Antigovernment activists putting down roots in N.H.

[Are_grits_groceries]

From a jail cell in this rural corner of New Hampshire, Sam A. Miller waged a philosophical battle, one milk carton at a time.
The soft-spoken electrical engineer declined food for nearly a month, save for swigs of milk. To eat, he said, would be caving to the tyrannical government powers that placed him here for illegally filming in a courthouse and refusing to reveal his legal name to jail officials. (He says it's private; jail officials obtained it from a fingerprint trace.)

His resistance has made him a folk hero among antigovernment types who have been making their way to New Hampshire from points across the country since their leaders put out a clarion call six years ago.

The Free Staters, as they are known, hope to lure thousands of like-minded souls to the state, with the goal of paring government to a bare minimum by eliminating things like taxes, speed limits, and zoning laws.

Thus far, just 427 Free Staters have relocated. Yet, here in Keene and in pockets across New Hampshire, Free Staters are making their case in increasingly provocative ways.
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The so-called liberty actions have been met with some bemusement by residents of this gently tolerant city, population 22,800, home to Keene State College, near the border of Vermont. But some say the tactics have taken on a menacing hue, such as when Free Staters have gathered on the streets of downtown Keene with holstered guns on their waists, visible on their waists.

"When they first came to town, there was a welcoming spirit. A lot of people were like, 'OK,' " said Richard Van Wickler, a Keene resident and superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections. "But unfortunately what happens is that when take the radical approach, that invites people to get angry.
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More fundamentally unnerving, some say, is the Free Staters' efforts to secure government positions, with the goal of whittling down or eliminating them. The Free State Project's president, Varrin Swearingen, said in a telephone interview there are four state representatives with ties to the project and a "double-digit number" on local boards and commissions. He declined to release their names, saying to do so would violate their privacy, though he said some have "outed" themselves.

The officials already are wielding influence, he said. For example, a Free Stater elected to a planning board in a town near Keene, which he would not identify, swayed the board to vote against a zoning ordinance restricting new big box stores, a measure the Free State member said unfairly restricted property rights.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2009/05/29/antigovernment_activists__putting_down_roots_in_nh/

Well, all the nutballs aren't in SC. Who knew?

[MADem]

1. Why don't they work on getting rid of some of those damned tollbooths?

Free staters? These assholes sound like .... Republicans!

[Raven]

2. This is real. They are in my Town in NH. They have managed

to get elected to the Planning Board and the Budget Committee and they are beginning the process of destroying the local government. I have been warning about this but lots of folks think I'm wearing the tin foil hat...10 years from now, I will say "I told you so."

Interesting thing about these people is that they use all the repub tactics...I deal with them in Town everyday and then go home and see the same shit on the national news.

Be very wary of this crowd. They have taken Howard Dean's grassroots tactics and put them to use.