While the news is flooded with election coverage, the Free State Project is making waves.
Yahoo News, CNN and blogs are heating up with a story about how much pull liberty activists in New Hampshire are going to have over the swing state. And its no wonder when you have quotes from President Obama like, “You guys are the epicenter,” he said. “You not only determine who our nominees are, you determine who our presidents are.”
Even sites like Politico.com are playing up the prominence of the Granite State’s sway with quotes like this:
“These four electoral votes right here could make the difference,” Obama warned the small crowd gathered at a Teamsters Hall, his first stop in the state. “We don’t know how this thing is going to play out.”
The free state of New Hampshire is home to more than 1100 liberty lovers many of whom are donating time to local and national campaign efforts. Motivated partly by a desire to effect positive change and perhaps partly to disprove critics — including this 26 page booklet — the activists are having a dramatic effect.
With only days left until election madness ends, calls are being put out for any amount of last minute help. Campaigns of all colors are requesting more volunteers to make phone calls and remind like-minded countrymen to “get out and vote” or canvass yet another sought after district. A sprint to the finish.
As with each of the last elections, this one begs to be the “most important election yet” and it won’t take no for an answer. If the amount of political ads doesn’t convince you perhaps their tone will.
The Washington Post has a webpage devoted to tracking the spending race that is occurring behind the scenes and the numbers are staggering. The graph shows more than $700 million spent on television advertising with nearly 90% of that spent on negative advertising. Is that enough of a market signal for you? To reiterate, 9 out of ten times you will see an ad that asks you not to vote for the other guy instead of an ad that promotes the benefits of why you should vote for this guy.
Perhaps the reason for the trending success of the liberty movement is the alternatives offered. Perhaps the public is fed up with only two choices. Tuesday will bring resolution to the clamor and with luck a moment of peace and quiet.
The document mentions civil disobedience, but really focuses on the political successes that FSP participants have had – a real testament to the success of that style of activism.
Clearly working within the system is working here, unlike everywhere else. The politicos have been vindicated, but this document is also proof that there is no safe road. There’s no way to make everyone happy if what you want is to change the status quo.
Looks like we are well on our way on the path Gandhi made famous:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Activists have stepped up and contributed dozens of books – enough to more than fill a large tote – to this year’s book drive for the Cheshire jail, aka the Keene Spiritual Retreat. The books were dropped off this afternoon.
I just happened to call Fairpoint to inquire about their DSL speed (an upgrade to 7mbps is now available in Keene for $4/month more) and they told me that energy suppliers in NH have been deregulated, so now you can sign up for different suppliers besides PSNH. (Your power is still delivered and billed by PSNH, it’s just the supply portion of the bill will be provided by Fairpoint Energy.) Fairpoint is offering 10% off the supply portion of your power bill for choosing them: http://www.fairpointenergy.com/
Recently I surprise-hosted a brief episode of AVTM LIVE! when the AVTM Studios were visited by the local Zoning Enforcers. They alleged that a party complained about excessive occupancy, and that they were seeking consent to enter and “inspect” the house.
Here is a video compilation I made from all of the available footage from that afternoon.
An article in the Washington Post that has been widely syndicated discusses how the collection of evidence by the use of drug detector dogs will be considered by the united states supreme court. Two cases are pending on the docket, both from Florida, which question the effectiveness as well as the constitutionality of canines for drug detection use. The article cites studies from the University of California at Davis in which 18 police canine teams were sent through a facility and tasked with finding hidden drugs. Though there were no drugs in the facility, 17 of the teams reported alerts. Barry Cooper, former police officer and producer of the Never Get Busted educational film series has discussed his own manipulation of police canines while he was working as one of the most successful narcotics interdiction detectives. Anyone who has owned a dog knows that their life revolves around serving their pack leader. There are no objective standards or testing done of the animals to demonstrate their effectiveness. In a 2005 case, former supreme court judge David Souter stated that the infallible dog “is a creation of legal fiction”.
Last year, the Florida supreme court had thrown out a case from 2006 which featured questionable probable cause for a search after a police dog sniffed and acted playfully. Judge Barbara Pariente wrote: (more…)
