However, for reasons yet unknown, it’s being claimed by new FSP president Matt Philips that keynote speaker Edward Snowden requested there be no recording by audience members. Free Keene blogger and NH native Garret Ean recorded anyway and released it here yesterday.
Why would Snowden try to restrict recording when hundreds of people would be attending with recording devices, including, likely some undercover federal agents? I tweeted at Snowden today in an attempt to get a comment and received no reply thus far. According to the organizer of the Liberty Forum in an unofficial facebook post, there was some agreement to allow the FSP to record the event and have Reason.com (whose editor Nick Gillespie conducted the interview with Snowden) release it via their YouTube.
Many in the liberty community are on an all-out attack against Garret for making the recording, and me for refusing to pull it down. One even called for “Free Keene” to be banned from all FSP events. Hilariously, that ban would include FK blogger JJ Schlessinger, who is the video professional the FSP hired to record the event. He called Free Talk Live Tuesday night to inform our audience that he is currently editing a high-quality five-camera HD shoot of the Snowden talk.
NH mainstream newspapers are now picking up the story of this latest FSP schism. Here’s the first two headlines, posted online and appearing in print today:
The 2016 New Hampshire Liberty Forum, held this past weekend at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, was the usual gathering of hundreds of libertarians and anarchists for the annual conference. Different this year was the headlining event, drawing the largest crowd of the forum, and featuring a speaker who was occupying the opposite side of the globe. Broadcasting into the parlor via a live video feed was Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower famed for revealing the details of government surveillance operations targeting humans situated both within and without the borders of the United States.
In the approximately fifty minutes that Snowden was linked into the room, he was interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie on a variety of topics from Snowden’s perspective on current events, the United States presidential race, ideological inspirations, and potential paths for the future.
Strangely, an announcement was made before the event requesting that all unofficial filming be suspended. In the interests of objective journalism, I ensured that an audio device was running for the duration of the event, which resulted in poor audio quality compared to what could have been captured without the restriction. Illustrated with images captured by multiple sources from the event, enjoy this presentation of Edward Snowden’s appearance before the audience of the 2016 NH Liberty Forum.
On February 19, the Libertarian Party New Hampshire filed this 58-page brief in the First Circuit in Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner, 15-2068. The issue is the 2014 law that made it illegal for a group to circulate a petition for recognition as a party in an odd year. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law.
Thanks to Ballot Access News for this report.
It was the first official event hosted by the Free State Project after the February 3 announcement that the group had reached it’s goal of 20,000 signers on the statement of intent to move to New Hampshire to “exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property.” Liberty Forum 2016 was part celebration of all that has been accomplished over the past 15 years by the nearly 2,000 early movers, i.e. people who made the move to New Hampshire for the Free State Project prior to the move being triggered, and part conference on how to move forward. (more…)
Recorded February 16th, 2016
Christopher David, super activist and start-up entrepreneur joins us in studio this week on the eve of Liberty Forum. Topics this week include Chris’s decentralized competitor to Uber called Arcade City, a status update on Chris’s legal issues surrounding his Free Uber activism and an update on Uber Grandma, Ethereum and the impact it will have on governments, Ann’s desire for driverless cars, updates on The Rebel Mistress and Chris running for state rep, the FSP hitting 20K, The Rebel Mistress with Flaming Freedom hosting the Hallowkeene Dance Party, and the Rebel Love Show’s latest psychonaut journey. The Rebel Love Show will also be recording at Liberty Forum Saturday February 20th 2-4pm from the Radisson in Manchester NH. The Rebel Love Show airs every Tuesday night 10pm-12am EST on LRN.FM and RebelLoveShow.com/live.
Don’t call 911 during emergencies, call your trusted friends instead, using Cell 411, the decentralized emergency alerting and response platform. Cell 411 is a powerful smartphone app that allows you to stream content and notify people in your cell(s) during police interactions and things like medical emergencies, car troubles and fire.
HB 1546, if it passes, will make the much-needed change to turn New Hampshire into a one-party consent state for recording conversations. It also would expressly protect the act of recording police and other government workers, so naturally, multiple government bureaucrats came to testify against it yesterday at the state house committee hearing.
What do they have to hide? One lady from the Attorney General’s office testified that bureaucrats should know they are being recorded. If someone is honest and on the up-and-up, then whether they are recorded or not should not change how they handle a conversation. It’s so obvious these sleazy bureaucrats don’t want to be held accountable for their actions. Don’t miss 29:27 in the video where Cop Block’s JP Freeman, Free Concord’s Garret Ean, and I all corner one of the lying bureaucrats in the hallway after his testimony!
Oh, by the way, only government bureaucrats testified against this bill. Everyone else testified in favor. Here’s the full video of the hearing:
