Local independence movements continue to be popular in various media. NHPR has today published a seven minute segment that focuses mostly on the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence. Also published on the same day as last week’s Free Concord article on the subject was a story on the Concord-NH Patch, Secession Movement Comes to NH. FreeWilliamsburg.com published on November 16 an interview with a resident of the Brooklyn neighborhood who started a petition on WhiteHouse.gov to grant secession to East Williamsburg to ‘create a new, hipper neighborhood’.
A mural welcoming Barack Obama to Burma (Myanmar) is vandalized in Yangon
On Friday, November 16 at the Unitarian Universalist church in Keene, New Hampshire Peace Action hosted a presentation and discussion with author Joan Roelofs. Joan is a former professor at Keene State College and the author of Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism and Greening Cities: Building Just and Sustainable Communities. In her presentation, she theorizes the reasons for the disappointing state of antiwar movement, given the chronic militarization of the globe. See the playlist embedded below for the full hour and forty minute discussion on focusing through the distractions to confront the issues that most threaten peaceful human existence.
What does it say about an individual that is uncomfortable sharing their first name with you? On November 5, the afternoon before the 2012 election, I was chalking around city hall in Concord when I was approached by an officer. He implied that he needed to know my name because “I got called in”, which is not a valid excuse/reasonable suspicion of any crime. I figured I would entertain him in reciprocity by first asking his name.
Ean: What’s your first name?
Pelliccia: My first name? It’s Officer Pelliccia. That, that’s how we refer to each other here.
E: You won’t give me your first name?
P: Nope.
E: Okay, well I’ll give you only my last name then. My name is Mr. Ean.
As he walked away, I told him that my name was Garret, and asked his. He only repeated, “Officer Pelliccia”.
The nice lady on the phone at the company he works for told me that his name is Andrew.
Dave Ridley recently released a compilation video of ambush interviews with legislators, and ultimately, a representative of the liquor commission. The focus of his interviews is the ban on some liquor store protestors who sang inside a now defunct Concord store on one occasion, and numerous times outside of others. Meanwhile, the liquor commission is currently under threat of restructuring after a state house panel found the commission in violation of a prohibition on contracting lobbyists. Ridley’s interviews are embedded below.
If 22 national petitions filed on Whitehouse.gov, and an article today in the Concord Monitor are any indicator, discussion of the concept of secession is spreading rapidly through the minds of many in the United States. The Examiner reports that as of Monday, 22 states have a number of people circulating petitions for recognition of potential independence on the White House’s official petitioning website. While these numbers are currently in the hundreds and low thousands, the recognition of the legitimacy of the concept seems to be reaching a high water mark, and could continue swelling.
Ben Leubsdorf has penned two article’s in today’s Monitor about individuals making major movement with their feet, both into and out of New Hampshire. He reports on the expatriation of Frank Szabo, the controversial candidate for sheriff of Hillsborough County. Szabo announced early in his candidacy for the republican nomination that he had interest in protecting the sovereignty of New Hampshire from unconstitutional federal law enforcement actions. His campaign crashed and burned when he advocated enforcing non-existent laws against abortion seekers and providers. He announced Sunday on his facebook page that he had recently relocated to South America, where he plans to enjoy the remainder of his days. Currently in Chile, he states that he hopes to see extended family and friends in the future, though that may require that they voyage to visit him. He also announced in his facebook post that the IRS has seized $36,000 from him. (more…)
While filming the merry antics of the Vermin Supreme campaign on November fifth, the eve of the election, myself and another videographer witnessed Manchester police remove an attendee from the Romney rally venue. After a lengthy conversation with a few officers outside of my view, we notice the man being dragged to the ground by three before being placed into a prisoner transport van. It’s difficult to make out the exchanges between the parties over the blaring music of the Mitt Romney/Kid Rock performance. Body language indicates that at one point, the officer appeared to try to take the man into custody, but he backs away and is not heartily pursued. The third party candidate tries to deescalate the situation with police by asking if the man is free to go, to which the officer implied that he wanted the man to leave. It’s possible that the arrested individual was not in the right state of mind and very uncomfortable, as it was near freezing temperatures at the time that this footage was shot.
It’s unclear what the man has been charged with, and a call to Manchester’s public information unit told me that no records were accessible until Monday. The only information regarding an arrest that I have found for this date is a blog entry by presidential campaign follower Ray LeMoine posting on TheAwl.com. The author reports: (more…)
