Budget Testimony Performance Art Teased in Monitor

May 14, 2013 by Free Concord · 11 Comments
Filed under: Concord, Free Concord, Free Press, Free State Project, Issues, Laugh at the Aggressors, New Hampshire, News, Satire

Last Thursday, I spent a good portion of the day at the New Hampshire state house, waiting to film a dramatic performance by two artists identifying themselves as Adam Sutler and Edgar Friendly. It was a harrowing experience, as the budget analysis is among the most drawn out public hearings in the state each year. Bureaucrats and their supporters from around the state gathered to plead for their slice of the pie.

Adam’s testimony went over the heads of most as it was the first one called following the dinner break. Edgar was called hours later, and his presentation drew the suspicions of the senate panel chair, who questioned its relevance to the budget and called for an end to the performance after two minutes.

The record of these performances is scheduled to appear on the internet shortly, but in the meantime, the Concord Monitor’s Ben Leubsdorf and satirical blogger Susan the Bruce have published their own analysis of the theatrics. From the Monitor:

The Senate Finance Committee got punk’d Thursday night.

The committee’s public hearing on the state budget was already past the four-hour mark (en route to a final running time of six hours) when a man who had put his name down as Edgar Friendly was called to testify. Read more

Rich Paul, from Trial to Appeal and Beyond

May 3, 2013 by Wendy French · 213 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, Cool, Court, Free State Project, Jailed Activist, Keene Weekly News, Outreach, Uncategorized, Update, Victimless Crimes

Greetings to all! To those who are following the Trial of Rich Paul, the saga continues. . .So much gratitude is going out to each individual for the overwhelming flood of loving support for Rich that is flowing his way! It has come in many forms, food, prayers, visits, mail, cash, paypal, bitcoins, oh my! Most important has been the activism supporting Rich with juror outreach and education, and the independent media coverage done by Rich’s friends right here in Keene, where history is being made and the world is able to watch thanks to them! A very special thank you goes to Ian Freeman for the incredible feat of filming the entire trial! Please tune in to this documented display of this cast of prohibition enforcement characters weaving a tangled web in the attempt to make a martyr out of Rich Paul.

Ian also did juror outreach every day of the trial (and for the last five years!), filmed Rich’s jurors as they left the courthouse after the verdict, and also filmed Rich’s interview from jail and posted it on vice.com. Thank you also to vice.com for covering Rich’s story before the trial began, and for also posting the interview with Rich from inside the jail. Read more

Liberty Forum 2013 Non-Political Activism Panel

March 17, 2013 by Ian · 1 Comment
Filed under: Copblock, Free State Project, How to, Nashua, Video

Pete Eyre of CopBlock.org and I had the honor of being the Non-Political Activism Panel at Liberty Forum 2013. Hope you find our discussion useful. We cover a lot of activism types and ideas in an hour’s time:

2013 Liberty Forum: Derrick J Premieres DJVCS Director’s Cut

February 26, 2013 by Free Concord · 1 Comment
Filed under: Civil Disobedience, Free Concord, Free State Project, Jailed Activist, Living Free, National, New Hampshire, News, Noncooperation, Personal Freedom, Police, Politics, Shire Society, Thuggery, Victimless Crimes, Video

Following yesterday’s video of a presentation by Pete Eyre, today Free Concord presents footage from the premiere of the director’s cut of Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree. The director’s cut is the street legal version of the film which appears on the recently released DVD, available through Amazon. While a theatrical release of the original cut of the film screened at Keene Cinemas in September, the February 22 screening at the Liberty Forum was the first public showing of the newer version. DVDs were also on hand for sale, which feature hours of bonus footage from related Shire activism. After the film, Derrick fielded questions from the audience.

Education: It’s for the Children!

February 26, 2013 by Darryl W. Perry · 1 Comment
Filed under: Free State Project, Govt. Schools, Personal Freedom, Politics

In a recent Letter to the Editor in the Keene Sentinel, Varrin Swearingen wrote, “I’m confused. Do Democrats care about education or not?

If so, Keene’s voters have been duped by the empty rhetoric of those currently serving in office. On Wednesday, Reps. Burridge, Chase, Johnsen, Phillips, Robertson, and Weed voted to shut down education scholarships for New Hampshire families.”

The only representative from Keene to oppose the elimination of the scholarships & tax credits? School Board member Kris Roberts, who in 2 weeks (March 12) hopes voters will re-elect him to the School Board.

While I applaud Representative Roberts on voting correctly on this bill, I have to wonder if he voted the correct way because of principles or because he hopes it will help him get re-elected?

2013 Liberty Forum: Pete Eyre on CopBlock.org

February 25, 2013 by Free Concord · 21 Comments
Filed under: Civil Disobedience, Copblock, Copwatch, Corruption, Court, Free Concord, Free Press, Free State Project, Issues, Jailed Activist, Manchester, Nashua, National, New Hampshire, News, Noncooperation, Outreach, Photos, Police, Thuggery, Victimless Crimes, Video

A handful of panels featured at the 2013 New Hampshire Liberty Forum were recorded for Free Concord, and raw footage continues to appear on Fr33manTVraw. Embedded below is Pete Eyre presenting on the project of CopBlock.org that he co-founded in 2010. He offers solid advice from an experienced activator. Check out the playlist set for links to other videos from the weekend in Nashua as they publish.

Liberty Forum 2013 Makes Headlines Around New Hampshire.

February 24, 2013 by James Cleaveland · 6 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, Bitcoin, Free State Project, New Hampshire, News

This year’s Liberty Forum 2013 event hosted by the Free State Project made headlines around New Hampshire as the Union Leader and Nashua’s Telegraph devoted their front pages of their Sunday Edition newspapers to covering the event. Additionally, New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) covered Stateless Sweets at Liberty Forum as their lead story. Links to the stories are listed below:

Small win. Big lesson learned.

February 16, 2013 by conan · 2 Comments
Filed under: Free State Project, Govt. Schools

This past Monday I attended the annual school budget and warrant meeting here in Keene, NH. (My first) In this meeting the various articles up for vote, including the budget, were available for discussion, debate and possible amendment by the attendees. Most of the evening was spent on Article 1: the proposed 2013/14 budget and most of the proposed amendments were focused on increasing the new year’s budget, but there were a few dissidents within the crowd who voiced some opposition. I, myself, proposed a 10% reduction in next year’s school budget. After all, the private sector has been forced to make radical changes in these lean years. Why not government as well?

My proposal was soundly defeated but I walked away with some valuable insight on how the machine functions . With another dozen liberty loving individuals in attendance, we probably could have proposed an amendment to reduce the budget to equal last year’s spending. With 40 or more, we could have reduced the budget by 2-5%. With 80, we could have reduced the budget by 10% (or 6.3 million dollars.) If you have any doubts, look to the current success story in Grafton, NH.

Please note that every motion to increase the budget was also defeated. If it were not for the small handful of free staters in attendance, the budget would have most likely increased by another $170,000.

Favorable Press from the Union Leader

February 10, 2013 by Darryl W. Perry · 11 Comments
Filed under: Concord, Free State Project, Issues, Manchester, New Hampshire, News, Politics

On February 7, the Election Law Committee of the NH House of Representatives heard testimony on HB521, a bill that proposes to establish a committee to examine all of New Hampshire’s election laws and see where there’s room for improvement.

The Union Leader has the following report:

Darryl Perry of the New Hampshire Liberty Party said “the perfect solution” to increase voter participation is “to create ballot access fairness.”
He said opponents claim that would create confusion. But, he said, “New Hampshire is actually very proud of the fact that they have a larger number of candidates running in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. So if ballot or voter confusion is not a problem for the primaries, why would it then all of a sudden become a problem for the general election?”
“The answer is: It’s not a problem,” he said.

The Election Law Committee will hold an Executive Session at some point in the near future (the date and time has not yet been added to the House calendar). During the Executive Session, the committee will decide whether or not to adopt the amendment I proposed and also vote on whether or not the bill should go before the full House.

Free State Now to Trigger The Move

February 4, 2013 by JJ Epic · 6 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, Free State Project, Video

Free State Now was originally started by Free Talk Live co-host Mark Edge with a dynamic outbound calling program. I recently took up the torch from Mark and with the help of Will Kostric, we have expanded it to include 2 more aspects. It has been a great learning experience as we turned a idea into reality. I just want to thank Mark Edge once again for all of his hard work.

The Phone center aspect is working well after much practice and patience. The cloud-based virtual call center software required some trial and error as we learned how to most effectively implement it. We have a large call list from New York that we hope to start on soon.

Additional aspects to the campaign include an online component. The Affiliate Link program will allow approved users to have a unique URL for the Free State Project website which will track the results of those who click through it and possibly sign up. This will incentivize and encourage a new breed of internet marketing for the Free State Project. Early results show great promise as we have had 14 signers already in just a couple weeks of implementation.

The final new aspect focuses on in-person sign ups at liberty events and more. We are planning both easy and cost-effective day trips as well as high profile out-of-state tours. The first Free State Now Road Tour is slated for April and more details are going to be made public as the tour develops.

I put together this video to provide an update about the campaign. Take a look!