Waco 2.0

Feds Corner Home Of Convicted Tax Evaders
U.S. Marshals Cut Phone, Power, Internet To N.H. Couple Who Won't Report To Prison
PLAINFIELD, N.H., June 14, 2007

(CBS/AP) Federal authorities have cut phone, power and Internet service at the fortified compound of a couple convicted of tax evasion who have refused to report to prison.

It's unclear what effect that has on Ed and Elaine Brown, who have solar and wind power generators at their 110-acre spread, where they have been holed up for months.

Authorities say they don't think the Browns' equipment is sufficient to keep the home running for long.

U.S. Marshal Steve Monier acknowledged Wednesday that waiting out the Browns could take months, but he said time was on authorities' side. He said he hoped prison would seem like an agreeable option for the Browns after a summer without air conditioning and possibly a winter without heat.

The Browns, who insist federal income tax laws are invalid, were sentenced to 5½ years in prison in April. They were also ordered to forfeit $215,890 to the government — the amount the government says the Browns purchased in small postal money orders in order to avoid paying income tax on Elaine Brown's dental practice income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003.

Authorities surrounded their property last week and cut its utilities this week.

"We have seized their phone and Internet service, and two days ago, we cut their power," Monier said. "It's a continuing effort to move them along to understand they need to do the right thing, and this is to surrender to us."

Monier said last week's heavy law enforcement presence was a surveillance mission. Ed Brown predicted then that authorities would try to take him by force.

But Monier said he has no interest in raiding the house or harming the Browns. He said he just wants justice served. "We are committed to ending this peacefully," he told a newspaper.

"It's unfortunate that the Browns are taking this position they have been throughout the process," Monier said. "There's been an outcome, and they need to surrender."

Monier told the Manchester Union Leader his office was flooded with telephone calls Tuesday — at one point as many as 200 an hour — after Web sites implored federal authorities to leave the couple alone and urged supporters to call the Marshals Service, the governor and sheriff.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Waco 2.0
ED CALLS FOR SUPPORT FROM SERIOUS PEOPLE ONLY!!! THEY NEED SERIOUS PEOPLE WILLING TO FIGHT TO COME TO THEIR AID — RIGHT NOW!!! THIS IS TUESDAY, JUNE 12th — ED AND ELAINE AND OTHERS NEED YOUR HELP!!! - MakeTheStand.com

While this sounds like the Waco massacre of 1993, it could be the potential outcome of a standoff brewing in New Hampshire where tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown have barricaded themselves in what has been described as a “fortress-like compound” after they were convicted of refusing to pay income tax to the federal government earlier this year. In recent days their phone, power and internet have been cut off and camouflaged SWAT teams, helicopters, armored vehicles and possibly combat robots have descended on this formerly quiet area. Supporters of the Browns have also flocked to the compound and Ed “is armed and has promised a Waco like ending … he will not be taken alive.”

Help us fight them here on Ed and Elaine’s door step or fight them on your own at your’s. - Ed and Eileen’s MySpace

A little history. Ed and Elaine (now “Edward, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel” and “Elaine, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel” after a conversion to a non-denominational form of Christianity in March) were a well off couple (Elaine had a dental practice, which provided most of the income) and had stopped paying federal income taxes in 96 and filing taxes altogether in 98. While they do pay other types of taxes (consumption taxes generally) they believe that there is no law that compels them to pay federal income tax and they will not pay until the law is shown to them. The government claims that they owe over 2 million dollars in unpaid taxes. This “income tax law does not exist” meme has been floating around the patriot, militia and conspiracist milieus for years, most recently finding it’s most popular expression in Aaron Russo’s documentary Freedom to Fascism whose website proclaims “Are you aware the Supreme Court has ruled that the government has no authority to impose a direct unapportioned tax on the labor of the American people, and the 16th Amendment does not give the government that power?”

A few thoughts. While I’m not going to get into whether the Browns have a valid point or not, if they are deluded, cynical opportunist criminals or if they are really being persecuted by the Zionists, Illuminati and Freemasons, as Ed claims, there are a few things of interest in this drama. The Brown’s current situation tends to follow the self-fulfilling outcome of conspiracy theories, where a belief in the total evil of the NWO tends to cause conspiracy believers to provoke the government and thus a response, which then tends to affirm their beliefs even further. (See William Cooper). Or maybe the Brown’s are right and we are actually living under the tyranny of the Federal Reserve and the IRS and Ed and Eileen are manifesting the tradition of the American forefathers who threw off the yoke of British dominance. Maybe.

And while there are some potential similarities between the Ruby Ridge and Waco fiascos, there are a few interesting differences and developments, mainly focusing on the internet as a tool for mobilization and action. These tools have no ideology, what works for the netroots, the grassroots and the astroturfers also works for armed fringe Christians. Using blogs, message boards, internet radio, mass emails and such, the rallying cry for supporters to converge at the bunker house are getting louder and louder and I’m hard pressed to find a shortwave patriot station at the moment that isn’t calling for people to go to New Hampshire and support and protect the Browns. I don’t think this type of grassroots protests accompanied at siege at Waco, although I may be wrong, it’s been awhile. Also while the Ruby Ridge and Waco confrontations appear to mainly provoked by overzealous government agents, this incident seems to be a curious reversal, as it is the feds have claimed that there will be no raid and have “no wish to have a violent encounter with either one of them,” although the military equipment and soldiers amassing seems to make that claim suspect. Generally it has been the Brown supporters who have been most vocal for a confrontation.

We MUST pray only that His will be done. This does not mean to become sheep, but to strap on the Holy Armor of God! If it be His will that violence occur for a righteous cause, then SO BE IT! - MakeTheStand.com message board

Whether the government has learned “the lessons of Waco” (doubtful) and this all fizzles out with a whimper instead of a blast from a fertilizer bomb or if it escalates into a nationally shocking explosion of violence and mayhem remains to be seen, I can’t help but feel that something is building here, and hope there can be some kind of peaceful resolution, no matter how ****ing unlikely it seems.

 

MM, you are such the extremists!!!

 

as an aside ...

Elaine Brown's dental practice income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003.

Do most dentists really net $300K a year?

 

If I'm making $300K a year, I am paying taxes and living the good life.