The money is always well-spent, chiefly on bandwidth and equipment costs and utility bills, to keep the biggest and best WHOLE TRUTH information machine in the world running -- we constantly filter out the left-wing spin-doctoring and provide members with "the other half of the story." It's a group effort with thousands of unpaid volunteers, serving as amateur news analysts. Magnificent.
The legal team is also a great investment for part of this money. It protects the site from left-wing disruptors who realize what a danger we represent to their agenda. They are constantly trying to find a way to interrupt or shut down the smooth operation of our news analysis.
A lot of publicity has also attended Free Republic's lawsuits, which are expensive but worth every penny. We are defending freedom of speech for every little website on the Internet, including the left-wing hate sites whose members are gleefully predicting the date that we will go "Error 404."
Last summer, one of the left-wing punks at Smirking Chimp actually predicted that we would go "Error 404" by Christmas 2001. I told him that I'd find a little McDonald's paper hat, link him to a fully operational Free Republic on Christmas Day, and ask him whether he wanted fries and a Coke with that crow he was going to be eating.
Guess how that turned out: same way it always does.
As I have posted many times. A vibrant, healthy and growing Free Republic is the worst night mare and day time terror for socialists, communists, enviralists, terrorists and phoneys who pretend to be conservatives on this site.
They know for their dark side to be successful, they must totally control the media and only present their agendas as news and to spike the real news.
Free Republic stands tall and stops all of their phoney news distortions. They would do anything to harm Free Republic.
One last observation, I heard the author of the book on Hansen, the FBI mole, this morning on our local conservative radio station. After listening to him, I have to wonder how many Hansens roam Free Republic posing as conservatives with one intent, to harm Free Republic!
Now to the positive, "With another successful Freepathon, we have ruined the next quarter for those who hate America!"
What a great feeling!
To everyone involved!