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 President’s ‘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 management’s 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 Bush’s 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 President’s Oath of Office.
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You're right. :(
Here we go again. If you disagree with George Bush in any way, you're a commie-child molesting-Shiite-spotted owl killing-anti free trade-flag burning-mother hating-DU lurking-anti semitic-unpatriotic idiot.
This is an old and very worn out argument.
But it's alive and well on this thread.
Sheesh. Way to lower the discourse.
Report governmental lawbreakers? Since our society and political leadership are all supposedly so corrupt, why give the lawbreakers a promotion?
I'm not doubting Bush's patriotism, you moron. I'm doubting his policy decisions and pointing out that he's making a grave error. Why is it that whenever anyone questions Bush's policies he's suddenly a DNC shill or a Michael Moore fan or something?
Look, if Bush's border policies were about stopping terrorists from crossing our southern border, I wouldn't be able to drive you to a number of points within a few miles of my house where there's not even a barbed wire fence standing there. Or where it is only a broken wire laying on the ground. If since 9/11 literally millions of border intruders can cross our border and get past our border defenses, then how many terrorists do you think could have done it? It only takes one to ruin your day, you know. The guys with American Border Patrol smuggled simulated WMDs to Tucson, from the border fence right up to the Federal Building in downtown Tucson. There was nothing to stop them, no one checked them, nothing.
If Bush's border policies were based upon stopping terrorism, I would be observing an entirely different situation on the border than I can see right now.
bumpmark
The old, worn-out argument belongs to those who question the patriotism and integrity of President Bush. If you don't like the company you keep then watch who you are standing with.
Read my homepage and you'll see how I feel about it.
Current policies at our southern border seems to give mexicans numerous chances to eventually sneak into the USA. Even tho the first crossing is a crime.
So far as OTM's go, seems they are simply turned loose in the US. Oh, they do *promise* to appear in immigration court, but 'stats' in TX say 'only' 30% do.
Sheesh.....any other country giving illegals deals like this ??? No wonder we can't even count our millions.
You paint with too broad a brush, FRiend. Which is exactly what you accuse your opponents on this issue of doing. Have a nice day.
So, President Bush is incapable of making mistakes and anyone who notices a mistake is delusional and is obviously in need of a stay at a re-education camp, eh? Did we all move to North Korea or China or something!?
Feel free to graduate from Yale and Harvard and get elected as governor to one of the largest states in the Union twice, and as President of the United States twice, and then go out and liberate 50 million captives, and then we can consider giving some weight to your opinions on his actions and motivations.
We have 5.7% unemployment, roughly 1.6 million people have been unemployed for more than six months, and the other @5.5 million are basically moving from one job to the other.
I don't know if you've ever been unemployed for any period of time, but if you have been...did you consider finding a job picking tomatoes?
Cleaning hotel rooms?
There are by all accounts somewhere between 8 and 10 million illegal aliens in the country, a significant percentage of them working at one job or another.
If we could magically get all of them out of the country right now, do you believe that the lesser number of unemployed computer technicians, retail clerks, accountants, data entry clerks etc. would rush to cover a job below their normal employment level?
They may actually do it to cover that period of time from the time where they lost their job, to the time they find an equal replacement, but the industries concerned can't rely on casual, temporary labor to exist.
Now, that to me is reality, and you have to take reality into account when looking a solution for the problem of the millions of illegal aliens living in a subculture in our nation.
Right now we are fighting a global war that I believe in the scope of things takes precedence over the issue of illegal aliens in the country. I believe that we need to beef up the Border Patrol with manpower, equipment and technology, but using the Army to enforce immigration policy while a war rages is absurd!
Proof of the absurdity is the fact that a leftist member of the media needed to call the war unnecessary in order to justify his immigration rant.
That's not the way it works. In our country, the dog catcher has a valid opinion. So does the homeless guy in the alley. You are free to agree or disagree.
"I don't know if you've ever been unemployed for any period of time, but if you have been...did you consider finding a job picking tomatoes?
Cleaning hotel rooms?"
Actually, yes. I was unemployed for a stretch several years ago and to make ends meet I worked as a laborer cutting down trees and running a tree chipper. I had just gotten my MBA.
You do what you have to do unril such time as you improve your ocupational "state" to the point where you occupationally belong.
Well, since you've done none of these things either, I'm sure that you're also going to stop offering your opinions - positive or negative - on our faultless leader's motivations and actions. Right? I didn't think so. Is there a name for that cult you belong to?
The true hypocrisy is best illustrated by those who continuously insist on calling owners management, and then to boot, continue to patronize a place they find distasteful and below their standards.
It's a sorry sight to see you lower yourself from some sort of relevance to poodle pant scuff snipping.
Do you eat at restaurants whose food and service you find to be below standards?
Do you stay in a movie theater and watch a bad movie?
Move along...
While it is true that everyone has opinions, not all opinions hold the same weight.
However, an employer can't run his business based on people who do what they have to do until whatever...as an owner, you get up every morning wondering if you have employees or not.
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