By Varrin Swearingen

During my tenure as President of the Free State Project, I engaged in many of the expected interactions with volunteers, prospective participants, and the media. What I didn't expect was lunch with U.S. Marshal Monier, the head U.S. Marshal in New Hampshire ... at his request.

There was quite a controversy surrounding the Ed and Elaine Brown tax evasion case. During the course of that, some New Hampshire newspapers reported, in a very misleading fashion, that Free State Project participants were being investigated for their involvement in that case. Though I wasn't amused by that reporting, I found it ironic that neither the U.S. Marshals nor any newspaper called me, the President of the FSP, to discuss the issue.

By Congressman Ron Paul, TX

The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.

Socialist ideologies blur this line between self reliance and government control because the mistakes of the individual are spread to everyone else. Thus the government becomes very interested in your decisions and way of life, with the justification that you could make a mistake others will have to pay for. The end result is, of course, that everyone loses privacy and control over their own lives. Whether they realize it or not, they are no longer truly free.

My family and I enjoyed some good music last night in Railroad Square. The Keene Music Festival (http://keenemusicfestival.com) hosts bands every Friday evening leading up to their big annual event, Saturday August 30th from 10am-10pm, when they shut down mainstreet and set up multiple stages all around.

(Two members of the band, Shadwell)

Last evening the weather was perfect for a small but gathering crowd to enjoy two bands. At about 5:30pm "Shadwell" (http://shadwellsong.com) played some good rock music for an hour, as the children started to dance and the early downtown crowds passed by before committing to a location for the evening. I enjoyed their music, which was almost entirely original. They are a five piece band based in Boston and will be back for the Festival.

(Josh Noone)

By Michael Hampton
Posted: June 26, 2008 3:29 pm
http://homelandstupidity.us

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that the individual right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment was nevertheless open to regulation, restriction, licensing and registration, just like the First Amendment.

So much for unalienable rights.

In a 5-4 decision announced Thursday morning, the Court upheld a 2007 appeals court decision and affirmed that while the Second Amendment does indeed refer to individuals without regard to their affiliation with a militia, “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

The court struck down two provisions of the 1976 D.C. gun law: the prohibition on owning handguns, and the requirement that rifles and shotguns be stored disassembled or with trigger locks.

In regard to the availability of public assistance, whether people receive a “hand-up” or a “hand-out” is not the issue. The issue here is that the fair housing system in New Hampshire is definitely a thumbs-down. As of July 2008, I will have waited on the Section 8 housing list for three years.

Manchester Housing Authority Apartment Building

I am a single parent with one child. I make $10 an hour and work 43 hours a week. The reality is that a “cheap” two-bedroom apartment in Manchester goes for $800 per month, not including utilities. Moving into one of these “cheap” places without any help would be to cut my own throat. One may find rent in a surrounding town to be slightly less expensive, although as of late commuting is not an option.

The June edition of this paper contained an informative article titled “Prison Nation.” However the serious issue of overcrowding was not mentioned, even though it is prevalent throughout the system.

At Essex County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, upwards of 80 inmates spend each night sleeping on the floor of the gymnasium inside plastic “canoes” because no cells are available. To make matters worse, everyone there must share a single sink and toilet.

New inmates to the facility are not issued all the items listed in the “Inmate Handbook” because of the chronic shortages. For example, instead of being issued two uniforms, each prisoner is given only one. This makes it essentially impossible to get your uniform washed.

Sunday evening I saw a note on Drudge Report, that Mr.Bush, has at long last decided that he wants Osama bin Laden captured. Kind of late, to make that level of "executive decision", after invading both Iraq & Afghanistan, with ulterior motives, decided even before the so-called 9/11 attack.

Now that the US ( primarily), has destroyed an infrastructure, we helped put in place when both Saddam Hussein & Osama bin Laden were our friends, and spent lives and wealth, to restore parts of the infrastructure of both nations, with no end in
sight, to either military attack or "nation building", is it not time to re-examine our premise, of "pre-emptive" "war', and take on some nation that can fight back, effectively?

And put Mr.Bush in the front line, to take the brunt of the fighting, even though the "war" is not of his deciding or origination?

For Liberty,

Howard L. Wilson
Andover, NH

Interviewed by Kat Kanning

Reno Gonzalez is one of the four supporters of tax truthers Ed and Elaine Brown. The Browns had the audacity to ask the Federal government to show them the law require normal Americans to pay taxes on their wages. Ed and Elaine Brown walked out on their tax trial and returned to their Plainfield, NH home. Federal Marshals posing as friends eventually arrested them, tasering 68 year old dentist Elaine Brown after she had already been subdued. Gonzalez, along with Danny Riley, Jason Gerhard and Robert Wolffe were put on trial in Concord for helping the Browns. The government, in an astounding show of protecting itself, found the Brown supporters guilty. The jury deadlocked on two of the charges against Gonzalez.

By Representative Ron Paul, TX

Oil prices are on the minds of many Americans as gas hits $4 a gallon, and continues to surge. How high can prices go? How can we solve these problems? What, or who, is to blame?