Posted on 02/11/2005 10:55:36 AM PST by Jim Robinson
The shot heard around the Internet has been fired on FreeRepublic.com The owner Jim Robinson and his moderators have launched a sniper style purge against members that disagree with the Presidents guest worker amnesty or support more control of illegal immigration. Free Republic is an amazing tool for those looking for a good debate and news from around the country.
The problem for the administration of the site is that their creation is allowing the participants to learn that the Bush immigration record and plans are shockingly out of line with the views of most conservatives. The managements answer to this conflict between the majority of conservatives and the influence of the White House on their Web site has become electronic executions and censorship.
Members and readers of Free Republic would be surprised to know that many members of their community have fallen silent on the discussions about illegal immigration lately because free speech is an illusion on FR.com. They are silent because they have been banned from the Web site without warning, cause, or explanation in most cases. For weeks the moderators have been suspending and banning new members that chimed in quickly on the immigration debates.
Now this trend has broadened as the first groups of long-term users were suspended or banned this past week. Although Robinson and his staff removed many members of the Free Republic community in the first few days of the purge, those that religiously support President Bushs immigration plan, open borders and approve of public benefits for illegal aliens remain on the forum. Those that were banned were the members that wanted more done to control illegal immigration and a strict observance to the Presidents Oath of Office.
The MSM would never believe it would they?
nice flag...the right one.
BTW I too am guilty of contributing to the diminishment of the majority, but that buys no credibility with some of the more strident baiters around here. A juicy charge of racism(in place of a valid argument of course) is just too tempting for them to resist, I guess.
As a matter of fact, last week one even tried to turn the claim of being in a mixed marraige into defacto proof of racism.
God bless you.
Charlie-nashville
The purged weren't purged by anti-immigration FReepers you can be sure of that.
Jim:
I am opposed to the President's view on immigration, and have had various disagreeing viewpoints, and you haven't purged me. I appreciate having a forum where I can discuss the issues with other conservatives.....
These bozos must be crazy! Thanks for Free Republic!
It is a critical issue and you have good posts that should be read by the undecided to sway them and others that already understand the detrimental effects of massive unrestrained immigration - it strengthens their resolve and arguments.
It's my hope that people to do more than just talk about it. Politicians need to be contacted, laws need to be passed and enforced, and we need to make our presence know like at the rally in DC in April. I'll be there.
so many posts, so little time.
How? How can you seal the land, sea and air borders of the U.S>?
No nation has successfully sealed it's borders. East Berlin was never completely sealed.
Look at our massive efforts on the short Tijuana border that have not even sealed that border. The short Tijuana border gets breached daily by numerous laborers and it has fences, patrol roads, motion sensors, flood lights, planes, helicopters, atvs, uavs, and horseback patrols.
No serious security authority would even consider the possibility of sealing a seven thousand mile rugged border, much less the sea coast and airways.
Will Rogers once suggested that the way to deal with German subs was to heat the oceans up to 200 degrees and when the subs were forced to surface we could sink them. People laughed. But today supposedly intelligent people actually believe we can build a huge barrier all around the U.S. It doesn't make any difference how much "will to do so by this president" exists, it can't be done. Period.
.
"And Americans, moreover, don't want a 3rd World legal/illegal immigration policy that brings in a massive subculture of unassimilable aliens inside the country that our forefathers build from the wilderness."
You do realize that we are a nation of immigrants don't you? The majority are not more than third generation.
Please visit your local veterans' cemetery as soon as possible and take a look at the names on the headstones.
And exactly which subculture do "unassimiable" aliens come from? Is there an "unassimilable" gene?
You da MAN! :)
many many more like me who are not pro-open borders or amnesty under any name
Bump! But this is such a fragile issue that many would ream us in every thread for over a few years, not considering just because we don't support the President's policy, it is not synonomous with not supporting/voting for him. I have fought my President on this issue passionately and I voted for him just as passionately!
When have I dismissed the ENTIRE illegal population as harmless?
Keep in mind, there are Cubans still in jail from the Mariel boatlift in 1980...they need to stay there.
Yet, you also can't judge the entire illegal alien population according to it's lowest denominator.
Street gangs have existed since long before the Mexican illegal alien explosion.
I recall gangs headed by guys named Capone, Luciano, Gambino, O'Banion, Weiss, and Lansky.
That's your example?
Don't bother me with guys like that.
If you were banned, what are you doing back?
I'm sure you or John are already aware of it, but just in case...
Cool it Luis, of course the Lib takes a shot a Bush on Iraq. I just let trash like that roll off. However, he is correct about our borders being open because we allow them to be that way.
Whether you approve of open borders or not, intellectual honesty would have you admit that we have not done nearly all we can to control who enters our country and what they do once they are here.
bttt
The article and complaints fall on death ears here. I am a vocal supporter of the President, and a vocal critic of his immigration policies which encourage illegal immigration.
I haven't been censored at FR.
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