The crushing defeat of 'the establishment' on the amnesty issues really scared the elites I believe. The fight against it was organized mainly on the internet and talk radio. With people emailing friends and family, and those people reading about it through links. The 'powers that be' take notice when they get defeated by something, and they must be scared because they don't control all access to information anymore.
Clean and simple, on Free Republic you can find the TRUTH, faster than most any other source.