http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org Docket 07-680, 07-681
petition for writ of certiorari: A document which a losing party files with the Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court. It includes a list of the parties, a statement of the facts of the case, the legal questions presented for review, and arguments as to why the Court should grant the writ.
writ of certiorari: A decision by the Supreme Court to hear an appeal from a lower court.

The Statement of the Claim in the complaint says:

1. This Complaint arises from the failure of the President of the United States and his Attorney General and his Secretary of the Treasury and his Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and the failure of the United States Congress, to properly respond to Plaintiffs’ Petitions for Redress of Grievances against their government, namely: grievances relating to violations of the U.S. Constitution’s war powers, taxing, money, and “privacy” clauses.

2. This complaint also arises from the Executive Branch of the United States government in its retaliation against individual Plaintiffs for: Petitioning the government for a Redress of Grievances, namely grievances relating to violations of the U.S. Constitution’s war powers, taxing, money and “privacy” clauses, and for Peaceably Assembling and Associating with other individuals under the umbrella of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education and the We The People Congress.

I heard Bob Schulz speak at the Liberty Forum though not his primary presentation. I’ve been familiar with WTP for some time but their 1990’s style website always gave it a dilapidated feel and I never bother to look into what they were doing. I just found out about the lawsuit at the Liberty Forum and he had said they expected the SCOTUS to issue a judgment on whether to hear their appeal. As I suspected they denied their appeal and left the lower courts ruling intact. As far as I understand they said that you can petition the government for a redress of grievances but they don’t need to respond. I’m not so sure the original intent was to say it’s OK that people can ask the government questions without them answering. Otherwise the right to redress the government would be no different than the right of free speech. When I argue with people about the problems of the government, how they do things through force and it’s difficult to combat what they do, and they respond “we are the government” I have to try to describe how the government may supposedly represent us and is physically made up of our neighbors but we are decentralized. We have lives to live. Jobs to work and kids to feed. Their lives and jobs are expanding government and controlling people. We have an uphill battle. There is that quote which goes something like “One activist is worth a thousand layman.” According to Data360.org their is 19,514,000 government employees. That’s at local, state and federal levels. Nearly 7% of the population. Even if you account for freedom moles working within the system at a 1:1000 ratio or even 1:100 or even 1:10… we are outnumbered. I hope things like this help show those individuals that the deck is stacked against us. They have the upper hand and we have to work twice as hard to get things done. We screw up and our boss can be fired in a heartbeat. If a politician does something so blatant to upset those he represents he’s probably got the average of over a year till you can kick him out and than you can almost guarantee that the guy who tries to replace him will be almost the same regardless of what they say.

We need more activists who are on our team to help balance out the field. Hopefully the Ron Paul Revolution will help with that.

• 9:00AM Watched a Libertarian debate featuring: Alden Link, Daniel Imperato, George Phillies, Wayne Allyn Root, and Michael Jingozian. It was moderated by Gardner Goldsmith and former Libertarian presidential candidate Don Gorman. Part 1, Part 2. Link was less enthusiastic than Fred Thompson. He admitted that the only reason for his candidacy was to raise awareness for and push nuclear power. Imperato had a problem understanding that if you place your face so close to the mic that you could kiss it it doesn’t sound good. He’s not even a libertarian. He’s anti non-American. He wants to place fees on everyone else who comes in contact with us from naturalization to exports. Phillies had the most consistent LP platform. He also appears to be the most educated on the issues in general and is very realistic and frank about what he would and could do as president. He also fully admits that’s an incredibly unlikely situation and he’s more interested in making the LP a legit party in the eyes of the general public. Root is a libertarian Republican really but more Republican than libertarian unlike Ron Paul. He’s really got the attitude and money experience that would be nice to see in a LP candidate but his platform isn’t nearly as good as Phillies’. He does have an interesting plan on growing the party which I’d like to see him do regardless of whether he wins the LP candidacy. Jingozian wasn’t very motivated. I didn’t feel that he was putting all that much effort into his candidacy and came across as ignorant often on topics. There were people video recording this but at the time of posting I’ve been unable to find it online.
• 12:00PM Closing Ceremony. Bob Schultz introduces John McManus of the John Birch Society. He have the speech called What About the Constitution? At around 1:10PM Ron Paul was introduced. He brought Barry Goldwater Jr. with him. The video below isn’t complete but it’s a decent speech.
• After Paul had left the room people started to leave and xyz and myself decided to head home. We went around to say goodbye to our new acquaintances. Gardner Goldsmith, Mark Edge, etc. Unfortunately some people were busy dealing with Paul so Chris Lawless, Glen Jacobs and a few others were missed. I met some Objectivists during the forum, both who hate and like Paul, who invited me to the Atlas Society’s Summer Seminar. It’s 2 weeks after PorcFest which I’m more interested in attending so I it’s not likely I’ll attend (that and it’s in Oregon and I’m not in agreement with some of the major tenets of Objectivism as far as I currently understand them).
• We got in the car, went to exit the parking deck and there was a large group of Paul supporters blocking the exit. Seems Dr. Paul was just leaving. We crept through the back of the crowd and headed home. Took about 4 hours.

• 9:00AM Peymon Mottahedeh’s Live Free off the IRS Lies and Abuse. Not a real lecture. It was really an advertisement for his scam. I’ve read plenty of the arguments from the tax protesters. I’ve read the IRS’s responses to many of them. It’s all bogus. The safest and quickest way to end the federal income tax is to assume it’s all legit and get rid of it by lowering spending, getting rid of the federal income tax and IRS and amending out the 16th Amendment. It disappoints me that those in charge of getting speakers for this Liberty Forum got this guy. I wanted presentations not adverts for possible scams.
• 10:30AM Jim Lark’s Knee-Jerk Libertarianism: A Cure for a Common Disease. It was a well spoken discussion on a common problem in the freedom movement and many other belief systems: poor messenger skills. He was very well spoken and very serious in getting freedom fighters to be better at getting libertarian ideas across. Try not to insult, be empathetic and try to not to convince people your right but give them the info to think about why you are right. Here is the audio from the speech: Jim Lark: Knee-jerk libertarianism
• 1:00PM Barry Cooper of Never Get Busted. He has a bit of that sleazy salesman feel but not like Peymon Mottahedeh. He’s not a full libertarian (though he’s running on the Libertarian ticket in Texas District 31) but he has some good practical instructions on how to deal with traffic cops as a user of marijuana and his new movie Never Get Raided goes further including concealing the growing of marijuana and catalogs police tactics. Sounds interesting but I’m not motivated enough to purchase either movie.
• 2:30PM Jim Babka from Downsize DC. Not sure why I attended this one. I already had met him in the elevator earlier that day. I’m subscribed to the Downsize Dispatch, I very regularly use their services to send messages to my representatives and I donate to them monthly. It was interesting none the less (he’s a good speaker so hearing things over again didn’t feel repetitive) and I got myself a bumper sticker. He presented The Onion’s Bullshit is Most Important Issue for 2008 Voters.
• Glen Jacobs was in attendance at Babka’s presentation. After it was over xyz and I got a photo with him. I briefly talked with him about his contributions to the movement. Acknowledging that given his situation I understood why he was unable to publicly participate in the movement but appreciated his work under his pseudonym and that someone in his position (not to say that professional wrestler is widely looked up to but surely more than I, and he’s got more connections) was very valuable. He seemed genuinely thankful. While I have a guess as to who in the community he is I’ll leave it to you to find out.
• 4:00PM F. Paul Wilson’s Awful Lonely at Times: Being a Libertarian from the 60’s On. Those who know me know I’m not much on reading fiction. I’ve never read any of his books nor did I know who he was till just a few months ago when I started listening to Gardner Goldsmith’s radio show. Gardner is a big fan and was ecstatic to be able to hear him speak and hang out. Mr. Wilson was very well spoken and unfortunately didn’t spend much time on his dealings with libertarianism in the 60’s and 70’s. Many there knew of his work and were fans so it’s understandable that he would also talk about his works and how he integrated libertarian ideas into them. Here is the audio of his speech: F. Paul Wilson
• The dinner was alright. I actually preferred the buffet. xyz and I sat with Mike and Sayh(sp?) from the Manhattan Ron Paul Meetup group and a young freelance writer, Sam, who was at the Liberty Forum to get information on private currencies. He originally just wanted to talk with Bernard von NotHaus but decided that if he was going to make the long trip up from Brooklin he may as well check out the whole Liberty Forum. He’s not a libertarian but was very interested in what he was hearing. If I run across him tomorrow I’ll have to give him a copy of the latest Serf City. The keynote speaker was New Hampshire US Senator John Sununu. A good number of people were not all that thrilled that the Saturday keynote was a federal Republican politician. He was booed when he said we need taxes to pay for needed government. He was called out for voting for the original PATRIOT Act He was heckled to do a Q&A when he finished. Which he didn’t… he grabbed his things and left immediately after his speech was over.

• 10:00AM Sharon Harris from Advocates for Self-Government gave the opening speech this morning. She talked about how the liberty movement needs to start working toward honing our delivery of the freedom message. Libertarians, especially those who are active in the movement, tend to be more abstract thinkers. More logical progression of ideas whereas the majority of people are more emotional “think with the heart” types. We talk about abstract rights and wrongs and less practical examples but we need practical real world examples for those who aren’t generally like us.
• Chris Lawless informs us the hotel doesn’t want us to open carry.
• We ran into Glen Jacobs very briefly. He is better known as Kane from the WWE. He’s fairly well known as a libertarian and recently publicly supported Ron Paul for President. I believe he is also a member of the FSP. We unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity to get a photo with him but if he’s still around tomorrow or Sunday we surely will.
• 12PMish xyz and I checkin to the hotel and while walking out to the car we see the John McCain’s campaign bus. While walking in we discuss stopping Mr. McCain and telling him that after his argument with Romney over whether or not water boarding is torture we decided to try it out ourselves and agreed with him that it indeed torture. As we walk through the automatic doors into the lobby and are talking about this I nearly run into McCain as my head is turned talking to xyz behind me. I got out of the way in time however and diverted my knocking over of a 72y/o presidential candidate which would have been picked up on the camera which was following him.
• 1:00PM xyz and myself attend Gardner Goldsmith’s presentation on immigration. I listen to his radio show so little was new but it’s very enjoyable to interact with fellow Liberty Forum attendees in asking questions and whatnot. Robert Schulz of We the People Foundation also gave a very good lecture I heard. xyz and I did however get a chance to talk with him while waiting in line for dinner.
• 2:30PM I attended Don Gorman’s lecture on Becoming an Effective Activist but it effectively was a sales pitch for the FSP and how easy it is to participate in politics and protest in NH. xyz attended Peter Bagge’s presentation on his work for Reason Magazine and his art in general.
• 4:00PM Thomas Eddlem gave a lecture on how the current administration has been disobeying the Constitution. Particularly the 4th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. He however blew things out of proportion a bit in describing how it could be used against the average citizen. While it’s certainly an issue to say that it’s just as probable that I would be locked up and the key thrown away without trial is the same as some guy picked up who has the same name as a known terrorist and himself has a criminal record is ridiculous.
• Chatted with another Libertarian Party presidential candidate: Michael P. Jingozian. Reminded him that I believe he was invited to the Manhattan LP’s Annual Convention. He said he forgot to look into whether he could attend and took some contact info. We’ll see.
• Nearly had dinner with Gardner but it turned out the table we picked already was filled besides the two chairs we picked. However, those who had reserved those seats were people we had previously had discussions with during the cocktail hour. Including Ed Hudgins from The Atlas Society. Talked about hard money.
  
• The keynote speaker for the evening was Bernard von NotHaus of the Liberty Dollar. He came out dressed as the ghost of a Revolutionary solder, Capt. Roughseas, who was sent by the Founding fathers informing us to take care of this fiat money system that’s corrupted the US. Complete with sabre. It was a bit odd but generally entertaining. Nothing that probably more than half of them in attendance hadn’t heard before.

Dave Ridley’s Ridley Reports from the first night:

http://www.freestateproject.org/libertyforum/

• It’s cold. A very very dry 7°F. Snow plowed 4-5 feet high on some roads.
• Ran into Chris from NH again. Same guy xyz and I ran into in Manchester during the Ron Paul Family Walk and at the Ron Paul Philadelphia rally. I hadn’t realized that he was part of those running the Liberty Forum. It’s great to see people so dedicated.
• Got to meet Ian Bernard and Mark Edgington of Free Talk Live, FreeKeene.com and Keene Weekly News. Nice to meet those who you donate money to even if only briefly while they grabbed some finger food before they went on to do their show. I really enjoy their show… but they really need a tech guy on the show. If I move up to NH maybe I could participate in the show.
• Chatted with George Phillies, Libertarian candidate for POTUS for 10+ minutes. A bit awkward given I was wearing my Ron Paul Revolution T-Shirt and xyz had a Ron Paul 2008 pin on her coat. We talked about the 2008 race in general, the Libertarian candidates in general, how Kubby and Smith are supporting Ron Paul, Unity08 and Bloomberg’s possible run, how to get some of the Ron Paul Revolution’s people and money into the Libertarian Party and all the hubbub on the LP’s planks. We got a photo of xyz and Mr. Phillies.
• Purchased Gardner Goldsmith’s new book Live Free or Die and had it signed. Sakal/CAI has a raffle going for those who bought Gardner’s book for an iPod. We’ll see if I won by Monday.
• Dave Ridley is here putting together another episode of his Ridley Report.
• Also very briefly met Bernard von NotHaus. Didn’t get to talk about anything however.
• It was really a meet and greet type environment tonight. There are about 300 or so currently signed up for the Forum. I’ll be taking notes the next couple days and will report if I continue to have Net access.

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum

January 3-6, 2008 : Nashua, New Hampshire

The FSP’s Liberty Forum is a convention of liberty loving individuals. Three full days of speakers, food, arguments and fun. Speakers include: Bernard von NotHaus of the Liberty Dollar, Senator John Sununu, Jim Babka of Downsize DC, Peter Christ of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Tom Cryer who’s known as “the man who beat the IRS“, and many others. Word is Ron Paul may be speaking too though nothing has been announced yet. xyz and myself will be there the 4th to the 6th. Just recently they have allowed people to select events individually instead of just the whole event. If you’re planning on going use the promotional code “2008RP” or “2008FTL” to get 10% off. I’d recommend signing up ASAP as the hotel is filling up and if and when Ron Paul’s participation is announced it will likely sell out quickly.

• Register
• Speakers
• Schedule
• Hotel
• Exhibitors