This is nothing nefarious. Lots of sites use Google Analytics to look at aggregate data about their users browsing experience. It helps the administrators of Free Republic answer questions like:
What percentage of Freepers use IE vs Firefox.
What percentage of Freepers have javascript enabled.
What was the most popular topic yesterday, this week, last year (including lurkers who didn’t post).
What pages are producing errors.
etc.
If this still creeps you out then you can block google analytics from all sites that use it by using FireFox browser with the “adblock plugin” and site-block www.google-analytics.com/*
Ahhhh....I feel much better. Although I don’t like anybody tracking what I do :^(
If Freepers tell me it’s O.K. then it’s O.K.
Bye the way, did Adobe change the download process for Firefox users and make it the same as I.E.?