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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.