[Mudboy Slim]

"He has the ban button and is quite liberal with its application."

That's not been my experience, and I am often quite disagreeable...errr, in the minority.

"If he squelches dissenting opinions (often) then the direction of the forum is most certainly shaped with his hand."

I haven't seen him squelching dissenting opinion...the folks who get the heave-ho are usually the trolls who would love nothing more than to see conservatives cannibalizing each other. They're actually quite easy to distinguish from the genuine Conservatives who feel let down by the present Administration.

As for those who cavalierly dismiss Constructive Criticism of Dubyuh as BushBashing, it's an increasingly-tiresome debate technique, IMHO. Still, there is a real difference between offerring up a critique of Dubyuh's performance to date and attacking the man personally, which too many frustrated folks are all-too-quick to do.

FReegards...MUD

[Demidog]

the folks who get the heave-ho are usually the trolls who would love nothing more than to see conservatives cannibalizing each other.

I disagree. I got the heave ho when I wrote an article predicting that Congress would use the events of 9/11 to encroach upon our freedoms.

I was re-instated finally but I still have emails from PTB calling me a traitor for daring to suggest that Bush or the republicans would do such a thing.

I'm not alone. This kind of "shaping" is destructive to free speech and the principles that make a "Free Republic."