9/11 Truth Rising
Morgan
passionate group of activists who are demanding answers from the
government and other powerful and influential people. Please buy a copy
from prisonplanet.tv if you have the means. Your support is what keeps
all of this going. Either way, SPREAD TRUTH.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9153741586264750761
spamme...@pandora.orbl.org
Hmm, I do believe I will introduce you to the denizens of AUK. Is there a
consensus here?
PeterD
wrote:
>Morgan <John...@email.non> wrote:
>
>>This is the new Al...86264750761
>
>Hmm, I do believe I will introduce you to the denizens of AUK. Is there a
>consensus here?
Someone should introduce that troller to the inside of a sewer pipe.
Morgan
A CounterPunch Special Report
"Anarcho Capitalists" Backed by $25 Billion Corporate Giant
The Far Right's Plot to Capture New Hampshire
By PAM MARTENS
One of the most audacious and cynical corporate-backed social
experiments in living memory, the Free State Project in New Hampshire,
has now shifted into damage control mode. Free State operatives learned
this past week of my article that appears in the current subscription
edition of CounterPunch, taking the first in-depth look at their plan to
entice 20,000 out-of-state ultra libertarians and anarchists to move to
New Hampshire and implant an extremist brand of free market capitalism:
a brand the corporate backers hope will lead to a gutting of business
regulations, environmental laws, and return the state to the right wing
of the Republican fold. (Currently, all three branches in New
Hampshire, known for its pivotal first primary status, are controlled by
Democrats.)
An effort at damage control is playing out in the Free Staters� internet
pummeling of this author and a reporter at the Keene Sentinel newspaper
in southern New Hampshire, Phillip Bantz, who made reference to the
revelations in the CounterPunch piece along with an eyebrow raising
quote from a Free Stater on legalizing cannibalism, a demand of some
fringe Free Staters.
The attacks have not gone as planned. Over 128 reader responses are now
registered in the Keene Sentinel, founded in 1799, which typically
receives less than 20 responses to an article. Area residents, known
for tolerance, are displaying pent-up fatigue and anger with the agenda
of the Free Staters.
Some of the Free State participants call themselves anarcho capitalists,
promoting an embrace of free markets and individual freedoms
unencumbered by authority of the state. Free State members must
formally agree to the premise that �government exists at most to protect
people's rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them
for activities that interfere with no one else.� [1] This premise is
widely interpreted by Free Staters to mean all tax supported social
welfare programs must go, along with zoning and planning and building
inspectors. Public education would be replaced with home schooling or
private schools.
What has been able to fly completely under the radar for the last seven
years, is the role of shadowy think tanks and their corporate money
backers in the Free State Project strategy.
On the morning of Friday, February 27, 2004, at the Washington D.C.
corporate headquarters of the free market think thank, the American
Enterprise Institute, this far-fetched plan was carefully rolled out to
the national media. The key speaker at the event was Jason Sorens,
founder of the Free State Project. Dr. Sorens is currently an Assistant
Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at
Buffalo.
The following are excerpts of remarks made by Dr. Sorens at that event,
according to a transcript available at the American Enterprise Institute:
�The Free State Project started as an effort to identify the best
state in the country for people who favor smaller government and
stronger individual liberties to move to�
We started signing up people in September 2001, and our growth was
slow in our first few months. However, growth picked up dramatically in
late 2002 and 2003, and by August 2003, we had 5,000 signed members�
New Hampshire doesn't have large metropolitan areas, which tend to
be left-leaning...
The Free State Project is related to market-preserving federalism
in two different ways. First, New Hampshire is poised to benefit if the
United States returns to a true model of market-preserving federalism.
One example is Social Security. New Hampshire could do much better if
it were taking care of its own Social Security program because its
residents pay much more in Social Security taxes than they receive back
in benefits�
The Free State Project can also contribute to market-preserving
federalism and its beneficial workings in another way. Once New
Hampshire moves dramatically in a free market direction, we are going to
continue to attract individuals and businesses from other states. And
other states are going to have to reform their own laws in order to
avoid losing their tax base to our state.
So the Free State Project, in more ways than one, I think, is the
thin end of the wedge in increasing liberty throughout the United
States.� [2]
(Notice what just happened here: unfettered capitalism has been
conflated with �stronger individual liberties.� Are we not currently
living the economic nightmare that proves the opposite is true? )
One of the most astute questions at this conference came from a man
identified in the transcript as William Kelly of Cox Newspapers:
KELLY: My question is for Jason. I was wondering, when you sign
people up, do you do any kind of background check on them or anything,
to make sure that you're not importing rapists and thieves to New
Hampshire?...
SORENS: No background checks. I think libertarians wouldn't like
that, too privacy invading and too resource consuming as well. So to
some extent this is built on trust. Everyone I've met has been normal
and well adjusted.�
Jenna Wolf of the Union Leader out of Manchester honed in on another
obvious area:
�Have you talked to residents? What are their feelings about this?�
Dr. Sorens assured Ms. Wolf:
��we have solicited the opinions of people who live in New
Hampshire in our forum�And the responses I have gotten have been
overwhelmingly positive, conditional. So long as you are good neighbors
and really support the political ideals that you talk about, then they
are supportive.�
In just four months, both the lack of background checks as well as
resident reaction would blow up in Dr. Sorens� face.
Just nine days before Dr. Sorens gently rolled out his case to a
strategically selected group of free market think tanks and reporters
viewed as market friendly at the headquarters of the American Enterprise
Institute, Tim Condon, at the time the Director of Member Services at
the Free State Project, had mapped out an offshoot strategy. The plan
was to create a Free Town Project as well � �a low-population town in
that same state where Porcupines can congregate�.� (Free Staters refer
to themselves as Porcupines � upset them at your own risk.) The tiny
town of Grafton, New Hampshire was chosen. [3]
Tim Condon is a Tampa, Florida lawyer and one of the original organizers
of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) in 1991, a group that says it
works �to advance the principles of individual rights, limited
government and free enterprise within the Republican Party� according to
its web site. Unbeknownst to most rank and file Free Staters, Mr. Condon
was receiving funds from the RLC. According to the First Quarter 2005
minutes of the RLC of Florida, �On Jan. 4, the National Board of
Directors of the Republican Liberty Caucus agreed to pick up some of the
expenses of Florida RLCer Tim Condon of Tampa who � in conjunction with
his efforts on behalf of the free state project�has been working to
develop the New Hampshire RLC, one of the fastest growing RLC chapters
in the nation.� [4]
According to Mr. Condon�s own account of how the Grafton plan came
about, an �exploratory trip was launched in early February, 2004. This
time Porcupines Tim Condon and Zack Bass flew to New Hampshire from
Florida, and had help from resident Free Staters in exploring. Also
present was Robert Hull, who drove up from New Jersey to join us.�
Zack Bass, according to a June 20, 2004 article in The Boston Globe was
actually Larry Pendarvis of Brandon, Florida: �A computer analyst who
also goes by the alias Zack Bass, Pendarvis was convicted in Polk
County, Fla., in 1997 of more than 100 counts of downloading child
pornography, a conviction later overturned on appeal. His other
enterprises include a website that peddles mail-order brides from the
Philippines with the slogan, �Date Locally, Marry Globally.� � [5]
According to the Free State Project, it was Mr. Pendarvis who was
responsible for setting up a web site targeting local residents [6] and
one establishing the goals of the Free Town Project as follows:
The Free Town Project intends to liberate either a New Hampshire
Town, or a Western County, by moving in enough Libertarians to control
the local Government and remove oppressive Regulations (such as Planning
& Zoning, and Building Code requirements) and stop enforcement of Laws
prohibiting Victimless Acts among Consenting Adults, such as Dueling,
Gambling, Incest, Price-Gouging, Cannibalism, and Drug Handling. [7]
Hostilities flared against the Free Staters in Grafton by residents,
followed by a large town meeting and unflattering press. Dr. Sorens has
persistently blamed all of this on Pendarvis and dismissed it by noting
that Pendarvis was expelled from the Free State Project. Dr. Sorens
fails to note that it was he who declined to do background checks and it
was his own Director of Member Services at the time, Tim Condon, who has
acknowledged in his own article that he was part of the conception and
planning of the project and made the exploratory trip to Grafton with
Pendarvis (aka Zack Bass) in February 2004.
Dr. Sorens has additional explaining to do. The Mercatus Center lists
him as an Affiliated Scholar. It, and its sister organization,
Institute for Humane Studies, have funded Dr. Sorens research since at
least 2002 according to public records. [8]
Mercatus is the Latin term for markets. Thanks to an in-depth report
published in September 2006 by the public interest nonprofit, Public
Citizen, and OMB Watch, we know a great deal about the agenda of the
Mercatus Center. [9]
Richard Fink, executive vice-president of Koch Industries, Inc.,
founded Mercatus (then called the Center for Market Processes) at his
alma mater, Rutgers University, in the early 1980s. Later, he moved the
organization to George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, where it
resides today. Mercatus blossomed at George Mason in 1997 after
receiving a $3 million grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable
Foundation, which was founded by Charles G. Koch, chairman and chief
executive officer of Koch Industries. Koch Industries, an oil and gas
giant, is the second largest privately held company in the United States�
The Charles G. Koch Foundation is one of the largest corporate
donors to George Mason University, donating over $15 million since 1998
to the George Mason University Foundation, which accepts and manages tax
deductible donations on behalf of GMU and its affiliates. The Charles
G. Koch foundation frequently earmarks these donations for the Mercatus
Center, and in the past two years alone has donated over $2 million to
Mercatus�
[As part of its anti-regulatory agenda] Mercatus staffers were
pushing rollbacks that would directly benefit their corporate patrons.
BP Amoco, Exxon Mobil, and the Kochs, for example, would benefit from 14
of the suggestions�filed in 2001 to weaken the Clean air Act. These
petrochemical companies would also benefit from four of the Mercatus
Center�s 2002 submissions calling for the weakening of the Clean Water Act�
By far the biggest corporate contributor to the Mercatus Center,
and the group with the clearest personal ties to it, is the Koch group
of foundations and, through them, Koch Industries. A privately-held $25
billion petroleum, chemical, and agricultural company based in Wichita,
Kansas, Koch Industries has good reason to angle for a rollback of
environmental standards. In 2001, the company�s petroleum division
pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act for releasing benzene, a
known carcinogen, into the air at a Texas refinery. Koch agreed to pay
$10 million in criminal fines and further agreed to spend $10 million
for environmental projects in the Corpus Christi area. In addition,
Koch must complete a five-year term of probation and adhere to a strict
new environmental compliance program.
In a separate incident, Koch agreed to pay a $4.5 million penalty
to settle other Clean Air Act violations at its Minnesota refinery. The
EPA also forced the company to spend an estimated $80 million to install
new pollution-control equipment at two refineries in Corpus Christi,
Texas, and one near St. Paul, Minnesota.
Koch also has had a problem playing by the rules of the Clean Water
Act. The EPA found that during a seven-year period in the 1990s, a Koch
pipeline subsidiary allowed 300 leaks to remain unstopped, spilling
three million gallons of oil into waterways across six states. In
January 2000, the EPA leveled $30 million in civil fines against Koch,
then the largest U.S. civil penalty, and required Koch to spend an
additional $5 million on environmental projects. [10]
A former director of the Mercatus Center�s regulatory program was Wendy
Lee Gramm. As former chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC) from 1988 to January 1993, Ms. Gramm�s deregulatory
stance toward credit derivatives is widely regarded as a key element in
today�s financial market meltdown. According to Public Citizen, �In
1992, as the first step in its business plan to profit on the
speculation of energy, Enron petitioned the CFTC to make regulatory
changes that would limit the scope of the commission�s authority over
certain kinds of futures contracts. Immediately before leaving the
CFTC, Gramm muscled through approval of an unusual draft regulation that
would do just that � it narrowed the definition of futures contracts and
excluded Enron�s energy future contracts and swaps from regulatory
oversight. Although her actions were criticized by government officials
who feared the change would have severe negative consequences (as, in
fact, it did), Gramm was rewarded five weeks after she left the CFTC
with a lucrative appointment to Enron�s Board of Directors. Between
1993 and 2001, when the company declared bankruptcy, Enron paid Gramm
between $915,000 and $1.85 million in salary, attendance fees, stock
option sales, and dividends.�
How much exactly has Dr. Sorens received from the Mercatus Center, the
Institute for Humane Studies, and George Mason University Foundation?
Requests for specific dollar amounts to Dr. Sorens, the State University
of New York at Buffalo, and each of the nonprofits was met with silence.
Dr. Sorens did take the time to send a seven-page letter to the
Editors of CounterPunch demanding a retraction of this author�s first
article.
A notice on the web site of the department of Political Science at the
State University of New York at Buffalo, a public funded institution
where Dr. Sorens now teaches and conducts research, notes that �Jason
Sorens and his co-author William P. Ruger, an Assistant Professor at the
Texas State University, San Marcos published a study on Freedom in the
50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom with the Mercatus
Center of George Mason University. The study presents an evidence based
ranking of the 50 states in terms of both their provisions for and
protection of personal and economic freedoms. Professor Sorens also
continues to oversee a grant from Donors Trust. The grant supports a
series of research workshops on �Markets and States.� � [11]
Exactly 13 days after the study on Freedom in the 50 States was
released, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law at the Buckeye
Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Ohio, another free markets
nonprofit, used the document in testimony on a House Bill in Ohio
threatening to �initiate legal action� if the bill was signed into law.
The testimony noted, from the report, that �Ohio recently ranked 38th in
an index of economic freedom amongst the 50 states.� The bill would have
eased mortgage loan modifications to prevent foreclosures. [12]
DonorsTrust, now funding Dr. Sorens �Markets and States� workshops,
explains itself this way: �DonorsTrust was established as the sole
donor-advised plan dedicated to promoting a free society and serving
donors who share that purpose. To date, DonorsTrust has received $230
million from these donors who are both dedicated to liberty and to the
cause of perpetuating a free and prosperous society through
philanthropic means�Know that any contributions to our DonorsTrust
account that have to be reported to the IRS will not become public
information. Unlike with private foundations, gifts from your account
will remain as anonymous as you request.� [13]
These promises of more freedoms from uninvited liberators who are
secretly backed by special interests sound eerily familiar. Hopefully,
this particular plan has been outed in just the nick of time.
Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no security
position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She
writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached
at pam...@aol.com
Notes.
[1] Free State Project web site
www.freestateproject.org
[2] Transcript of Jason Sorens speaking at the American Enterprise Institute
[3] Tim Condon maps out the plan for the Free Town Project in Grafton
[4] First Quarter, 2005 RLC of Florida Minutes (See page two.)
[5] �Grafton�s Messy Liberation,� Boston Globe, June 20, 2004
[6] Blood Bath & Beyond, Grafton Locals Targeted
[7] Web site of the Free Town Project
[8] Jason Sorens affiations with The Mercatus Center
http://www.mercatus.org/SearchResult.aspx?SType=Basic
[9] �The Cost is Too High,� Public Citizen, OMB Report: Pgs 43 � 55,
�Meet the Mercatus Center�
[10] Ibid, pg 52
[11] Jason Sorens� funded work at the State University of New York at
Buffalo
[12] 1851 Center for Constitutional Law Cites Sorens Research
[13] DonorsTrust
Morgan
Gay and lesbians are satanic
NH committee recommends killing gay marriage bill
April 23, 2009
CONCORD, N.H. --The state Senate's Judiciary Committee has recommended
that the Legislature reject legalizing gay marriage in New Hampshire.
The committee voted 3-2 Thursday against a bill that passed the House
last month. Committee Chairwoman Deborah Reynolds, a Democrat, said she
doesn't think New Hampshire is ready for gay marriage. Republicans who
voted against it said marriage is an institution created and defined by
God as between one man and one woman.
Two years ago, the Legislature approved, and Gov. John Lynch signed,
civil unions for gays, which provide all the rights of marriage, except
in name.
Lynch has not said specifically whether he would veto the gay marriage
bill.
spamme...@pandora.orbl.org
<snip>
The free state project? You stupid fuck, if you read some real media once in
awhile you would know that group is about inept as any political organization
can be. But they're probably slightly more ept than you.