To the Editor:

Hats off to Ted Gatsas! He’s a real team player for the Republican party.

My daughter and I had a great time at a fundraiser barbecue at Rep. “Saggy’s” home. The food was good, the weather held out and a number of officials and candidates were there.

The dunking booth was a hit. Though the ball price for Ted was a bit steep, we got some takers. I was a partial sponsor for one pinch pitcher. No one hit the target, but he got dunked, all right. It was a sight I’ll not soon forget, hee hee. He was a real sport and I have to hand it to him, he took two for the team. Bob Wheeler took quite a few dunks too, that day.

New Hampshire is changing, and I fear, not for the better. Much of what has caused Massachusetts emigration is beginning here. Taxes keep going up and the citizenry has less say over it. The perennial battle over income and sales taxes is upon us and more people are becoming fatalistic, expecting that it’s coming whether we want it or not. Unfortunately, gambling is gaining support, too. If we are to remain the best place in the USA, we need to remember and protect what makes us so. Citizen government, no income tax, no sales tax, fewer regulations and local controls.

This will be a tough year for Republicans, if we don’t get out the vote. As it is, the field is thin. Remember, we still allow out-of-state residents to vote here. Yes, those pesky students who like to mess with our elections. The liberals are using that tactic more frequently, because it works. (It did here in 2004.) I find it annoying that people who have no stake in our lives, pay no taxes here and have no future in our state, are allowed to vote in our elections. The only person they’ll ever have to deal with might be the sheriff. There has to be a way to stop this. Until we do, we need to try harder.

Make sure you vote, in the primary and in November. We need each other!

David Ross
Hooksett

To the Editor:

I would like to share with you another way that the federal government wastes taxpayer dollars.

In the mid-1990s, I met a man named Irwin Schiff, who held himself out as the country’s leading authority on federal income taxes. He had written a number of books on the issue and, over the years, he had convinced thousands upon thousands of Americans they could legally stop paying income taxes. He maintained there was no law making income taxes mandatory because, if they were mandatory, they would be unconstitutional. He had a lot of purported evidence to support his claims, and he was very persuasive in making his case.

After I thoroughly studied Schiff’s material, and after I also saw many individuals had stopped paying income taxes using Schiff’s information, some of them for up to 10 years without any negative repercussions from the government, I figured that Schiff must be correct. So I stopped paying income taxes myself.

Well, it wasn’t long before the IRS seized my bank accounts and put my small real estate agency out of business. However, I was so convinced Schiff’s information was correct, and the government was illegally attempting to collect income taxes from that that, rather than reconciling with the IRS and salvaging my business, I decided to stand up for my rights and fight the IRS in court.

I also decided to do everything I could think of to try to disseminate Schiff’s information to others. I conducted my own income tax seminars; set up a Web site; spent a lot of time on talk-radio shows, erected a large sign in front of my home, etc. I conducted these activities from 1997 to 2002 (almost five years) because I truly believed Schiff was correct.

Then in January 2002, the government decided to target me for criminal prosecution. Fifteen to 20 armed IRS agents executed a search warrant at my home/office. They also informed me I was the target of an investigation of violations of the internal revenue laws. However, I was not concerned because I know I had not violated any laws.

A couple of months later, the government offered me a deal. It said if I would simply plead guilty to some unspecified income tax crime, it would recommend to the judge I only be sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. However, I was not about to plead guilty to a crime which I did not believe I had committed in hope of receiving a lighter sentence. (Ninety-eight percent of individuals who are prosecuted by the government do plead guilty, whether they are guilty or not, because they know they risk being sentenced to much more time in prison if they go to trial and lose. And it is very difficult to beat the government in court, even if you are completely innocent.)

In March 2003, I was indicted on 18 felony violations of the internal revenue laws. Each one carried a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. (I guess the government was attempting to convince me to accept its plea offer rather than going to trial.) However, each one of the charges against me stated I could only be found guilty if I did not truly believe in what I had been doing. Since I did truly believe in what I had been doing, I continued to refuse to plead guilty.

I represented myself against the government without a lawyer. I filed many pre-trial motions to which the government lawyers had to respond. The local U.S. attorney brought in a professional trial attorney from the Department of Justice’s Tax Division in Washington, D.C., to assist with my prosecution.

Finally, in February 2004, I went to trial. However, because I could not convince the jury I believed the tax returns, which I filed with the IRS for myself and which I prepared for others, were accurate it found me guilty of all of the counts against me. A few months later, I was sentenced to six years in prison, where I remain.

I appealed my conviction to the appeals court, but it ruled it was not unreasonable for the jury to believe I believed the tax returns I filed and prepared were false (even though I did not believe they were false). I have now appealed my conviction to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The federal government has spent a tremendous amount of money (probably hundreds of thousands of dollars) investigating and prosecuting me and responding to my appeal briefs. However, all it had to do rather than prosecuting me was to go to court and ask a judge to issue an injunction against me. I certainly would have stopped. However, the government chose to prosecute me instead.

And now it is costing the taxpayers another $23,000 per year for at least five years for me to sit in a prison, twiddling my thumbs while I wait for the time to pass. It is not as if I feel that I am being punished for crimes I committed, because I know I did not commit any crimes. It is just a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ money, and of my time, when I could be doing something productive.

However, the U.S. attorney does not really care about wasting taxpayers’ money. All he cares about is obtaining convictions. A U.S. attorney is usually only in office as long as the president who appointed him is in office. So the U.S. attorney and all of his assistants attempt to obtain as many convictions as possible while he is in office. Then, after he leaves office, he can parlay all of those convictions into becoming a federal judge, or a state governor, or a U.S. senator or congressman. To the U.S. attorney, all of those convictions are simply points to further his career.

This whole process in my case has been a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ dollars and prosecutorial resources, which could have been used to prosecute real criminals. But instead, the “justice” department decided to prosecute me.

Steven A. Swan
Former Auburn resident

To the Editor:

Aug. 26 is Women’s Equality Day! It is the anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote in 1920. It’s a day for celebration, marking the first time that half the population was fully entitled to participate equally in an essential aspect of democracy!

Each year on this day, the governor of New Hampshire, along with many other states in the nation, issues a proclamation declaring today “Women’s Equality Day.” You can view this year’s proclamation at www.nh.gov/csw, the Web page of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women, a state agency devoted to women’s equality in all aspects of life.

Many people don’t realize that the struggle for women’s suffrage is one of the most poignant and courageous in our nation’s history. It was at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, that women and men first joined forces to work to secure this fundamental right for all women. The movement included such national luminaries as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul, among others.

Here in New Hampshire, our own Marilla Ricker is said to be the first American woman to attempt to cast a ballot ­ in 1870, a full 50 years before the 19th Amendment was passed. She was denied the privilege, but each year thereafter, she attached a letter to her tax payment, demanding the right to vote because she contributed to the financial maintenance of the government. In 1910, Ricker announced a run for governor. Her request to be placed on the ballot was denied, but the publicity around her efforts brought national attention to the issue of women’s suffrage. Ricker died three months after the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

This year, the state primary will be held on Sept. 12 and the general election on Nov. 7. Close to 200 women are running for seats in the state Senate and House of Representatives.

As a woman, I encourage you to honor the struggle of our foremothers by registering to vote and then casting your ballot on Election Day!

Laurie Chandler
Chairman
New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women

To the Editor:

Finally, a letter came in last week’s Banner, begging you to stop printing David Ross’ letters.

Please add my name to the list of readers who would rather see a blank page, than have to suffer any further.

Woody Burbank
Pembroke/Hooksett

To the Editor:

We would like to send a special thank you to all the wonderful people who generously volunteered their time to help make the Ricky McGregor Jamboree a huge success. We had well over 3,000 people on Saturday but unfortunately, Sunday’s weather did not cooperate.

Special thanks to town administrators, fire, EMTs and to the folks at Parks and Recreation, and to all the parents, families and teams who traveled for this wonderful popwarner event.

To all the board members who put in countless hours and months of planning ­ your dedication to the kids in this program is immeasurable!

Deb Fortin
Hooksett Hurricanes