Posted on 10/20/2010 8:50:32 PM PDT by kristinn
In a report released today entitled, Tea Party Nationalism, the NAACP falsely accuses Free Republic of being "an important space for...racist(sic)" and of having as a member the Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn.
In falsely accusing Free Republic of being a haven for racists, the NAACP report notes Free Republic's front page promotes the Tea Party Express. However, the report fails to note the front page also includes several statements warning that racism and violence are not welcome on Free Republic:
"Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience."
And
"Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. Free Republic advocates a return to constitutionally limited government, reserving all government powers not expressly delegated by the constitution to the United States to the States respectively, or the people, emphasizing sovereign state governments, local government, self-government and self-rule, while restricting government powers to only those enumerated in the constitution and maximizing individual rights and liberty as originally envisioned and established by our Founding Fathers and secured and defended by the blood of patriots and statesmen for over two hundred years."
With regard to Von Brunn, he was not a member of Free Republic. The article authored by him was posted by another poster. The article did not contain racism, however the article was pulled when the moderators became aware that Von Brunn was a racist. Articles by known racists are not tolerated on Free Republic (unless the articles are authored by racist Democrats like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Vice President Joe Biden or the late Sen. Robert Byrd.) To say that Von Brunn was a poster at Free Republic, or that the site is "an important space for...racists" is false and a correction will be demanded.
From page #53 of the section on the Tea Party Express in the NAACP report:
One of the official partners of the Tea Party Express is Free Republic, which identifies itself as “an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web.”173 It is an important space for the birthers and racist. One of those posting material on Free Republic claiming that President Obama had no birth certificate was James von Brunn, the white supremacist who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2009.174 This website has also posted racist attacks on the Obama family. In July 2009, after Obama’s elevenyear- old daughter Malia was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the peace symbol, a Free Republic thread featured racially charged comments about President Obama’s wife and children, using racist epithets and terms like “Ghetto street trash.” The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured that caption, “To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make Monkey sounds.”175
On the front page of its website, Free Republic advertised the Tea Party Express Bus Tour. (The Free Republic web page also features links to Tea Party Patriots and ResistNet). Free Republic’s Kristinn Taylor serves as a bridge between Free Republic and the folks behind the Tea Party Express.176 He has also worked for the anti-immigrant vigilante group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and has spoken at Florida Tea Party events.177 He does not get along particularly well with factions other that Tea Party Express, however. In a March 22, 2010 article entitled “Freedom Works Willing to Throw Tea Party Under the Bus to Appease Democrats, Media” on Free Republic, Taylor wrote: “Freedom Works...latched onto the Tea Party movement last year is now threatening to abandon the grassroots movement in the face of a propaganda onslaught by the Democrat party and the media.”178
The mention of the offensive comments about the Obama family is regretfully correct, but the report fails to note that the offensive comments were made by a handful of posters out of over 300,000 registered user and that the thread was pulled by Free Republic moderators when it was brought to their attention.
Freeper Gary Dunn was quoted today in The Guardian about the report:
Gary Dunn, a contributor to the Free Republic website, said it had a policy of always removing racist comments as quickly as possible.
It uses up to eight moderators to filter offensive posts, and repeat offenders were had their access withdrawn, he said.
As for my affiliation with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, I was a media consultant for several months. The group was not anti-immigrant and not vigilante.
The NAACP report is not just meant to smear the Tea Party movement, it is also meant to show participants and organizers that they will be investigated and held in a bad light to the public just for being in the movement. For example, others mentioned in the report have their financial situations highlighted.
I will not be intimidated by the racist NAACP, nor, I know, will Freepers.
NAACP report footnotes:
173 . Free Republic website, http://www.freerepublic.com.
174 . James W. Von Brunn, “Obama is missing!” Free Republic website, taken down by Free Republic after the shooting, cache of the post available here, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:niXSYG-nVO8J:www. freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141655/posts+http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141655/posts&cd
88 | Tea Party Nationalism — A Special Report of the IREHR
=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.
175 . Chris Parry, “Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children,” The Vancouver Sun, July 12, 2009, http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html.
176 . Kristinn Taylor is a spokesperson for Free Republic and also works with Move America Forward, whose leadership is also behind Our Country Deserves Better PAC. See, Kristinn Taylor, “Author page” Big Government website, undated, accessed August 1, 2010, http://biggovernment.com/author/ktaylor/.
177 . Our Country Deserves Better PAC is the creation of the principles in the PR firm of Russo Marsh & Rogers. Russo Marsh & Rogers was the driving force behind Move America Forward, the pro-war, pro-torture group known best for harassing anti-war activists. In fact, Our Country Deserves Better and Move America Forward share several staff members. Howard Kaloogian chairs OCDB and is the founder and former chair of MAF. Sal Russo serves as chief strategist for both groups. Joe Wierzbicki, a principal in Russo Marsh & Rogers serves as grassroots coordinator for MAF and coordinator of OCDB. Deborah Johns is MAF’s director of military relations and, until recently, an OCDB spokesperson.
178 . Kristinn Taylor, “Freedom Works Willing to Throw Tea Party Under the Bus to Appease Democrats, Media,” Free Republic Website, March 22, 2010, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2477257/posts.
I see it as an act of desparation. (survival)
If Rev. Wright has an AOL account, does that mean AOL is an “important” place for Jew-haters? Just askin’.
WOW ... there’s enough fertilizer in that post to keep Kansas growing for another 100 YEARS!!
When the NAACP truly cares about their people, I’ll listen. Moving on.
That’s awesome! I’m stealing that to tell my lib friends....might even put it on a bumper sticker.... Hope u don’t mind! :0) That logic needs to be spread far and wide!
Oh dear me...we could not possibly do that...how would it look to the world? < /s>
Going on offense instead of the constant losing defense strategy would be mean-spirited, bigoted and, of course, racist.
A smear from a liar is a Badge of Honor!
Those poor people at the NAACP. They see racists everywhere. Except in their own organization and in the Democratic Party.
And clearly they didn’t get the memo: A black man has been elected President. The race card is dead. Calling someone a racist now works only if the person really is a blatant racist, not just whenever they decide to impute racist motives to someone. No more white guilt. No more separate classes. We’re all just Americans now, even for those who used to be intimidated by the race card.
Waddaya expect?? The “investigative arm” of the NAACP is the “Southern Poverty Law Center”.
re-nortex was correct in his comment. I actually have the book right here, started to re-read as well. It is written by Barry M Goldwater, edited by CC Goldwater, and my copy says w/ a new foreword by George F. Will & Robert F. Kennedy.
And it was in Chapter 4: And Civil Rights, starting page 25.
It is well known that Buckley and Bozell were uncredited co-authors of the book.
I’ve had more than enough of the political Left trying to run this country. From the politicians, to the bureaucrats, to the interest groups, to the media. They all stink.
Sue!
Sue them for slander...
Once again, the Black Klan uses its race-pimping technique in order to subjugate the competition to a lower standard.
And this needs to be hammered home as much as possible and everywhere possible. The days of cowering to Nazi organizations like this are over. Truth will prevail, as it always does.
Sorry, naacp, your day has come and gone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.