NH INSIDER

As of Monday July sixth, the people calling themselves the “State of New Hampshire” have imprisoned another videographer at the Cheshire jail. This time it’s Dave Ridley from RidleyReport.com. He’ll be spending six days in Chez Westmoreland because he dared to use his freedom of the press and record video in the lobby of the Keene district court. Videographer Sam Dodson spent 58 days in the same facility for recording video and then using his alleged right to remain silent. Sam, also a blogger here at Free Keene, was arrested at the arraignment forced on Dave. Now having been forced into a trial and found guilty, Dave has turned himself in (under their threat of violence, of course) for a six day sentence. Nearly twenty liberty activists came out and had a picnic and sign-waving rally on the jail grounds. The prisoners were pleased to see us, as always.

Total cost to jail peaceful activists in Cheshire county so far in 2009? At over $30,000 per year to imprison people in NH, Dave’s six days, Sam’s 58, and Andrew Carroll’s nine, that’s at least $6,000. How much they spent on all the bureaucracy (police, court, sheriffs) to get them in jail is another question entirely. Either way, it seems that mass civil disobedience and noncooperation are keys to freedom (plus education and enlightenment) and that when more disobey and say no, it will begin to cost the violent monopolists more and more. May they one day see the error in their ways!

JailedActivist.info has contact info for the court, jail, police, and Dave, so feel free to get in touch. Also, you can write to Dave via mail-to-jail.com, but hurry because he’ll likely be out Sunday.

More video of the jail scene to come, but prior to his arrival at the jail, Dave was interviewed by Motorhome Diaries‘ Jason Talley:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_euy0MznL8

Americans for Limited Government wanted to specially bring your attention to a nominee that deserves the mutual, editorial condemnation of journalists across the nation and around the world: Arturo Valenzuela, Barack Obama's nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Why?

According to a former colleague, "He had also loudly defended Venezuela's narcissist-leninist Hugo Chavez on press freedom in previous meetings at Freedom House." This is no small matter, and should be cause for concern for anyone that values the freedom of the press.

Hugo Chavez's record on press freedom is atrocious. Just this year, Chavez has threatened to shut down Globovision because the television station criticized the Venezuelan dictator. Globovision is the only channel left in Venezuela where citizens can hear criticism against Chavez.

Valenzuela is on the wrong side of this and other issues critical to liberty in the Americas, and ALG urges you to take a sharp line against this very poor nomination to the State Department.

ALG News Bureau