FREEREPUBLIC RECORDS HIGHEST EVER NEW SIGNUPS ON SEP 16, 2004

The ongoing controversy over the fake CBS documents and the prominent role played in shedding the light on this by Freerepublic.com has caused an unprecendented surge in new memberships on the website.

Thursday, September 16, 2004 should be remembered as a landmark day for this website. On that day, more new users signed up on Freerepublic.com than on any single day before.

The 390 users signed up on the website eclipsed sign-up spikes caused during other newsworthy events, such as the Florida recount during the 2000 election, and the events of September 11, 2001.

The name of the website has been publicized widely in many media outlets as the source of the first revelation that the CBS memos were forgeries.

According to web traffic tracking site Alexa, Freerepublic.com has shown a remarkable increase in traffic over the last few weeks, as shown below:

Note from founders of the website: Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. In our continuing fight for freedom, for America and our constitution and against totalitarianism, socialism, tyranny, terrorism, etc., Free Republic stands firmly on the side of right, i.e., the conservative side.

For all you Newbies here are some FReepin' terms to get ya going they sure helped me

FreeRepublic Glossary
Anti-Freeper - See Freeper Lore.

Arkancide = Mysterious death that somehow manages to happen to former friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Usually ruled a "suicide" by the "controlling legal authorities" that happen to be conducting the investigation. Usually the body is found with all the fixin's; suicide note (in two or more handwriting styles), unregistered handgun (sometimes in a different caliber than the one the "suicide" was accomplished using), and "air-tight" alibis passed around like free popcorn.

Arkansas Dirt Nap - a synonym of Arkancide.

Asbestos Underwear - what one is admonished to don when flaming (see "flame") is thought to be imminent.

ASH ALERT - See Freeper Lore.

Barf Alert = hold onto your lunch, you ain't gonna like this. Usually included in a thread title if the article which follows is nauseatingly biased or transparently manipulative.

Better put some ice on that - A quote attributed to Clinton by Juanita Broaddrick. It is reportedly what Clinton said to Broaddrick as he was donning sunglasses and leaving her hotel room after his [alleged] rape of her, advising her to start treating her bitten, swollen, bleeding lip. Another phrase that is often used sarcastically.

Black helicopter crowd -- These were once lumped in with contrail and tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists. The theory was that the government had special ops forces who were training in urban areas for urban military incursions using special unmarked black helicopters. Frequently little animated GIF pictures of black helicopters would be posted to denote a "wacko". Only in this case, with hard evidence and reports of actual training missions (such as the one in Texas some months back), the "wackos" turned out to be right. On this one anyway. ;)

Borked -- similar to "fostered." Proper name now used as a verb to indicate that what happened to the namesake is now happening again to another person. Just as "fostered" refers to "murder-made-to-appear-a-suicide," borked refers to a person whose reputation is trashed and whose lifetime work achievements and positions on issues are distorted in the public forum in order to deny that person (eminently qualified) a job or an appointment to a position. The term originated from the successful Democratic trashing of Judge Robert Bork during confirmation hearings when he was nominated to the Supreme Court.

Brigadiers - Pat Buchanan supporters. Coined from "Buchanan Brigade". See "Patsies".

Broken Glass Republican: n. A Republican who will "crawl across broken glass" to vote against Albert Gore, Jr. (or any Democrat, for that matter)

Bubba - William Jefferson Blythe Clinton.

Bubba the Love Sponge: Also applied to Clinton, this term probably was taken from a disc jockey who used it as his on-air name long before Clinton was a national figure. BEELZEBUBBA, KRINTONG, and CLINTIGULA, also are used as synonyms for TRIPOTUS. (See FR acronyms).

Bump is used when someone wants to post a reply to a thread simply to "bump" it back to the top of the "Latest Posts" list so more visitors will see it. BTTT - "Back To The Top" is used interchangeably with "Bump".

Bushie -- A Bush supporter. Sometimes used in a derogatory or provocative fashion.

Carnivore - the FBI's e-mail snoop system. Lots of pattyfingers being played over how much and how often snooping is going on. See Echelon.

Chad - the little pieces of paper that pop out of a ballot when punched by a stylus when voting. Come in many fanciful varieties, including hanging, dangling, dimpled, and pregnant.

Clymer - a recent addition to the lexicon. George W. Bush made a private remark to running mate Dick Cheney, referring to a New York Times reporter as an "@sshole". The remark was picked up by an open mike. Consequently, "Clymer" has become a synonym for the word, much as "Lewinsky" has become a synonym for a, well... Lewinsky.

Contrails and Art Bell -- according to contrail theorists, those condensing water-vapor trails behind high altitude aircraft are actually chemical bombardment trails. Art Bell is a now-retired late night radio talk show host whose show focused on many such things as contrails, alien visitors, remote viewing, black helicopters, crop circles, and on and on.

Disruptor - a poster who has not come to FR to discuss policies and current events with fellow conservatives, but to "disrupt" the site with provocative, baiting and inflammatory posts. See "Ash", "Judith Hanley" and "Eschoir" in Freeper Lore.

Echelon: an NSA system designed to sniff out keywords in email traffic. Has prompted posters to on occasion deliberately insert such keywords into posts, just in case Echelon is listening. See "Carnivore", another surveillance system.

Dubya -- 'W' pronounced in Texan. A reference to George W. Bush.

flame or flame job: to attack a poster personally on a thread instead of mounting a reasoned critique of the post.

Forehead, The -- Paul Begala.

Fostered - the verb form of Vince Foster. See Arkancide. Usage example: "Jim MacDougal [may have been] fostered to prevent him from working with the OIC".

FReeper - A registered participant of FreeRepublic.com. The first two letters originally were capitalized to indicate FreeRepublic. It was Lucianne Goldberg (see "Trixie" in Freeper Lore) who coined the term.

FReep - a coined verb that usually means a FReeper or FReepers protesting someone or something in person. It is also used to describe a mass emailing or online participation - "FReep an internet poll"

FReepmail - FreeRepublic's internal mail system available to registered users

Goron: n. follower/disciple of discredited political figure and one-time Presidential candidate Albert Gore, Jr.

Hijacked to Freeper Island -- Used to describe a vanity or annoying thread turned into a humor thread. See the Freeper Lore section.

I feel your pain - A Clinton quote, used sarcastically.

In-coming -- Usually posted in Reply 2 When the article is sure to stir up tin hats, loonies, whackos and the poorly raised.

JimRob - Jim Robinson -- FreeRepublic.com's esteemed founder and operator

The Kiss: n. Reference to the infamous "Kiss" between Albert and Tipper Gore after Al's Convention speach. Generally used derisively and in conjunction with a rant on the subject of the mental faculties of soccer moms. Somewhat related to the Clintons Dance on the Beach, a photo op apparently staged to present the image of marital bliss among the First Couple.

Koolaid -- as in "go ahead and drink the Koolaid". A reference to the Jim Jones cult which committed mass suicide by drinking poison-laced Koolaid. It means to go ahead and fully commit yourself to a position or group or political philosophy being foisted.

Lewinsky: n. An act of Fellatio. As in "To receive a Lewinsky".

Lucianne - see "Trixie" in Freeper Lore.

McCainiac - John McCain supporter. Term coined during the primaries, when McCain supporters flooded FreeRepublic.com.

Mothership: n. reference to Louis Farrakhan's early rantings about an alien Mothership eradicating white people and establishing Earth as the rightful kingdom of Blacks, or some such nonsense.

nick - nickname, screen name, such as "Risky Schemer". Some FreeRepublic nicknames have received national mention due to their creativity and humor.

Opus -- The mother of vanity posts, an opus is a long rambling resignation from FreeRepublic, listing all the offenses and wounds (real or imagined) that have provoked the resignation, in the misguided idea that somehow the ones who "wronged" the resignee will be sought out and pilloried for causing the magnificent and dramatic wounds. Of course the poster of the opus hangs around in his or her death throes for days replying to the opus thread, provoking the usual "so GO already" responses. And most opus posters are thought to still be on FR posting under new nicks anyway. Most opuses are written in the following form -- "So-and-so called me a name and I've had it with Free Republic". This is where a FReeper, in a pique of rage, goes on a rant about how FR has changed since they first came onboard, and the flame wars are out of hand, yada, yada, yada. They must announce it to everybody that they are leaving, and aren't coming back. One FReeper, who is a bigtime pol in (deleted), does this every 6 months or so.

Patsy or Patsie - Pat Buchanan supporter.

Pull my finger -- When someone extends their finger in your direction and utters this phrase, when you pull their finger they will flatulate at the corresponding time. (Submitted by michigander, although Lazamataz claims to have invented this.)

Queeg: n. derogatory term occasionally applied to Senator John McCain. Reference to the Humphrey Bogart character from The Caine Mutiny. Used to imply paranoid tendencies on the part of the Senator.

Quidam - see freeper lore.

rant: an energetic diatribe on whetever subject piques the poster's fancy at the moment. < rant > Text < /rant >: indicates that the text enclosed by the "rant" tags is a rant.

Rapist-In-Chief: n William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, in reference to allegations by Juanita Broaderick that Bill Clinton raped her while he was Attorney General of Arkansas. See "Better Put Some Ice On That". Also see POTUS in the acronym list.

Rats -- Democrats. Term originated with a GOP (Grand Old Party; Republican) ad that lingered on the last four letters of "democrats" a little too long to suit some. A media frenzy ensued, with charges of subliminal advertising and such, and the controversy raged for 3 weeks. However, concurrent Democratic campaign ads that flagrantly LIE were ignored.

< sarcasm > TEXT < /sarcasm > : indicates that the text in between the fake HTML tags is intended as sarcasm. The tags serve as an aid to those who are not well attuned to sarcasm and who might otherwise needlessly flame the sarcastic poster.

Serpent head -- James Carville.

SHEEPLE -- This is a term used to describe the "Mercun Peepul" (as the democrats referred to the supposed love of Clintoon), especially those who voted for and continued to give Clintoon a 60%+ approval rating during his impeachment for lying under oath. They're American people, but led like dumb sheep by big media and the democrats.

Soccer moms -- a demographic group which came to prominence when it was revealed they were the source of much of Bill Clinton's voter support. The term derives from suburban moms who carry SUV loads of kids to soccer practice.

"Special sauce" or "secret sauce" -- a special "magical ingredient" a pollster may be adding to raw poll data to influence or control the findings or outcome of the poll during the "cooking" process. Like "cooking the books".

Stump: n. Derogatory term applied to Albert Gore, Jr., in relation to his oft-mentioned "wooden" demeanor.

Thread - the posted article with all it's appended comments (replies).

Tin-foil hats -- The phrase [I believe] originated with suspicious people who felt - or imagined - they were being bombarded by mind-control or thought-implanting radiation of some sort (not sure by whom, whether the government or extra-terrestrials -- maybe both), and claimed that they gained relief by fashioning a simple helmet from aluminum foil and wearing it.

Toesucker - Former (and some people think, current) Clinton advisor Dick Morris. The name originated when it was revealed that Morris had a prostitute performing this act on him while he was on the phone discussing policy and strategy with Bill Clinton.

Trixie -- Nickname of Lucianne Goldberg. See Freeper Lore.

Vanity posts -- like all medication, should be taken in moderation. Some vanities are useless, while others are to be treasured. One or two-line vanities which consist of comments or observations which could easily have been added to an existing thread are strongly discouraged. Especially onerous is posting such a vanity as "breaking news". See the FreeRepublic posting guidelines and admonitions regarding vanity posts.

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" -- seems to pop up whenever Dan Rather is a topic of discussion. OKSooner provided the explanation:
"Once upon a time some guys caught ol' Dan in a back alley and beat the crap out of him. The only thing they said was 'What's the frequency Kenneth?'"
"Pummeled about the face and head," is the description that pops into my memory. It was a bizarre, unexplained assault, don't even know if there were any witnesses. But it's something that seems to dovetail right into the other stories about Rather -- like his going on several minutes late in a reported fit of temper, his unabashed admiration of Fidel Castro, his gag-me-with-a-spoon fawning interview of the Clintons, his jaw-dropping, hilarious-because-it-is-so-over-the-top bias, or his struggle to find a pithy signoff of the caliber of Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is." All he came up with (and used for a while) was, "Courage."
[Incidentally, R.E.M. had a song titled after the (infamous) "frequency" incident.]

Willard: n. 1. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. 2. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton's penis. From the name given to the anthropomorphized talking representation of Bill Clinton's penis in the Joe Eszterhas book American Raphsody.

Freeper Lore

Newcomers may encounter these references from time to time on FR:
Anti-Freepers are an unorganized group of people, who, for one reason or another despise Free Republic, or FR founder Jim Robinson, and/or cannot tolerate the existence of a forum where conservatives gather to discuss news, policies, media bias and events. Some anti-freeper behavior borders on obsessive (some even stalk, or border on it). At least a couple have established anti-FR sites, and at least one operator of an anti-freeper site is actually a former freeper who got banned. See Ash, Eschoir.

Ash - a former liberal disruptor (see glossary) on FreeRepublic who posted under the screen name Ash or several variations thereof. He was at times witty, and his provocations occasioned some spirited and persuasive conservative apologetics on FR. Former regular freeper Don Morgan would post "Ash Alerts" on any thread Ash was suspected to be repying to. Find a discussion of Ash Alerts here.

DITHF - is usually used now as an admonition to be suspicious or not so impressed or gullible regarding someone's claims. It is a reference to a FReeper using the screen name "Deep In The Hurtgen Forest". DITHF presented himself as a serviceman stationed in Germany, and posted many in-the-know "letters to home" type writings that were quite convincing. Eventually, though, due to some observant FReepers, some inconsistencies were noticed and revealed and DITHF was exposed (and, as I recall, confessed) as fake.

Eschoir - (see anti-freeper) is an attorney in the DC area who has been a liberal disruptor (see glossary) on FR for several years. His original screen name, Eschoir, has long been banned so he creates a new one every time he shows up. He routinely posts an inflammatory article hangs around for a while and then is banned. He operates several anti-FR message boards on Yahoo.

Legendary FreeRepublic Flame Wars, to my experience and IMHO, have a common denominator: A FReeper who tries to hijack FreeRepublic.com as his personal venue of leadership or fame, or is dead set on insinuating his or her view on all others and "destroying" or excluding infidels. Seems such a thing never fails to bring a withering assault of flaming posts as all guns are brought to bear, to the consternation of whatever followers said FReeper may have managed to gather to him or herself. I'll name no names, but there have been a couple of Flame Wars that were doozies. At times it was hard to keep up with all the opuses. =)

Freeper Island -- a thread that grew from a Freeper's announcement on another thread that if things continued, he would move to an island. Much of the original thread has been preserved HERE. The term "Hijacked to Freeper Island" refers to any thread that veers from its original subject into "anarchistic mirth" (for lack of a better term) around a completely different subject.

March For Justice -- A Washington DC rally organized by Freepers to express support and encouragement for Congress during impeachment proceedings. Speakers included Alan Keyes, Larry Klayman, Gary Aldrich and many others. Sometimes referred to simply as the MFJ.

quidam -- like DITHF, "quidam" is a FReeper screen name. Quidam was noted for his unique posting style -- one or two short, cryptic sentences, maybe a sentence fragment, and his posts were always signed twice. That is, not only did it appear automatically as it does on all replies, he also typed in his screen name to close each of his posts. Because of the nature of his posts and writing style, one could infer he was a knowledgeable, high-placed, anonymous Beltway insider. He spoke of such things as the dark and mysterious "men in suits" who would ultimately render a decision to Bill Clinton and remove him from office. Although ulimately discredited as an insider, his posts were among the most entertaining and memorable from the pre-impeachment era. He was a popular contributor and among the most well-known FReepers at the time. Unlike DITHF, Quidam occasionally still posts to FR, and he (or she?) is usually greeted with a wave of nostalgia. =) Quidam has been accused of being none other than Matt Drudge (just a rumor).

The "Test: Do Not Reply" or "Please ignore, this is just a test post" vanity, was a thread posted by a freeper which grew spontaneously as many posted their intentions to dutifully obey and ignore the thread. It became a monstrous runaway with 300+ responses covering everything from ancient Assyria to Monty Python. As long as it was available, it occasionally was bumped again, so apparently, it had to be dumped.

Trixie -- Nickname of Lucianne Goldberg, once a frequent and well-liked contributor to FreeRepublic. Goldberg came to Conservative fame due to her association and involvement with Linda Tripp. (Time Magazine's early take on Goldberg's rise to conservative prominence.) At some point there were those who thought FR should be only and exclusively Republican. And there were those (including Jim Robinson himself) who thought the forum should stand for and work toward a return to true Constitutional standards of government no matter which party or candidate. A heated philosophical struggle began, resulting in The Great Lucianne Exodus and the establishment of Lucianne.com. Jim Robinson wished them all good luck in their endeavors and to this day still posts banner links to what is variously referred to as L.com. Lucianne.com and I Love Lucy. Trixie, incidentally, is credited with coining the term "FReeper".

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Thanks, Jim, for all you do!

ROCK ON! JIM ROB