Guess her mind is all made up about the gas tax. Keene’s State Representative Cynthia Chase is seen here busying herself with a game of solitaire while other state reps testify on the proposed gas tax hike.
Good thing we have such a dedicated “public servant” here in Keene – dedicated to getting a high score.
A couple months later, Kelly, Derrick J, and I teamed up with Miami photojournalist Carlos Miller and paid a visit to the court on official court business. Sheriff Foote refused to return calls from us, which is what he was demanding in his order before we’d be allowed on the public property for which we’re all forced to pay. All three of us were arrested and Carlos was threatened by Sheriff Caleb Dodson.
Due to facing multiple charges from multiple arrests, Derrick made the tough choice of taking a plea, but Kelly and I didn’t have the same weight of charges on us and we knew we were in the right and the trespass order was wrong, so we pressed on. County attorney David Lauren met with us and offered a pretty sweet plea deal – he’d drop the charge to a violation level (it was being charged as a Class A with up to a year in jail the possible penalty) offense and it’d be a $250 fine, suspended on condition of good behavior. I was out of jail on a nine-month suspended sentence from my last conviction and if I received another misdemeanor conviction I could go back to jail for the remaining nine months. Despite that looming threat, I refused the plea, as did Kelly, and the matter was to continue to trial.
Now, several months after that hearing, Keene district court’s judge Edward Burke has made the right decision. He has ruled in an order that the no-trespass orders, as applied to me and Kelly Voluntaryist, are unconstitutional and dismissed the cases against us! (more…)
All of a sudden, Grafton is back in the news. Looks like the liberty activist community has been quietly growing there and getting organized – to the point where at a recent town meeting activists voted to put a ballot measure on to reduce the town budget 10%. The aggressors are worried. Here’s the story from local mainstream mouthpiece Valley News:
By Jim Kenyon
Grafton — At last month’s deliberative session, “Free Staters” and their allies scored a victory by getting preliminary approval for a major cut in town spending. On Town Meeting Day, voters will go to the polls to decide whether the proposed budget reduction of more than $128,000 will stick.
The proposal represents a budget cut of either 10 percent or 13 percent, depending on whether the Free Staters’ or Selectboard’s figures are used. Either way, if voters uphold the cut, “it certainly won’t be trivial and people are definitely going to notice it,” said Selectman David Rienzo. “I think it would be better for the town if people rejected the Free Staters’ budget.” (more…)
Dave Ridley gives some critical analysis to recent comment controversies. Mark Warden, a state representative from Manchester, found himself under criticism after remarks made during a hearing were reported on by the Granite State Progress blog and reposted further. Part I, The Hunt for Controversial Comments is On:
This comes in the wake of the controversy stirred by Keene representative Cynthia Chase’s comments regarding actively immigrating porcupines. Ridley ambush interviewed Chase in Concord and published the video last week, which is fairly uneventful as she declines comment and moves on. In a sense, the videographer was throwing a softball by asking, ‘Do people get too focused on controversial comments and not enough on people’s actions?’
Following the publication of Aqua Keene Parking Force, another video featuring similar graphic design has appeared on the Fr33manTVraw youtube channel. In this episode, Slavoj Žižek and Charlie Rose discuss the monstrosity of the Stalin regime in historical context. Zizek analyzes the suicidal nature of Stalinism and the implosion of the top-heavy, bureaucratic Central Committee.
If you’ve been reading this blog for the past year, you know that the people calling themselves the “City of Keene” raided my tenants’ home, the Keene Activist Center, in the summer of 2012. The city people had claimed, with no evidence current at the time of the raid, that it was being run as a “tourist home” or “lodginghouse” and is subject to the city ordinances regarding interconnected, AC-wired smoke detectors being mandatory on each floor. Here’s an article with some detail and initial court filings.
“The right reserved to the people by this Article is not such a broad and unlimited right of insurrection and rebellion as to permit any group which is dissatisfied with existing government to lawfully attempt … to overthrow the government by force or violence.”
Of course, I have not advocated force or violence as I point out a second time in my response to their objection. I am engaged in peaceful revolution against the idea of “the state”. Though, I prefer to call it evolution.
Finally, the city’s attorney, Thomas P. Mullins, claims in his objection that:
Requesting Defendant to comply with a fire department regulation designed to protect life and property, including those of Defendant and his tenants, can hardly be construed by a reasonable individual as a “perversion” of the government justifying the right to revolt.
Whoa! Hang on. This has all just been a “request”? (more…)
Guess her mind is all made up about the gas tax. Keene’s State Representative Cynthia Chase is seen here busying herself with a game of solitaire while other state reps testify on the proposed gas tax hike.
At the very beginning of 2012, several activists including myself were 
Shortly thereafter, heroic free-speech attorney 
![smokeDetector[1]](https://i0.wp.com/freekeene.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/smokeDetector11-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150)
If you’ve been reading this blog for the past year, you know that the people calling themselves the “City of Keene” raided my tenants’ home, the Keene Activist Center, in the summer of 2012. The city people had claimed, with no evidence current at the time of the raid, that it was being run as a “tourist home” or “lodginghouse” and is subject to the city ordinances regarding interconnected, AC-wired smoke detectors being mandatory on each floor. 
