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.
"To them, America is simply a resource to plunder, not the land of freedom and opportunity."
Exactly.
The only Terry Anderson I ever heard of was a hostage in Lebanon 20 years ago.
Samuel Huntington noted that there is a class of Americans who would be more at comfort in Paris or Tokyo than in the American heartland. These people see America only as outmoded lines on outdated maps.
Amen.
100 % agree.
I happened on this thread and have nothing to contribute except to say..How do we get the toothpaste back in the tube?..
The illegal immigration problem has been ignored for years really...I do not see it logistically possible to deport all illegals even if we had the resources to catch them all..
I do think the practice of not informing the feds when a state illegal gets out of prison and all the bleeding hearts' efforts to keep them from being deported after committing crimes is a crime.
Border patrol must be beefed up.
How does an employer make sure an employee is legal without a national ID card?..(and that is sure to be damned.)
Here's who you will be rubbing shoulders with at the Minuteman Project and why I want NO part of it or with anyone who promotes it:
Google "minuteman project stormfront" typical results:
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=164831&page=1&pp=10
http://www.stormfront.org/archive/t-179954Mexican_drug_violence_moves_north_of_the_Border..html
http://www.stormfront.org/archive/t-171829Get_active_on_illegal_immigration.html
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=178023&page=1
Who has been posting this kind of stormfront stuff?
This is the first I've ever heard of it.
I'm also curious, it's one thing to post such stuff to someone who's egging you on to ban him (Hoverbug), but why did you post that to wardaddy of all people??
YGBSM! Got link?
Read his post (including the last paragraph).
Go to the Sunday talking head shows thread. Pat was bashing America and Israel.
When I speak to you, you'll know it
Most definately I will know it, as the froth from your louis farrakhan like rants spews out of my video monitor.
What I figure is this:
If FR was some kind of private blog, then, hey, hells bells, anything goes.
But since FR holds itself out to be the premiere conservative site on the internet, and collects money based on that premise, it has a reponsilbility to not censor people who have what would be considered conservative views on the issue.
And the poll the last time I checked was something like 95% opposed to open borders and amnesty.
So it would seem there is something going on that is being withheld from us.
Google stormfront "free republic" and you'll find a thread on stormfront about the racist whackos "infiltrating" Free Republic. There's no doubt that some of them are regular posters right now and that's who every other FReeper is "rubbing shoulders with". Should Free Republic be banned from other sites? Should my internet filter suddenly start blocking Free Republic as a racist site? No. You can't practically control that kind of thing and can only make decisions based upon what a poster does once he's here. The same goes for the Minuteman Project (with which, by the way, I have no involvement.)
Google "minuteman project stormfront" typical results:
And since some racist whacko on Stormfront decides to mention the Minuteman Project a few times, all of a sudden the entire Minuteman Project is racist? Since some racist white trash posts a list of links or two that include minutemanproject.org that makes the whole thing racist too? So, if they linked to Free Republic, would that make FR racist? If they linked to a planned FReep or rally, would that make the FReep, rally, or Free Republic somehow racist? I'm sorry to say it, but your logic here is faulty, Jim. I totally understand your need to protect FR from becoming a racist website polluted with racist threads. That's why you have a long-standing policy against such things and very rightly have the threads deleted and the racist posters banned. But this? This is not right.
I had only seen a few threads even mention the Minuteman Project and your typical race-baiters showed up and told their lies, but not much more than that. Suddenly you're banning people, pulling threads, and causing a real disturbance that is not making FR look good. I just think you've jumped to a bad conclusion or were mislead by someone and the action you took wasn't wise. I was hoping that you would see some reason and find a way to fix this while saving face. Instead the only post you've made to this entire thread on the topic was another weak attempt to link Stormfront to the Minuteman Project. (The link is one way - some nut from SF likes MP, yet MP isn't intentionally having anything to do with SF.)
What a mess. It pains me to see the division this thing has caused on Free Republic. It hurts to see so many other sites (and possibly media) jump on this to damage Free Republic. I've seen FR survive worse stuff than this. But this time the wound is self-inflicted.
Thank you for looking into things and making up your own mind. However, I think dumping Free Republic over this is kind of a rash decision.
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