by Ian | Feb 23, 2023 |
Nearly 20% of those voting on HB581 yesterday in the full New Hampshire house session, voted for ending the insane war on drugs ENTIRELY! The bill came out of nowhere, filed by rep Matt Santonastaso with little fanfare or press attention, despite the epic attack on the War on Drugs it represents. The public hearing came-and-went with little support, or opposition.
Yesterday, at the full house session, the bill came up for a vote and reps Santonastaso and Jonah Wheeler made excellent speeches in favor of ending the failed war on drugs, while Terry Roy who positions himself as a incremental drug reformer used fearmongering language to scare the reps into voting to continue the destruction of our neighbors’ lives. They then voted 286-70 to kill the bill.
Here’s a link to the full roll call showing exactly how all the representatives voted. Kudos to the brave 35 Republicans and 35 Democrats who did the right thing. Sadly many “A+” rated “liberty reps” voted to continue the drug war. What were they thinking? Anyone with a “Yes” vote on the roll call voted to kill the bill, so feel free to reach out to them and ask why. You can watch the full hearing here:
by Ian | Jan 30, 2023 |
Last week at the state house, liberty activists spoke on various bills in front of the Criminal Justice Committee including:
- HB 581 – would end the entire War on Drugs by striking RSA 318-B completely.
- HB 360 – would end prohibition of possession and apparently also growing and selling of cannabis by anyone over 21.
- HB 328 – would legalize possession of possessing hallucinogens including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and peyote for people over 21.
- HB 470 – would legalize possession of drug testing equipment.
HB 581 – Finally, after years of compromised legislation trying to slowly scrape away at drug prohibition, one brave state representative, Matt Santonastaso, has put forward a bill that would in one fell swoop, end the entire War on Drugs. Sadly, only Bonnie and I came out to support Rep. Santonastaso and testify in favor of this epic legislation. We need more reps willing to take a risk with their “political capital” and actually put forward principled bills like this. Sure, it has no chance of passing, but the conversation needs to happen, and it needs to keep coming back and growing in its support. We also need bills to do other principled things like end government schooling, abolish the liquor commission, and abolish the state police. Hopefully we’ll see more liberty reps step up to the level of Matt Santonastaso in the coming years. Here is full video of the hearing:
HB 360 – One of several cannabis-related bills in the session this year, HB 360 is probably the best one I’ve seen as it does not contain any provisions to tax or regulate cannabis. It simply removes it from being a prohibited substance, although only for those over 21. It’s overall a great bill and would be awesome if it passed, though another bill that has taxes and regulations has the support of the house minority and majority leaders, so don’t get your hopes up. That said, it’s good to see the ideas discussed. Here’s full video of the hearing: (more…)
by Ian | Nov 24, 2022 |
NHexit.US
The NHexit.US blog has a detailed story looking at what happened to the 13 state representatives who voted for the NH Independence bill this year, CACR 32. How many of them were re-elected? Turns out, of those who ran again and made it to the general election, 100% of them were re-elected!
Despite the democrats trying to make secession an issue, and despite the fears of the state reps who were too cowardly to vote for the bill, we now know that being in favor of NH independence, or at least being in favor of letting the people vote on the question – which is all the bill would have done – is not a guaranteed end to a state rep’s career.
For a full breakdown of how the NH Independence reps fared in this year’s election, see the article here at NHexit.US.
by Ian | Nov 4, 2022 |
Free Keene already published the damning video showing General Don Bolduc, the republican candidate for US senate in NH, lying to police to have Joa from “Breaking the Flaw” wrongfully arrested. The story and video have gone viral yet right wing publications have largely ignored the truth of the video that proves Joa never touched Bolduc. Meanwhile, Joa has filed complaints against Bolduc with Goffstown police, as Bolduc was the one who committed assault against Joa and then made false reports to police.
Bolduc has continued to lie, even after walking back his claim that he was assaulted.
Now, you can see this longer form video showing various scenes from outside the senate debate at St. Anselm College, including libertarians protesting Jeremy Kauffman being excluded from the debate, but mostly focusing on the entire arrest and subsequent release of Joa:
Should be an interesting case when it goes to trial. Joa’s arraignment is at Goffstown District Court at 8:15am on December 1st.
UPDATE: Joa has released his first-person, unedited video of the whole arrest scene. (more…)
by Ian | Oct 4, 2022 |
First Amendment Auditor “Press NH Now” aka Marc Manchon was arrested last year in Charlestown, NH as he was live streaming video in the police department. He was charged with “disorderly conduct”, the police’s favorite catch-all charge for people they don’t like, and “obstructing government administration”, because of the alleged actions of his viewers, which were clearly free speech. Hence, after a two hour trial he was found “not guilty” on both counts. Here’s the full trial video:
Manchon had come to Charlestown to pick up a freedom of information request and when he interacted with the police department’s dispatcher, she refused to tell him her name. Manchon suggested people could try to find out her name, and calls began coming in to dispatch from alleged viewers that were trying to get the tax-feeding woman, Sirena Reliham, to simply identify herself, which all government bureaucrats are supposedly required to do by Article 8 of the NH Constitution. When police chief Patrick Connors arrived, rather than acknowledging his employee was out-of-line by keeping her identity a secret, he doubled down and arrested Manchon because people were calling their publicly-listed department number and asking questions, or sharing how they felt about the corruption in the Charlestown police.
“Press NH Now” Supporters in Claremont after trial.
Basically, if the government thugs don’t like why people are calling them, they will call it a crime and make arrests. Thankfully, the robed man in this case, judge Jack Yazinski, despite his clear desire to protect his buddies from accountability, did issue a “not guilty” verdict on both counts, as obviously recording video in a public place and calling a public phone number to speak with so-called “public servants” is not a crime. However, he did take the opportunity to scold Manchon prior to issuing the verdict, telling him that he was “rude and disrespectful” to the bureaucrats while expecting they be respectful to him, and that “the street does go two ways”. Yazinski is wrong – respect is earned. No bureaucrat is deserving of respect simply because they have a badge, fancy hat, or uniform. Further, Ms Reliham didn’t show Manchon the simple respect of giving her name when asked and the entire government system regularly violates people’s rights, throwing innocent people into handcuffs and destroying peaceful people’s lives. They do not respect us. They rule us, while laughably calling themselves “servants”.
Kudos to Manchon for refusing to take a plea deal and going to trial. His activism is exemplary and you can follow his channel here. For full video background on the Charlestown situation, see his playlist here.
by Ian | Sep 6, 2022 |
NRA’s Rating for NH Senate District 10 Candidates
I’m happy to announce that in my campaign running as a republican for NH Senate District 10, I have received the top rating of “A” from both the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition and the NRA, having bested my republican primary opponent, Sly Karasinski, who only scored a “B” from both organizations. The democrats in the race did much worse. The NRA’s rating includes the letter “Q”, and the NHFC’s rating includes the letter “S”, both of which mean that all they have to go on is my responses to their questionnaires, as I have no voting record, having not yet held office.
In addition to my top ratings from the gun rights groups, I also received the endorsement from the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which sends questionnaires out to all candidates as well as scoring existing state reps and senators on whether or not they vote for liberty. They do great work.
Finally, I received 85 out of 100 from Granite State Taxpayers. My opponents did not bother to respond to their survey. The 85 is due to two “missed” questions, neither of which had to do with taxes. One was, “Will you support limiting voting to persons who have been New Hampshire residents for at least 30 days?” – I said “no”. The other was, “Will you oppose casino gambling?”, to which I said “no”. I do oppose gambling monopolies, but as a supporter of freedom, I think gambling should be legal, untaxed, and unregulated, just like every business should be. Neither issue I “missed” on GST’s questionnaire has anything to do with taxes, so I’m not sure why GST was asking about them. Here is a link to their full database showing all candidates’ responses.
New Hampshire Firearms Coalition’s Ratings for NH Senate District 10
If you’d like more information about me and my pro-freedom positions on the issues, you can visit my official campaign page here and also my Citizens Count NH page has many issues where I was able to submit custom responses. Here’s more from Vote Smart’s Political Courage Test. Finally, here is a link to my Ballotpedia profile.
This year’s race for District 10 is wide-open as the current senator, democrat Jay Kahn, is not running for re-election. The newly re-mapped NH Senate District 10 includes Alstead, Chesterfield, Dublin, Hancock, Harrisville, Keene, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Roxbury, Sullivan, Surry, Swanzey, Walpole, and Westmoreland. If you are in those towns and are an undeclared voter or a registered republican, you can vote for me on September 13th at the primary election. You can also register at the polls the same day, if you are not yet registered to vote. Undeclared voters can declare as republican, receive the republican ballot, then undeclare again before you leave the polls.
