by Ian | Mar 21, 2012 |
Great news from Concord via the AP:
New Hampshire lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have made their state legislature the first one to repeal a gay marriage law, an action that the governor had promised to block.
The state House voted 211-116 to kill the measure, ending a push in the Legislature to rescind New Hampshire’s 2-year-old gay marriage law. Nevertheless, both sides are pledging to continue fighting into the fall elections. (more…)
by Ian | Mar 21, 2012 |
From the Sheboygan Press:
During a recent city council meeting, the mayor of Keene, New Hampshire leaned over to a council member and whispered excitedly: “We’re going to have our own tank.”
Yes, the tank (or, more specifically, the “armored personnel vehicle”) is the latest must-have toy for mayors and police departments. Even in this picture-perfect and tranquil New England town of about 23,000 residents, officials hurl common sense to the wind at the very thought of having such a cool ride parked in front of town hall. Maybe they’ll even get to drive it in the next Fourth of July parade. Never mind that Keene has no crime that would warrant rolling out a tank. (more…)
by Ian | Mar 20, 2012 |
I was grateful to have the opportunity tonight to appear as a guest with A New Way of Life‘s Susan Burton on “Reentry Radio” and discuss with her and co-host Ed Garrett the idea of not taking plea deals. Susan is the lady who was featured in the excellent New York Times piece, “Go to Trial – Crash the Justice System“.
After I saw the article I reached out to share with her that what she wanted to see happen was already happening here in New Hampshire – people refusing to take the plea deal and loading the system up with cases. I linked her to our downloadable, printable trifold, “Don’t Take the Plea Deal“, which exists in both a NH and national version.
A couple of days later, I was contacted by Ed Garrett, who is also on her show, and invited to come talk about the flier and what we are doing up here. It was a detailed conversation about the risks and potential rewards of not taking the plea deal, and we covered a lot of ground in about an hour, including talking briefly about Jury Nullification, the Free State Project, and more.
Here’s the archive of the interview.
by Garret Ean | Mar 19, 2012 |
- Robert Bales
A soldier accused of having gone on an unauthorized killing spree in an Afghan village was identified by the military yesterday. On the night of March 12, 2012, it is alleged that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales sneaked out of Camp Belambay in the Kandahar province and gunned down 16 civilians in their homes, nine of whom were children. The 38 year old soldier was on his fourth tour since enlisting after 9/11/2001, and is noted to have suffered at least two injuries on duty. One of the injuries resulted in a concussion, though no brain damage was detected after a military health screening. He was identified after being flown to the United States to await trial in the Fort Leavenworth detention center.
The Army had an article posted on their site which had quoted Bales after a January 2007 battle in Iraq. The detached description of combat feels as though it could have been penned by Matthew Modine’s character Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket. The article, dated February 9, 2009, vanished from servers at army.mil days ago. A cached copy provided an archived version of the story, which thanks to the power of the internet did not disappear. One of the more circulated quotes from Bales in the article is the following, “I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that.”
In the interest of combating censorship, below is the full text of the Don Kramer’s original article, since removed from the army’s public information site. (more…)
by Highline | Mar 18, 2012 |
On April 1st 2012 it will have been twelve years since the New York Times ran this article that the New Hampshire Judicial Branch would probably rather you not be aware of, given my nearly full-time efforts to once again hold them accountable.
A State Supreme Court justice illegally tried to influence his colleagues in his own divorce case, and the chief justice broke the law by listening to him, the state’s attorney general said today.
The announcement by Attorney General Philip T. McLaughlin led to the resignation of the justice, Stephen Thayer, and raised doubts about the future of Chief Justice David Brock.
(more…)
Great news from Concord via the AP:
