Molon Labe! (45 page)

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."