Not so ‘Free Republic’: The Shot Heard Around the Net

The Conservative Voice ^ | Feb 11, 2005 | by William Gheen, President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC

[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.

[spodefly]

BUMP

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Luis lies and says that the Minuteman Project is a bunch of redneck racists carrying their sniper rifles down to the border to hunt Mexicans."

It seems that you have a problem with liars...well, so do I.

I actually typed the words "Minuteman Project" for the first time in my life about an hour ago here.

So you lied about me, and you didn't even have the guts to actually "ping" me when you did, which is clear indication that you knew you where lying.

Now, here's the challenge: you find where I've said what you claim that I said, and I will leave the forum...provide a link to it.

If you can't, then you leave the forum.

Deal?

[Dat Mon]

Of course I agree with you entirely.

What I meant was that the immigration bit, as disturbing as it is..is part IMO, of an even bigger puzzle.

When you add up those pieces...it gets even more disturbing.

[Admin Moderator]

"And how do you know when they are here?..."

Well as far as anything published on ones website, they can check the history of the author if it is available.

In the case of AIPAC, he was mad about the pulling of an article by Frosty Woolridge featuring "The Coming Break Up of America (Part II) by Thomas W. Chittum.

THE COMING BREAK UP OF AMERICA: PART II(ALIPAC LINK)

"..Thomas W. Chittum, author of, "CIVIL WAR II: THE COMING BREAKUP OF AMERICA," brings concrete historical evidence to the impending conflicts in America. By looking around, you, the average American, can see this tragedy building..."

This is Chittum's old website link:

Link

Chittum's New site:

link

Look around you will get his drift.

Also:

Minutes of the First Annual Conference on Racial Separatism(Stormfront Link)

One of the speakers:
Thomas Chittum, mercenary and author

"..There is no hope for any change of course with the present government. No matter who we send to Washington, they will be bribed. Submitting all legislation to referenda would be preferable.

Military empires almost always end in violence. There is no hope. Head for the hills. The only benefit of the future is that "I get $1.29 royalty for every book I sell." The only people who remain behind will be bloody fools who will pay for their mistake with their lives.

Questions:

Immigration is a demographic invasion.

We don't have much time left to fix this problem peacefully.

Non-White gangs are moving from social and criminal format to a military format with political goals.

There will be White resistance, the nucleus of which will probably be local police departments and the military.

The skinheads will be cannon fodder..."

This person's material has no business on Free Republic and will be pulled, under his name or when promoted by others. It does not speak well of ALIPAC that he would post it here or allow it on his own site when he DID have an opportunity to check before hand.

If he won't check when it's easy, how can we expect he even tries to do so when it is more difficult to do in the field.

[spodefly]

Good to see you on FR again, TM. Sorry it was on this thread, which has been a painful but probably necessary 'flag in the sand' exercise.

[drt1]

It IS VERY disturbing. I keep trying to discern the motivations behind the actions of these people and, beyond the pursuit of power, wealth or ego satisfaction I sometimes think I see the darkest side of the human situation - The desire/need to destroy senselessly. THAT is disturbing.

[Cultural Jihad]

Here's one of their looney heroes:

---

"Doesn't anyone out there wish that Hitler would have been stopped before he became too powerful?" Wooldridge asks. "The overpopulation of The United States will be the Hitler of the 21st Century. We will not have enough gas by mid-century, electricity by mid-century, or food by mid-century to sustain our society. We are not in touch with the dangers posed by overpopulation. Most parents have dreams of leaving the world a better place for their children-at this rate the world will be a trauma center."
--Frosty Wooldridge, anti-growth activist

---

[staytrue]

but what if AOL or Road Runner decided they would exclude some people from their private property establishments because of their views or creed?

Bad example. FYI, Aol has discussion forums with volunteer moderators who ban people and delete their posts. On the Baltimore Orioles board, one poster refered to Palmeiro as a spec (derogatory term for hispanic as in "no spek inglish") and he and all his posts got canned.

[Jericho7]

As I stated earlier in my polite conversation with Mr. Robinson, I have researched this issue a great deal.

While your claim that Mr. Gheen's thread 'The Coming Break-up of America Part II by Frosty Woolridge was pulled, Mr Gheen was banned after he e-mailed and posted this question to Mr. Robinson and the Moderator.

""Free Republic Moderators:

My thread post to the Bloggers & Personal section of Free Republic of
the opinion piece by Frosty Woolridge titled "The Coming Break Up of America (Part II) was just pulled for the reasons "Rense, vdare, etc not wanted here" The opinion piece did not link to or mention Rense.com or Vdare.com or any other organizations. The full text of the article on our site appropriately cites newswithviews.com

As I am always diligent to obey the terms of service and preferences of
Free Republic, please let me know what the problem with this post was as to avoid future pulling of threads."

At this point Mr. Gheen's Free Republic user name ALIPAC was banned and all previous threads were removed.

Mr. Woolridge is a syndicated columnist and his material runs in a lot of publications around the Internet.

Furthermore, it is clear from Mr. Gheen's website that he posted an open letter to Jim Robinson with concerns about the multiple bannings of posters opposed to the Bush immigration plan. After Mr. Robinson failed to answer several polite requests (also posted on the site) they launched the article "Not So Free Republic The shot heard around the net"

Mr. Gheen is a respected member of the NC GOP and serves many of our candidates and law makers. He is not a racist. He is an active member of the community and President of a national organization. Your attempts to malign his character would be unecessary if you took the time to speak with and assist those that use your site instead of relying on your delete key to communicate.

[Jericho7]

The multiple posters that were banned last week were not banned for using racially derrogatory language. AOL might pull threads or delete posts, but banning people from their service due to their political views would be another matter.

[staytrue]

Actually, AOL has a document called TOS for Terms of Service which you must agree to abide by before posting on the discussion boards. The Orioles board is the one I'm familiar with. Just for fun, you could sign up for the free aol trial, go to the board, post something inappropriate, and you will see how long you last.

[staytrue]

Aol has banned service to some people for any number of reasons and not just on the discussion boards.

Besides, you have to pay to join aol where as the discussion board called Free Republic is free.

Further, FR is more of a discussion board than a ISP.

[Jericho7]

Once again, the multiple Free Republic users that were banned did not use foul language or post any derrogatory language from their reports. Of course they do not have the liberty of answering your assertion.

[Jericho7]

Well, let us hope that AOL does not start banning users that all have the same thing in common. Opposition to the President's guest worker program.

[Trinity_Tx]

Well, I will speak up as someone who is die hard against illegal immigration, and against painting others like me as racist because of it...

...to say that I am damn glad Jim doesn't allow material from "Mr. *spit* Woolridge", and I don't give a flying fig where else he's "syndicated".

And I'm glad Jim bans anyone who knows what the guy is about, as you obviously do, and attempts to defend "syndicating" him here.

Y'all just make it hard on those of us who would like to discuss the issue without all the racism BS.

[Jericho7]

The only accusations of racism that I've seen in this discussion have come from Mr. Robinson and a select few posters that antagonize good people that want something done about it with unsubstantiated charges of racism.

[Trinity_Tx]

OK, Chittum, then. The article was "by Frosty Woolridge featuring "The Coming Break Up of America (Part II) by Thomas W. Chittum."

Writing by bigots like Chittum shouldn't be pushed by anyone who holds his views in contempt.

[Jericho7]

Perhaps you are correct sir, but just because someone posts an article written by an author that writes about another author that once showed up at a stormfront event in the past to promote his book does not make the original poster a racist.

Neither is it an indicator that a group or website is racist because stormfront talks about them or links to their material. Under that criteria Free Republic is racist.

Stormfront threads talk about and link to Free Republic and their people post material here. Does that make Jim Robinson a racist or the other posters racists? No.

It appears there is a lot of research going on in an effort to justify the original claims of this rebuttle piece that all of the banned are racists or have racists ties.

[Jericho7]

In fairness, Mr. Robinson has stated that he did not intend to call any of the other groups and individuals he mentioned racists except for Stormfront.