Rising Gas Prices Hit the Tax Payer

May 30, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Issues, Police, Rant 

Forum The rising price of fuel has not only driven up the cost of food, consumer goods, and regular driving, but it is inevitable that tax payers will have to pay more for the gas that goes into the array of vehicles driven by the city and the state. Read more

New Forum and Calendar!

May 29, 2008 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Announcement, Introduction 

ForumAnnouncing a forum for Keene-area activists and future Keene-area
activists to plan, discuss, and socialize:
http://forum.freekeene.com

Plus, the new forum has made a public, user editable calendar possible, so please also visit: http://calendar.freekeene.com

Free Keene’s Ian Guest Hosts on WKBK’s “Talkback”

May 24, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Audio, Copwatch, Issues, Personal Freedom, Police 

Radio TowerFred Parsells had me in on this morning’s “Talkback” for the entire two hours on WKBK. In hour two, Lt. Shane Maxfield from the Keene Police Department joined the conversation in-studio. We discussed the Free State Project, Libertarianism, regulations, representation, the pledge of allegiance, government education, Copwatch, monopolies, the roads, gambling civil disobedience, and market protection services.

Download the MP3.

Four Free Keene Videos Now High Quality and in Widescreen!

May 22, 2008 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Economic Freedom, Introduction, Issues, News, Personal Freedom, Police, Thuggery, Video 

I’m a bit of a videophile, so when I found out YouTube now supports higher quality videos, I had to re-upload some of my recent productions. Much to my surprise, not only are the videos now in higher resolution and bandwidth, but they are also staying in the widescreen format! (If you watch in full screen mode on a widescreen monitor).

I cannot embed them in high resolution, so please click the links and then watch in full screen to see these more as the director (me) intended:

Thanks for watching!

Free Talk Live Now on 104.1 FM in Keene!

May 17, 2008 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Audio, Free Talk Live 

FTL??????Free Talk Live is now broadcasting on WKBK 104.1 FM in Keene, Saturdays from 7-10pm ET! Plus, you can still tune us in on 1290 AM. Please note, we will be preempted if baseball is on.
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Free Minds TV May 16, 2008 (Episode 66)

May 16, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Free Minds TV, Issues, National, News, Personal Freedom, Video 

The Free Minds TV Hiatus Episode. Toby and Nick talk about an old man involved in a illegal taxi sting for giving a woman a ride home from the grocery store before getting into this week’s Downsizer Dispatch. Also, old gas pumps can’t handle rising prices, why the government can’t fix the fuel crises, and no knock raids.

Site Moved to New Server

May 14, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Announcement, Introduction 

Please accept my apologies for any bugs that crop up or any missing posts, as we just transferred the site to a new server and a few things may have been lost in the cracks. Let me know if you have any trouble at ian at freekeene.com!

Getting an Answer From City Government?

May 4, 2008 by · 7 Comments
Filed under: Question, Rant, Response 

On Friday, April 18th, I was told by a Keene Police Officer that I was committing theft by plugging my computer into one of the outlets that stick out of the ground along Main Street. These outlets have places to be locked or turned off, but they were neither locked, turned off, or marked with something saying they weren’t for public use. The officer told me “You can ask the City if you can use their electricity, but for now you’re stealing it.” I obliged and moved on with my night.

Tuesday, April 22nd, I went into City Hall and asked the Clerk’s Office about these outlets. Were they outlawed to the public? If so, why isn’t it marked, since they look as public as the public trash cans? How do I get permission to use them? Some of the workers were unaware that such plugs even existed, but they promised to call Keene Park & Rec and give me a call when they got the answer for me.

Tuesday, April 29th, I still had not heard from them, so I followed up with a personal contact I have in the same building. Perhaps he, being an employee on the inside, could push someone to find an answer for me. Today, May 4th, I followed up with him, and they told him the same thing they told me: “We’ll get back to you.”‘

***Update: Tuesday, May 6th, I finally got a call from Ms. Little in the City Clerk’s office. She said that the outlets are not for public use, and are for event use only. The city manager told her that if someone wanted to make some of them public, I could submit a written request to the city council. Sounds like fun…
This still does not answer the question as to why they are not marked, or how any person should know that an outlet on public property is not for public use.

The size of the Keene City government grows by 6.5%

May 4, 2008 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Issues, Rant 

It seems to be the nature of governments to grow, and the recent proposed Keene operating budget for the fiscal year of 2008-2009 makes the local government in Keene NH no exception to this rule.
No Politics

According to the Keene Sentinel, the proposed budget is 6.5% higher than last year’s budget. This means that property owners can expect to pay more in property taxes, as the proposed budget requires property taxes to be raised by 4.8%. Naturally renters should also expect to pay more, as landlords will likely pass the raised expenditures down to them.

City Manager John A. MacLean seems to think that this is a tight and responsible budget. This may be because John MacLean is paid over $100,000 a year, which is paid for by the tax payer. While John McLean can afford to pay more in property taxes, it is becoming increasingly hard for families to keep up with the growing prices of food and gas, let alone having to pay more to the government.

It should not be the job of the government to take care of us, but left unchecked more and more services will be provided by the government. It is my hope to push back the size of government, but first we must find a way to stop its growth.

Public Response to Copwatch

May 3, 2008 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Copwatch, Police 

This is a series of video and audio collected April 25th while we were Copwatching on Main Street. It outlines some people’s response to us being there. It is unfortunate that the only arrest we saw we were unable to document because we were being harassed by the public.



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