Free Republic

Nearly five years have passed since the Free State Project adopted New Hampshire as its home base and began the task of convincing 20,000 activists to commit to uprooting their lives and moving here. They would come in droves, the plan went, overwhelming the sparsely populated state and ultimately changing the way big government works by limiting its power through free-market solutions. There would be tax reductions; regulations such as being required to have a driver’s license to get behind the wheel of your own car would be relaxed or scrapped; power would be restored to the people and the...

New Hampshire homeschooler Elena Katz and family flee NH in protest of the state's controversial "child protective" division. Katz says she first fled the Soviet Union over 20 years ago. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8mv5zXazqU0

Free State Project’s Porcupine Freedom Festival PorcFest 2008! When: June 9th – 15th Where: Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire Who: Liberty activists moving to NH or already there Why: Socialize, learn about NH, meet with Freedom/Liberty lovers for a week, have FUN How: Registration Details are at http://freestateproject.org/festival/ PorcFest 2008 is to showcase New Hampshire and the FSP community. Attendees will be able to choose from events in several categories: * Bus Tours: organized trips to various parts of NH * Outdoors: planned hikes and events exploring the environment of NH * Activism: engage in pro-liberty activism in...

Thought you Whistlestoppers might enjoy this...the sticker side of the liberty activism in New Hampshire: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rrNFWfPeEkw

Invitation to u FR folks: get your butt to New Hampshire Jan 3 - 6, 2008. That's the second annual New Hampshire Liberty Forum, put on by the Free Staters. It's a good chance to experience NH and decide whether you really want to remain in that authoritarian state you currently live in. Keynote speakers have yet to be announced, but last year's speakers included presidential candidate Ron Paul and John Stossell from ABC news....plus, it seemed, half the NH legislature. We had a lot of fun; turnout was around 300. And of course there's a lot more going on....This...

2007 February 09 Copyright © Brian Wright The Coffee Coaster™ Why I'm a Free Stater

<p>LOST LIBERTY HOTEL GETS SECOND WIND--AN AIRPORT Eminent Domain for Hot Air Balloons?</p> <p>"I'm looking for a small town in New Hampshire to make a loud roar against the Kelo decision on its anniversary-June 23rd," stated Logan Darrow Clements.</p> <p>According to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in "Kelo vs. City of New London" a government may use eminent domain to seize homes and land to promote economic development or increase tax revenue. Meanwhile, New Hampshire statute XXXIX chapter 423 allows a town to seize land for an airport outside its border. Since this statute does not require the land to be adjacent territory any town in New Hampshire could seize land inside any other town. Thus any town in New Hampshire could seize David Souter's land in Weare, N.H. or Stephen Breyer's land in Plainfield, N.H. for the creation of an airport.</p>

Freepers...your thoughts? From NHfree.com 5/15/06 New Hampshire's Free Staters kill smoke ban Acting nearly alone against the American Cancer Society and a massive juggernaut of established lobby groups, a few dozen Free State Project members have managed to preserve New Hampshire's hands-off approach to smoking in bars and restaurants. N.H. is currently the only state in New England which allows consumers and businesses to make the "smoking decision" for themselves, and last month's vote assures that the market - rather than state regs - will determine smoking policies in 2007. While Free Staters have been on the winning side of...

Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. -- Gun owners and advocates carried the day in the House on Wednesday. In a surprise turnaround, the House supported legislation it defeated last month that would give people more leeway to use guns to defend themselves in public places. It also voted for a bill to bar the state from taking guns or ammunition from people during a state of emergency. "Nothing should chip away at our freedom," argued Rep. Lynne Ober, R-Hudson. If weapons had been confiscated centuries ago, "we might have been singing God Save the Queen," she said. A Senate-passed bill gave...

As always, eager am I to get the Freeper take on latest developments in the Free State: New Hampshire House votes to defy Fed ID March 12, 2006 Libertarians are celebrating after the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 270-84 to refuse cooperation with the hated "Real ID" act. Real ID is a Federal mandate which attempts to force states into a standardized drivers license system at taxpayer expense. Freedom advocates argue it would be at the expense of privacy as well, giving the Feds too much power along the way. Federal officials have said it would help them track...

Seceding seldom succeeds, but Vermonters try By Josh Burek | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor MONTPELIER, VT. – Politics, like fall foliage, turns faster in Vermont. The state was out front opposing slavery and first to approve civil unions. And if the activists who met here last month succeed, the state will set another precedent: first to secede since 1861. No, this wasn't a clandestine meeting of militants. It was a convention for Ver- monters, held in the plush, gold-domed capitol. And its keynote - that separating from the United States is a just remedy for the federal...

Hello, Just wanted to let everybody know about a documentary film I'm producing, "A Candid World". It deals with a lot of issues discussed on this website. If you're interested, check out the website at www.candid-world.com and let me know what you think. Thanks, Tom

A leaner, more efficient way to push people around At the beginning of 2005, Sandy Springs was an unincorporated Georgia suburb with a history of grousing that its taxes were subsidizing the rest of Fulton County rather than funding needed services at home. At the beginning of 2006, it is the seventh largest independent city in the state, population circa 85,000, and has mostly succeeded in crawling out from under the Fulton authorities' rule. The wealthy town's new government consists of a mayor, a city council, and a skeleton crew of public employees. Nearly everything else, from public works to...

January 2, 2006 Concord, N.H. Concerned by perceived abuses of Federal power during the Katrina crisis, New Hampshire state reps are reviewing a bill which would criminalize certain weapons seizures - even if the perpetrators are Federal officers. House Bill 1639-FN, prohibits the confiscation of lawfully owned and lawfully carried firearms during a state of emergency, making a felon of any law enforcement officer who attempts to seize such a firearm during a disaster. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Paul Hopfgarten at the request of local Free Staters - members of a group trying to recruit freedom lovers to...

Dec. 19, 2005 Carrying pitchforks, revolvers and pistols, 21 New Englanders came together in southwestern New Hampshire Sunday for the Second Annual UN Flag Burn. All smiles despite sub-freezing weather, most indicated they are members of NHfree.com, a local offshoot of the Free State Project. Demonstrators focused particular scorn on the UN's repeated efforts to support gun bans around the world. But a more subtle goal is to re-inforce New Hampshire's Live Free or Die reputation, drawing additional freedom lovers to move to the state. "This kind of thing helps get the word out," says activist Dave Ridley of Keene....

Police took Michael V. Pelletier’s loaded pistol while he browsed in a bookstore; David K. Ridley’s mistake was to change jackets in a mall parking lot, and Penny S. Dean’s encounter happened during a late-night constitutional on a city street. Because the New Hampshire Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms — no license needed, unless the weapon is concealed — all three got their guns back within minutes, but the confrontations caused them unease. “The bottom line is that this type of thing shouldn’t be happening in a state where (carrying a pistol) is perfectly allowed,” said Dean, a...

LISTEN, Libertarian! By Tim Condon October 9, 2005 Libertarians are such losers. I know, this is not a way to endear myself to them, even when my best friends are all libertarian or near-libertarian. But success is staring them in the face, and a significant proportion of them deploy massive brainpower and argument to make sure that nothing ever gets better. It's incredible. LISTEN, libertarian! It's over 30 years later, and we're still hearing endless platitudes that keep us from gaining political power in the service of individual freedom. "All we need to do is a better job at selling...

As Brits stiffen their upper lips and politicians hustle to reiterate that Islam is not the problem, cognitive dissonance grips the planet. If Islam is not the problem, what is? And are we not inviting self-defeat by refusing to recognize that Islam is at least part of the problem? Now that xenophobes are licking their chops, let me offer the requisite disclaimer. Most Muslims despise the barbaric tactics of radicals who have hijacked their religion in order to justify killing innocent civilians. The majority of Muslims don't deserve contempt from non-Muslims any more than infidels deserve "justice" administered by maniacs.

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...

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...

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...

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

Free Staters are continuing to rattle the cage in New Hampshire...six years before any of them were even committed to move there. This time it's a fight with the Hampton Zoning Board and its attempt to bankrupt a local family for minor violations: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/01262005/news/61060.htm

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...

"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.

New Hampshire, generally considered third or fourth most gun friendly state, has just become a little more friendly. http://www.freestateproject.org/news/media_archive/0206.php

Here's an essay I wrote that I thought my Freeper friends might enjoy; it's published over on the Free State Project's site at http://www.freestateproject.org/about/essay_archive/lastdate.php My Last Date in the Nanny State by Dada Orwell Okay I will come clean here right off the top. There's some bait-and-switch in the title of this article. Yeah sure, I did have a date last week, and yes it did involve the usual blank stares when I brought up the subject of freedom. But I'm referring more to a date on the calendar: July 14. It's my last business day at work before moving...

http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=7788 The history on this: Early this year Killington VT started the attempted stampede out of socialistic VT by voting to secede to New Hampshire. Trend seems to be continuing... Personally I seceded to NH last week! And I'm never leaving if I can help it! It really is the Free State and Freedom never looked so beautiful as it does up close.

http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=7679;start=0#lastPost He was from Houston. The Free State Project is that group working to get 20,000 liberty-lovers to move to New Hampshire and carve out one sphere of Freedom in "Amerika."

Ten weeks before San Francisco shocked the nation by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the city quietly took another step in America's cultural revolution by liberalizing its massage permit laws to the point where some critics call it de facto legalization of prostitution. Addressing the issue of sex workers in the massage industry, outgoing Mayor Willie Brown, with the nearly unanimous support of the Board of Supervisors, signed a new law Dec. 5 that redefines it as a public health issue rather than a matter of law enforcement. The law went into effect July 1. By removing a requirement...

http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=7190;start=0 Stung by early Free State Project success in the Live Free or Die State, NH Democrats have decided to protest outside an FSP-connected charity event. The "Liberty Dinner" on June 25 is meant to raise tuition money for lower-income students, enabling them to escape government schools and attend private ones. Among the speakers will be New Hampshire's popular libertarian-leaning governor, Craig Benson. "The governor and the Free Staters share the same far-right agenda of gutting our state government and public institutions," writes protest organizer Chaz Proulx. Free Staters seemed alternately surprised and flattered to encounter a protest from the...

Calling the approval of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts "the straw that broke the camel's back," a group of Christian activists is in the beginning stages of an effort to have one state secede from the United States to become its own sovereign nation. "Our Christian republic has declined into a pagan democracy," says Cory Burnell, president of ChristianExodus.org, a non-profit corporation based in Tyler, Texas. "There are some issues people just can't take anymore, and [same-sex marriage] might finally wake up the complacent Christians." Burnell is leading the charge for a peaceful secession of one state from the union, and...

Free State Project member Randall Wolfe of Corbin, KY believes in freedom so intensely, he is walking hundreds of miles for it. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/8705147.htm The Free State project is that group recruiting freedom lovers to move to New Hampshire. On balance it is generally considered the freest place in the country, and the FSP has about 6,000 people pleged to move there and make it more so. Fight the IRS, lower state taxes, eliminate victimless crime laws, etc.

So I'm driving out of town when I see the strangest thing. There's Nat's old Dodge pickup parked at the side of the road. He's roped his battered shooting bench in the bed. And there sits Nat himself with his spotting scope nearby, his deer rifle at the ready, and a six-pack of Moose Drool beer. He's peering over the rifle down the long, empty stretch of road that leads to Hardyville. Naturally, I have to stop and find out what the heck is going on. "Climb up here and spot for me," he says. "Er ... spot what?" "License...

DURHAM, N.H. -- New Hampshire residents are closely split on who they plan to vote for in the nest presidential election. N.H. Battleground State In Election A new poll will be released next week by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Pollster Andy Smith said the poll will show Sen. John Kerry with a slim lead over President George W. Bush, but there are signs that could change. Since February, the president's approval ratings have remained in the high 40s, but Kerry's numbers dropped dramatically over the last two months, from 57 to 46 percent. Smith said he's not...

Got this from the Concord Monitor... Just six months after picking New Hampshire as the "Free State," and years before any of them are even required to move....members of the Free State Project have attained an overwhelming majority on one of the governor's inefficiency committees. http://freestateproject.org/news/media_archive/0198.jsp The FSP is a nationwide movement aimed at persuading 20,000 liberty lovers to move to New Hampshire, reinforce the feisty freedom movement there and reduce the size of government by two thirds.

The national board of the Republican Liberty Caucus has just voted unanimously to endorse the Free State Project. http://www.freestateproject.org/about/endorsements/index.jsp#rlc That's the movement working to get 20,000 liberty-lovers relocated into New Hampshire for the purpose of preserving one free place in this increasingly socialist-infested nation. The national Libertarian Party, however, has voted not to endorse the FSP.

The Big Idea Give 'Em Liberty March 2004 One of our political system's greatest virtues is that every vote counts. Now, one group of voters plans to move to one state, so that their votes count together. The Free State Project is a simple, if radical, concept: Mobilize enough people with libertarian views – lowering taxes, cutting social programs, privatizing schools, relaxing gun laws – to live in one state in order to create a viable third part that will shape local government. "The idea is that, incrementally, we'll move to a freer society." says founder Jason Sorens, a Yale...

Molon Labe by Boston T. Party Molon Labe is a Greek phrase that dates back to the battle of Thermopylae. A small contingent of 300 Greek soldiers faced off a huge Iranian army of a half million men. The Iranians told the Greeks "we don't want to kill you, send out your arms and we will let you live" to which the Greeks responded "come and get them" (Molon Labe). The Greeks were slaughtered to a man but did hold the Iranians back long enough to allow reinforcements to arrive, and Greece herself was saved from invasion. Before reading the...

<p>Furious over years of skyrocketing property tax and leftist state government, residents of the VT ski town of Killington have just voted by a landslide to secede to New Hampshire. It's not clear how much impact the Free State Project had on the course of events, but the Killington area had been a primary target of FSP advertising over the last month, including television commercials and print ads urging residents to come to NH and "bring Killington with you."</p>

In addition to the many other growing freedoms in NH, there is a bill now making its way through the NH House that I understand will give NH the most gun freedom (under the law) of any state. Currently they are only in the top 3 or 4. http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=5454 I hope this attracts a healthy number of gun nuts from slave states! Liberty in Your Lifetime www.freestateproject.org

Fed up with redistributionist school taxes, leaders of Killington, Vermont have settled on a bold new strategy: Secession. Their plan is to take their town all the way out of the left-leaning New England state and join with its more conservative neighbor, New Hampshire. Free Staters were ecstatic to hear the news and are planning a "shadow advertising" campaign to support Killington. If the Killington bid succeeds, New Hampshire would gain a new, tax-hating municipality. If it fails, Free Staters figure they can recruit many of the towns residents and other disgruntled northeasterners to move *themselves* to the Free State....

<p>For 27 of his 29 years, Varrin Swearingen has called Fresno home. The World Airways pilot lives in a nice house near Chestnut and Nees avenues. He's a member of Northwest Church. His parents are here, as is his wife's stepmother.</p>

Here is a late Christmas present for my good friends at FR.... This is a list of "new names" for your favorite Socialists schemes and institutions. May they forever enhance your political conversations! Some of these come from members of the Free State Project, others are from the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, a few are already in general use. New additions to this list are requested! IRS = Internal Robbery Squadron, Internal Redistribution Service, Eternal Revenue Service NEA = The National Education Assassination The Federal Government = The Nanny State ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS = The Nanny Networks National...

A fortnight ago, in "Let's Do Some Detective Work," I provided unassailable evidence that Congress had vastly exceeded powers delegated to it by our Constitution. In last week's column, "Getting Back Our Liberties," I argued that liberties lost are seldom regained, but there was an outside chance to regain them if enough liberty-minded Americans were to pursue Free State Project's proposal to set up New Hampshire as a free state. Free State Project intends to get 20,000 or so Americans to move to New Hampshire and, through a peaceful political process, reduce burdensome taxation and regulation, reform state and local...

CONCORD, N.H. -- A heavy-handed drug sweep in a high school has made a South Carolina community the first target of a New Hampshire-based freedom-minded advertising campaign. The Free State Project says that whenever there is such an "egregious overstep" of government powers, it will run ads that essentially say, "Come to New Hampshire, we don't have this problem." The project, which aims to bring 20,000 liberty-minded people to New Hampshire to work for smaller government and greater individual liberties, has reached about 6,000 people who say they are committed to moving to New Hampshire. The first ad will run...

Free State Project back in the news today 2 months after that big media frenzy surrounding their choice of New Hampshire. Walter Williams wrote an article about them today and so did the Associated Press on Dec. 16: Williams: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36189 AP: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/7506186.htm For those who don't already know this is the effort to get 20K folks to move to conservative/libertarian leaning NH for more freedom and presumably attrit the government even further once they get there.