Who Is Officer Pelliccia?

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.

Ron Paul breaks up with Congress, Awkward…

From PeaceNewsNow.com:
If you follow my blog with any regularity, you know that I produce the comedy news show, ADAM VS THE MAN. Yesterday was one of the most hated and negatively rated videos of my career with AVTM. The reason? I wrote a piece ever so slightly critical of Libertarian golden calf, Ron Paul:

Check out the viewer sentiment shared in the comments section of the video by clicking the thumbnails below:

P.S. In this episode, I wrote the Ron Paul segment (with additions by Adam Kokesh) and the Kurdish hunger strike segment. Ali Havens wrote “Bradley Manning takes a plea.”

Your Vote Counts in NH: Anarchist Wins by One Vote in Manchester

As reported here previously, Free State Project participant Tim O’Flaherty was elected in Manchester’s Ward 5 as a Democrat and open anarchist. He won the race against a Republican small-government Free State Project participant.

Now, thanks to a Union Leader piece, we learn more about Tim O’Flaherty including that he won his primary against a run-of-the-mill Democrat by one vote.

It’s not the first time and won’t be the last that a vote has been so close in NH. Your vote may not matter a whit at the national level, but it definitely does at the local and state level here in NH. All those activists who have given up voting out of frustration really need to think again.

Ridley Ambushes Legislators on Shire Choir Ban

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.

Keene Voter Turnout Lower than Originally Reported – Clerk Patty Little

According to an email from city clerk Patty Little, they found an error in their calculations spreadsheet revealing that fewer ballots were cast than their numbers originally showed. As a result, voter turnout was 69% of registered voters in Keene, not the 76% as reported by the clerk’s original numbers.

Kudos to Patty and the crew there for being willing to take a second look at their numbers. Here’s her email explaining what had gone wrong:

Hi Ian, I have had a chance to review your questions and have attached an updated spreadsheet of election activity. We decided that our previous spreadsheet was confusing because the number of absentee ballots was already included in the total ballots cast figure…and also inaccurate because the “formula” was accounting for absentee ballots twice. In addition, to clarifying the layout of the spreadsheet, we’ve updated some of the actual figures based upon corrections made to the Secretary of State and the correct “formula.” (more…)