Help keep awareness about Antonio’s felony case by spreading this flyer and the new video that shows the affidavit and video. More information about his case here.

Affidavit Harassment

Link to No Spit! No Wipe! .pdf flyer

On Saturday January 28th, 2012, well over a hundred people from all walks of life, protested on the steps of the Austin Police Department for solidarity of the victims of police abuse on January 1, 2012. This was the second rally that was organized to protest police abuse in Austin, the first was Occupy Austin Courts on J19 at the criminal courthouse. I helped organize both of these events and was happy to see the support from Occupy Austin, anarchists, Ron Paul supporters and moms who were previously non-activists. The is a great example of how people in the community can come together and support each other for a noble cause. Activists took part in street actions stopping traffic with their signs and many speakers rallied the crowd with the use of a bullhorn. The support of the community was evident, with all the honks in support from all the vehicles passing by. We also had different local news media show up and shoot interviews, similar to the first protest. The police left us alone for the most part, although we did notice some on a roof observing, it was a peaceful rally without any trouble. It seemed as if everyone had a camera that day to capture this historically and for personal protection. We also had live coverage of the rally online that day with gonzo journalist, Kit O’Connell, live tweeting and I livestreamed video with my smartphone. The rally ended with a march through the streets of downtown around APD headquarters. It was an empowering experience exercising our rights and showing solidarity for the NYE 3.

Stay up to date with case on the Free the NYE 3 and Free Antonio Buehler Facebook pages.

Below is my interview on the Freezone with Freeman, talking about the events that happened on NYE and the Occupy APD protest. Also below is a great video compilation by Mike Hanson Archives and a photo slideshow from various attendees of the rally.

During a DWI stop on January 1st, 2012 police violently assaulted a woman for informing a friend about her right to refuse a sobriety test. A bystander, Antonio Buehler, who saw the violence (and captured it on film) was then also assaulted and arrested on trumped-up charges. The entire incident was caught on video and shows the officers’ version of the events is untrue. Recently police Corporal Hipolito stated to Keye news, that he did not see evidence on the dash cam video of Antonio spitting on the officer.

This is a Rally to protest the APD for adding additional charges to the female victim and withholding the dash cam video that would further exonerate Antonio of the felony charge.

Demands:
*All charges against the victims dropped.
*Police officers Patrick Oborski and Robert Snider immediately fired, and criminal charges filed against them.

Bring:
*Yourself and at least one other person.
*Cameras
*Signs

Free the NYE 3 Facebook page

Occupy APD Facebook Event page

Occupy APD .pdf flier

Click on image below and ‘right click save’ for this image below.

Come out and show support for Antonio Buehler and the other victims of police abuse on January 1st, 2012. This is a peaceful showing of solidarity. All you really need to bring is some friends and cell phones/cameras. Learn about the incident here. Click on the image below to maximize then ‘right click’ and save it. For better quality download the pdf through the link below.

Occupy Austin Court pdf file

Occupy Austin Courts Facebook Page

The New Years Day incident in Austin involving police officers Robert Snider and Pat Oborski abusing peaceful citizens has reached nationwide media coverage. It all began with a DWI traffic stop in front of a 7-11, while the driver was out of the vehicle with police, the passenger Norma Pizana was informing her friend her rights. She is quoted in an interview here, “Yelling out of the car to my friend her rights is not interfering, it’s telling her rights,” said the woman. “And sitting in the passenger seat, never opening the car door, I’m not harming myself, I’m not harming others.”

Apparently officer Pat Oborski didn’t like her shouting to her friend about her rights, so he approached her sitting in the car and warned her to stop. Antonio Buehler was parked getting gas at the 7-11, he and his friend were watching the driver perform a field sobriety test in heels. He was the designated driver that night and was driving his friends truck home from a party. Pizana continued her 1st amendment speech and was yanked out of the car violently, causing bruises on her arms and legs. At this point she began to scream for help, as she was being pulled up from the ground by her arms over her head.

Shocked at what he saw, Buehler began to take pictures of the girl being manhandled by the two officers. Then officer Oborsky leaves the woman and begins to confront Buehler for taking pictures, “‘What the hell are you taking pictures for,’ or something along those lines,” said Buehler. “My response was, ‘I am allowed to. Public official in a public place.’” Then things turn for the worst as the officer accused him of interfering with an investigation (a charge that isn’t listed against him) and began to push him in his chest. Buehler has his hands up in the air, seemingly complying but asking why he is being assaulted.

While  pushing Buehler’s back over the tailgate, Oborsky declared that Buehler spit on him and then proceeded to take him down hard. It was at this point that Buehler said he feared for serious injury, the officer began to twist his arm back unnecessarily in order to inflict pain. Although he was complying and not resisting on the ground, he heard another officer state that he was going to taser him, he then yelled out “don’t taser me”. They picked him up and dragged him to the BAT mobile for a breathalyzer test, in order to pin some  DWI or public intoxication charge on him. Buehler states that while in custody, officer Oborsky told him that he was going to teach him a lesson for messing with the police. He was then charged with harassment of a public servant (a police officer), which is a third degree felony and resisting arrest.

Thankfully the police spectacle was being filmed by a witness from across the street using their cell phone. Miraculously, through public pleas across the internet, he was contacted by the witness and received the video from a post on Craigslist. The witness also stated that they are willing to testify to what they saw. It seems that the police are the ones getting a lesson about the power of smartphones and social media. They also learned that they can’t judge people by appearances and that they should treat us all with respect when performing their duty. This serendipitous moment, could be the tipping point that will allow for positive change in Austin’s police culture.

Buehler’s bio speaks for itself, and illustrates that he is a man of integrity who seeks to help others:

Antonio Buehler is a Westpoint graduate, Army Ranger and graduated from Stanford with a MBA. His philanthropic activities have focused on education and helping disadvantaged youth. He currently serves on the Board of Governors for the West Point Society of New York. Antonio covered Congressional Districts NY-8 and NY-9 as a Field Force Representative for the West Point Department of Admissions. Antonio coordinated all college fairs for West Point in the five boroughs of New York City. He also served as a liaison for both West Point and Stanford University at various college fairs in New York City. Previously he has served as Treasurer and board member of A Caring Hand, a New York based non-profit focused on child bereavement. Antonio ran a program to clothe children in war-torn Kosovo, volunteered at a Bulgarian orphanage, coached high school football in Germany, mentored children in the United States, and has sponsored three African children for the past eight years.

Similar past behaviors of the police in different cases, lends credence to the theory that the problems at APD are more than a few bad cops, its institutionalized. The lawyer that Pizana retained went through something quite similar herself. Attorney Mindy Montford was arrested for public intoxication in 2009 after giving legal advice during a traffic stop to a friend who was driving. The false charges were thrown out by a judge, but the detective just filed it with another judge, got another warrant and started it all over again. This is called “judge shopping”, and is a tactic they use to retry people in order to skirt double jeopardy. So it seems we have another instance of APD seeking to silence and arrest anyone that is trying to advise someone of their rights. Again, they made the mistake of messing with someone who could fight back and expose their corrupt behavior.

It also seems that APD has an aversion to citizens filming them. On December 4th, 2010, John Bush And Matthew Medina were arrested for not complying with a lawful order. The two activists were performing a cop watch that night and the arresting officer is shown at the beginning of the video grabbing Bush’s arm. They continue to observe the officers from a distance and then that same cop comes up to him and demands that he leave. It’s strange that he is so visibly upset about them, considering the other cops around seem not to care, because they are busy doing their job. The cop then tells Bush to go behind some pole, he complies but the officer keeps advancing towards him. The officer continues to close the distance while telling them to get behind a pole that they are actually standing near. Although they are clearly away from the location and not interfering, the officer decided to arrest them for not complying with a lawful order.The situation could have been handled differently by the officer, he could have diffused the situation by going back to whatever he was doing once the two backed up. Watch video of the incident here.

A recent First Circuit court ruling, affirms citizens rights to film police officers performing their duties in a public space. The three judge panel also concluded that citizens have the right to gather information about public officials to protect and promote the free discussion of governmental affairs.

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative. It is firmly established that the First Amendment’s aegis extends further than the text’s proscription on laws “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” and encompasses a range of conduct related to the gathering and dissemination of information. … The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles. Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.

The courts ruling makes it very clear that we have the right to film public officials in public, especially if you feel that they are abusing their authority. As pointed out in my interview of Buehler on Stranger Advice:

“I’m very fortunate and blessed because I’m a Westpointer, a military guy, a Stanford MBA, people tend to give my story a listen, hey he’s got credibility. This cop was wiling to send me to jail for a very long time just because he didn’t like me taking pictures. If I was a black or Hispanic male, or a white person from a very poor neighborhood, I think things would have turned out very differently.”

This is a very true statement considering the history of APD and their use of deadly force against people of color in East Austin. The Austin police department is currently fighting a lawsuit by the Carter family for wrongful death of their son Byron Carter Jr., who was shot dead as a passenger in a moving car. After 7 months, the debate still goes on due to the fact there isn’t video evidence, and the testimony of events by police are questionable.

Buehler’s story has been covered by the media very well to my surprise, local Austin news KVUE filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any other complaints about officer Oborsky. The media and others are also demanding that the on board camera video be released. The footage is apparently being held by the department because of their ongoing investigation. Buehler plans to take the case all the way to jury trial if he has to. He has also filed a report of police abuse through the Police Monitors office. Pizana has also stated to the media that she also seeks to file charges against the officers for abuse.

The public has rallied behind Buehler, a Facebook group was launched in support of his heroic action, with many lending support in anyway they can. Others have stepped forward to tell their own stories of abuse, some that even involve officer Oborsky. A donation fund has been setup for Buehler, Pizana and the other woman driver, as well. This incident has been a catalyst for people to work together in order to take action against police abuse. The first court date for the Buehler and Pizana is on January 19th at the Austin Criminal Court building on West 11th street downtown. We will keep covering this case as it progresses.

Occupy Austin Courts January 19th Flier pdf

Occupy Austin Courts Facebook Page

___

Help support a driver who was coerced into a breathalyzer, a passenger who endured police abuse – and former Army Ranger Captain Antonio Buehler, who was fraudulently arrested upon questioning and photographing the abuse. This fund will be split three ways equally to help defray legal expenses for Antonio Buehler and two other victims of police mistreatment in an incident that occurred early New Year’s morning in Austin, TX.

https://rally.org/APDvictimfund/donate

Related Links & Info

News & Blogs

West Point Grad Arrested For Defending Woman Abused By Austin Police
APD officers accused of abuse during New Year’s arrest (KVUE)
Two APD officers accused of abuse during New Year’s arrest (KVUE/Yahoo!News)
Man Accuses Two APD Officers Of Abuse During New Year’s Arrest (MyFoxAustin)
Austin DWI Stop Leads To Abuse Allegation (KSAT)
West Point Grad Arrested For Defending Woman Abused By Austin Police (DailyPaul.com)
Chivalrous Veteran Confronts Abusive Austin Police — Gets Assaulted and Arrested(LewRockwell.com)
Republic Magazine, Police Abuse in Austin: Iraq Vet Antonio Beuhler Assaulted, Falsely Charged for Photographing Brutal DWI Arrest
Austin Man Facing Felony After Photographing Cops Making Arrest (Pixiq.com)
Veteran Arrested for Attempted Chivalry (or spitting on APD officer) (Daily Kos)
His Name Is Pat Oblarski (CopBlock.org)
Video: Antonio Buehler Covered On Freedom Watch
Video: Austin Police Abuse Victim Speaks Out & Shows Bruises – Will File Formal Complaint Against Officers
Alleged victim of APD police abuse retains attorney Mindy Montford (KEYE coverage on female passenger)
Woman involved in a controversial New Year’s day arrest talks (KVUE)

In-Depth Radio Interviews: Antonio Buehler

InfoWars Nightly News (01/06/12, footage mark 59:23)
Liberty Talk Radio (01/06/12)
Stranger Advice (01/06/12)

The Occupy movement, shouldn’t be a movement, it should be a paradigm shift of thinking based on breaking their chains and becoming self-sufficient. Assume your power and create the system you want instead of asking for the system to change itself. The globalists behind the system, that can’t be voted out, have been in control of governments for generations and will not yield control willingly.

Since we are dealing with a hierarchical system, the best way to defeat it is to stop consenting and withdraw. We the people are the bedrock that the bricks of the pyramidal control system lays on. The different pillars of control are stacked on top of us, and if we stopped supporting it, the mechanisms of control will fall. We need to shake the very foundation of the system, and let the bricks fall where they may. Then we can seek out ways to rebuild that will benefit us individually and collectively.

Our focus needs to be shifted towards competing government institutions, personal protection agencies, dispute resolution agencies, mutualism and voluntary exchanges. The idea of working together and creating community based solutions independent of government is revolutionary. This means using counter-economic actions like barter, borrowing and untraceable currency are peaceful ways to withdraw economic consent to the State.

Everyone in Occupy has a skill, talent or idea that can be used to help them manifest the reality they want. Working on yourself, then organizing with others to build new ways to exchange goods and services are the key. Decentralized peer-to-peer non-coerced mutually beneficial voluntary exchanges was the model of the past, and is the emerging model now. With access to relatively cheap high level technology, we can build the Agora online that will help connect and foster Agorism in real life.

Check out our site based around “crowdfunding” each other instead of politics, PostPolitical.us.

Currently we are working on the online Agora of exchange, so stay tuned!

During Houston’s 2011 End The Fed Rally, attendees were fortunate to have their minds expanded by the revolutionary strategy of Agorism by John Bush. John is a hard working activist and inspiring speaker based out of Austin, Texas. John is not only spreading the message of true freedom, he is also working on numerous projects based on mutual aid and voluntaryism.

H/T CopBlock.org

More on the ideas:
Agorism.info http://agorism.info
Voluntaryist.com http://voluntaryist.com
Private Defense Agencies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_defense_agency
“Justice Without the State” video with Bruce Benson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN34fUtpJkg
Edward Forchion “NJ Weedman” Modern Day Hero http://copblock.org/9588/edward-forchion-nj-weedman-moden-day-hero
Anarchy & the Law: The Political Economy of Choice edited by Ed Stringham http://amazon.com/Anarchy-Law-Political-Economy-Choice/dp/1412805791
“Ed & Elaine Brown: Property Rights Advocates Jailed for Life” http://libertyontour.com/2011/06/13/browns/

More from John and his crew:
Liberty Bell http://lonestarsmart.net/libertybell
Lone Star SMART http://lonestarsmart.net/
Operation Defuse – http://operationdefuse.com
Black & Yellow Pages http://indigoagora.com/black-yellow-pages
DEA & FBI Agree: Drug Prohibition is Futile http://libertyontour.com/2010/10/09/dea-fbi-agree-drug-prohibition-is-futile

Below is an excellent primer I would like to share that is the epitome of seeking liberty through an agorist strategy.  Davidson is a man of great wisdom and true grit, who’s gift to humanity is his ideology of living life as a sovereign being. His writings are informative from a historical context, witty, and straight to the point without pulling punches.  I’ve been a friend of his on facebook  for a little over a year now and we have communicated several times on the site. This beautifully written essay below deserved to be viewed outside of the realms of FB, it also fits perfectly with the spirit of JustLive. Enjoy and spread!

“From indignities that the beasts themselves would not endure you can free yourselves by simply willing it. Resolve to serve no more, and you are free. Withdraw your support from the Colossus that crushes you, and it will crumble in the dust.” ~ Étienne de la Boétie

In the year of our Lord 1215, at a place called Runnymede, a king after whom toilets have been named ever since signed a great charter.  Magna Carta was signed by king John to recognize the demonstrable fact that he did not rule by any “divine” right.  Indeed, in pursuing the full application of that document’s meaning, a later king, Charles I, was shown not to rule at all – by virtue of having his head sawn off by a swordsman.

Yet by half measures such as Magna Carta the people of England were led back into slavery.  First they were assured that England has no fixed constitution – though Magna Carta identified not only freedoms for the barons, but also for the yeomen – without whose bows the victory at Runnymede would have been far from certain.  Next they were discouraged from keeping guns about their persons.  Ultimately, they were disarmed, and now they are spied upon by their government, taxed to death, and regulated unto poverty.  And given how much England has fucked over my ancestral home, Scotland, and the rest of the world, I’m hard pressed to find much of a fuck to give about them.

But this idea that some must rule and the rest serve is entirely wrong.  And, apparently, by killing Charles the First, Louis Seize, and various other kings, people have somehow failed to convey this idea earnestly and well.

For in its place we find vox populei, vox dei which is an idiotic refrain if ever there were one.  The voice of the people is the voice of God?  Seriously?  Have you actually listened to these fools?  Have you watched any of them at the super market?

No, that is no substitute.  The divine right of the people to rule each other is no improvement upon the divine right of kings to rule everyone else.  You have to get past this idea of government as an externally imposed concept.

L. Neil Smith did the world a great favour by imagining what things would be like if Thomas Jefferson had penned one extra word in the declaration of independence in 1776.  Had he written, “Governments derive their just powers from the unanimous consent of the governed,” then the whiskey rebels would have been much more assured of their nullification, Washington would never have been able to conscript 13,000 slaves to march across Pennsylvania (killing 12 of them during the process) and both Washington and his tax man Hamilton would likely have been shot as traitors.  The Probability Broach is such a good book, you really ought to read it, or its graphic novel adaptation, or both.  Seriously.

In the analysis of the word “government” as something other than externally imposed coercion, what could it mean to be “governed”?  If it does not come from outside of you, could it come from within you?  If you were to govern yourself, what would that be like?

It would mean choosing for yourself.  It would mean taking choices on your own, without being supervised, without being threatened, without being deceived.  It would mean being responsible for such choices as you entered with full knowledge, voluntary agreement, competence, where an exchange of value took place.  In other words, it would mean being an adult.

Being free is not a decision you make.  It is not a sign you hold.  It is not a protest you attend.  It is not a comment you make on a blog.  It is not a hat you wear in a courthouse, nor a license plate some group of thugs supply you to put on your car.

Rather, it is an attitude you have, about life.  It is a way of living.  Being free is an aspect of every choice you take, every interaction you have with others.  Being free is being governed by no one other than yourself.

And who better to govern you?  You know what you are really like.  You know what fibs you have told.  You know what is best for you.  You know which things really suit your tastes, and which are reasonable substitutes.  In the market you pick the things that suit you, knowing that there are things there which suit others.

Are you harmed by choices you don’t take?  No.  Having extra spicy peppers in the store which you do not have to choose does you no harm.  It neither picks your pocket nor punches your face.  It simply sits there in a bin of vegetation which you are free to pass by.

In my own book Being Sovereign, I made an effort to give voice to this attitude.  The book is a series of essays, mostly from my financial newsletter The Indomitus Report.  In these essays, I try to capture some of the attitude and philosophy behind my being sovereign.

For I am sovereign. I have assumed among the powers of the Earth the equal station to which the laws of nature, and of nature’s God entitle me.  You should, too.

Then what does it mean to be sovereign?  It means that I choose for myself.  I am not supervised in taking choices.  I am not ordered about.  If I do what someone has asked me, very likely they have asked pleasantly, in a manner signifying their understanding that I have choices.  Civility and courtesy are useful in honoring the sovereignty in others.  And if I do what I have been asked to do, it remains my choice to do so, and my responsibility.

Every day, for at least some part of each day, you do what you choose without being supervised.  Why not be that way all the time?

And if you are your own government, then what business do you have involving yourself in the government by others of your neighbors, or of people across the sea?  Shouldn’t you mind your own fucking business?  Isn’t it time for you to withdraw from the system that attempts to oppress you?  Put some distance between you and these evil men and women who think they are right to rule you.

Were you to do so, you would be joining approximately 174 million persons who did not vote in the November 2008 election (of whom only about 77 million were ineligible due to age or current incarceration).  Were you to do so, you would be joining approximately 182 million Americans who filed no form of personal income tax paper at all in April 2010.  Were you to do so, you would be joining about 103 million Americans who either did not return any census form, or only wrote the number of persons in their “household.”  In short, you would be jumping into a very crowded pool.  Come on in, the water is fine.

Put down your remote control.  Turn off the television.  Spray paint “This box lies” on the face of your TV.  Kick it in.  Throw it in the street and shout, “I’m mad as hell, and I don’t have to take it any more!”

Stop petitioning the government.  Have you noticed that they are not listening, still?  I think they never will.  Were you seriously expecting the government to stop oppressing you because of that silly sign you held at the airport protest over the porno scanners and groping thugs?  Yes, sure, I put on a “press” badge and took some photos of a recent airport protest in the expectation of being able to document some of the violence that seemed likely to ensue.  But I didn’t carry a sign.

I don’t write to congress critters.  I don’t ask that my government change the way it is doing things: because I govern myself, when I want my government to change something, I simply change it.

I don’t vote.  I understand that you have deeply held reasons for voting.  Still.  Can you honestly say in the 40 years of its existence that the Libertarian Party has changed anything for the better, at all?  Really?  Do tell.  Yes, they became corrupt, sold out their platform in 2006, and nominated an arch Republican drug warrior, bigot, and gun law prosecutor in 2008.  Do you still think, after 40 years, that voting Libertarian is going to fix anything?

I don’t vote because I don’t consent to be governed by anyone else.  I don’t vote because I don’t agree that the outcome of the election is victory for whomsoever garners the largest number of counted votes – not the largest number of cast votes, certainly.  I don’t vote because none of these people have a contract with me to represent my actual interests.  They appear to have contracts with people in major industries who give their campaigns a lot of money, though.

Why are you so concerned, anyway?  If you are individually oppressed by some law, break it.  It isn’t your law.  You didn’t consent to it.  Why obey it?  Disobey.  Your chains: break them.

Your signs of protest do not demonstrate your power.  They demonstrate your subservience.  You are asking the people to help you change the system that oppresses you.  Why?  You are asking those in power over you to change the system that oppresses you.  Why?

Why not simply do those things you choose to do, for yourself?  Why not choose today to do anything that you think is the right thing to do?  Do you have any other sensible obligation, really?

These mala prohibitum laws arise mostly as revenue measures.  The things they prohibit are not evil in themselves (mala in se) but are “wrong” in that they are prohibited.  Did you know that in “repealing” the prohibition amendment, the constitution was amended to make it illegal to sell alcohol in defiance of the laws of the United States or any of the states? So, where is your constitutional freedom to distil your own whiskey?  You do have such a freedom, which pre-dates the writing of the constitution, and which was in the 9th Amendment for a time, but if you are a constitutionalist, you should be aware that right was “written out” in allegedly repealing Prohibition.  Whoops.

Why are there standing courts?  You know about the dangers of a standing army, and also about the people who profit from its existence.  So you know why there is a standing army.  But why are there standing courts?  Why is there a courthouse in the city which is the county seat of the county in which you live?  Why is there a federal courthouse in some large city near you?

Courts don’t have to be organized that way.  For tens of thousands of years, the people in a community looked to the elders of their community to sit in judgment of each other.  When the crime or tort was judged, the judgment might be appealed to the community as a whole.  But after the judgment was delivered, the court ceased to exist.  The elders involved in supplying good judgment went back to working for a living.  And the next time a crime happened, the judges would be called back to sit under the acacia tree and talk it over.

This court building has to be paid for.  If it isn’t maintained, it falls apart.  The clerks in the building need to be paid.  The judge needs to be paid.  He also needs goons, because what he does for a living isn’t fair.  So he has bailiffs.  He gets to have the only armed men in the room.  (So explain to me, again, why you want to keep going into that room?  Shouldn’t you insist on your freedom to keep and bear arms, and refuse to enter places where you aren’t free?)

From where does the money come to pay for all these things and people?  From fines, court costs, fees, and your voluntary compliance.  But there aren’t enough actually wrong things going on to pay for all that labyrinth of things and people at the courthouse.  Can you imagine some rural district in Montana where they have only one murder every ten years, no rape (because everyone is armed), and only the occasional vandalism or property theft?  Yet that district has a courthouse, judges, sheriffs, bailiffs, clerks.  How?

By having the county government and the municipal governments pass statutes defining various peaceful behaviors as mala prohibitum.  Now if you drive a reasonable and prudent speed greater than a magic number, you are breaking a statute.  You can have a conversation with a statutory enforcement agent, or pig.  You can get a ticket for that!  And maybe mail in a bit of money to assuage their hatred of your freedom.  Or maybe contest it in court.  Maybe wearing a hat that says “Don’t Tread on Me.”

If the court wants more judges, or clerks, or bailiffs, they get more statutes written making more peaceful behaviors into pseudo-crimes.  And more of your friends get stopped and ticketed.  And beaten up.  And caged by arbitrary authorities.

How would you react if these people were doing these things without the colour of law?  What if a biker gang came to your town and began similar proceedings?  Wouldn’t you at once ignore them and also prepare to defend yourself against them?  Wouldn’t you put together a mutual protection group on an ad hoc basis to get rid of the biker gang?

It seems to me that the more you engage their system, the more you are full of fail.  And the more you resort to half measures, the more you have to clean up later on.

Withdraw from the system.  Remove yourself from their sight.  Trade with each other.  And stay as far away from those things as you are able.  Wear your freedom every day.  Live it.  Believe it.  You rule you.

People help each other on the path to agorism.

http://www.indomitus.net/

facebook.com/planetaryjim

A good article by Ross Kenyon from the Center for a Stateless Society, illustrating the pervasive stereotypes that are perpetuated against anarchists.

How would the NAACP respond if a politician or other public figure had said this about all black people?

Recently, US Representative John Boehner (R-OH) odiously mischaracterizedanarchist philosophy and painted an inaccurate portrait of its core values, saying that at Tea Party events there are “Always a couple of anarchists who want to kill all of us in public office.” Anarchism is an ideology based on individual freedom and opposition to institutionalized aggression, not on some insane love of public mayhem.

Yes, when people hear the word “anarchist” their neurons start firing on images of Molotov cocktail-wielding, black bandanna-wearing street fighters at G20.

That impression is more a product of 200 years of Boehner-style smear rhetoric than an accurate perception of what anarchism means or what anarchists do. It’s on par with any other stereotype — the “lazy/violent Negro” used to justify Jim Crow, the “potential pedophile” trotted out to support discrimination against homosexuals and other sexual minorities, the hopped-up robber or rapist offered up as justification for the war on drugs.

Yes, there are violent and insurrectionary anarchists, just as there are people who resemble those other stereotypes. No, those particular people are not representative of this diverse movement any more than those other stereotypes are representative of African-Americans, LGBTQ persons, or recreational drugs users.

I’ve attended Tea Parties as an anarchist because I’m a sincere libertarian who cares about limiting the power, scope, and size of government and fighting its unjustified intrusion upon the lives of peaceful individuals. Many of of my fellow Tea Party attendees intuitively and intellectually grasp the danger of the unlimited state and seek to reduce its influence over their personal lives. Anarchism is a radical extension of that reasonable impulse, not the nihilist tantrum that Boehner makes it out to be.

At Tea Party events, I like to ask questions of people who care about limiting governments.

How is land is justly acquired? Most people accept homesteading, occupancy and use as appropriate justification to call a parcel of land one’s own.

In reply, I note that the state homesteads nothing, produces nothing, but merely draws a political boundary and declares that if one lives within the stated arbitrary geographical area one must buy defense and justice services from its monopolistic organization.

What happens if someone attempts to buy competing services not linked to artificial political borders? Agents of the state will throw that person in a cage (and kill them if they resists).

Market anarchism is such a basic and consistent idea, an idea so in tune with the values professed by the Tea Partiers, that it’s only natural for anarchists to show up and challenge fellow freedom-lovers to adopt it.

I agree that a consistent philosophy which values and respects the peaceful choices of the Tea Partiers and their neighbors is indeed a threat to Boehner and his ilk, but not a threat of the type he claims. It’s not a death threat, it’s the threat of a pink slip.

—–
C4SS News Analyst Ross Kenyon is a senior of American History at Arizona State University. He is a member of the ASU Students For Liberty leadership team, as well as a summer intern in Washington, DC.

In 2001, three years before his death, SEK III provided the website Libertarian Peacenik, with a brief history of the new libertarian philosophy that emerged after the movement split in 1969.

In July 1969, the Students for a Democratic Society split in Chicago four ways and the Anarchists were purged. Over Labor Day Young Americans for Freedom split.  The Anarchist Caucus and then-separate Libertarian Caucus were purged the following month. In October (Columbus Day weekend) the two groups met at the Hotel Dipomat [sic] in New York City at the first Libertarian Conference hosted by Murray Rothbard and Karl Hess.  The following February, Los Angeles (USC) hosted the Left- Right Festival of Liberation, with such luminaries as SDS ex-president Carl Oglesby (who recently ran for Congress as LP), Robert LeFevre, Karl Hess (again), and many others not as well remembered.

Five Hundred people showed up. The conference was covered in the LA Free Press and many Establishment papers, got extensive reporting on KPFK (which had a Libertarian radio show) and KUSC (which had TWO Libertarian shows, Lowell Ponte’s and Ron Kimberling’s).

I attended all of the above except the first-mentioned (since I was a YAF “libertarian” minarchist until September 1969); I worked side by side with Dana Rohrabacher on the last-mentioned.  He may be an Orange County congressman now, but back then he was the Johnny Grass-seed of the movement, travelling to YAF chapters, singing his libertarian folk songs, and “turning on” the conservatives so they would “tune in” to Libertarianism.

Our Movement grew exponentially through 1972 and even 1973, going from a few thousand students to over 100,000 and recognition in such publications as TV Guide (where Edith Efron, a sympathizer, equated us with conservatives and liberals in an article about equal time provisions).

One of the terms I personally coined, “minarchist,” partly to amuse Murray Rothbard, appeared in Newsweek.

Also in 1971, two Libertarians I had recruited from Columbia University (with the help of David Friedman), got a full-color, full-page cover in the magazine section of the New York Times, standing in front of a red fist above the words “Laissez Faire!”  That was Stan Lehr and Lou Rossetto.  Some of you know the latter from his entrepreneurial days as the original publisher of Wired magazine.

We then organized an East Coast Libertarian Conference at Columbia with the help of Gary Greenberg (remember my posting, “One of Ours at Ground Zero”?).  During that Conference, Jeffrey St. John attempted to defend minarchy from Roy A. Childs.  St. John’s trouncing pretty much ended minarchy as a serious intellectual position within the Libertarian Movement.

Then and only then did David Nolan (who had been active in the earliest formation of the YAF Libertarian Caucus in 1967 but missed the explosive events “under the arch” in St. Louis in 1969 and had not been radicalized) announce the formation of the Libertarian Party.

New Libertarian (my magazine, begun 1970, currently up to 188 issues, and usually #3 in circulation after Reason and Liberty/Libertarian Review), then called New Libertarian Notes, published a debate between David and me in the November 1972 issue which came out just before the presidential election.  The Libertarian Party idea was met with universal scorn by movement activists, either on principle (LeFevrians, Revolutionary Rothbardians) or as hopelessly premature (Right Rothbardians, more conservative types).  And Hospers-Nathan did get a pathetic vote total.

Remember, few people calling themselves Libertarians in 1972 would vote and those were arguing over who would stop the war without socializing the economy the worst: McGovern or Schmitz (theBircher candidate of the American Party).  Surprisingly, both Rothbard and Ayn Rand came out for Nixon!

What kept you partyarchs (a term meaning “sell-out anarchist who claims to oppose the State but embraces a State’s Party,” so technically you minarchists cannot be partyarchs) in the running was the defection of Roger MacBride, a Nixon elector, breaking his pledge (i.e., breaking a contract, appropriate for the start of a State or a Party) and voting for Hospers-Nathan.  Thus was the LP put on the political map, and MacBride was rewarded with the next nomination (1976).  The LP was taken over by “anarchists” (i.e., partyarchs, which is why I coined the term) starting with New York’s Youngstein for Mayor Campaign in 1973.

Then Ed Crane brought Charles Koch’s billions into the LP (bought the national party) and the LP’s highest vote total (for president) was achieved for Ed Clark in 1980 in an orgy of wasted spending. The LP has yet to recover to that level.

Most anti-political Libertarians simply avoided contact with party supporters after 1974.  Ironically,Harry Browne, who had made his fortune denouncing any form of political action, or even overt social action, in 1973, denounced me for going to LP meetings and inviting LPers over to debate us. The LP’s total membership has never been more than 5% of the total number of people calling themselves Libertarian.

There is a LOT more detail, but this should get you started.  Feel free to check any and all facts presented here.  Back in 1974, much of this was published in a special issue of New Libertarian called “Anarchist Graffiti: Where Were You in 1969?” and the rest in 180 or so other issues of NL.  You can also find some of it in back issues of Reason and Libertarian Review, and if you can find them, The Abolitionist and Outlook.  The Society for Individual Liberty, which ultimately absorbed most of the old YAF Libertarian Caucuses had a magazine (Rational Individualist) and a newsletter (SIL News); if you can find the issues, you’ll get a lot of first-hand views of the events at the time.  SIL was merged with the Libertarian International in 1990 to form the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) which still hosts the majority of Libertarian Conferences around the world.

Other countries with major Libertarian Movements (very few with parties) include England, Estonia, Costa Rica, Canada (especially Alberta, my home province), Australia, France, The Netherlands and New Zealand.  Last I checked, only Costa Rica and NZ had parties, although Costa Rica calls its party Movimento Libertario or Libertarian Movement.  They have a very popular congressman in office.

Estonia has both a large Agorist (counter-economic, black market) AND an above-ground political movement.

Although they didn’t call themselves Libertarian, you might include Czechoslovakia’s recent government of Vaclav Klaus.  Then again, since they were ousted for corruption, you might not want to.  Poet, playwright, and intellectual leader Vaclav Havel is still pretty hard-core.

This is just a taste. At least you can’t claim ignorance in our future exchanges. (Yes, some back issues of NL are still available; I sell them on the literature table at the Karl Hess Club every Third Monday of the month. KHC traces its history all the way back to 1971 when Dana Rohrabacher and Seymour Leon started the very first Libertarian Supper Club of Los Angeles.)

–  Freely as ever, SEK3 (Original Libertarian, who earned his Capital L in the streets and the convention halls of the Battle of St. Louis)

“War is the Health of the State.”  – Randolph Bourne, 1918.

This is the ninth chapter from Les’ online novel titled, Spiritual Survival In A Temporal World, for our companion site JustGetThere. This chapter again covers diet on multiple levels and how it relates to  inner peace and relative harmony.

Spiritual Survival in a Temporal World

Chapter 9

I’ve been thinking about what’s been said so far and I thought it might be a good idea to do another chapter on diet before moving along to something else. Although ‘eating’ is a physical act, it has major spiritual implications. In a certain sense there is no such thing as the physical. It is just a more manifest expression of the spiritual which is… everything. It’s all spiritual. Light is life and there are degrees of light precipitating downward into the manifest until light becomes solid. The sun is an expression of something finer and that is, itself, an expression of something finer and so on and so on up and in; the reverse being more and more down and out; for the sake of illustration.

The sun causes plants to grow. There is a fiery nutrition there which is absorbed by animal forms which consume them, including your own. Sunlight transforms into a power which makes the physical body possible. So, let us think of your body as frozen sunlight; light in extension.

This power can take the form of many things beneficial and many things poisonous. It’s a mere alteration of one thing assuming a myriad of states all as a result of the operation of the sun which, as has been said, is itself an expression of something finer.

Alcohol is a poison. Snake venom is a poison, whereas the serpent power is the resident motive force in everything. Snake venom anti-toxins are made from snake venom. There are many powerful truths that can be intuited from this by the inquiring mind. It appears from this that life and the conditions in which we find ourselves are all a result of the choices that we make. We make these choices based upon our reasoning and knowledge. When reasoning and knowledge are sound we make profitable and correct choices. When they are not, our choices are unsound and lead to undesirable conditions and complications. One of these is dis-ease or, the loss of harmony. Harmony in being is the optimum goal.

In today’s world, the common diet is more garbage than gold. So it is with our other diets; what we take in with our minds, what provokes our feelings, what we breathe and HOW we breathe. Proper breathing and eating both require a similar degree of attention. Fifty percent of the digestion takes place in the mouth. If you don’t chew your food long enough for this to take place well, …you do the math. It is the same with breathing. People who do not have control of their breath are in a poor position to manage negative emotion or to center their mind. Their energy is much less than it could be. Every organ is affected because posture is affected which effects everything else. Much of what I say may seem simplistic. It is up to the reader to extrapolate from what they read.

It’s the reverse of what it natural and normal for you to put shit into your body. Shit is supposed to come ‘out’ of your body. We’ve come to a point as a society where we put garbage in and garbage out. It’s a small percentage of humanity that takes the proper course.

Unfortunately, with many who are attempting to do the right thing another feature enters the mix and that is to become extremist in one’s practice and in one’s judgment of others. Keep in mind what has been said about snake venom. You can poison yourself trying to do the right thing, just as much as by doing the wrong thing. It is harmony you want, not some idealized white dove in the meadow of personal purity. Don’t scrub the pot so hard that you break it.

Some alternative dietary modalities verge on insanity, such as those who proclaim that eating honey is stealing from the bees, or that milk is only for calves and so on. I’m not a meat eater but I know that for some people at their level of personal development it is necessary. I’ve seen as many healthy meat eaters as I have unhealthy vegetarians. The thing to remember is that some meat may well be better than other meat. Some vegetables are better for you than others and, more importantly, some vegetables are better for you personally than others. A lot depends on your heritage and where you live and the particular genetic complex you have arrived at in your ongoing journey which does not end with death or begin at birth.

You can stop all input from the world outside and wind up unhappy in a room alone with no idea where to go. Consider balance above everything else and include ‘intention’ and a sincere desire to encounter the indwelling self. I have said in other places that if anyone were to go into a room for several days and take only water and for the duration ‘pray without ceasing; falling to sleep when it is unavoidable and awakening to immediate prayer with out ceasing that they could not fail to have an experience with the indwelling self. Think about it. You could not fail to have an experience. But who would do this? Not many would do this.

This is preferable to walking away from the world when you are not ready. But you do want to step away from the world at this time because the world has become a whirlpool that is sucking the inattentive and the willing down into a maelstrom of darkness. It is so because the opportunity for spiritual transformation is so great. Whenever the door begins to open for a spiritual quantum leap, all of the forces of ‘the world’ manifest strong attractions for the purpose of distraction from this possibility. It’s physics really.

Develop a burning need for union within. Let is accompany you on your daily rounds. In the midst of the chaos and lies and false advertisements for something that cannot be acquired or purchased in the marketplace, let your mind and heart be made aware that all is well and that none of this can touch you.

Diet is one of the keys to being able to do this. Breathing is also diet because you are eating air. Investigate the blood, oxygen exchange. The mind eats as well. Controlling your diet on all of these levels will grant you a positive state in which to experience inner peace and relative harmony.

People get stoned because they don’t feel good. They don’t feel good because of all the bad diet on all the levels of consumption. You would become very high if you were judicious and cautious about your diet. When you practice meditation as well, the collective benefits are truly impressive. It’s not only the bad advice that you need to avoid. It is also the bad advice that masquerades as good advice.

The key to gaining benefit from this book is to think about what you have read and then let your intuition guide you toward realizations that are uniquely your own. You must seek out your intuition and thereby widen the gateway through which the information passes. Think of it as doing spiritual sit-up and push-ups because it is just that. You must exercise something in order to develop strength and ability. Good diet on all levels is a good start.

In That Shape Again

___

By Les Visible | JustGetThere Featured Author

Letters from the Devic Realm

Les Visible is a writer and recording artist. He has had a lifelong love affair with the Hermetic Sciences and the Martial Arts. He is a seasoned traveler in psychedelic realms and prefers the Devic Kingdom over the suffocating confinements of the Sub-Matrix. Along the way he has matriculated from the military to prisons and the maximum security wards for the criminally insane.

He has owned a metaphysical bookstore and some restaurants and worked in construction, as a cook, a club bouncer, a newspaper editor, a resort manager, a radio announcer, a standup comedian, as a lead singer in a rock and roll band and whatever he had to do to get by.

He lives somewhere in Europe with his wife Susanne and his memories. The truth has not been injured in the writing of this blurb. A collection of his works in various media can be found at www.lesvisible.com

Before currency, people used barter to exchange services or goods in the marketplace. Within the last decade, there has been a renewed interest in bartering, especially online. Below is a free online bartering site that allows you to swap, sell, buy or giveaway services and items.

Via ~Swapace

3 Easy Steps To Using SwapAce

SwapAce allows you to SWAP, SELL, BUY & MEET.

You can exchange items and/or money. The diagram below shows how SwapAce can be very powerful for swapping items and/or money.

For more information, you can view our help article for Getting Started

Our Vision

SwapAce is an organisation with the vision to be “the fun, unique, trusted marketplace, where millions worldwide interact”.

Buy, Sell, Swap, Meet

• Want to barter and swap?
• Want to buy and sell?
• Want to meet people?
• Want to recycle and save money?

If you’re here, it means you are looking for an online marketplace with a difference. Frustrated with traditional forms of buying and selling online (which has mostly been limited to auction sites and classifieds), SwapAcewas born from the desire to trade with versatility.

If you wanted to simply buy something online for the best price, then some of these existing systems would be adequate for the task. But what if you wanted to choose who you bought from? What if you wanted to make a choice based on factors like distance, feedback, or simply how much you like the person selling what you want? Existing systems would not allow this sort of versatility, and so SwapAce was created to bring you a greater range of choice.

We wanted to give sellers a bit more of this choice as well. Normally, you would simply advertise your item and at the end of the advertisement period you would be pretty much stuck with having to sell your item to a particular person. We make it possible to negotiate the terms of an agreement with other parties. You can make offers and counter-offers until both of you are happy.

The vision of SwapAce is also to extend the online marketplace to people who might want to swap or barter goods and services. If you don’t use something anymore, you could certainly give it away and recycle. But you don’t have to; you can also swap it for something you might want to use. Bartering worked long before the introduction of currency, and it works today. Swapping or trading stuff is a great way to recycle.

You can also meet people at SwapAce. We think this is a simple extension of a marketplace; meeting people with similar interests and forming online communities. To this end we’ve created forums for people to discuss well, anything, and we encourage people to trade within their communities (either interest based or location based).

Okay, if you’ve read enough about how SwapAce rules and other sites drool (no more bad jokes, we promise), then why don’t you give it a try? Register an accountand see for yourself.

Hat Tip PuppetGov

An article from the Vancouver Sun, is a great illustration of how black markets rise in response from increased theft from the State. The article highlights the rise of Canada’s black market trade of cigarettes, due to increased taxation from the state.

The State seeks to invade every facet of our human experience, in this instance, gaining revenue from the invasive taxation of behavior. The social controllers believe a tax increase targeted on behavior, will be easier to implement on the public. Although they say it’s for behavior modification, they simply want your money, the trick is how to get you to go along with it. As the State seeks to increase their theft, people inherently turn to the Agora for solutions.

Via Vancouver Sun

High tobacco taxes intended to cut the smoking rate in Canada help create a black market where organized crime profits from the increased demand for contraband cigarettes, according to a new report from a Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Smuggling and trafficking of contraband cigarettes is an unintended consequence of federal and provincial tobacco tax policies,” said Diane Katz of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute in a statement.

The study, Contraband Tobacco in Canada, documents various federal and provincial tobacco tax policies and anti-smoking initiatives that have been implemented in Canada since the 1980s, and describes how governments have attempted to counteract the black market.

The research showed that the illicit trade of cigarettes increased whenever tobacco taxes were raised, and that anti-smoking campaigns are just as effective at cutting smoking rates.

“If smokers are evading taxes by purchasing black market cigarettes, increasing taxes to discourage smoking is essentially ineffective,” said Katz.

This is the inherent flaw of the statist, they believe that they are justified stealing money from you in order to keep you safe. If someone wants to ingest something, it’s their right to do so. In addition, the State always seeks new ways to extract wealth from the public, transferring it into their corrupt system, with little to no benefit for the citizens.

Through propaganda public relation campaigns, they target demographics, then categorize it as negative social behavior. Citizens who live in fear of true liberty, applaud these efforts, even though it’s highly likely that a demographic that they fit in will be targeted next. This is how government works; they tax the public dry, say it’s not enough, increase taxes more, complain that people are cheating the system, then claim the need to increase taxes even more. Complete insanity.

No matter how regulated and oppressed society might become due to statist policies, the Agora is always present. The organic market will always be ready to provide a beneficial solution for the public, whenever the State interferes with liberty.

Agora! Anarchy! Action!

Another useful DIY from instructables could help you resurrect your old iPod without having to shell out FRN’s for a new one.

Via member bryceronie

If you have a broken ipod , with a business card and five minutes it will be fixed!

I enjoy instructionables that are easy to do , short to complete, and will work for anyone!

(!!Please VOTE for me so I can win a prize!!)

This is a common problem among many, many people that have a warranty that has expired.

Now you could just send it back to apple to get a new one, but if your warranty expired, like mine did, they won’t give you a new one. You need to fix this pretty $350 piece of apple!!

Instead of having a nice paperweight (hopefully you didnt throw yours out) , you will need these with three things before starting:

1. a flathead screwdriver
2. a broken ipod and 5 minutes
3. a new and or old, but crisp, business card

p.s. No memory loss either, all songs, data, ect will still be on the iPod.

Step 1. Easy does it

The first thing is to take the iPod apart.

This is not a big deal, there are little plastic holds around the iPod, and the flat head screwdriver will allow you to pry it open at the plastic parts. (see pic)
Once completed, you can just snap the ipod back together so it looks exactly the same, just dont get too frustrated if it takes a few minutes to get the first clip.

Use a MICRO flat head screw driver. Go in from the side as shown in the demo, but to get it started angle the screwdriver down so that it slides in between the plastic and metal, then take a bigger sized micro screw driver to open it the rest of the way.

Step 2. Careful

When all the plastic parts are un-snapped ,  you can pull the ipod apart an inch or so , you only need to do one more step.

Here is where this gets neat:

Fold the business card twice. So it is still springy.

Put the folder business card in the iPod on top of the blue sponge that is inside.

shut and snap the iPod back together.

So now it your iPod is back to normal, and all you needed was a folded business card!!

The blue sponge needed a little more pressure over time.

Originally appeared in “The Dandelion”, spring 1980

Read from “Mostly on the Edge”, by Karl Hess, in the selected readings section. The book is an autobiography

Karl Hess (1923-1994) was an American writer and libertarian activist. He joined the Libertarian Party and was the editor of its newspaper from 1986 to 1990. This short text first appeared in the magazine “The Dandelion” in 1980. It stresses the position already highlighted by the historian and theoretician of the anarchist movement, Max Nettlau that anarchy means freedom and voluntary self-organization and no one in the anarchist movement is interested in prescribing which of the various “isms” (capitalism, communism, mutualism, Catholicism, etc.) any anarchist should follow. This message is very relevant now that the interest for anarchy is growing and that some people, who profess to be anarchists, are battling in order to promote very vigorously (and in some cases trying to impose) their own brand of anarchism, either anarcho-communism or anarcho-capitalism. To all of them the message from Karl Hess is: neither anarchist-communist nor anarchist-capitalist, because “there is no hyphen after the anarchist”