While1Fork wrote:The bit where "Edward Lewis: family Brown" appears to swear that he is "not a corporation, human-being, person or other type of abomination" is priceless.
Well, he's definitely not human, but he *is* an abomination.
While1Fork wrote:His repeated description of the commercial process as "bogus" also makes me think of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".
Don't you mean Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey?
When chosen for jury duty, tell the judge "fortune cookie says guilty" - A fortune cookie
While1Fork wrote:The bit where "Edward Lewis: family Brown" appears to swear that he is "not a corporation, human-being, person or other type of abomination" is priceless.
Declaring you're not a human is important to this group. According to them, the word "human" is a variation of "hue-man" which means person with dark skin, which is 14th Amendment citizen and not a sovereign man or woman.
I need to add "wingnut" to the list of languages on my cv...
I posted a gripe-fest on Last Free Voice about how I believe Ed and Elaine are receiving preferential treatment. As expected, right off the bat I got "show me the law". I responded by telling them to read 26 USC, and to read Dan's FAQ if they still had any questions.
Anybody here want to jump in on that discussion? I'm not getting into the tax law question, because that's not the point of my entry and in fact I clearly stated that the nature of their conviction is irrelevant to the preferential treatment I believe they are receiving. Besides, after just arguing with uber-nut prez candidate Tee, I'm not up for another huge nasty argument. However, it's obviously going to be an ongoing discussion on tax law, so I'm hoping some of the folks here might want to lend their expertise to the cause.
I now these guys are silly, but must we get violent with tp's? Isn't getting their MONEY the goal?
TPs tend to follow the same general mental disorder spectrum as the rest of the population. Historically, the vast majority of them value their lives more than their assets.
Unfortunately, there are psycopaths and sociopaths everywhere, including the TP crowd.
Ed isn't the run-of-the-mill evader. He was involved in anti-government crowds long before he had the good luck to marry someone with sufficient income to make tax evasion worthwhile.
He still, actually more than ever, believes that he and his bible are the only rules needed to evaluate the government and he is determined to become a martyr to the cause -- even if he has to do it with a dynamite vest.
So, NO, it isn't normally necessary to get violent with TPs -- not even the Ed types. However, there is sometimes a very fine line between violence and appropriate force.
ElfNinosMom wrote:I posted a gripe-fest on Last Free Voice about how I believe Ed and Elaine are receiving preferential treatment.
An excellent article, ENM.
Thanks Demo. Now if I could just cut through all the "show me the law" and "the Browns are heroes" mentalities, perhaps I could actually discuss it. LOL
Declaring you're not a human is important to this group. According to them, the word "human" is a variation of "hue-man" which means person with dark skin, which is 14th Amendment citizen and not a sovereign man or woman.
Wow, that's. . . . that's some high-grade crazy.
It seems to me that a lot of the folks who believe in fringe theories also love odd word games like this. It's this, plus the "I have copyright to my name", "that's not my name since it's in all caps, it's my STRAWMAN", etc. Anybody have any thoughts on why that might be? I tend to think it's part and parcel of the magical element to the thought process of a lot of TPs - the feeling that the right magic words will make the IRS or feddle gubmint shrivel up and disappear.
A few weeks after the verdict, Ed and Elaine filed an appeal in their own bizarro way. The judge ruled that their appeal was premature because sentencing hadn't occurred and returned their filing fees to them.
Sentencing takes place on April 24th, and the defendants have 10 days to file a notice of appeal and pay the filing fees. Ed announces he will not be appealing, and the Marshals tell Ed he has 11 days to turn himself in. Fairly tidy timing.
Two days after this tidy exchange, the judge decides that he's going to give Ed and Elaine 30 days to pay the filing fees to reactivate their notice of appeal, which throws that tidy timing thing right out the window.
I think the judge did the right thing insofar as accepting the Notice of Appeal as having been timely filed, and giving them 30 days to pay the filing fee which had been returned to them (or to file a motion to waive the filing fee). Where there is a question regarding whether someone intends to file an appeal, the question should always be decided in favor of the defendant.
That has no effect that I can see on when they turn themselves in or are taken into custody, since most sentenced felons are shipped off to prison immediately.
However, it might be viewed as yet another example of where the Browns received preferential treatment.
I also don't think Ed and Elaine give a rat's rear end about the Marshal's notice to them, because they aren't going to turn themselves in anyway.
News tips & feedbackCouple ordered to jail for tax evasion
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Wednesday, Apr. 25, 2007
CONCORD – Anti-tax crusaders Edward L. and Elaine A. Brown remained holed up in their fortress-like Plainfield home yesterday while a federal judge sentenced them to more than five years in prison and ordered them to begin repaying the estimated $750,000 they owe in income taxes.
Amid heavy courthouse security in the wake of threats posted on Internet Web sites and blogs by supporters of the couple's cause, Judge Steven J. McAuliffe also ordered the couple to forfeit to the federal government a total $215,890 in postal money-order purchases they made in order to avoid federal income-reporting requirements
The Browns, who attended neither hearing and were sentenced to 63 months in prison in absentia, were remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service, which said it continues to speak with the couple regularly in an effort to resolve the matter peacefully.
"We encourage them to do the right thing. The right thing is to surrender," said Stephen R. Monier, U.S. Marshal for New Hampshire.
Noting the Browns have weapons and "hazardous conditions" on their property -- and that they have said they will greet any attempt to serve them with outstanding arrest warrants with violence, -- Monier held fast to his strategy not to engage the couple in a standoff.
"In this case, we think patience is a virtue," Monier said at a news conference.
But Monier warned anyone found providing "assistance, aid or comfort" to the Browns' efforts to escape justice will be subject to arrest and prosecution.
Supplying weapons and ammunition to the couple is a felony offense, he said. And any threats made against government officials will be investigated fully, Monier added.
Elaine Brown, 65, who ran a private dental practice, and her husband, a retired exterminator, have not filed federal income tax returns since 1996, claiming there is no law requiring them to pay federal income taxes.
A jury convicted them Jan. 18 of conspiracy to defraud the federal government, structuring, and conspiracy to structure financial transactions by plotting to hide their income and avoid taxes on Elaine Brown's income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003.
The jury also found the couple conspired to buy a total $215,890 in postal money orders in amounts just below the $3,000 threshold that would have required them to comply with federal income reporting requirements. That amount includes $42,840 used to make mortgage payments on their office building at 27 Glen Road in West Lebanon and $27,997 used to make payments on their Plainfield home, court records show.
Elaine Brown also was convicted of 14 additional counts for tax evasion, failure to collect employment taxes and structuring.
"They have no faith in the court system and they figure anything they say wouldn't help," said Lauren Canario of Winchester, who spoke with the Browns Monday night of their decision not to attend yesterday's hearing.
Canario, a member of the Free State Project who moved from Las Vegas, Nev., to Winchester, has been delivering groceries to the couple's Plainfield home so they do not have to venture outside.
Kath Kanning, another Free Stater who moved to Keene from Texas, said Edward Brown, 63, told her he remains in his home so "it would be clear, if he started shooting, that he would be defending himself. But if he went into town, it wouldn't be so clear."
One outstanding arrest warrant charges Edward Brown with failure to appear in court after he stopped showing up for his trial on Jan. 12. An arrest warrant was issued for his wife Feb. 21 after she violated her bail conditions and returned to the Plainfield home. Once arrested on the federal warrants, the couple will go directly to prison, Monier said.
"These warrants are not going to go away, and neither is law enforcement," Monier wrote the Browns in a letter yesterday.
"They have indicated there will be a violent confrontation if we showed up to serve the warrants. We're just not going to engage in that type of game," he explained, adding "We're not there now."
"They've said all along 'We're not leaving.' And, you know what? We believe them. We know exactly where they are," Monier said.
McAuliffe ordered the couple to file "true and actual" income tax returns for the years 1996 through 2003 within 60 days and abide by any tax repayment schedule established by the IRS.
Prosecuting attorney Morse said unpaid taxes owed by the Browns were estimated at trial at $750,000.
He said this number does not include the 2004 and 2005 tax years.
Elaine Brown also was ordered to pay the court a $1,700 fine and her husband to pay a $300 fine.
Morse also said Elaine Brown caused more than $1,000 damage to her electronic ankle bracelet when she made it "permanently inoperable," which is a felony offense.
Freedom or 'body bags,' say Browns
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
12 hours, 45 minutes ago
The Plainfield couple ordered to serve 63-month federal prison terms said they won't be taken alive in their fight against what they say is illegal government taxation.
"The only law book we now recognize is the Bible. The only way we're coming out of our home is either as free man and free woman or in body bags," Elaine A. Brown said last week in a radio interview. "We will not waiver from our position."
Convicted earlier in the week of income-tax evasion conspiracy, Elaine Brown and her husband, Edward, have said they will remain in their hilltop home and will resist any attempt to arrest them with force.
"It's good against evil and we're standing with God and we know, no matter what happens, that we are righteous," Elaine Brown told "Your Turn" host Terri Dudley of WTSL 1400 AM in Hanover. "We have committed absolutely no crime."
A dentist, Elaine Brown graduated from Tufts University Dental School in Boston and ran a private dental practice in Lebanon.
Reached by telephone at his home yesterday, Edward Brown refused to discuss his wife's comments.
"The Union Leader has been slaughtering us from day one . . . We have nothing to discuss with you people any longer," he said. "You don't understand. You should study and research the truth."
The U.S. Marshal Service has asked the Browns, who are in their 60s, to turn themselves in since a federal judge sentenced them to prison Tuesday.
The Marshal Service has said it will not engage in a violent confrontation with the armed couple or create a standoff at their home, which is stockpiled with food and other supplies and is capable of providing its own, solar-generated power if cut off the main power grid. An agent speaks regularly by telephone with the couple, urging them to surrender.
Edward Brown, a retired exterminator, wrote the Internal Revenue Service in 1997 that he would no longer pay taxes until a "full and proper" investigation proved they were legal, court records show. The Browns have not paid income taxes since 1996.
"Ed and I decided to bring it to a head, and we would stop filing our taxes," Elaine Brown said in the radio interview.
A federal jury found them guilty in January of plotting to hide their income to avoid paying taxes on the $1.9 million Elaine Brown earned from 1996 through 2003. The jury found the couple owed an estimated $750,000 in taxes -- excluding interest and penalties -- during that period alone.
The judge also ordered the couple Tuesday to pay their back income taxes and a $215,890 judgment to the federal goverment.
Yup, big, bad, 60-odd year-old whack-job Ed holed up in his "dangerous" and "hazardous" house is a really fearsome dude. And, his goof-ball buddies who make threats against anybody and everybody who might oppose them are really, really, really bad.
Better give up.
Close enough for government work.
All the States incorporated daughter corporations for transaction of business in the 1960s or so. - Some voice in Van Pelt's head, circa 2006.
I'm concerned that Elaine is starting to make statements about violence and death. Before, she was a good reason to not take the place down Storm Trooper style. Now, not so much.
It appears Ed doesn't want to talk to anybody unless they're willing to just say he's right, no questions asked.
Elaine has been participating in the violence talk since she returned to the house. Both of them became increasingly violent in tone when they did their heavy handed instantaneous religious conversion about six weeks ago.
Any doubts that Elaine had left about violence vanished a couple of weeks later when a magistrate judge, in an unrelated matter, bursted out publicly in anger about Elaine and said she was looking at life in prison for her deeds.
This was the judge that released Ed and Elaine pending trial because he didn't think they posed any danger, despite ample evidence introduced by the prosecutor. He was wrong. He was not the judge, however, who ended up sentencing Ed and Elaine, obviously.
Nabbing tax protesters not worth loss of life
Monitor staff
April 29, 2007 10:00AM
This month marks the 14th anniversary of the assault by federal agents in Waco, Texas, on a religious cult known as the Branch Davidians that left some 76 people dead. As we write, millionaire tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown are holed up in their fortified Plainfield home. On Tuesday, the two of them were sentenced to more than five years in prison for refusing to pay roughly $750,000 they owe the IRS.
Ed Brown, the leader of a militant group known as the Constitution Rangers, has threatened violence if law enforcement agents attempt to take him or his wife into custody and warned of another "Waco." He is assumed to be heavily armed and in the company of people who support his bizarre cause.
It can also be assumed, since he still has access to a telephone and the internet, that militant tax protesters, including some who want to go out in a blaze of anti-government glory, will ride to his defense if they think agents are about to move on the Browns' home.
It's galling, just weeks after taxpayers struggled to pay their bills to the IRS, to see the Browns thumb their noses at the system from the comfort of their home on 103 acres. They should be in prison, and for longer than Judge Stephen McAuliffe sentenced them to serve.
U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier is gambling that, with patience, the Browns can be brought to justice without risking their lives or those of anyone else. That's a gamble worth taking, but one with very complicated odds.
The Browns have stockpiled food and other supplies, have a well on the property and can generate their own electricity. Since so far they haven't assaulted anyone, allowing them to remain effectively under house arrest is preferable to a shootout. Ed Brown and some of his supporters have threatened the life of the judge, prosecutor and others involved in the case, and their actions should lead to additional felony charges.
The authorities probably made the wrong call when, so as not to escalate the situation, they decided to allow the Browns to communicate with the outside world and even host an internet radio show.
The militants who agree with them would have been more likely to fade away if the couple had been kept in isolation.
The Browns are being visited and re-supplied by people who are likely armed, angry and unstable. The last thing area residents and the Browns' neighbors want is for more militants to make Plainfield their temporary home. One of those neighbors, at least some of the year, is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
There's a downside to New Hampshire's inspiring motto, "Live Free or Die." The sentiment is easily appropriated by people who use it to justify their own crazy ideas. In online postings by some anti-tax militants, the state motto is considered the creed that Colebrook mass murderer Carl Drega died for. It was the battle cry of Steven Bixby, the former New Hampshire resident sentenced to death along with his father for killing two South Carolina law enforcement officers over a few feet of highway right-of-way. It is being voiced again in support of the Browns.
The danger presented by tax protesters who threaten violence is very real, but apprehending them is not worth the potential loss of life of law enforcement officers or innocent citizens. As frustrating - and costly - as it's become, Monier is doing the right thing by waiting them out.
I now these guys are silly, but must we get violent with tp's? Isn't getting their MONEY the goal?
No, getting everyone else's money is the goal.
If they took a position of principle, such as saying "I won't pay for your war and I'm willing to go to jail for it" then things would be rather different in my mind. As it stands, I don't see how you could expect to find popular support for right-wing nutballs who talk about Waco and flying bullets.
