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The way DNS Servers work is they resolve domain names to IP Addresses, the domain name Registrar one uses, maintains the record to the Name Server and other WHOIS information.

In the case of this issue here, gkg.net who is the Registrar for FreeRepublic.com is pointing to a nonfunctional Name Server:

Name Server: NS.ROBINSON-DEFEHR.COM.20081216130856.DELETED.GKG.NET
Name Server: NS2.ROBINSON-DEFEHR.COM.20081216130852.DELETED.GKG.NET

ICANN gives this information to all Root DNS Servers, that means that as the DNS Servers update they will lose the IP Address for FreeRepublic.com which causes this issue.

So the only way to fix the problem is to get GKG.NET to update the Name Server to be correct again.

Actually, if you check the GKG.NET entry directly (http://gkg.net/whois), you'll see that the settings are correct there now. Unfortunately, depending on the TTL settings for the entry, it can take a LONG time for the fix to propagate to all the DNS servers. 24 - 72 hours is not an unreasonable amount of time to expect...

Also, I poked around a bit, and I see some other things that are not good from a standpoint of DNS set-up. For example:

The primary nameserver NS.ROBINSON-DEFEHR.COM was not able to correctly resolve NS2.ROBINSON-DEFEHR.COM.
Both nameservers resolve to the same IP address (WTF?)
The NS entry for freerepublic.com is pointing to ns.freerepublic.com. I think that should be pointing to NS.ROBINSON-DEFEHR.COM, not a subdomain of the domain you're trying to resolve.
At least one of the entries had a TTL of 3 days - probably not what you want.

I'm not a DNS expert by any means - I know just enough to be dangerous - but I would highly recommend that Jim pay someone who IS an expert to look into this and straighten things out. DNS is the sort of thing that looks simple on the surface, but is loaded with land mines for the unsuspecting to step on.