My 2 cents:
It boils down to a double standard when dealing with pulling posts and banning posters.
It used to be that open discussion here was the norm, and as long as someone wasn't abusing the forum by posting numerous vanity threads, or posting blatantly racist stuff, they could participate here.
Some posters were more conservative than Republican. Some were more Republican than conservative. Others supported third parties (to the right of the GOP), and others mainly posted on the 'special interest' threads such as gun threads or archeology or whatever. Heck, we even had a few moderate leftists (on some issues) who were allowed to post here, since they were civil, and their comments/questions usually generated healthy debate, if not some humor also.
Many FReepers even moved from group to group as compelling and well-developed arguments convinced them one way or the other.
As dissatifaction over the perceived lack of conservatism out of the administration grew, so did the 'volume' of the arguments between those that were dissatisfied and those that were not.
Instead of allowing these arguments and discussions to play out on their own, while applying the rules against personal attacks, etc...., equally to both sides, the rules (often quite arbitrary) were only applied to the folks that were disatisfied with the direction of the Republican Party.
A clique of about a half dozen or so posters was allowed to form and repeatedly violate the posting rules through bitter personal attacks, and by baiting other posters into replying in a manner that got them banned.
People who had posted here for years, and even contributed money or participated in FReeps were banned for no other reason than "offending" one of the clique members by defending themselves from a vicious personal attack.
Once many of those posters were "purged", the clique then went after newbies. Then it was back to the oldtimers again. And so on.
The irony of this is that through these paranoia-driven purges, they have done more to damage their avowed singular cause here (the re-election of Bush), than could have ever possibly been done by simply letting things be and attempting to make their case by using logic and facts.
People do change their minds based on appeals to the latter. People don't change their minds when repeatedly insulted and mistreated.
As to the complaints from some about their posts appearing on other forums, I don't see what the big deal is.
FR is a public forum, so why should anyone be surprised when their public comments appear in public on another public forum?
I would think that any poster who uses logic and content to support their particular arguement would love to have their comments (attributed to them, of course) posted on other websites, as this will increase the effect of their argument and perhaps persuade others to their viewpoint.
But if a poster engages in little more than meaningless chat and personal attacks, I can see how they'd be embarassed to have their posts appear elsewhere.
Maybe that's why some folks are so upset over it.