Well, it's true. They do. (Consider using an alias, folks.)
The Government wasted no time in charging me with "failure to file" and "income tax evasion." Evidently, the future of the nation required it. I could find no lawyer to defend me on the real merits (i.e., lack of jurisdiction and cause). My trial was convened in record time, and the US Attorney's office steamrollered over my pro se defense.
All with the help of twelve very carefully picked juror puppets who "did their duty" in putting away for 10 years an evil "tax cheat."
I wanted only to live apart from "society." Ironically, the feeling was mutual, but how dare I live apart on my own terms! How dare my wife and I retire to a secluded farm with our loving family, generating our own electricity, growing our own food, teaching our own children! How dare we make society irrelevant! Yes, you wanted me gone, but on your terms. I could not be permitted to leave society — your wounded pride demanded my expulsion from it, on criminal grounds. "You can't quit — you're fired!"
The so-called "Justice Department" honors me with incarceration. Under tyrannical government, the only place for a free man is behind bars. My conscience is clean; my honor intact. Within heart and mind my liberty soars untethered. Those on the outside remain bound by their own illusions; trussed up by mythology. I enjoy the vast peace of a man who never compromised his integrity, who never betrayed first principles. Having never harmed nor cheated anyone, for my treason to universal corruption I am to be separated from the loving bosom of my family, and banished to the company of thieves and murderers.
With great and deliberate effort "The People" have sifted me from their putrid brine of collusion and cast me out. For that, I thank them, as the stench really was just this side of unbearable. Though my prison cell mirror will be stainless steel and bolted to a concrete wall, I'll look myself squarely in the face. How you all can do so, transmogrified by shame and sellout, I cannot imagine. My principles were a daily indictment of you, so I was sent away for mala prohibita.
What you all would like to do — and let's be honest about it — is to cleave my soul from my body. What you all would like to do is kill me, publicly and violently. Mere incarceration just isn't quite enough, is it? Ten years in prison is only vaguely satisfying — like half a sandwich. You're still hungry for my death! And why don't you simply kill me? Why can't you? Because you are still chained to those echoes of "decent society" and "justice." You are like a married man who sneaks off to the whorehouse on Friday nights, yet dutifully shows up in church on Sunday mornings with his sweet wife and children. What you'd really like to do is to abandon your family and dive headlong into sin. The surreptitious wallowing is pure frustration. What you want is to slough off this chafing pretense of "society" and regress to mob status, appeasing every coarse appetite with the blood of innocents.
Not to worry; you're quickly getting there.
I go to prison a free man. It is the rest of you who are behind barbed wire. Don't wrestle with the paradox. It's beyond your understanding, else you would not wield depravity against the decent, perjury against the peaceful, coercion against the honest. You steaming herds can't help but embrace wickedness.
"Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade."
With contempt,
David Furr
(formerly of) Evanston, Wyoming
___________________________
1 Multidomain Expert System, an FBI computer array which uses "fuzzy logic" to mimic inferential judgments about the possible meaning of discrete events collected by the national databases. For example, if a person books a flight and a hotel reservation, and another person is also reserved at the same hotel, and both of these persons are criminal suspects, then they probably have a criminal relationship. Only MDES would pick up on the two seemingly unrelated persons and postulate a relationship. MDES has three knowledge bases: terrorism, counterintelligence, and organized crime. The FBI has nearly a dozen operational MDES workstations throughout the US, the main ones being in D.C., New York City, and Houston. The MDES computer cursor is shaped like a tiny pistol, with its barrel always pointing at a particular piece of data.
2014
Casper, Wyoming
January 2014
With the crucial general election just ten months away, a fork in the political road awaits James Preston. Whether to compete in the Republican primary against Michael Dowling (a strong though not unbeatable GOP favorite), or run under the county-successful Laissez-Faire Party banner (which is already supported by many Republican voters). Running the numbers was up to Preston's assistant, Tom Parks. After a week and a half of data crunching, Parks arrived at his opinion.
"If we win the Republican primary, we will certainly win in November, but the primary will be a tougher race than an LFP 3rd party ticket."
"Why is that?" asks Preston.
"Because about 25% of Democrats would vote for your LFP candidacy, increasing your edge over Dowling. In the GOP primary, however, you'd have to battle it out solely amongst Republicans. While that's worked out for many of our county candidates, primaries are much tougher at the state level. Dowling is a real veteran at them, too. He holds a lot of sway behind closed doors. My data suggests pretty much a dead heat for you there."
Preston nods absentmindedly, gazing out the study window at the snow-capped Medicine Bow peaks. "So, I should run under the LFP?"
"Yes, sir, that's my recommendation. By avoiding the GOP primary battle you can win the war with the defection of enough Democrats."
Preston laughs. "How ironic, Tom. Wyoming gets its first libertarian governor because of the Democrats!"
Parks smiles. "Well, you've heard that a libertarian is a liberal who understands economics."
"Or a conservative who's had his ass kicked by the cops," replies Preston, finishing the famous line by professor Richard Boddy, a black libertarian who taught in southern California.
"Exactly," says Parks. "And since Wyoming has so far generally resisted the police state trend, not enough conservatives have yet been rousted by the cops to shock them into libertarianism."
"But in this depression," Preston says, "plenty of Democrats are beginning to understand economics."
Parks slowly nods with obvious satisfaction. Preston gets it.
"Tom, we'll win this thing on the economics. That's the key. You've just crystallized my campaign for me! Call the Laissez-Faire Party people over for a meeting next week. We need to coordinate my announcement that I'm running in the LFP primary this August."
Parks says, "Yes, sir," chuckling.
"What is it?"
"Dowling will never know what hit him come November. He'll have thought that your LFP candidacy was a critical mistake, that you should have tried to beat him in the primary as a Republican."
Preston thinks for a moment and then quotes Sun Tzu:
"Fight downhill; do not ascend to attack."
"Tom, Dowling doesn't know that, as of today, he will be the one ascending to attack."
Parks grins, "And that's why he's already lost. Only we could choose the battle, and we chose to avoid the one which favored him."
"Every battle is won before it's even fought, eh, Tom?"
Wyoming
Spring 2014
Freedom-hungry Americans continue to pour in, mostly under the auspices of the Free State Wyoming, which offers several county choices. While no relocator is required to join the FSW, the organization's benefits were too plentiful to resist. A newcomer would be instantly tied into a network to assist with moving, as well as finding housing, employment, and friends. Also, FSW people and companies transact with each other first, thus nonmembers miss out on many lucrative dealings. Being "posted" to the FSW's choice of county was a small temporary price to pay.
Wyoming Laissez-Faire Party primary
August 2014
Several Wyoming relocators tossed their hat in the ring, but most of the delegates already had their man in mind, without whom the party wouldn't even exist. Preston
easily wins the LFP nomination for governor. He will be running against Republican Michael Dowling and Democrat Evan Landers. The three-way race sparks a marked increase in voter interest.
Washington, D.C. FBIHQ
August 2014
"Director, I have SAC Bleth on the line from Casper."
"Yes, I'll take it," says Klein. "Doug, how are you?"
"Fine, Director, thank you. You told me to call as soon as I returned from the LFP convention."
"Did they try to draft you?" Klein asks with a laugh.
"No, sir. I just kept my mouth shut and nobody really noticed me. Anyway, sir, it's James Preston."
"Well, we've expected that for a while. Keep digging in the man's past, Doug. Everyone's dirty."
Wyoming
September-October 2014
Because of its rural population, Wyoming is a tough state to campaign. Only Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, Gillette, and Rock Springs had over 25,000 people (though nearly half the state lived in one of the five cities). To meet the other half of Wyoming, a candidate had to visit dozens of very small towns. And since there were no shuttle flights, driving is the only option. Preston had briefly considered a helicopter tour (e.g., LBJ's 1948 Texas campaign for the US Senate), but decided that it smacked of a gaucherie to be avoided.
Juliette, as was often the case, had the answer. "Why not do what Jesse Ventura did in Minnesota in 1998? Use a caravan of RVs? Our mobile home would be the rolling HQ, and we'd save a fortune in hotel bills. We could have a live Internet feed, and do radio show interviews by cell phone over the Wyoming News Network. Besides, it'd be fun! The children would love it. We could stop for malts at Yellowstone Drugs in Shoshoni."
"I like it!" Preston said. "I haven't been on an RV vacation since my parents took the family on a three week Colorado ski trip. We hit at least a dozen mountains. An RV campaign, huh? Yeah, let's do it!"
Back in 1998 the Wyoming Libertarian Party had a gaily painted red, white, and blue Freedom Xpress. Dave Dawson and Steve Richardson campaigned in it, thoroughly covering the state in just six days, Monday through Saturday. (Presumably they rested on the seventh day.)
The Prestons decided on two RV campaign tours: the first a 12 day tour in September, and then a blazing four day push ending in Cheyenne on election day, 4 November. The first tour would be very business-like, with many interviews, luncheons, media spots, and speeches.
The second tour would be a party.
Washington, D.C. FBIHQ
October 2014
"So, anything new on this Preston?" asks Director Klein.
"Yes, sir. After the Marines he spent time in Europe. We've learned something interesting about his stay in Hungary. In Budapest, he met — "
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Republican Party campaign HQ
October 2014
Ted Swanson, campaign chairman, rereads the anonymous letter postmarked Casper. This is just what we need on that snooty moralist! he thinks.
James Preston Fathered Illegitimate Budapest Son
Exclusive to the Rawlins Gazette, by Alfred Walsh
Reliable sources in the Hungarian capital report that James Preston, the Laissez-Faire Party gubernatorial candidate, fathered a child from a 1992 romance with a 20 year old college student. The son, now an engineering student and air force reservist, was apparently unaware of his American parent.
The mother said that she and Preston had planned to marry until he learned of the pregnancy, which caused him to break the engagement and return to the United States. She stated that Preston has refused to visit or have any contact with his 22 year old son, whom she has raised alone.
James Preston, husband and father of two (Wyoming) children, was unavailable for comment.
Preston responds to the furor several days later with an Open Letter.
"If Mr. Walsh at the Rawlins Gazette had bothered to ask me, they could have easily learned the truth about my son, Istvan. His mother broke up with me because her previous boyfriend proposed. I still have her letter to that fact. When her fiancé discovered that she was three months pregnant by another man, he left her. She wrote to tell me that, and unless I contributed to the costs of her raising the baby alone (she no longer wanted to marry), she threatened to have an abortion.
"I have that letter as well, along with 18 years of cancelled checks for child support.
"I repeatedly asked to be a part of Istvan's life on whatever terms she would allow, and even flew to Budapest in 1994 to press my case. She denied my requests (claiming that meeting me would "confuse" him), and consequently I have yet to see my first born child who grew up thinking that his father had been killed in a traffic accident.
"All of this I explained to Juliette before our engagement, but we had not told our children. There seemed no point in telling them since I had never even met Istvan, although my family would love to. He is an innocent victim of, in part, the youthful carelessness of his father.
"I did as much as I was allowed to, but I wish that I could have done and been much more. Given the highly suspicious political timing of Mr. Walsh's article, the bright side is that I and my family may finally get to meet Istvan. That would be worth far more than this week's turmoil."
The GOP smear tactic backfires. The public sees Preston as a victim of duplicity, just like Istvan. His approval rating shoots up by 15 points.
Michael Dowling nearly fires Ted Swanson over it, but the election is too close to find another campaign manager.
Wyoming General Election
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
I miss civilization — and I want it back.
— Marylynne Robinson
Preston's second tour was a four day, nonstop, madcap, rolling party with lots of horn-honking and banner waving. The weather was glorious; rare fall days of brilliant cornflower-blue skies.
The main RV, the Prestonian, towed a 26' flatbed trailer made up like a parade float. The thing was jumping with music and singing and dancing, and Preston gave impromptu speeches from a little bandstand. Locals hitched rides for several blocks or a couple of miles, while others joined the caravan in their cars. Just before getting onto a highway the caravan stopped so all the people on the flatbed trailer could pile in the RVs, and then the convoy would take off. The music/dance trailer was Juliette's idea. She wished it to be as rowdy as the "Twist and Shout" parade scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
She wasn't disappointed.
At times the tour had over thirty vehicles in tow going down the road. Two carloads of Campus Libertarians from Laramie actually followed the entire way. Even the media got caught up in the thing, and began a running commentary of the tour. Folks learned over the radio and TV when the caravan would be passing through their town and made a point of getting a glimpse of it. When the trail of RVs got to Jackson at midnight on Sunday, hundreds of people were waiting for them at Town Square, cheering.
Live Internet TV carried it all.
Monday and Tuesday they went eastward on I-80 to cover the lower portion of Wyoming, catching the major populations of Evanston, Green River, Rock Springs, Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne. The tour had gained huge attention by then, totally stealing the limelight from the other campaigns. Politics were rarely fun and the Prestons were determined to wrap up their bid for the governor's mansion on a lighthearted note.
Cheyenne, Wyoming
8:09PM
Michael Dowling Republican Party campaign HQ
"Given that none of the candidates are up against an incumbent, this will probably be a very close race with Preston, sir," Ted Swanson says. "Within 3%, I'd say."
Dowling's jaw is set and angry. "Yeah, thanks to that damned Laissez-Faire Party! If they spoil this election and throw it to Landers, Republicans will never forgive them."
"Sir, I urged you to coopt some of the LFP's platform to luff Preston's sails, but you wouldn't have it. The GOP is getting left behind in this recent surge of libertarianism."
"Ted, I will not placa
te anarchy! If that's what the Wyoming people want, then I will not be the one to ruin this state!"
Cheyenne, Wyoming
8:12PM
James Preston Laissez-Faire Party campaign HQ
"Dad, what are the numbers? Are we winning?" asks James, Jr.
"The polls just closed a little over an hour ago, son. Dowling and I are still neck and neck, but there's a lot of vote counting left to do. We won't know for two or three hours. Hang tight, kiddo."
Dowling Republican Party campaign HQ
8:58PM
"Where the hell is Mallory? Where are the state troopers?" demands Dowling. Captain David Mallory, head of the capitol security detail, is designated to drive the new governor-elect.
"I don't know," replies Swanson, "but I'll find out." After a short cell phone call, he says, "Mallory's over at Preston's. The troopers too. They've been there for twenty minutes and don't seem to be leaving."
"Shit!" exclaims Dowling. "What do the cops know that we don't?
" Although only 30% of the precincts have reported in, Preston has taken the lead over Dowling by two points. The Democrat Landers is five points behind Dowling.
Preston Laissez-Faire Party campaign HQ
9:32PM
Over half of the precincts have reported in. Preston is leading the pack at 39%, Dowling at 35%, and Landers at 26% — and his gain is still increasing. Juliette looks at her husband and says, "Honey, I think we're going to win!"
Preston nods with a wary grin. "You've always had a nose for things. You just may be right."
The buzz around the HQ has been growing for the past half hour. Like a charge of static electricity, the mounting excitement is thick in the air.
Molon Labe! Page 32