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.
There you go.
Makes for exchange rate P&L nightmares.
Did you miss post 2610 ??
Jim and all,
Finally, www.yourdictionary.com has posted the Word of the Year article for 2004.
Interesting how very much the 'Net affected the words, brings Free Republic to mind.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/WOTY.shtml
You are apparently so ignorant you are unable to discern the distinction between "street gangs" and "organized gangs." But who on this board is surprised by that revelation?
And who is surprised by your dissing the contribution of Italian-American, who abided fully by U.S. Immigration Law - and of whom I REPEAT -- of those Italian-Americans, 500,000 served proudly during WWII to defend the freedom of America. Done so even for those Cubans who reaped the benefit of spilt blood much later on.
"There was no 'legality' to coming to America when your people got here FooFighter."
Senor Loco no capesci. ANYTHING.
"Had your people been able to walk here, they would have."
I consider MY "people" Americans in heart, in spirit, in mind. As soon as they arrived by boat, and through legal procedures at Ellis Island cried for joy -- damn proud to be "American" from DAY ONE. And they demanded NOTHING.
YOU and your "people"?
"Cuban" (hypen) "American." Forever.
Btw, New York City Mayor LaGuardia would have NEVER thought of addressing American citizens in Italian.
Affirmative action and similarly designed racial preference schemes have nothing whatever to do with national sovereignty and preservation of American culture. Why do you think we have immigration laws? "Maybe you want race based quotas so that Caucasians remain the 70% majority." I want to preserve our sovereignty and American culture. Apparently that is of no interest to you.
"But I argue that it is racism in its purist form." Argue all you want; you're entitled to your opinion, but that's all it is, an opinion. And not a very enlightened one.
"Racism is to discriminate based on race." No kidding. Gee, I'll bet you think Homeland Security, the CIA and FBI should all avoid that horribly racist practice known as racial profiling (horror of horrors!) when attempting to keep Muslim/Islamist terrorists out of our country.
Take your pious accusations and lectures on racism somewhere else. I find them juvenile, misplaced and tiresome.
Like a not-so-"Stealth" bomber.
I'm afraid in my part of the country it is going to be the other way around.
And when the Communists rise to power in DF, the anti-immigrants here will be most pleased, eh?
Commies in DF? Can you translate?
And, what does an anti-immigration stance have to do with my post on the reality of the coming Mexican revolution?
Because revolutions are often violent, and people tend to want to flee violence just as they like to flee hunger and want. If the goal is to smartly reform immigration, then go with President Bush.
The present 'goal' is to prevent a revolution in Mexico by allowing a relatively open border. -- And no one here wants an open border, it is claimed.
Commies in DF? --- Can you translate?
The case of the shop owners protecting themselves during the LA riots when police would not respond in my mind is a clear case of when vigilantism was necessary. It was the exception not the rule.
If and when that time comes where the exception becomes the rule, rules here and else where can change.
Yeah, you noticed as well?
Maybe Luis can post a hilarious pic of a lone cricket chirping.
You may have noticed but most of the pro-Bush immigration plan and we can all argue about whether that is amnesty or rewards illegals forever but that doesn't matter since it's dead politically in it's current form......anyhow many of that rather small crowd are also South Bashers that you should be familiar with. If not South bashers they are almost 100% part of the "What Culture War?" crowd.
Similar agenda actually. Kill any form of American culture they dislike, don't feel a part of, or feel morally superior to.
Your post may have been the best on the thread (there is a reason you are a lawyer..lol) but all of this is in vain. The course for discussion on immigration here has been set. It's a fait accompli. Those of us who don't agree ...which is around 80% from the polls I've seen, should just have ignored this thread and I would have but this is where I first learned of the purges. I lamented the purges and that turned the dogs loose. Essentially the same dogs that run any thread that has the slightest hint of race...whether real or imagined.
I'm not at all sure why this thread exists to be frank. Sort of a "bug light" lol. It's the most contentious one I've been on in all my time here but very few got zapped. I don't know anything about how mods work but I bet this one was numero uno priority for a couple of days.
My position on immigration and how I approach that will obviously have to take place away from this forum which is btw, the only political forum I have ever been a member of besides Trixie's briefly. I did look at LP once or twice when they gave me my own thread about me being a loathesome Bushbot when I refused to leave here after an incident 18 months ago...on this topic ironically....that's rich isn't it?. As for other political issues, hopefully we can still maintain a unified front of sorts...one that is in line with most conservatives in the country. If we can't then so be it.
But remember...and this goes for anyone here....and I do mean ANYONE.
What makes the power of this forum is not all this political chat nor the infighting nor purges nor the intrigue...which frankly I know very little about.
What has catapulted this forum into the big leagues is the simple facts of sheer numbers and that on several occasions some well placed or astute freepers have scored political hits that have made the world take notice.
Secondly is the forum in it's local chapter form has had a great ability to organize political protest in the past even though always outnumbered by the opposition.
And you might note that most of this forum's best at those two things.....are not the most prolific chatters and do not usually belong to any roving dingo pack.
The strength of this forum is not exemplified by this thread. That's what I've learned anyhow....and I include myself in that negative. I think this has been damaging.
There are some good people on the other side...a few anyhow but mostly at least amongst the loudest, it's the same race baiters as usual.
On the bright side I met some FReepers I never really knew and found kindred spirit and that is always refreshing....hell, aside from steady news gleaning and activism....that's why we're here mostly.
I got 36 freepmails and about that many e-mails over the course of this thread...all positive except one which was conflicted understandably.
Helluvaride....the loud but tiny opposition are unified and strident...they can be proud of that even if they are about as wrong as tits on a boar..
I agree that self-defense is vigilantism, although I see it referred to it that way fairly often. Vigilantism would be someone actually going after a criminal after a crime is committed. If you are merely defending yourself, that is not vigilantism. Now, if you went and tracked down and shot someone who had harmed you or a friend or family member, that is vigilantism.
I've suspended myself a dozen times as a smoke screen to keep my secret identity safe.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Thanks for quoting me, it bears repeating.
Some here are now hoping to reach martyrdom by being banned, so that they can show off their red badge of "courage" proudly at the splinter sites where old FReepers go die an unnoticed death.
The fact that this thread (and I've read most of it) survived is somewhat amazing.
FR used to(and still does) have some superb debaters. Pople would even often play devil's advocate just to make their points.
Increasingly, it has become a place where comments are often just single-liner stabs back at the opposition. Like kids cussing each other out in a high school restroom.
Hopefully, FR will survive and remain a place where people can honestly question and learn about conservative values.
But with the newfound popularity and the hits FR has made against MSM, you can bet there are powerful forces arrayed aginst us now.
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