The Free Staters are upsetting local bureaucrats again. This time they tried to return freedom to the people by limiting the amount of money local politicians can demand from them. The politicians weren’t happy.
One of the school board members said, “We don’t need a very small minority of people in this community — that do not in any way represent the will of the people — telling us how to do our job.”
The bullies over at the Keene School District along with their supporters in the community showed their true colors once again at this year’s town hall style deliberative session.
“We don’t need a very small minority of people in this community — that do not in any way represent the will of the people — telling us how to do our job.” That was School board member, Susan Hay.
It seems in her world, it’s perfectly acceptable to steal money from her neighbor to pay for her sacred cow as long as it’s the majority making the decision and as long as she’s on the winning team. I can only imagine the ruckus she would have made if we had had another 60 or so supporters in the room–one day we will.
There were 13 ballot initiatives up for discussion. Nine were created by the Board itself; aimed at raising the already bloated and unsustainable budget. That’s how they “do their job,” which Ms. Hay takes extreme pride in. Four submitted by petition were focused on reducing the budget.
The purpose of the deliberative session is to discuss, debate and clarify the articles before being placed on the upcoming ballot in March. Instead of leaving my four warrants in their original wording for the voters to decide on, former school board member and local busybody, Ted Parent, made it his goal to neutralize all four and extensively added an additional 2 hours to the already-lengthy proceedings.
After the meeting, I was approached by a good dozen participants who were all sympathetic and urged me to continue the fight, knowing that the entire proceedings had been unfairly stacked against us. I wish they had all stepped up and told the entire room instead of just me in private. This at least is encouraging. The seeds have been planted.
The most ironic part of this entire process is the anti-bullying stance these school authorities spout off on a regular basis. Don’t they realize their entire system is fundamentally built and supported by the practice of bullying others? You give us your lunch money or we’ll take your house. If you don’t like it run for office yourself ( join the ranks of bullies). Or Move to another playground (and take your chances with another gang).
Stay tuned for video of the proceedings.
Here is the Keene Sentinels take:
At a recent, well-attended and lengthy hearing held by the criminal justice committee at the state house regarding studying cannabis legalization, a state representative from Rockingham, Kyle Tasker, put his freedom on the line.
During his testimony in front of the committee, and in front of a state police officer, Tasker pulled out a bag of cookies, a vaporizer, and what appeared to be a bottle of cannabis tincture, which he claimed came from his “personal stash”.
The cop behind him didn’t seem to know what to do. After all, he likely wouldn’t hesitate to arrest Tasker for possessing cannabis in the streets. However, arresting him in front of the committee would only prove the point of the cannabis freedom activists – that people are arrested all the time for cannabis – something about which the police frequently mislead the legislators. (more…)
As announced here a couple of days ago and also in this Keene Sentinel article, the new local point-counterpoint show on Cheshire TV, “Monadnock Showdown” premiered this week. I had the honor of being the first invited guest!
Thanks to hosts Parker Springfield and Judy Fine for having me! I hope I’ll get to come back, as the conversation has just gotten started. Maybe by then someone can step forward to face me on the show and explain why freedom is such a bad idea. Until then, subscribe to their youtube and follow Monadnock Showdown on facebook.
Keenevention‘s closing keynote speech in 2014 was delivered by heroic cannabis activist Rich Paul, who faced down 100 years in prison by refusing the plea deal and taking his cannabis dealing charges to a jury. Sadly, he was convicted and spent about a year of his life in jail for standing for his principles. He’s out now and has been instrumental in forming a board of directors for the new NHJury.com. Here’s the video of his speech:
This is the final video from Keenevention 2014’s stage. Fourteen full videos were released in total and if you missed one, just scroll back through the Video category here on the Keenevention blog to see them all!
Stay tuned to the Keenevention blog, Free Keene, the Free Keene Youtube Channel or the Keenevention Facebook page for news about the upcoming Keenevention 2015!
Tickets for Keenevention 2015 (Oct 30th – Nov 1st) are now available at a super-earlybird discount for just $40! Lock yours in before the price goes up!
NHJury.com has been around for a few years, but really hasn’t done much more than cover the jury nullification scene and passed out some flyers.
Jury Nullification, particularly in New Hampshire, is starting to become quite a movement, and we felt that it was time to scale up the operation so we can tell more potential jurors about their natural right of nullification.
Recently, we formed a Board of Directors and we are looking for some Great Ideas for getting this organization started.
Our friends at the Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund have offered us a $1,000 grant to jump-start NHJury.com, plus another $500 as an incentive for people to give us ideas that we can use to raise funds and get the word out about jury nullification.
We could use some help here. Go to http://nhjury.com/greatideas if you have an idea about fundraising or getting the word out. You can win up to $50 worth of FRNs, silver, or bitcoin.
Monadnock Showdown, Thursdays 8pm on CTV
Local DJ Parker Springfield and vocal coach Judy Fine are launching a new show called “Monadnock Showdown“! I had the honor of being invited onto the inaugural episode of the exciting, new point-counterpoint show on Cheshire TV.
The show recording was excellent and Parker and Judy had some challenging questions for me. The first episode will air this Thursday night at 8pm on Cheshire TV, channel 8 on Time Warner Cable in Keene. It will also be uploaded to their YouTube channel by Friday. I’ll link it here on Free Keene once the video is available. Meanwhile, be sure to like their facebook page to get the latest from the show.
Sadly, despite having two weeks to respond to the hosts’ invitation (and a purported 1400+ members of their facebook group), no one from the local group of haters stepped up take the free media to oppose me. Apparently at least one local politician refused the hosts’ invitation as well.
Kudos to the hosts for having the courage to have me on despite being attacked verbally by some local haters for daring to associate their show with the likes of me. It’s that kind of courage that we need in Keene media. I’m really looking forward to seeing the show develop over time.
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