The upper one does, but the lower one doesn’t (it is technically a link to www.freerepublic.com which automatically redirects to www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index). The problem is, even the upper link isn’t labelled in an informative way. If you’re a newcomer and typed www.freepublic.com , you’ve been automatically redirected to the main forum index at www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index. Seeing a bold heading at the top that reads “Free Republic” hardly looks like a link to a “Home” or “About” page. In fact it doesn’t even look like a link at all, but just like a visual heading on the page you’re on. Remember, newcomers have no way of knowing that there is anything like the home page. They went to the main domain name, and got a full forum index, and what they *see* there is all they know. Most websites have their main home/directory page at the basic .com/.org/.net domain name, and either have the general information about the site right there, or have a prominent link on that page labelled “Home” or “About” that leads to a general information page.
What page are you trying this from? I’ve checked both main forum index at www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index and the News/Activism index which is reached from a link under the “Browse by Forum” list. In both cases, the bold “FreeRepublic” in the lower left does not lead to the home page. But as I noted earlier, there is and has been quite a bit of quirkiness in FR’s techincal foundation, and it’s possible you don’t get the same things I get, and/or that someone who’s not yet registered at all might get different results from what either of us get.
I have it on the regular page that comes up when you go to FreeRepublic.com. I found the like by accident.. lol.