Friday, February 22, 2013

Medicinal MJ on the Island of NH: The Final (Defensive) Assault?

No doubt about it: the authoritarians and protectionists in the state already landlocked by successful medical pot are scared shitless.

Last session's medicinal marijuana legislative hearings were, aside from the usual hysterical suspects, surprisingly uneventful and productive. SB409 was then passed by the GOP-dominated NH House and Senate, vetoed by a Democratic (which really ought to be in quotes, shouldn't it?) governor, then overridden by that GOP House, only to fall tantalizingly short of a similar override in the GOP Senate.

This year's HB573-FN, submitted to a Democratic House, however, here before the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, 2/21/2013, appears to have reinvigorated the Forces of Force. How many were "on the clock," being paid by you, harried taxpayer, to self-servingly lobby your other servants to continue infringing your liberty, your self-ownership, your authority over even your own body? Whom does the Legislative Branch serve, faithful reader: the Executive Branch and crony lobbyists all with vested financial interests and delusions of superior judgment and the delegated authority to impose it, or the people?

We'll start, though, with testimony first by pain patient Clayton Holton and former NH state representative (and former bill sponsor) Evalyn Merrick, then by (briefly) a standard-issue Executive Branch thug, an exasperated citizen (AKA, the recalcitrant thug's unwilling employer), and a couple lobbyists for people in pain -- most of whom couldn't afford to be here to testify in opposition to their own belligerent servants.

Press







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Sunday, February 17, 2013

'Pot Fest' Confronts 'Justice'

Will justice prevail? Selected testimony from the brace of marijuana bills heard by the NH House Criminal Justice Committee, 2/14/2013.

First, Rich Paul testifies regarding the unalienable right to pursue happiness and HB492, "relative to the legalization and regulation of marijuana." Then Rep. Mark Warden introduces HB337, "legalizing marijuana and cannabis." Following, a couple new arrivals (to my knowledge) -- and very welcome, indeed -- to NH liberty activism join Rich Paul again in also addressing HB337. Finally, Marijuana Policy Project Legislative Analyst Matt Simon and NH Common Sense Executive Director Kirk McNeil speak during the hearing on HB621, "decriminalizing possession of less than one ounce of marijuana," but reference all 3 bills. See more of these hearings here.

Rich Paul

Rep. Mark Warden

Select Testimony

Matt Simon and Kirk McNeil

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Friday, February 15, 2013

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

What a lovely day to coo. Or to start a coup... Hemp was last month, and medical marijuana is still to come, but HB492, "relative to the legalization and regulation of marijuana," HB337, "legalizing marijuana and cannabis," HB621, "decriminalizing possession of less than one ounce of marijuana," all have their initial public hearings before the NH House Criminal Justice Committee on Valentine's day, 2/14/2013. Can ya feel the love?

First, though, we'll lead off with a little historical compilation, because FSP-spawned NH political activism has historical context now, don'tchaknow. Peter Morency, president of the "NH Chiefs of Police Association" at the time, and Ian Freeman, representing "NH Organized Crime," separately but unitedly advocate for the preservation of the status of certain inanimate substances as arbitrarily "illegal," and for the continuation of the tragic, destructive and entirely preventable phenomenon of "prohibition-related crime," before the same committee back in January of 2008 on HB1623-FN (the entirety of which hearing can be relived here). The former for cushy monopoly job security (as in this clip he wistfully waxes nostalgic over the "good-times" Capone-era alcohol prohibition responsible for such "common good" benefits to society as the incident referred to in this post's title) -- and the sheer power-trip, of course -- and the latter as continued "force-monopoly" protectionism for his organization's prevailing government-enabled black-market business model. Then Ian testifies again for the same organization, before the same committee, on this day, in opposition to HB492. Sadly, the new House majority is also a humorless majority, evidently, and subtle satire is lost on them, however incisive: this time the Chair seems confused by Ian's employment of Mark Twain-style analysis. So Ian subsequently takes a shot at them out of character for HB337.

The difference between Peter and Ian (similarly testifying in opposition), of course, is that Peter is deadly serious. Peter, you represented the chiefs' vested self-interest (on the taxpayers' dime) so earnestly, so proudly and so well. Where have you gone? Ahh. Expanding your empire, I see...

It's profoundly sad that NH has had so many opportunities to lead on this issue -- substantively thwarted in recent years by an ostensibly liberal governor, ironically enough -- and yet finds herself playing catch-up as other states successfully rediscover their 10th Amendment prerogatives, reassert their sovereignty over an increasingly rogue yet intentionally limited general government, put their servants back in their place, and stop persecuting peaceful people for the temerity of assuming that they actually own their own bodies, that they're not the property of the state. It's long past time for servant bureaucrats to lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.

And by the way, just to finally say it in print (although I did inquire of the Senate almost a year ago, at the very end of that hearing), there is absolutely no excuse for the people's employees to be lobbying, in their official capacity, against the people's wishes. None. Take off the badge or the uniform or the fancy hat, and you have just as much right to an opinion as anybody else. But as a public servant, your duty is to follow the public's orders, not to undermine them. We say "jump," you say "how high?" You aren't paid to contradict us. We tell you what is nece...!

If you, faithful reader, also believe your representatives should be preferentially listening to and accommodating you rather than your other servants, if you believe that the Legislative Branch is supposed to represent and be accountable to the people and not to the Executive Branch, tell them.

One more thing. Since it's an astonishingly indignant complaint we hear oppressively often in your committee room, Committee Chair Pantelakos, if you will promise that your government will start accepting its subservient role and consistently respecting and defending the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" self-ownership of peaceful people, as is its intent, I promise we'll quit wasting our time by obliging you to "put up with" us, and we can all go do something more productive and enjoyable. Otherwise, you reap what you sow. Deal?

By your government's own faithless actions, you have compelled, you have necessitated our presence, our resistance, our hovering oversight of you -- and inventive tactics in the never-ending effort to actually get through to you. Get used to it, or convince us you don't require our supervision anymore. Your choice.

Press

On with the show. Primary videos will appear in this post as they're uploaded over the next day or so. Six hours edited, for your sanity, to only the pro-(all)-rights speakers (though HB621 is complete). I may isolate other testimony in a future post...

Cops & Robbers



HB492, 'tax & regulate'




HB337, 'legalize'




HB621, 'decrim'



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Thursday, January 24, 2013

"Stand Your Ground" Under Attack

Ironic, huh?

The NH House Criminal Justice Committee hears testimony regarding HB135, "Relative to physical force in defense of a person and relative to the definition of non-deadly force" -- the proposed repeal of last session's "stand your ground" law -- 1/22/2013.

Oh, and this happened. Just short of the 13-minute mark of Part 1 (of 3). About 10 minutes later, Rep. Dan Itse appears to reference the Chair's condescension.

When can you "know" you can retreat "with complete safety?" Correct: Never. So if you are legitimately threatened (and if you're not, then you're not justified in the first place, right?), and in that circumstance justifying that self-defense you are also never certain that retreat is completely safe, and thus never required to run away, what is the purpose of the change? What does it accomplish, other than to embolden criminals -- to prey, and to subsequently sue?

Press:

Preview




Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Industrial Hemp Re-enters the Machine

There are few words remaining to describe the unfathomable cognitive disconnect that continues to impede the modern-day agricultural cultivation of and economic benefit from (remember, you may use it, you just can't grow it -- you must pay other countries to grow it for you...) such an ancient, versatile and valuable plant as industrial hemp. Just last year, a very similar bill, the odyssey of which can be traced back starting here, went down accompanied by much stupefying legislative indifference.

This is the commencement of this year's journey, beginning with the public hearing for HB153, "Prohibiting the designation of industrial hemp as a controlled substance," before the NH House Criminal Justice Committee, 1/22/2013. The viewer will note that there was no testimony opposed. The closest the prohibitionists got was AAG Anne Rice wagging a finger and stating that it's still illegal according to the overstepping feds -- as if the 10th Amendment requires that we submit regardless. But the accuracy of that assertion was quickly challenged anyway by New Hempshire Foundation's Kevin Bloom, whom we'll see, too, in the teaser video.

But first, here again is the federal government's (taxpayer-funded) position on the domestic production of industrial hemp -- before the petroleum and paper industries and the police-prosecutor-prison-industrial complex (which needs more laws to grow their businesses, after all) told 'em to knock it off, that is...




Onward...





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Monday, January 21, 2013

"Gun Appreciation Day," Concord, NH

NH state Rep. Al Baldasaro addresses the NH edition of a national rally (AKA "Guns Across America") this day in support of the 2nd Amendment right to self-defense, in front of the NH State House, 1/19/2013.

The referenced state legislative bill, HB135, has its House Criminal Justice Committee hearing this Tuesday, 1/22/2013, at 1:30pm. With sufficient attendance, it should get moved to Representatives' Hall in the State House. Do try to ensure that relocation with your presence, if at all possible.

Next, if you missed this rally (and it was pretty quickly put together, so you can be forgiven), another 2nd Amendment Rally is scheduled for the same location on 1/31/2013 at noon.

Additionally, Free State Project activists take the opportunity to thank Rep. Cynthia Chase for her selfless recruitment efforts.

Additional media:


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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

What's Important Enough to Trade Your Freedoms For?

Do you have the right to trade others' freedoms for it, too? Ben Franklin famously warned that "security" wasn't it. So... What?
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win."
It's starting to smell like a fight, isn't it? And since the Free State Project won't even officially land in NH until the 20,000 participants are secured, rather ahead of even the most optimistic schedule, too...

NH state representative Cynthia Chase, fearful of losing something, launched something of a firestorm in December 2012 when she advocated in a comment on NH progressive forum BlueHampshire.com (archived here) that people who disagree with her politically should have their freedoms legislated away (but don't stop there -- there's more gold to be found in that thread...).

Because of that exhibited fear of "the single biggest threat the state is facing today," the Free State Project has received a considerable bump in interest.

Consequently, this day activists express their heartfelt gratitude to Ms Chase with the delivery of a lovely flower arrangement to her at the first meeting of her House committee, Children and Family Law, 1/9/2013.

Here's some press surrounding the brouhaha (your humble chronicler really likes saying "brouhaha"...):



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Friday, December 21, 2012

NH House Rules Committee Disparages The Rule of Law

Having reclaimed control of the NH House, Democrats set about remaking the body's rules in their own image. The NH House Rules Committee meets to hammer out recommendations to the full House on their proposed dictates, 12/20/2012. Specifically of interest here, on the dissolution of the Redress of Grievances Committee and the Constitutional Review Committee, and -- since "gun-free zones" are empirically such a nettlesome hindrance to budding mass murderers -- the return to a more criminal-friendly "victim disarmament zone" in their area of the State House. I feel safer already... You can follow along with your own copy of the proposed rule changes. The full House will consider the committee's recommendations on January 2, 2013.

A few points to chew on. Can these provisions of Constitution and law be simply ignored by the legislature?

NH Constitution, Part First, Article 31
[Meetings of Legislature, for What Purposes.] The legislature shall assemble for the redress of public grievances and for making such laws as the public good may require.
June 2, 1784 Amended 1792 generally rewording sentence and omitting "for correcting, strengthening and confirming the laws."
NH Constitution, Part First, Article 32
[Rights of Assembly, Instruction, and Petition.] The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble and consult upon the common good, give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of petition or remonstrance, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer.
June 2, 1784
NH Statutes, RSA 159:26
Firearms, Ammunition, and Knives; Authority of the State. –
I. To the extent consistent with federal law, the state of New Hampshire shall have authority and jurisdiction over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, firearms supplies, or knives in the state. Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, no ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision may regulate the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies in the state. Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting a political subdivision's right to adopt zoning ordinances for the purpose of regulating firearms or knives businesses in the same manner as other businesses or to take any action allowed under RSA 207:59.
II. Upon the effective date of this section, all municipal ordinances and regulations not authorized under paragraph I relative to the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearm components, ammunition, firearms supplies, or knives shall be null and void.
Source. 2003, 283:2, eff. July 18, 2003. 2011, 139:1, eff. Aug. 6, 2011.
Also, we'll hear from Rep. Dan Itse, a driving force behind the changes 2 years ago -- changes that directly empowered citizens (but I guess there's my answer, eh?) -- that have evidently proven so horrendous that they must now be rolled back. For the children, of course...



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Thursday, August 16, 2012

How to Instruct Your Representatives

Hot on the heels of this week's miscarriage-of-justice-on-multiple-levels jury verdict in the case of Ademo Freeman (to which even the judge opined, "I don’t accept the state’s reasoning"), the subcommittee of the NH House Criminal Justice Committee that's addressing HB553, "relative to the law on wiretapping and eavesdropping," and if and how the full committee should recommend reworking it into an "acceptable" bill for the next legislative session (having been relegated to "interim study" this session), held a work session, 8/15/2012.

Subcommittee work sessions, by their nature, are substantially less formal than committee hearings -- examples of which perhaps over-populate this blog (but your humble chronicler finds them, like train wrecks, difficult from which to avert his eyes). But chaired by my own Representative Mark "Don't Call Me Kevin, Boston.com" Warden, this body was perhaps particularly and refreshingly receptive to input from its employers, the people -- that's you, faithful reader. Here's to hoping the individual members are equally cognizant and respectful of that relationship. The bottom line: they represent you, not the Executive Branch and its operatives in uniform with the monopoly on force.

Hopeful, too, as this work session was, however, this nevertheless empirically pressing issue in NH is still, sadly, a long, long, long way from finally getting resolved legislatively -- and so, sadly, too, there will likely be plenty more opportunities for "judicial branch activism" (often mischaracterized, IMHO, as "outside-the-system activism").

But this is what citizen political involvement looks like. If you feel justifiably compelled to participate, contact the committee members, then contact your own representatives.



For the record, this is how I responded to the NHPR piece linked above:
"New Hampshire is one of twelve states that requires all parties to consent to being recorded over the phone."

That blanket assertion is not an accurate statement, as a careful reading of the relevant statute would have exposed -- rather than obediently taking government's word for it. What does this, from the RSA definitions, mean to you?
570-A:1 Definitions. – As used in this chapter: ...
II. "Oral communication" means any oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying such expectation.
Do public officials have such an expectation that their official duties are private from their employers, the people? According to the 'Glik' decision out of the First Circuit Court, and the 'Alleman' decision out of Goffstown District Court, they do not. Nor, pointedly, according to the NH Constitution, Part 1st, Article 8. That public school employees and government prosecutors and cops don't understand that they are, in fact, public officials renders them no less so simply on their own assertions.

Further, and even if we DISREGARD the above definition,
570-A:2 Interception and Disclosure of Telecommunication or Oral Communications Prohibited. – ...
I-a. A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if, except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter or without consent of all parties to the communication, the person knowingly intercepts a telecommunication or oral communication when the person is a party to the communication or with the prior consent of one of the parties to the communication, but without the approval required by RSA 570-A:2, II(d).
Mr. Mueller a) was a party to the conversation, and also b) certainly had his own prior consent. So where did the felony charge come from? How has the state managed to liberate him from his ostensibly unalienable right to self-defense for not breaking any law claiming the authority to do so?

Further still, for good measure, as for "being recorded over the phone,"
570-A:1 Definitions. – As used in this chapter: ...
IV. "Electronic, mechanical, or other device" means any device or apparatus which can be used to intercept a telecommunication or oral communication OTHER THAN:
    (a) Any telephone or telegraph instrument, equipment, facility or any component thereof:
       (1) Furnished to the subscriber or user by a communication carrier in the ordinary course of its business and being used by the subscriber or user in the ordinary course of its business or furnished by such subscriber or user for connection to the facilities of such service and used in the ordinary course of its business in accordance with applicable provisions of telephone and telegraph company rules and regulations, as approved by the public utilities commission;
Funny the problems one can find with government behavior just by reading its own statutes, rather than simply accepting its own assertions.

A lawless government is not capable of doing a "good job." By definition.

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Monday, July 16, 2012

Leaving the Weeds to Control Themselves

On July 29, 2008, a violent gang, looking for malum prohibitum drugs, invaded the Berwyn Heights, Maryland, home of Cheye (pronounced "Shy") Calvo. Needless to say, violent gangs have utterly no regard for the safety or well-being or property of their victims. They want what they want, consequences and accountability and rights be damned.

This particular gang terrorized this entirely innocent family for 4 hours. They killed the family's 2 Labrador Retrievers, one while he was retreating in (particularly in hindsight, entirely) justifiable terror. Ultimately unsatisfied, they left the violated and shell-shocked family to put their lives back together. And clean up the blood. And the government sworn to protect this family's rights found nothing wrong with the physical and emotional carnage.

To be fair, though, that's because this gang, these criminals, was a SWAT team sent by government. Starting to see the motivation? Yep, collateral damage in yet still even more prohibition-related crime. In the "War on People Who Use (Some) Drugs."™ Or in this case, only on unsuspecting people, just living their lives, whom the gang thought were using "some" drugs. Although, truthfully, the more one learns about the case, the clearer it becomes that there wasn't much thinking going on at all.

Yet according to Wikipedia, over 2 years after the costly and embarrassing raid, then-Sheriff Michael A. Jackson defiantly defended his department's indefensible-in-a-free-society aggression, stating, “we'd do it again. Tonight.”

You may be next, citizen, 'cause they don't work for you. They're not accountable to you. They want what they want, consequences and accountability and rights be damned. You have the right to remain terrified. And in NH, too, your government's reaction is less than comforting.

Oh, did I mention Mr. Calvo was and is the 5-term mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland? Yeah, the Sheriff wasn't aware, either...

Cheye Calvo graced the NH Liberty Alliance's 2012 Liberty Dinner as the keynote speaker, 7/15/2012, on the jarringly and increasingly mundane nature of state violence. Not merely state-sanctioned. State-perpetrated. Radley Balko has done extensive reporting on this incident. The NHLA 2012 Liberty Rating should be available presently here.



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