Or better yet, take a look at his posting history and see it in context:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=Travis%20Mcgee
Like so very many here, it appears that he got caught up in the passion of the Illegal Immigration issue and lost his objectivity.
You can see that on this particular thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1612338/posts)things were getting out of hand and Jimrob was telling people to cool it. Travis wouldn’t desist and got bounced.
Perhaps it is because he was so outspoken on so many other II threads that it became a ban instead of a suspension, who knows.
There are a couple of points that need to be addressed here.
The first is that EVERY website has its “pimples” (or carbuncles, if you prefer ;’} FreeRepublic is no exception. What IS exceptional is that 1. They’re highlighting our foibles, and 2. We’re not afraid to examine them. Painful as it may be, we don’t run away from the complaint. This article is a hit piece and nothing more than sour grapes from a bunch of rejects. By posting the article here and responding to it, we are disproving their claims.
Another thing that keeps coming back to me is that, unlike the phony “diversity is our strength” crappola that the left attempts to foist on all of us, FreeRepublic was created as a forum for like minded people (Conservatives). There is not litmus test involved to join, so lots of folks join in who THINK they’re conservative, and then bristle when the prevailing objectives of this site (or any other) do not match their own particular sense of reality.
Finally, the Internet attracts all sorts of personalities. One of the things that keeps me coming back to FR is the comments from members. FreeRepublic has taught me that Conservatives routinely do EVERYTHING better than Dhimmis. We are, by & large, more thoughtful, more articulate, better organized, more patriotic, and more reverent than leftists. Conservatives are inherently more funny.
Conservatives are also more brutal when provoked. When properly focused against our enemies they can be merciless adversaries. I’ve also noticed that some can be bullies. This PD guy was one of the more notorious. I am amazed that he lasted as long as he did.
Not every poster at FR has the equivalent grasp of language, grammar, history, and politics. With some, posting is second nature. Some struggle to say what they want. I get the impression that more than a few are lurkers because they don’t want to invite the “pukin dog” treatment. Mores the pity because I really want to know what they think, too. I believe that it is more civil here now, and that this change will attract more thoughtful conservatives.
So, a big raspberry to The NY Observer, Rebecca Sinderbrand, and the disrupters. Viva FreRepublic!
There is no complete right or wrong to that exchange....it depends on one’s perspective on the issue and the celebrity in question.
The issue it was over is now solidly at the forefront and it was off all but the most sensitive radar until after the last POTUS election.
Right now though there is a chance to take back the GOP from the RINOs and “What Culture War?” idiots and I hope folks will grab it.
many of those that were a major irritant here have slinked off to their own new site where they can whine about being under the heel of social conservatives all day long....wonderful...though I notice a few have already come back after a few weeks in the echo chamber with OCD hens governing the joint.
I’m glad to be here. I hope some more of the old timers can come back too....there are more decent reasonable folks on FR than on any politcal forum I know of.
And I am glad the social conservatism tone has been upheld here.
if the GOP does not get it’s act together...and it may not, then it will go the way of the Whigs and we will be fractured while the left will not be.
And if these idiots give amnesty, the conservative landscape will be stymied for at least my lifetime.
Forum attitudes come and go. It is difficult with a managed forum as opposed to an open one.
that boils down to what the administrator desires.....which given the infancy of this sort of thing, I’d say we’re still in learning mode
The link you provided goes no where.
Differences of opinion about motive which is never an exact science. And I like Travis and I tend to give people I like the benefit of the doubt. But the Tony Snow thread and the quisling/hanging thread and what he then said on LP seemed pretty darn deliberate to me.
But since I disagreed factually and strategically with Travis about Tony Snow, the CFR “conspiracy” and associated alleged plots by the Feds to do away with America as a nation, I confess that I likely have a bias about that exchange.
There is no litmus test involved to join, so lots of folks join in who THINK they’re conservative, and then bristle when the prevailing objectives of this site (or any other) do not match their own particular sense of reality.
***Yes, I’ve seen the same thing with lots of rudybots. That’s why I kept posting this statement from JimRob’s front page below. It was one of the few filters that would work & get them to admit that they were not social conservatives.
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc.