Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children

This photo of U.S. President Barrack Obama's daughter Malia, wearing a peace-symbol t-shirt touched off a storm of epithet-laced comments on the conservative 'Free Republic' blog

"A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion."

These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.

The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."

Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing - and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators.

Moderators of the blog left the comments - and commenters - in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later.

"Could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there?" wrote one commenter.

"They make me sick .... The whole family... mammy, pappy, the free loadin' mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin', and especially 'lil cuz... This is not the America I want representin' my peeps," wrote another.

Such was the onslaught of derision on the site that the person who originally complained about the slurs, a Kristin N., claims only one comment in the first hundred posted actually criticized the remarks as inappropriate.

A note on the front of the blog reads, "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government," but one comment on the thread read, "This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution," while another read, "I never actually wnated [sic] to be a pistol before but..."

After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender's email address intact.

"The writer has a point," wrote site owner Jim Thompson sarcastically. "We should steer clear of Obama's children. They can't help it if their old man is an American-hating Marxist pig."

"I agree Jim," wrote commenter, by the nickname NoobRep. "The kids didn't pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight. But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife."

"Poor kids. I hope they're not 'punished with a baby'," wrote another. "Hopefully they won't deal cocaine like the Kenyan."

"DIRTBAGS! All of them. Our [White House] is now a joke to the rest of the world. We have no respect and this is not going to turn out well, mark my words. We will be hit, and much worse than last time. We are now seen as weak and vulnerable. Ghetto and Chicago thugs have taken over."

Only after significant negative attention from a host of left wing political blogs did the maintainers of the Free Republic site place the thread under review for a second time, before finally pulling it.

In the wake of the controversy, some Free Republic posters complained about the vitriol.

One poster by the name of "fullchroma" wrote, "To Jim Thompson: The recent uptick here in racist vitriol, aimed at Barrack, Michelle and their children has made me wonder if I belong. My objection to Obama has nothing to do with skin tone. Is the ugly stereotype of Conservative racism true?"

Another, going by the name of TChris, wrote, "Free Republic is a political discussion forum. It SHOULD be beneath us as a group to stoop to such juvenile tactics as I see increasing here lately. Do we REALLY have to insult Mrs. Obama's appearance like a clique of nasty 14-year-old girls?"

But such opinions were not shared by all. Said Roses of Sharon, "Poor libs .... Too late, the battle has been joined." © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

I do cringe at some of my fellow FReepers comments, though. They make us all look bad in the public eye

I agree. We should all be quicker to hit the Abuse button on posts that are offensive and which reflect badly on FR. FR is no longer just some obscure internet forum where a little gaggle of cyber-acquaintances chatter with each other while being totally ignored by the MSM and influential people. Threads that are littered with rude and mindless comments not only make FR look bad to the outside world, but also tend to drive away newcomers who happen to bump into a lot of this crap on their initial visit, and discourage respectable and influential people from recommending FR to their friends and co-workers.

I've been happy to see the near-complete demise of the old FR fad of labelling thread headings with "Barf Alert" and variations on that theme (and would like to see it 100% eliminated). A few years back, I showed the site to a friend who had never heard of it before, and she was clearly unimpressed when she scanned the index of threads and saw at least a quarter of them labelled with "Barf Alert!", "Mega Barf Alert!", "Double Bagger Barf Alert!", etc. First impressions matter and that sort of thing doesn't convey the impression that FR is a serious forum for discussion of our nation's political system and future. There was so much of the "Barf Alert" nonsense that nobody bothered complaining about it, because it was obviously being accepted by the management. I finally complained to JimRob when, during a sluggish FReepathon, the main forum index sported a thread labelled "Projectile vomit all over yourself and your date alert!" -- I pointed out that this sort of thing was getting out of hand, and was hardly likely to inspire thinking people to help subsidize FR (and the inane label was promptly removed).

When I click on a thread and see that it's dominated by stupid, rude comments, I've tended to just deal with it by hitting the Back button and going to another thread, unless I see something that is in very explicit violation of FR posting rules (advocating violence, explicit racial attacks, etc). But I think perhaps it's time to start being more proactive about posts that are just mindlessly rude, vaguely racist while being devoid of any substantive thought, etc. This forum has become really huge while still being run on a shoestring budget, and the little crew of volunteer moderators can't be the first line of defense against the heavy volume of trash-posting that damages FR's reputation.

It sure is worse, I went there, here is some of theirs:

Bristol's pregnancy was put in play by the REPUBLICS as a political positive that She Was Keeping the Baby. She's on the table, now.

Name for the reality show? How about - The Wasilla Chillbillies? The new Ellie May? Vanilla Thrilla' From Wasilla.

Sarah Palin is a sexually perverted woman, as is her crazy white trash family

Bristol Palin's son Tripp is actually Todd's son ....

people who defend palin or who took offense at letterman can kiss my ass

I love how it won a beauty contest, just days from the womb. It chewed it's way out, right?(referring to Bristols’s son)

Say what? This guy claims to be the real baby father of Bristol's baby!( then they posted the link to a you tube video of some black dude claiming to be the father)

Consequently Bristol Palin is no longer entitled to off-limits protection. ..... Do you have to be homely to avoid being called "slutty"? ...

F**K "Sarah & Tawd Pimp Their Kids" ... and Letterman must pay Caribou Barbie

Bristol put a bullseye on her own back when she started working as a political advocate for a Abstinence only program - she's on her own and fair game.

FIRST PICTURE OF BRISTOL FAILING'S BABY(a cabbage patch doll) Where's the kid's beer and crack pipe? I mean, that's all there is for the Palin family to do in Crystal Meth, Alaska, right?

Jenna and Barbara Bush, twin daughters of US President George W. Bush, were caught being photographed in matching Neo-Nazi bondage gear

I think Jenna Bush is crosseyed. my guess: fetal alcohol syndrome

Barbara was dressed appropriately. But did their handlers forget to tell Jenna she was going to be on television last night? She looked like she had just taken a detour from a pub crawl to stop by the convention for a moment?

It's been documented she was 'partying around' during the time period in question, and at least one other individual, a young man named Kevin, claims that he is, in fact, the father...oh, and he's BLACK!!!(referring to Bristol)

Let us pause for a moment to think about Bristol Palin's 17 year-old vag**a. Don't worry, fellas and gals. The age of consent in Alaska is 16, so not only can you think away, but you don't have to worry that 18 year-old Levi Johnston raped her statutorily.

Sarah Palin"s son Track Palin has joined the army to avoid going to prison.Track Palin is not going to Iraq because he is patriotic

When it was announced that the teenager had decided "on her own" that she would keep the baby, evangelicals masturbated at the idea of Bristol Palin's vag**a, which was possibly roughed-up by Levi's stumbling fingers before he f***ed her for a couple of seconds,

Bristol Palin's vag**a, which may or may not be topped by a tuft of pubic hair shaved in various shapes, is important to our national discourse for obvious reasons

The Bush twins will continue to screw around making a public nuisance of themselves, until medlife, when they discover Jesus, give up drinking, and embrace the conservative orthodoxy.

I have complete confidence the twins will grow up to be hypocritical lying right wing automatons

Bush twins seem like more wealthy, spoiled, party trash.

if he uses them as props in then they are fair game.(speaking of the Bush twins)

I would pass on sending them to Iraq for the good of our troops. Maybe its just me, but I would prefer to be outside of the blast radius when Barbara manages to toss a grendade all of 5 feet.Plus, Jenna makes an awfully big target, doesn't she?

Its pretty obvious that the twins are as shallow as their old man ….floosie Bush twins

That was how the BushBimbos said it - which shows them even dumber than I give them credit for being

Do we know for a fact that it was this girl's decision to keep this baby? As you can see in the picture above (click to enlarge), she's already kinda built like a black chick

I wouldn't be surprised if her mother, who recently carried a baby to term knowing good and well it was gonna be retarded, is forcing her to go through with this. Which is just wrong.

THE ENTIRE PALIN FAMILY SEEMS RETARDED. SO MUCH FOR THEIR FAMILY VALUES.

So in conclusion, all they do in Alaska is shoot sh*t and f**k…. And drill holes in s**t and name your spawn Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig like you're trying to recreate the cast of Tiny Toon Adventures

crackers, you soon will be gone from the face of the earth and I am sure we all will be just fine. Crackers are going to be like a distant memory

figure the slut's too daft to just take it in the mouth & a**.

Where's Palin's mongo baby in the picture? Or am I to believe he had plans with some other clan of retards?

Let's chalk up the lefty scorecard of attacks against Sarah Palin's kids:

- Track is gay, or he joined the Army to avoid prosecution for meth use.

- Bristol is a slut/whore/liar and her baby is retarded too and she had sex with a black guy named Kevin so the baby might be half black

- Willow should be raped by A-Rod. Britol’s Dad Todd is the father of her baby

- Trig is not really Sarah's kid, he's Bristol's, and he should have been butchered in the womb, by the way, he's a "retard," mongo,….

we could go on forever. Is there anything these people won’t say or do? I thought they said kids were off limits and they played by the rules. Stupid a*ses. Their rules mean anything said not complimentary of the Messiah to the mindless drones must be squelched. I say to them, not in a million years.

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