ping
Thanks for the ping. I, too, find myself wondering why people do such things. Most newbies on any forum will post at least a few replies on existing threads before venturing into posting their own thread. On FR, they might post a few news articles before venturing into the gray area of posting their own vanity thread. It's certainly reasonable to question why someone's first post on FR would be their own vanity article.
A terrorist wanting public transportation information could more easily "google" for it than to register on a conservative forum and query the members for advice. If I was going to get paranoid about this one, I'd guess it was more personal to Free Republic. Maybe it was someone trying to find out where certain FReepers live. That thought isn't too pleasant either.