Free Republic

Looks like the man trying to take over Supreme Court justice David Souter's New Hampshire home is a Free Stater (www.FreeStateProject.org). He's retaliating against Souter's support for eminent domain abuse in this weeks Kelo vs. New London ruling. From the Concord Monitor: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050629/REPOSITORY/506290321/1031 'Hotel' targets Souter's home Property rights advocates make protest personal By MEG HECKMAN Monitor staff June 29. 2005 8:00AM A letter that emerged yesterday from the fax machine in the Weare Town Hall has thrust Supreme Court Justice David Souter's beloved farmhouse into a national debate over property rights. Souter, a longtime Weare resident, joined in a...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - A Keene man who planned to try to board a flight carrying nothing but a Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence was arrested Saturday at Manchester Airport. Russell Kanning, 35, was arrested after refusing to comply with security screening procedures and refusing to leave the screening area, according to the Rockingham County sheriff's department. He was charged with criminal trespassing and was being held at the Rockingham County jail. Kanning, an accountant and staunch Libertarian, said last week he hoped his actions would highlight what he considers overly burdensome state intrusion. ``They're not going...

Danger! Unlicensed manicurist on the loose! FEAR NOT, gentle people of New Hampshire. Mike Fisher has been apprehended. For the time being we can rest easy knowing that this man is unable to file another fingernail without the proper credentials. On Monday two Concord police officers arrested Fisher for manicuring without a license. In New Hampshire, it is illegal to give someone a manicure unless you have first graduated from high school or obtained your GED, “(h)ave completed a course of at least 300 hours of professional training in manicuring, in a school approved by the (state Board of Barbering,...

Not sure how much to read into this...but in the 9 months since I moved to New Hampshire I've noticed a lot of changes in the talk radio culture, mostly positive for local freedom lovers. When I first got here to Keene in late August '04, there was apparently only one local libertarian talk show in the state - Gardner Goldsmith's program airing 3-6PM weekdays on WGIR-AM. Now he airs an extra hour each day, and his signal reaches about half the homes in the state. Southwestern New Hampshire's main radio station had no local libertarian show last year, but...

HUDSON, N.H. -- Police Chief Richard Gendron finds himself in the middle of a national debate centering on immigration laws after citing two illegal immigrants on charges of criminal trespass. Yesterday, moments before a group of about 20 protesters entered the police station to voice their objections to the policy, a delegation from the Statehouse presented Chief Richard Gendron with a plaque commending his actions. Applying a state law that governs criminal trespass, Hudson police cited two illegal immigrants on May 10 who were stopped for driving with a broken headlight. The pair, Sergio Robles Ruiz and Margarito Jaramillo Escobar,...

From NHfree.com Man Without I.D. Vows to Board Flight or be Jailed Manchester, NH May 21, 2005 Inspired by New Hampshire's "outlaw manicurist," another Granite Stater is stepping forward to peacefully defy license-related laws. Thirty-five-year old Russell Kanning of Keene has announced he will approach a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Manchester airport on June 11 and refuse to cooperate with the requirement to show ID. "I will either board the plane without I.D. or be arrested," he says. "In a free country you do not need government permission to travel." Kanning has a ticket to Philadelphia and, if...

Buff and polish stunt proves need for health and safety regulationsIf Mike Fisher was hoping to gain sympathy for those tired of government red tape and bureaucracy by getting arrested Monday, he failed.A member of the Free State Project, Fisher arranged to give a fellow Free Stater a manicure outside the office of the State Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics. Doing so without a license, earned him a visit with a judge and two days in jail.Fisher had arranged the stunt to draw attention to what he called "out of control" licensing requirements by the state.As Free Staters, Fisher...

NH govt. backs down in faceoff with Free Stater Concord, NH 5/6/05 After filing an injunction to stop Newmarket resident Mike Fisher from administering an unlicensed manicure in front of the licensing board office, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office has unilaterally backed down and withdrawn the injunction. Last week, Fisher (a Free Stater), announced he would show up in front of the New Hampshire Board of Barbering and violate the licensing laws it enforces. He will be administering a manicure, for profit, without a license....hoping to get arrested and drawing attention to his cause: The crusade to eliminate licensing...

NH govt. backs down in faceoff with Free Stater Concord, NH 5/6/05 After filing an injunction to stop Newmarket resident Mike Fisher from administering an unlicensed manicure in front of the licensing board office, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office has unilaterally backed down and withdrawn the injunction. Last week, Fisher (a Free Stater), announced he would show up in front of the New Hampshire Board of Barbering and violate the licensing laws it enforces. He will be administering a manicure, for profit, without a license....hoping to get arrested and drawing attention to his cause: The crusade to eliminate licensing...

Concord, New Hampshire, April 30, 2005 Seacoast entrepreneur Mike Fisher doesn't look the part of a manicurist - or an outlaw. But he's about to become both. Invoking the patron saint of civil disobedience, Fisher plans to violate New Hampshire's cosmetology laws - right in front of the officials who enforce them. And representatives of Attorney General Kelly Ayotte have already threatened him with arrest. Fisher, 23, of Newmarket, is one of the 100+ "Free Staters" who have moved to New Hampshire since it was targetted for migration by a libertarian group, the Free State Project. In general, New Hampshire...

The Free State Project has won some converts. Also: The lowdown on mercury - in loons and maybe legislators' hair. We're calling a truce this weekend. Today - and today only - there'll be no talk of budget bills, school funding plans or Medicaid reform. We got enough of that last week, and there will be plenty more hot air steaming out of the State House to keep us busy next week. Instead, let's revisit some old friends: the Free Staters. It has been 18 months since the Free State Project chose New Hampshire as its home, with the hopes...

The New Hampshire House voted overwhelmingly to kill a gun control bill which would have restricted the possession of guns on public school property. NH will continue to be one of a tiny handful of states that still respects the 2nd Amendment in and around schools. I and other Free Staters had a chance to testify against this bill back when it was in committee and won the hearing's only standing ovation! The committee voted our way narrowly, recommending 7-6 that the "control freak" bill was "inexpedient to legislate." That enabled yesterday's stunning victory in the House. Details at http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=734.0

Well it was me and the New Hampshire Constitution vs. five gunmen in Salem this week, all wearing badges and threatening me with arrest for exercising my right to open carry a holstered pistol. Third time I know of this has happened to a Free Stater. Score: Free Staters 3 Police Staters 0 Details at: http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=661.0 More on the Free State Project: www.FreeStateProject.org

There are now 101 "Free Staters" who have moved to New Hampshire. The Free State Project is a movment working to bring 20,000 freedom lovers into New Hampshire and create a haven for liberty... Virtually all 101 have become active in New Hampshire politics, either in media, legislation or by running for office. They have formed a PAC, a charity to help kids escape public schools, completed hundreds of letters to the editor and talk radio appeareances in-state. They've also established New Hampshire's most active web forum (nhfree.com) and several now hold minor public offices. Other accomplishments include the establishment...

Nine Free Staters in New Hampshire showed up in front of U.S. Senator John Sununu's Manchester office this afternoon to urge him and Senator Gregg to vote against "Real I.D." Real I.D. is a proposal to force states into a federal I.D. system. This was one of the Free Staters' less successful protests, as it was less well-attended and generated less media coverage than usual. But participants agreed it's important to do *something* against this proposed violation of the Tenth Amendment, which hold that powers not specifically delegated to the Feds in the Constitution are automatically given to the states...

Jim Perry in "Escape from Massachusetts" Fed up with high taxes and the Massachusetts nanny state, Jim Perry joined the United States' fastest-growing freedom movement, the Free State Project, and publicly broke his bonds from big government. To symbolize this event, Jim chained himself to a pole in Massachusetts at its border near Nashua. Freestaters at the event witnessed thousands of cars pouring in to New Hampshire from Massachusetts for sales-tax-free shopping. Jim remained chained for about an hour, holding a sign urging people to "Cut the chains of statism. --freestateproject.org". Compatriots in the Free State Project handed out flyers...

The brief, tumultuous history of Franklin. Never heard of the state of Franklin? Its existence was brief, from 1784 to about 1788, though as with such still-existing post-Revolution states as Maine and Vermont, self-rule had been the norm there for years beforehand. In 1769 Virginians began settling the Watauga River in what is now the northeastern tip of Tennessee. Three years later the Articles of the Watauga Association bound these settlements together for mutual defense and negotiation with the surrounding Cherokee. When a survey revealed Watauga Association lands to be within North Carolina’s claim west of the Appalachian Mountains, the...

Parting Company Is An Option by Walter E. Williams My last essay in Ideas On Liberty, "How Did We Get Here?", provided clear evidence that Congress, the White House, as well as the Courts, had vastly exceeded powers delegated to them by our Constitution. To have an appreciation for the magnitude of the usurpation, one need only read Federalist Paper 45, where James Madison the acknowledged father of our Constitution explained, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The...

For Immediate Release December 18, 2004 SUBJECT: NH residents torch UN flag Liberty lovers from across the Live Free or Die State converged on Keene, New Hampshire today to demonstrate their defiance of the United Nations. Twenty citizens from Keene and as far away as Rochester and Etna joined in opposing the UN by burning multiple UN flags. A promised counter-protest failed to materialize. Various reasons for disgust with the UN drew this group together. Some were there in opposition to UN attempts to ban private gun ownership as was proposed at the 2001 UN Small Arms and Light Weapons...

"Revolt of the Porcupines" This is the latest media coverage of the Free State Project, our movement which is working to bring 20,000 liberty lovers to New Hampshire, reduce government, etc.