Lost Liberty Hotel ballot petition drive succeeds

[Dave Ridley]

From Lost Liberty Hotel Newsletter:
January 31, 2006
                        

#    RALLY SUCCEEDS! INITIATIVE IS #50 ON THE BALLOT
# URGENT: BIG BATTLE THIS SATURDAY
# LOAD THE CANNONS...with lawsuits

RALLY SUCCEEDS! INITIATIVE IS #50 ON THE BALLOT

Supporters of the Lost Liberty Hotel flew in from all parts of the United States to support our rally on 1/21 and 1/22. We collected seven times as many signatures as we needed. Our warrant article (initiative) is now on the March 14 Weare ballot at the appropriate position of number 50.

We found Weare voters to be much more supportive of the project than we expected. Every person that Logan asked to sign the petition signed it, except for one man who supported it but wanted to remain anonymous. Other walking teams also reported high levels of support.

What made it all worthwhile was when Doug Schwartz of the Coalition to Save the Fort Trumbull Neighborhood (in New London, CT) said, "the reason Susette Kelo and the others haven't been pushed out of their homes despite losing in court...WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE."

Perhaps the first shot of the Second American Revolution has already been fired.

See photos of the rally at http://www.freestarmedia.com

Read press reports by entering "Lost Liberty Hotel" into http://news.google.com
Donate to keep us rolling at ...

URGENT: BIG BATTLE THIS SATURDAY
BunkerHill

This Saturday, February 4th, our enemies could derail the Lost Liberty Hotel project by changing the language of our initiative or using other parliamentary tricks at the "Deliberative Session". The only way we can stop them is if enough Weare supporters show up to vote against such moves.

We need to run newspaper ads to get Weare voters to show up at the Deliberative Session. For $1,200 we can run a large ad in the Manchester paper, For $500 we can run an ad in the Concord Paper. For $400 we can run an ad in the Goffstown paper. If you would like to buy an ad, you can pay the newspaper directly. PLEASE CONTACT logan@freestarmedia.com TODAY (RIGHT NOW) as we are close to the printing deadlines. Put "AD SPONSOR" in the subject line.
I'll buy an ad...

LOAD THE CANNONS...with lawsuits
cannon

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of the people to petition their government for a redress of grievances. However, enemies of our project want to shoot it down this Saturday at the Deliberative Session in Weare by changing the language of the warrant article. We believe that if they change the language they will be violating the Constitutional rights of the people who signed the petition. We intend to file lawsuits against every Selectmen who violates this right of petition by changing of language of the warrant article.

We need a donor to cover the cost of: 1) Having a lawyer attend the session to raise objections when they occur. This could cost $1,000. 2) Hiring an attorney to file lawsuits against each of the Selectmen if justified.

If you would like to put a lawyer on the frontlines of this battle contact logan@freestarmedia.com. Put "LEGAL SPONSOR" in the subject line.
I'll send a lawyer into the battle...

Join our mailing list!
email: newsletter@freestarmedia.com
web: http://www.freestarmedia.com

[Dave Ridley]

Update from Lost Liberty Hotel folks:
quote:
----

# INITIATIVE SABOTAGED

INITIATIVE SABOTAGED

We seek to end eminent domain abuse by having those who advocate it, or facilitate it, live under their own laws. Today we suffered a setback.

190 Weare residents signed a petition asking the Town to do three things: 1) Seize Souter's land for the construction of an Inn, 2) set up a fund where donations could be accepted to cover the legal costs of doing this, and 3) set up a fund where donations could be accepted to provide the former owner with just compensation. The purpose of items 2 and 3 were to prevent Weare taxpayers from having to bear any cost for the Lost Liberty Hotel project. Instead, supporters all across America could donate to make it happen.

According to people who were at the Deliberative Session, this is what happened. One member of the Board of Selectmen implied that these funds would have to be paid for with an increase in taxes. Another Selectmen implied that the legal fund would amount to the Town suing itself. Members of the CPNR fought to counter this negative propaganda.

However, the politicians, the powerful and their cronies won today's battle. WALTER BOHLIN made a motion to sabotage the initiative by adding the word "NOT" before all three items. Letters to Mr. Walter Bohlin may be sent to 27 Winter Hill Road, Weare, N.H. 03281. Switchboard.com reports Mr. Bohlin's phone to be 603-529-5722 and his e-mail to be WBohlin@ibm.net. However this information has not been independently verified. A photo of Mr. Bohlin appears in the Boston Globe story. He is the guy in the light shirt and gray pants standing to the right of Keith Lacasse. Click at the "See Walter" link bottom to see his photo.

Language was also added requesting that the governor and the legislature take action to stop eminent domain abuse. This is an empty gesture given that legislation to that end has already been circulating in the State Capitol for months.

To me it seems unethical and unconstitutional to change the language of a petition after it has been signed. It also seems wrong to prevent the voters of Weare from having the chance to vote on the initiative. However, only a lawyer could sort this out.

The vote was 94 in favor of adding the word "NOT" to the initiative and 59 opposed. Therefore, if just 36 more supporters showed up at the Deliberative Session this could have been prevented. Postcards were sent to every voter in Town, an ad was run in the Manchester Union Leader and flyers were distributed door to door during our Rally. As we walked door to door support for our proposal seemed surprisingly high. However, support without action is worthless.

We have lost this battle but not the war. Stay tuned...

Logan Darrow Clements
See Walter: the guy who sabotaged the initiative (light shirt, gray pants)