagree with our positions correctly understand where your opposition leaves you.

While reading the comment section of the article “Dependence Day” that I referenced in my news update blog I came across the following comment:

“These folks get it; they’re great Americans who understand what America is supposed to be.

- Kevin, Lancaster.”

And yet Kevin from Lancaster, when former Gov. Benson spoke about the free state movement, we, the people, voted him out of office and only gave him one term. In today’s world, our government builds high fences to keep people out, to impose laws that subject us to do as they (government) say to do. As it is in Manchester, apathy is alive and well in this city as it is in our state of New Hampshire. The majority has choosen NOT to come out and vote in state, local or national elections and thus our government is run by those who wish to impose improper laws upon us. They have forgotten what the Forth of July means to those WHO do vote. It’s time to vote Repubilcans, those who understand what this country and our states were founded on. Time to show independance on November 2nd, 2010.

- Robert M Tarr, Manchester

In response to Robert’s response to Kevin…  I posted the following:

Robert M. Tarr from Manchester:

The Free State Project is an organization of individuals who stand in opposition to government tyranny.

Judging by your post, you stand in opposition to the Free State Project.

Logically, where would standing against an organization of people standing against tyranny leave you in support of?

(Thank you for using your real name, by the way. So few people have the courage here to actually do that. It’s real easy to talk big when you’re hiding behind anonymity.)

Logically, if one stands against a group of people opposing tyranny, what does that make them in support of?

1.  This is a nice story about a very young entrepreneur in Sunapee, NH who has opened up a rather professional ice cream stand.  He seems to be making good money…  good for him.  This is the part of the story I thought might interest you:

“Beck Johnson had a business plan, his startup funding a dream of opening an ice cream stand, but first he needed a variance from the Sunapee Zoning Board to open in a residential zone. He admits being a bit “freaked out” before his presentation, but ultimately got the go-ahead. That was Oct. 27, 2009 – four months shy of Beck’s 10th birthday.”

Ah yes.  Not even a ten year old selling ice cream on his parents property is immune from the bureaucratic red tape involved in using said property as if it actually belonged to his parents.

Let us not forget the repercussions of not begging permission to use one’s own property as they see fit: violence.  Being “freaked out” when you’re about to deal with people who have no problem using violence when you don’t comply with their dictates is perfectly understandable.

2. An opinion piece submitted to the Nashua Telegraph for the 4th of July is entitled “True patriotism a matter of speaking up.”

“… there is a form of patriotism we can all engage in that would honor our founding fathers. That would be to speak out against the waywardness of those who govern.”

I wish that more people in the Keene community who verbally attack the liberty activists would take notice of these words.  Particularly, I wish the person who posted here on FreeKeene.com (using the handle “finally”) that they were happy that the heroic Rich Paul potentially would be facing a year in a cage in Massachusetts for possession of a firearm would take notice.

To “finally”: Some day, the government may go after something that you or your family like to do.  Fishing, ATVing, hunting, etc.  We will be there to defend your freedom if this should happen.  If you have a child, chances are they will experiment with drugs.   We (Rich Paul) refuse to allow your children to be branded as “criminals” for doing something that has harmed no one else.  Sometimes, being loud and stomping feet in the town square with a bullhorn is what it takes to check the government.

We care about you and your freedom.  Rich Paul cares about you and your freedom.  He is willing to be thrown in a human cage so that you have the freedom to treat your body as if it actually belonged to you.  He is willing to be thrown in a human cage so that you’ll never be subjected to the same inhumane treatment.

3. The Union Leader has run an article about how the NH Adult Parole Board is unhappy with the new law I blogged about earlier that would reduce the number of human beings in New Hampshire that remain caged like animals.

“The law is meant to cut prison populations and increase success for inmates when they return to society. The parole board worried the change was too drastic and would force them to parole undeserving inmates.”

I’d say more than half of the people in NH State Prison are “undeserving” of being caged like an animal…  and a few of them are there right now because of me.

4. The Union Leader has run an editorial (aptly named “Dependence Day”) touting the Declaration of Independence and complaining about how much liberty the government has chewed away.

The Declaration of Independence makes very clear why the colonists took up arms against their own government:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Ah yes.  “Consent of the governed.”  That’s a nice thought…  but it really doesn’t matter what you consent to.  If you don’t agree with what the government is doing, they’ll hurt you.  Men with guns will come to take you away, if you resist, they’ll kill you.  That’s their version of consent.

Kevin from Lancaster, NH, writing in the comment section about Free State Project participants, said the following:

“These folks get it; they’re great Americans who understand what America is supposed to be. Those who think government should provide people’s wants or needs, and those who think government should force foreign governments to do things our way, don’t get it at all.”

I agree with Kevin, wholeheartedly.  People who spew vitriol towards the “Free Staters” essentially are spewing vitriol towards the principles that this country was founded on: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The same vitriol spewed at the ideas that the “Free Staters” tout was spewed at the founding fathers for daring to challenge the king.  It is the same thing a few hundred years later.

I wish they’d come to see this.

Question: Who’s an arse?

Answer: Joe Biden. You know, the guy who lifted a speech from Neil Kinnock?

Check out how Biden reacts to a man who asks him to lower taxes!

Short, to the point.

Be Seeing You.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Those of us who wish the violent monopoly known as the state would disappear are not going to see our goal met for what I believe is an extended amount of time.

Question: Would you as someone who believes in liberty (or as someone who agrees with the state) be willing to make the following compromise:

The state will be unable to enforce “crimes” against someone unless there is a bona fide complaining victim who was harmed or endangered.  The punishment for endangering or harming someone will be twice that is currently is.

The state would still be allowed to use violence to enforce coercive taxation.

I’m curious to your thoughts/opinions.

by William Grigg

Johnny Gaskins of Raleigh, North Carolina faces a 30-year prison term -- an effective life sentence -- for the supposed crime of depositing $450,000 in his own bank account. The corporate leaders of Wachovia Bank, a criminal syndicate once headquartered in the same state, won't face prosecution despite admissions that the laundered hundreds of billions of dollars on behalf of Mexican narcotics cartels.

Wachovia was deemed "too big to fail," and thus too important to prosecute. In our system, mercy is reserved exclusively for the powerful and corrupt, and Johnny Gaskins -- a criminal defense attorney -- was neither.

read more

Although the “conservative” pop media hasn’t paid it any attention, Faisal Shahzad, the man who admits trying to kill people in Times Square, NYC with a truck bomb, has explained why he made the attempt, and why more terrorists will try to kill innocent Americans.

In his criminal trial (which is open to reporters, as opposed to the military commissions so many statists want to use for trials of terrorism suspects), Shahzad said that if the US government continues to meddle in Mideast affairs, there will me more killings.

Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with US culture. It’s about the US government messing in the middle east and killing people, or offering weapons to nation states to kill people, or money to kill people, etc., etc. . . .

Check out this audio, isolated from an earlier production in order to facilitate easier retention!

Be Seeing You!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

On New Year’s Day 2009 the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police in Oakland, CA summarily executed made a mistake and accidentally shot Oscar Grant while he was laying face down on the ground during his arrest.  The trial for the police officer who blasted his brains out came to a close yesterday.

I predict that the officer will be found not-guilty of everything…  and this is why: “Mehserle, 28, testified last week that he shot Grant after he mistakenly drew his handgun instead of an electric Taser gun on his belt.“  (article here)  I predict that the prosecution was unable to prove criminal intent on the officer’s part.  I also predict some racially charged riots in the greater San Fransisco, CA area to follow.

The actual footage of the murder mistake is below.  Your predictions?

Click here to view the embedded video.

(ps— film the police.  you never know when someone may have their brains blasted out.)