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GOP Web Sites Suppress Immigration Debate

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Faust [OP]

2005-03-12 22:13 | User Profile

GOP Web Sites Suppress Immigration Debate

Nicholas Stix, Middle American News, March, 2005

In the wake of the 2004 election, many supporters of Pres. Bush have spoken of “The death of Old Media,” which they believe have been supplanted by “New Media,” including the Internet, and of a 50-year GOP reign.

Republican activists accurately depict the Old Media as suppressing wide-ranging debate. And yet, the New Media are also being used to silence dissent. The owners of influential Republican Web sites, most notably freerepublic.com, lucianne.com, and townhall.com, have largely made discussions of immigration reform taboo, by banning any material from prominent Web sites and writers who call for the enforcement of America’s immigration laws. Meanwhile, Pres. Bush seeks anew to impose his stealth amnesty (aka guest worker program) for illegal immigrants on the American people, which his own party’s base and the public at large oppose, without the matter being debated.

Free Republic, founded in 1996 by retired seaman and Vietnam veteran Jim Robinson, has over 100,000 registered members, including this writer. “FR” was influential as a gathering point for GOP activists in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and still sponsors rallies, counter-demonstrations, and fundraisers around the country. For most members, who are known as “FReepers,” FR is a place to post, read, and debate political articles. FR is run through donations.

The site achieved its high point last September, when it spearheaded the exposure of Dan Rather’s use of forged “documents” in an attempt to smear Pres. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard record, in the Rathergate/Memogate scandal.

Although a large plurality of FReepers support immigration enforcement, Jim Robinson has little tolerance for that position. His computer software automatically blocks any posts linking to the premier anti-illegal immigration Web site, VDARE.com, and his moderators delete any posts of articles by prominent restrictionist writer Steve Sailer. When I once sought to post one of Sailer’s articles, Robinson threatened to ban me from the site.

Meanwhile, Robinson permits writings by the open borders lobby (which Michelle Malkin has dubbed “OBL”), effectively rigging the debate.

On February 11, William Gheen, the president of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC wrote at VDARE, “The shot heard around the Internet has been fired on FreeRepublic.com. The owner Jim Robinson and his moderators have launched a sniper style purge against members that disagree with the President’s ‘guest worker’ amnesty or support more control of illegal immigration.”

Actually, the purge has been ongoing since at least November, 2000.

Robinson’s practices give the lie to his defense in a 1998 Los Angeles Times/Washington Post copyright infringement lawsuit, which he lost: “Before creating Free Republic, Robinson frequented other internet discussion sites and was frustrated by their censorship and restrictions on free expression of ideas.”

Steve Sailer responded to a query from Middle American News with an e-mail:

“My work seems to be more acceptable at the New York Times than at Free Republic.

“I got permanently banned, along with the rest of VDARE, after somebody posted this article on Free Republic back in late 2000 [“GOP Future Depends on Winning Larger Share of the White Vote”], in which I argue that the GOP didn’t have to sell out on immigration to get more Hispanic votes to remain electable. All it had to do was boost its share of the white vote from the 54% that Bush won in 2000 to 57%. And indeed, that’s what happened, with Bush getting 58% of the white vote in 2004 and winning.”

VDARE has since dubbed Sailer’s advice “the Sailer Strategy.”

Robinson has also banned the restrictionist Web site American Patrol.

The only prominent critic of illegal immigration who may be posted at FR is Michelle Malkin. Significantly, the banned writers are white, while Malkin is of Filipino descent.

Robinson notwithstanding, in a mid-February opinion poll at FR, of 3,812 members who responded, 94.2% agreed with the statement, “I OPPOSE open borders and illegal immigration,” 3.3% were undecided, and only 2.5% agreed with the statement, “I SUPPORT open borders and illegal immigration.”

In a telephone interview, VDARE publisher Peter Brimelow said of Jim Robinson, “He’s found a niche in that part of the ‘great civil war’ that’s breaking out in the conservative movement.”

Robinson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this article.

At Lucianne.com, owned by Lucianne Goldberg, things are even worse, in terms of diversity of opinion. Searches of the site in early to mid-February turned up no American restrictionist writings. Already in 2000, under various pretexts, Goldberg was notorious for banning members for any and no reason, and banned all manner of conservative Web sites, while permitting unlimited postings from liberal, libertarian, and neoconservative OBL organs such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Review and weekly standard.

Lucianne Goldberg is a veteran Republican political operative best known for inducing Pentagon official Linda Tripp, who thought Goldberg was her friend, to secretly tape record conversations Tripp had in 1997 with her friend, White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The tape recordings proved that President Clinton was having an affair with Lewinsky.

Goldberg’s career on the Internet followed a similar trajectory. In the late 1990s, she established herself as a personality at Free Republic, where she was known as “Trixie,” until she had developed enough of a following to found her own Web site. To induce her FReeper fans to leave FR in 1999 for her new site, Goldberg charged Jim Robinson with anti-Semitism.

Neither Goldberg nor her editor-in-chief, Amy Sheehan, responded to e-mail queries from Middle American News.

Townhall.com, which is run by the Heritage Foundation, is one of the most influential sites on the Internet. Town Hall’s most popular feature is its roll of over 50 syndicated Republican columnists, of whom only Michelle Malkin clearly supports the enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws. The site used to regularly publish the influential restrictionist columnists Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts, but dropped both in the course of 2004.

Townhall.com editor Jonathan Garthwaite did not respond to e-mail and telephone queries from Middle American News for this story. Columnist and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who is also the editor of the paleoconservative American Conservative magazine, responded by e-mail to a query from Middle American News, “To my knowledge, Heritage and Townhall.com only rarely carry my column as I have not always been in agreement with that brand of conservatism.”

A source from Heritage, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the lack of immigration enforcement voices at Heritage/Town Hall is due to two problems. First, “They’re too damn close to the GOP!” Second, as an organization dependent on donations, and given conservatism’s split between social conservatives and libertarians, discussion of any position “is guaranteed to tick off 50% of their supporters.”

In neocon magazine Commentary’s October 2002 issue, Joshua Muravchik argued that the sort of issues raised by conservatives critical of the GOP and of neoconservatism—race, ethnicity, the welfare state—simply have no place in conservatism.

In a telephone interview with Middle American News, Pat Buchanan summed up the conflict thusly,

The neoconservatives, I think are, given their roots, wherever you want to place them, by nature intolerant of dissent. They are not conservatives in the old tradition of National Review, where there was a robust contest every two weeks, with Russell Kirk and Frank Myer and James Burnham and Buckley and Whittaker Chambers … They could [unclear] disagree, but it was a wonderful magazine. My feeling is that the neoconservatives fundamentally come out of the Left. You find it in the rhetoric, the constant iteration of the use of the word ‘fascist,’ and the kind of demonizing rhetoric that the Left has always used and the idea that the other points of view on the right not only don’t have to be answered but they ought to be squashed.

… with regard to immigration, we’ve had many of the old Republican conservatives [who] were both protectionists and in favor of restrictive immigration policies, so you could assimilate immigrants and that’s all consistent with traditional Republicanism and conservatism. And the idea’s been demonized, and more than demonized, it’s been denied a hearing. That suggests that the people who are now defining conservatism are not really conservatives at all.

If the GOP’s editorial bosses refuse to permit respectable, rational criticism of policies killing off American sovereignty, the members of the GOP’s conservative majority shall find themselves with different standard bearers and media, and possibly, a different party.

Meanwhile, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is triangulating in the manner of the master, Bill Clinton, for the 2008 presidential election. With her ear closer to the ground than the GOP leadership, the hard-core leftist senator has come out with a stand against illegal immigration that is far to the right of the GOP. So much for the Republican Party’s 50-year political empire.

(Posted on March 10, 2005)

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This is why I write letters locally. I don't get edited and I don't get censored. If they run my letters, they run them as I wrote them. Shame on these so-called conservatives for censoring people who are just concerned about their country's future. Shame on W for not taking this issue seriously.

On another note: Anyone who votes for Shrillery will get what they deserve. This woman is a Socialist. a Multiculturalist of the worst kind, and she is a dangerous person to America. Believe it.

Posted by sue from GA at 5:02 PM on March 10

This issue isn't going to go away, merely because GOP dinosaurs want to ignore it. It'll get discussed here, on the American Nationalist Union's site, and the like. I think the degree to which neocons come from the left speaks volumes of the success the old GOP had at inculating much of their platform into the mainstream.

Posted by Michael C. Scott at 5:18 PM on March 10

Count me as one who has been banned from posting at Free Republic due to not being willing to worship and adore George W. Bush and his policies, immigration included.

Posted by Jack Aubrey at 5:30 PM on March 10

GOP HIJACKED BY CORPORATE THUGS.

The GOP has been infiltrated and hijacked by corporate thugs for whom alienism is a way to make money from the world's biggest human trafficking operation--immigration. "Neoconservatives" are basically corporate thugs and have nothing to do with being conservative.

I think the article is wrong to assume that these corporatist websites are "conservative". Immigration is America's cancer that is destroying America and anybody who does not stand up against it cannot love America--it just cannot be. Anybody who sells his mother for a few bucks cannot then claim he actually loves his mother--it would be just a big lie. Similarly, anybody who sells off his motherland through immigration just cannot love America, or be a conservative, whether he uses fraudulent terms such as neo-conservatives, etc. Neo-conservatism and libertarianism are a cover for corporatism and a refuge for corporate thugs.

I think websites that do not expose this cancer of immigration are losing patriotic visitors. I do not visit them. There are many other websites for patriots such as Amren, middle-american news, fairus.org, numbersusa.com, vdare.com and Pat Buchanan's website. These are the true conservatives. That's where I go and that's where all patriots must go, subscribe and support.

Posted by Mark at 5:34 PM on March 10

Bring on the "civil war" within conservatism. Those of us who came from conservatism, but see the real dilemmas facing America as racial ones, are of course quite frustrated with the absolute refusal of mainstream conservatives and the GOP to see that white dispossession is THE issue of the day (and will be the issue of the next 50 years or so).

Meanwhile, watch Hillary get the presidency. Then we'll see how much credibility Jim Robinson, Karl Rove and the rest of the ostriches have.

Posted by Hugh Lincoln at 5:38 PM on March 10

I have actively supported and contributed to the orgs mentioned in this article. I, too, contacted them via email after hearing that they have become super soft on illegal and legal immigration, but I was never answered either.

The'll never get another nickel from me nor will I encourage readership of their sites or subscriptions to their publications as I have in the past. In fact, the entire base is closer to neo-cons than they are to the closed border advocates that have supported them in the past. They're slipping into the multiculturalism-is-o.k. crowd.

While they haven't reaped huge rewards from my support in the past, I have to say I've pushed many people their way, as have many others like myself. To lose a support base that is made up largely of activists will take its toll on their overall support, and it will definitely weaken them over the long run.

I supported them mostly because they were closed border advocates and were also supporters or silent advocates of citizen militias, but it appears as if they have wandered into another area on both these points also.

Since then I have grown, understanding the racial/multicultural situation as being the greatest threat to the country and the people whose ancestors made it what it is today. They don't understand that yet because their development has been retarded for various reasons. Unless by some miracle they return to the straight and narrow, everything they advocate is meaningless without racial unity and consciousness.

They'll get it right eventually, but it will be after third world savages have ruined our nation and have finally resorted to overt, large-scale violence, which, to a great degree, will be due to their apathy.

Posted by Robert Kelly at 5:39 PM on March 10

Like all attempts at political censorship in the US, this too will fail. The truth will always come forth and be revealed.

But what a pack of lowlifes. Robinson. Goldberg. Please. Spare me the agony.

And I love how when she was horning in on him, she used an anti-Semitism accusation against Robinson. Do these lowlifes deserve one another, or what?

Posted by DTF at 6:23 PM on March 10

“The only prominent critic of illegal immigration who may be posted at FR is Michelle Malkin. Significantly, the banned writers are white, while Malkin is of Filipino descent.”

Hmmm...???

This is why, this is the only sociopolitical/cultural website that I bother to post on!!! I have nothing against Miss Malkin, she may be Filipino but she is a patriot. All I can say, is thank God for AR, it is an island of sanity in a world gone mad!

Next,

“If the GOP’s editorial bosses refuse to permit respectable, rational criticism of policies killing off American sovereignty, the members of the GOP’s conservative majority shall find themselves with different standard bearers and media, and possibly, a different party.

Meanwhile, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is triangulating in the manner of the master, Bill Clinton, for the 2008 presidential election. With her ear closer to the ground than the GOP leadership, the hard-core leftist senator has come out with a stand against illegal immigration that is far to the right of the GOP. So much for the Republican Party’s 50-year political empire.”

If the Republicans, in their Multi Cult/Neo Con madness are not careful, we might actually have Adolf Hillary for our next President/Fuhrerin! The Republicans have not a clue, as to just how dangerous and stupid their “Hispanic” strategy is. The high-handed attitude, that Nationalist Conservative Whites “have no where else to go” is as arrogant and insulting to us, as the Democrats similar view of Blacks as being hostages to their party. In the end, I think we will have the 2 party system shatter along racial lines into about 4 parties: a dominant Pro-White Nationalist Party (The American Renaissance Party, sounds good to me,) a Black Entitlement Party, a La Raza Party, and the Multi Cult Republocrat rump party of “what once was.” The last group, like the Reds in the Russia that once was the core of the USSR, will end up being a group of bitter and useless orthodox ideologues reduced to a minority in power and waxing nostalgic about a “utopia” lost.

It could not happen to a better bunch!

Posted by John P. M. at 6:39 PM on March 10

Both political parties are for monetary interests. All other legislation that occurs is simply control apparatus. Citizens cannot redistribute wealth. Irrefutable laws of economic physics determine that wealth and information(which is a form of wealth)is distributed from the top down.

Posted by scott at 6:39 PM on March 10

Kudos to Pat Buchanan, a true patriot, for taking the time to respond to Mr. Stix and for putting the matter in such clear terms: "...the other points of view on the right not only don’t have to be answered but they ought to be squashed."

Bush and his neocon masters are not conservatives.

Posted by Polonius at 6:49 PM on March 10

Mos of those who call themselves "conservatives" these days are Bush shills.

Many of us who started off as conservaties years ago now try to not use the word when describing ourselves. Unfortunately, most of the unwashed still think that if one is not a conservative, then one is a liberal. The same thing occurs with those of us who were born Christian, but who long ago gave up that religion, when we say we are not Christain. "Oh, so you're Jewish?"

Nope. Nope. There are many other options besides conservative/liberal and Christian/Jewish.

Posted by No Shill at 7:33 PM on March 10

Does anyone need anymore proof that the GOP is no different than the Democrats?! At least they are honest about stabbing me in the back, the GOP smiles to my face while it sticks the knife in.

Posted by Chuck Coats at 8:19 PM on March 10

We have waited so long for the left wing- bleeding heart -multicult- thought police- talking heads to be exposed. And just when it finally happens the new media has a bias as well. But even the new conservative media, such as rush or Hannity, that opposes bushes plan on illegals gives him so many nods it makes him still look like our best guy for the job to most the conservative base. That is the part that scares me the new media is the new thought police controlling the very minds I was hoping we could win when left was finally exposed. I just can’t win

Posted by steve from cape canaveral at 8:36 PM on March 10

Count me as one who has been banned from "Free"Republic (twice!). I still go to FR as a source of news, but the Freepers have been dumbed down to the "sheeple" that they used to loathe. It is merely a Bushboy bandwagon.

Posted by clockwork at 8:38 PM on March 10

I have to side with the neo-cons on this issue. They have set up their sites, and their establishing their own criteria for presentation on them is NOT censorship. Only governments can censor, but every free communication entity exercises control over its content. Neo-cons support massive third world immigration; their internet sites simply reflect this. My response is simply not to support the neo-cons.

Posted by JEHill at 9:20 PM on March 10

One of the greatest unrefuted lies in politics is that big businesspeople are "conservative." Corporate crooks are generally front and center in every destructive trend. Their watchword is not principle but "moderation." Every payoff to minority agitators like Jesse Jackson comes from the corporate boardroom. The driving force behind the swamping of America with third-world immigrants is Wall Street. Most intimidation and suppression of dissent on racial subjects is enforced by one's employer. Conservatives need to re-examine their affection and defense of the corporate world because it is they who are killing America.

Posted by fire eater at 7:30 AM on March 11

It is remarkable what "mainstream" conservative media concern themselves with. Every day they're more trivial, their interests more absurd and irrelevant. "Conservatism" of the variety peddled by the websites mentioned in the article seems to amount to nothing more than siding with Bush Jr. and the republicans on every tiny little thing, coupled with stupid obsessions about democratic celebrities. "Goodness, did Bill inhale or not? Do Hillary's panties match her hat?" It's all tax rates, bombing Iraqis, and the wonders of Hard Working Family Values Immigrants. Let's not support them in any way.

Posted by Cassiodorus at 10:33 AM on March 11

To Steve: I too am scared to death of the likes of Sean Hannity. I have never listened to Rush. I like Michael Savage, but he doesn't strike me as in the same category as Hannity. Savage is more of an individual, not a follower like Hannity is. Hannity is one huge egomaniac, who draws strength from his legions of adoring soccer Moms who call him up and worship at his feet: "Oh, Sean, you're a rock star", one actually cooed one day. Neal Boortz calls him the "Baby Jesus".

This guy has said he doesn't mind immigration, and he seems to be coming down a little harder on illegal immigration lately, but he still scares me. But I think he will take whatever stand Bush (whom he just loves) takes, in the long run. He doesn't strike me as someone who will deviate from the Republican position. And, as I said before, his influence is immense with the "neocons".

Posted by sue from GA at 11:11 AM on March 11

(from John PM): "In the end, I think we will have the 2 party system shatter along racial lines into about 4 parties: . . ."

IMO, before that happens America itself will shatter. And that would be the best outcome of all! Let the multi-culti leftists, neocons, blacks, etc. move to the Left Coast and the Northeast. That will leave Dixie, the interior West, Alaska and most of the Midwest free for us real Americans to inhabit and prosper. Then we can watch those "blue people's republics" collapse -- and when the legions of refugees show up at our borders, we can forcibly turn them back.

Posted by Dave at 12:24 PM on March 11

I think others should take the position that if one is to be banned at FreeRepublic or any other NeoCon web site, one should get in a great shot and really deserve to be banned.

I got banned at FreeRepublic for suggesting that (deceased) open borders enthusiast Robert Bartley at the Wall Street Journal might now be sharing a jail cell in Hell with 9/11/01 terrorist and illegal immigrant Mohamed Ata.

:-)

Posted by JR at 3:03 PM on March 11

Sue, Sean Hannity is a good-looking, fluent dolt who has an A+ motormouth. He couldn't think his way out of a sandbox.

Posted by Jack Aubrey at 4:53 PM on March 11

Actually, I don't think Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts were removed from townhall columnist page because of their views on immigration. Paul Craig Roberts have hardly written a single column on the issue of immigration for the last two years. It is rather their antiwar views which were the reason for their removal.

Posted by Mikael Widmark at 5:09 PM on March 11

Neo-Cons are not conservatives, they are former Trotskyites who knew that they could not openly push their agenda, so they co-opted two political parties, which is why, deep down, you cannot see a difference between either the the Dems or the Reps. It's the best way to control the masses, make them think they have a choice when in fact it is all the same deep down where it matters.

Posted by RobertB at 5:26 PM on March 11

I attendeda Republican event yesterday. The speaker, a former minority leader in the California assembly and Senate, professed astonishment when I suggested that the Bush policy on open borders is not shared by the majority of voters.

To me, this is one more piece of evidence that the Bush family is a cancer to the party and to the US. Their legacy may be permanent minority status for the party and effective disenfranchisement of the majority of the public who believe in border enforcement.

Posted by Larry at 9:51 PM on March 11

Larry - you have figured it out a lot faster than the majority of people in this country. The neo-cons ask, "Why is King George II doing" this or that? from the viewpoint that he is a "conservative" (Aside: What are they "conserving?"). When one makes the assumption that KG II is a leftist, his actions make perfect sense.

Posted by The Grey Man at 1:30 PM on March 12

GOP Web Sites Suppress Immigration Debate

[url]http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/03/gop_web_sites_s.php[/url]

Sertorius

2005-03-12 22:32 | User Profile

Faust,

[QUOTE]Free Republic, founded in 1996 by retired seaman and Vietnam veteran Jim Robinson, has over 100,000 registered members, [B]including this writer.[/B][/QUOTE]

Not for long, after Rimjob reads this.

Michelle Malkin gets a pass because she supports the Neocon line. Being Asian also has its advantages on "Free" Republic.

Now, on this, Faust, I find myself having to defend Rimjob against a scurious charge if I have ever heard of one:

[QUOTE]To induce her FReeper fans to leave FR in 1999 for her new site, Goldberg charged Jim Robinson with anti-Semitism.[/QUOTE]

Slander, I say! :furious: I will be the first to take up Robinson's defense. If there is anyone who knows which side the cream cheese goes on a bagel it is Robinson. When it comes to sucking up to the Israeli Lobby Rimjob has few peers.

Centinel

2005-03-12 22:41 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]Not for long, after Rimjob reads this.

I dunno....isn't Stix a rabid zionist as well? That's gotta count for something at RimJobistan.

Sertorius

2005-03-12 23:43 | User Profile

Centinel,

To be honest I haven't the foggiest. I simply couldn't resist the quip. I was going to look, but realized that I really didn't care. If he is a shamless Israel Firster, then I think he would benefit from limited coverage. Still, Rimjob does have to appease two masters- the Likudniks and the Wall Street plutocratic types. At times he must flip a coin.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 04:16 | User Profile

Here's the original article where Drudge & Mama Goldberg storm out of the FREaktown litter-box...

:clown: :clown: :clown: HI RIMJOB!! :clown: :clown: :clown:

Free-for-all at Free Republic Lucianne Goldberg, Matt Drudge and other friends abandon the Clinton-bashing Web site over its attacks on George W. Bush.

By Jeff Stein

July 13, 1999 | WASHINGTON -- Last year, when the sound and fury of the anti-Clinton movement was cresting with every White House revelation, no group reveled more gleefully in the president's troubles than the habitues of Free Republic, a raucous conservative Web site where Clinton bashers vied to top each others' harangues and posted press clips bolstering their views.

The "Freepers" turned their cyberspace coffee klatch into the liveliest, if not the biggest, right-wing Web site on the net.

But Free Republic was more than just a Web site where red-meat conservatives could interact, as opposed to merely read. Freep sponsored anti-Clinton Washington rallies. It took out newspaper ads. It gave a dinner for the congressional managers of the impeachment drive. Freep clubs sprang up in some cities. Lucianne Goldberg, the New York literary agent and catalyst of Monicagate, joined the party, and Web Wunderkind Matt Drudge helped it out with publicity and links. Free Republic became the main soundstage for the anti-Clinton bandwagon, with its "latest posts" page drawing 50,000 individual visits per day.

What a difference a year makes.

Drudge, Goldberg and several other Free Republic stars have left; visits are reportedly down to less than half what they were a year ago; Free Republic's founding guru, Jim Robinson, has been sued by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times; and a swelling number of haters have turned up the volume of death threats, gay-bashing, name-calling and conspiracy theories tying the father of Republican front-runner George W. Bush to drug-dealing by the CIA.

To be fair, Free Republic has always been a home for pugilistic far-right zealots, and its recent traffic decline is probably due to the passing of impeachment as an issue, not just dissent over the crusade against Bush. But disaffected Freep stalwarts say that in recent months Robinson "let all the Y2K, gun-nut, Jew-baiting crazies take over and flame the plain-old conservatives," in the words of Goldberg.

"Well, this is a fine kettle of fish!" wrote one Freep regular in May, echoing the angst of a score of regulars. "I leave for a few weeks to remodel my kitchen, and when I come back everything is falling apart!"

"This site has become loaded with crazies and that's a damn shame," wrote another in an abject letter of resignation, one of a steady stream of Freepers to head for the exits in May, when impeachment was long gone as an issue and an army of conspiracy-minded extremists seemed to float to the top of the message boards.

The top extremist, in the estimate of the disenchanted, is its founder, Robinson, a wheelchair-bound Navy veteran of the Vietnam War who operates the site with his son and an unpaid helper from his home in Fresno, Calif. When Robinson unleashed a windy jeremiad linking Texas Gov. Bush with alleged CIA-connected drug-running under his father, a former CIA director (1975-77), vice president (1981-89) and president of the United States (1989-93), all cyber-hell broke loose.

Untold thousands of conservatives, desperate for the front-running Republican "Dubya" to oust the Democrats from the White House, left, leaving the playing field to the loons. Sources with access to Free Republic's traffic data say visitors and page views are down by at least half from their peak a year ago.

The most prominent defectors are Drudge and Goldberg. The site was thrown into a tizzy for days after their departure in May, with hundreds of anxious posts. One regular said it was "like being in the middle of a huge dysfunctional family dispute."

"Come off it," a regular begged Goldberg, known as "Trixie" on the site. "These little explosions have happened before. This is still the best conservative Web site in existence, especially when people don't get too tired and wired to cope. This will blow over as the others have. Please stay."

But it hasn't blown over.

Next page | "He's a mean shit"

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 04:18 | User Profile

Free-for-all at Free Republic | page 2

"He's a mean shit," says Goldberg of Robinson, once her partner in exposing Clinton crimes. She launched her own Web site, Lucianne.com, taking "2,000" Freepers with her, she says. "I am not anti-abortion, I am not Y2K either. I'm not a homophobe, I'm not an anti-Semite -- Christ ... I have a Jewish husband ... I have four people who work for me and half of them are gay. I mean, this is ridiculous."

"A stinking mackerel in the garbage can of truth," says Ken Giles about Robinson. Giles, a onetime Free Republic star contributor, charges that Robinson allowed the site to become "a hate group open to all sorts of off-the-wall stuff -- conspiracy theories that really come from the left."

Freep loyalists, of course, beg to differ.

"I do hope you will be fair enough to note that by a wide, wide margin the amount of serious debate on serious topics of public interest far outweighs the amount of kook/nut stuff," says Brian L. Buckley, Free Republic's attorney. "Its dominant population is conservative/libertarian thinkers who are passionate about politics. OK, obsessed maybe. What's wrong with that?"

"We won't kick the nuts out," Buckley continued, "although if racism or bigotry or hatred is expressed we will ... Free Republic is not ashamed of that accommodation any more than the ACLU is ashamed of accommodating skinheads marching through Skokie."

An unbowed Robinson, meanwhile, says he wishes Goldberg and the other defectors well, and is looking forward to Freep's July 24 "Treason is the Reason" rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House. The gathering will feature the political odd couple of Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr and left-wing Clinton-loathing columnist and Salon News contributor Christopher Hitchens.

"I said I would speak at their dinner," Hitchens said via e-mail. "I didn't know the rally was called Treason is the Reason: Sounds a bit overwrought to me. In general I'll speak to any anti-Clinton outfit and make my own points."

Meanwhile, Robinson says he'll continue to make his own points about the Bush-CIA past.

"The theories of the CIA's involvement with drug runners and terrorists in Southeast Asia and Central and South America are well known and have been around for many years," he answered a query from Salon News. "And many of the stories we've heard are probably true or at least are grounded in fact and I, for one, would like to get to the bottom of it and put a stop to it."

He added, "There are some in Lucianne's group who do not want to touch these issues because they might lead back to George Bush as leader of the CIA, vice president and then president, and these discussions might damage G.W.'s chances of winning the nomination."

"Shame on you," one disaffected Freeper responded, "for blaming the son for the father's sins."

On this and other disputes, both current and ex-Freepers begin to sound more like high schoolers in a cafeteria food fight, cackling louder with every splat.

"It's the whack-jobs that are scaring people off," says Goldberg. "The remaining freepers are still talking about Vince Foster, for crissake."

"If you leave, you're an enemy of the Web site," says Giles, a movie-industry Web architect in Santa Barbara, Calif. "Is that ludicrous or what? An enemy of the Web site? How can you be an enemy of a Web site?"

The site still has its supporters, and not only on the far-out right.

"I love the Web site ... Jim Robinson is a genius. It's really well organized," said Dan Moldea, the Washington organized-crime reporter and author. "It's the belly of the beast," he adds.

Moldea, who's been a target of Freepers since last year, when he surfaced as Larry Flynt's chief investigator of Republican sexcapades on Capitol Hill, relishes the political combat, but says: "These people are fanatical. They never admit they are wrong."

Moldea recently experienced a twist in a Freep practice that's gotten the site in trouble. He found an article about Clinton with his byline on it, headlined "The Mob President," posted at Free Republic. Since Moldea, an avid Clinton supporter, did not author the piece, he poked around on the Internet and found that the article had been lifted from another anti-Clinton tabloid and then falsely attributed to him at Free Republic.

Lifting articles got Robinson and Free Republic in hot water with the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which last October sued the site for violating the "fair use" doctrine on reprints. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said Robinson was violating the law by posting, archiving and allowing his visitors to post, the full text of Post and Times articles instead of just summaries and links, causing the publishers to lose money. (Full disclosure: Salon has complained to the site's webmaster about posting the full text of Salon articles.)

Next page | "It may take a village to whack you, you sullen bitch"

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 04:24 | User Profile

Free-for-all at Free Republic | page 3

At the time, Robinson shot back that he was being singled out for his politics and vowed, "I will not back down." This week, however, he referred questions on the suit to his attorney, Buckley, who expressed confidence that the little Free Republic would prevail against the media giants.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office, Buckley said the plaintiffs had been "stonewalling" his requests for internal data from their Web sites demonstrating that the duplication of Times and Post material at Freep actually generated traffic back to their Web sites.

Katharine Scully, associate counsel for the Washington Post Co., "categorically" denied Buckley's allegation of foot-dragging in the suit, saying Free Republic was "searching for information we simply do not have," and that the Web site had failed to provide its own documentation to show it had generated visits to the Post's online pages.

Critics trace Free Republic's decline to last February, when the drive to impeach Clinton sputtered and Robinson and his followers began attacking Bush. Spring also marked the arrival at Freep's Fresno headquarters of one Connie Hair, a former Paramount Studios secretary and bit-role actress ("Death Wish 5") who found her political legs online at Free Republic.

Hair was soon anointed Freep's director of media relations and event planning. Her critics say she encouraged Robinson's desire to turn Free Republic from a mere Web site into a political organization.

"She turned it into a power position," said Giles. Expanding from Free Republic, Hair became a paid consultant to conservative Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes as well as Larry Klayman, the Washington activist whose Judicial Watch has peppered the White House and its supporters with lawsuits.

Hair refused to comment on her role at Free Republic.

Robinson has also been accused of raising funds online and not accounting for how he's used them. He appealed for funds to stage Free Republic political events, such as last fall's "Judgment Day" rally in Washington, touted in a Freep-paid advertisement in the anti-Clinton Washington Times newspaper. According to his critics, some donors gave "tens of thousands" of dollars to the cause, while others donated with the hopes of making some money back by selling Freep T-shirts, bumper stickers, pins and so forth.

Around the same time, Free Republic began supplying material to TalkSpot, a now-defunct Internet venture that featured streaming talk radio and videos. He acknowledges that he received a consulting fee for the material. That triggered criticism that Robinson was receiving "six-figure" fees from TalkSpot while crying poverty on the site and begging for donations. No one beyond Robinson really knows how much money has been taken in or spent. He refuses to release a financial statement, and declined any comment to Salon News on his finances.

It's the hate mail and death threats sprinkled through the site, however, that some of Free Republic's former supporters believe demonstrate the decline of the site.

Samples about the Clintons: "Somehow, genital herpes just isn't enough for this duo ... 357 seems more on the mark (it may take a village to whack you, you sullen bitch!)

"Hey billzo, fondled any chicks on a rope line lately? Criss, have you noticed that these two assholes, the pres and his bitch, need about four layers of protection just to walk around in public? They know that everybody hates them, and wants them to be dead! Senator? yea-sure, c'mon, bitch, I got yer senator rite heayre! ..."

And this regarding gays: "I was once told that 50 grains injected behind the ear cures both AIDS and homosexuality," posted another Freeper with the screen name of D. Rider. "That's '50 grains' of lead."

"The FBI went around and rapped on his trailer," said Goldberg of one regular hate mailer. She doesn't take the rants seriously. "They were written in kind of a tough-guy vernacular, bully talk. That doesn't mean they're going to literally go kill [the Clintons]. But it was ugly stuff."

T.J. Walker, an online columnist who dug up a passel of ominous posts on the Clintons in the past few months (another sample: "People, we are going to have to go to Washington, and kill this horrible bastard ourselves!"), claimed that Free Republic's "political influence is rising even as death threats occur more frequently on its message boards." As evidence, he cited the upcoming "Treason is the Reason" rally that, in addition to featuring Barr and Hitchens, is also touting speeches by Rep. James Rogan, R-Calif., another failed House impeachment manager.

As usual, democracy probably has little to fear. As one of Free Republic's regulars wrote about all the howling on the site: "Take a Valium and mellow out." salon.com | July 13, 1999

About the writer Jeff Stein covers criminal justice and national defense issues for Salon News.

Table Talk Free Republic Has its 15 minutes come to an end?

Sound off Send us a Letter to the Editor Send e-mail to Jeff Stein

Related Salon stories Free speech or blatant ripoff? Copyright suit pits newspapers against conservative site By Scott Rosenberg 10/09/98

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 04:49 | User Profile

"He's a mean shit," says Goldberg of Robinson, once her partner in exposing Clinton crimes. She launched her own Web site, Lucianne.com, taking "2,000" Freepers with her, she says. "I am not anti-abortion, I am not Y2K either. I'm not a homophobe, I'm not an anti-Semite -- Christ ... I have a Jewish husband ... I have four people who work for me and half of them are gay. I mean, this is ridiculous."

Meet the Meanshitvik... :taz:

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 05:09 | User Profile

*Robinson has also been accused of raising funds online and not accounting for how he's used them. He appealed for funds to stage Free Republic political events, such as last fall's "Judgment Day" rally in Washington, touted in a Freep-paid advertisement in the anti-Clinton Washington Times newspaper. According to his critics, some donors gave "tens of thousands" of dollars to the cause, while others donated with the hopes of making some money back by selling Freep T-shirts, bumper stickers, pins and so forth.

Around the same time, Free Republic began supplying material to TalkSpot, a now-defunct Internet venture that featured streaming talk radio and videos. He acknowledges that he received a consulting fee for the material. That triggered criticism that Robinson was receiving "six-figure" fees from TalkSpot while crying poverty on the site and begging for donations. No one beyond Robinson really knows how much money has been taken in or spent. He refuses to release a financial statement...*

...and is oddly IRS-proof. Pays to provide Rove, Faux and the neo-con tawkers with an "Astroturf" echo chamber.

Phantasm

2005-03-13 05:38 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Faust] [Pat Buchanan] … with regard to immigration, we’ve had many of the old Republican conservatives [who] were both protectionists and in favor of restrictive immigration policies, so you could assimilate immigrants and that’s all consistent with traditional Republicanism and conservatism. And the idea’s been demonized, and more than demonized, it’s been denied a hearing. That suggests that the people who are now defining conservatism are not really conservatives at all. ...[/QUOTE] The Republicans have needed to take a good hard look at themselves ever since they developed this globalist fetish. Its about time that the real Conservative Republicans realized that their party has been hijacked by globalist pirates. These traitors would sell their own mother for a quarter.

So much for Free Republic being a voice for true conservatism.

:smoke:

Sertorius

2005-03-13 12:04 | User Profile

Howard,

Thanks for posting that. While I was aware of the falling out of theives, I didn't know the details.

[QUOTE]"This site has become loaded with crazies and that's a damn shame," [/QUOTE]

Evenmore so with the election of "W" and Sharon. The "freeper" Israel First Lobby for starters, anyone?

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 15:10 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]Howard,

Thanks for posting that. While I was aware of the falling out of theives, I didn't know the details.

Evenmore so with the election of "W" and Sharon. The "freeper" Israel First Lobby for starters, anyone?[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Sert...that article was written not long before Rimjob, Inc. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rove-Foxman Enterprises... :D

Anyone who wants to understand the neo-con usurpation of "Free" Republic needs to read it--and pass it on.

Stuka

2005-03-13 15:44 | User Profile

For what it's worth, I was finally banned by FR a few years ago for posting a couple of articles on black-on-white crime and a piece on illegal immigration. At the time I thought it was self-evident that "conservatives" would oppose these things, but I was wrong.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 15:50 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Stuka]For what it's worth, I was finally banned by FR a few years ago for posting a couple of articles on black-on-white crime and a piece on illegal immigration. At the time I thought it was self-evident that "conservatives" would oppose these things, but I was wrong.[/QUOTE]

The real crackdown at Rimjobistan began with Junior's 2001 Inauguration--suddenly the posting of Francis or Sobran columns--not to mention V-Dare & AR pieces--became "nukable" offenses.

Between Rove's financial subsidies and Foxman's ubiquitous ADL trolls free speech at "Free" Republic was no more.

Sertorius

2005-03-13 15:53 | User Profile

S,

I think in order to prosper on "Free" Republic one has to worship four things:

[list] []"Free" trade []Tinkering with the tax code instead of repealing the 16th Amendment []Open borders []and most of all a foreign policy that revolves around Israel and what it wants. [/list]

I think that pretty much sums up the views of the Republican "leadership."

Stuka

2005-03-13 15:58 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]S,

I think in order to prosper on "Free" Republic one has to worship four things: [list] []"Free" trade []Tinkering with the tax code instead of repealing the 16th Amendment []Open borders []and most of all a foreign policy that revolves around Israel and what it wants.[/QUOTE] [/list]You're right. Hell, even Gingrich & Limbaugh have lambasted the administration's open borders policy! But I think they're tolerated, due to their Israel First views.

Stuka

2005-03-13 16:00 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]The real crackdown at Rimjobistan began with Junior's 2001 Inauguration--suddenly the posting of Francis or Sobran columns--not to mention V-Dare & AR pieces--became "nukable" offenses.

Between Rove's financial subsidies and Foxman's ubiquitous ADL trolls free speech at "Free" Republic was no more.[/QUOTE] Yep, that's about the time it happened.

Is there any evidence that Rove bankrolls FR? I would not be surprised. Someone should investigate.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 16:08 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Stuka]Yep, that's about the time it happened.

Is there any evidence that Rove bankrolls FR? I would not be surprised. Someone should investigate.[/QUOTE]

Given the Armstrong Williams, Jeff Guckert and other assorted scandals regarding Junior's Regime "subsidizing" media consensus for its policies it is more than likely that Rimjob gleans gelt from fat Karl.

I recall during a 2000 snookerathon (fundraiser) at Rimjob's there was a substantial shortfall below the stated goal ($75,000)...suddenly a donation was announced from "a generous Texan" of $10,000 to make up the shortfall.

Bet it wouldn't be hard to connect that philanthropist with the Texas GOP & Rove--many other clues exist...

Sertorius

2005-03-13 16:15 | User Profile

S,

Yes, I've heard them too. Limbaugh has said more on this subject this year alone than he has over the last 14. They are up to no good. They really don't care, save two things and that is acting as a steam valve to allow folks to blow off pressure and to co-op the anger so as to render any meaningful immigration reform inert. I think that Limbaugh has been forced into commenting about this because of the number of callers his screener has to deal with. That is to say I suspect he gets a lot of calls on this on Friday that never make it on the air. Rush doesn't want to lose his standing.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-13 22:21 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]S,

Yes, I've heard them too. Limbaugh has said more on this subject this year alone than he has over the last 14. They are up to no good. They really don't care, save two things and that is acting as a steam valve to allow folks to blow off pressure and to co-op the anger so as to render any meaningful immigration reform inert. I think that Limbaugh has been forced into commenting about this because of the number of callers his screener has to deal with. That is to say I suspect he gets a lot of calls on this on Friday that never make it on the air. Rush doesn't want to lose his standing.[/QUOTE]

If the Transnational Plutocracy's "New World Order" goes through unchecked, 99% of FReakers will also be bleating harmony in lumpenprole conditions on that Global plantation...

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-14 05:32 | User Profile

[B]Rimjobistan boldly thwarts "Hate" infiltrators!![/B]

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White Nationalist Group Targets Free Republic For Infiltration Stormfront White Nationalist Community | [url]http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136664[/url] | Multiple posters

Posted on 07/01/2004 4:11:35 PM PDT by stands2reason

Warning! Clicking on the links on this thread may cause spyware to be installed on your computer On A Stormfront Teaching Incursion Into Free Republic ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Svyatoslav_Igorevich has taken a keen interest in inducing Stormfront members to register at Free Republic. Free Republic is approximately five times as large as Stormfront.

"How do we penetrate Free Republic?"

[url]http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136636[/url]

Over the past few years, Free Republic has gotten less and less interesting. However, many posters and readers at Free Republic are four square behind stopping the illegal invasion from Mexico. This is one topic on which you will be allowed to post at Free Republic.

Free Republic does not suffer criticism of Jewry, so- if you insist on trying to get that topic in, you'll be banned in short order. That is certain.

They will allow minority crime stories, but don't try and headline it "Negro Rapes and Kills White College Girl" etc., cause you'll be history.

I believe you have to be a member for a very brief while- a few days or a week, before you can start your own threads, but you can post from the start.

A few ideas I have on registration names: perhaps it would be wise to use names they can relate to easily...GOPin04, WtheBEST, ConservativeGirl (take up a girl's name as a handle- most politicos are men, and they'll appreciate it LOL), GodBlessUSA, SupportOurBoysInIraq etc. And don't use my examples, cause for certain, Jim Robinson and his mods will soon find out about and read this thread.

Remember. What we consider staid, they consider radical racist. If you find a good minority on White current crime tale- toss it right in there. Then, for good measure- just to show you're not racist (cause some of them will say- "You ONLY ever post black on White crime!")...well, post some White homo principal who's been playing with his students. A digital incursion onto Free Republic can be managed. We have the numbers, and the abilities. But a lot of us will get knocked out as surely as if we had been British redcoats charging in a line, if we don't be sensible and clever.

Remember these pointers before you click that mouse. And ask yourself: "Would Jim Robinson post this?"

If we meet with some successes, we can't come back to Stormfront and say- "I am posting over at Free Republic as "RightWingChick" and here's what I said...", cause their mods will be following our threads having to do with the incursion. We could post threads in which we've participated and let everyone at Free Republic and Stormfront guess, but we simply can't name our names and expect to go undetected. Jim Robinosn will even be looking for increases in registrations, and all those who have registered within 30 days or so of Svyatoslav_Igorevich's [url]http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136636[/url] JJT's [url]http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136655[/url] and this Free Republic thread.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-14 06:07 | User Profile

Remember these pointers before you click that mouse. And ask yourself: "Would Jim Robinson post this?"

Or, [B]WWRJD?[/B] :taz:

Okiereddust

2005-03-14 06:35 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.].........

Free Republic does not suffer criticism of Jewry, so- if you insist on trying to get that topic in, you'll be banned in short order. That is certain.......Svyatoslav_Igorevich's [/QUOTE]Tsk Tsk. So Svyatoslav is telling them not to "name the Jews"?

Guess Canny Sammy is gone, but we still have canny Svyatoslav. :lol:

Where are you Franco? "Hey what everyone ought to at Free Republic is start naming the jew at once." :censored:

Sounds like the Stormfronters are going soft on you guys Franco

Bottom line is Jews and Nazi's are basically the same (when they aren't the same :ph34r:) - both are mainly if not solely intent on sabotaging WN, Christians and paleoconservatives)

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-14 06:38 | User Profile

Yassuh...irony sho' am ironic, Mistah Okie...

Phantasm

2005-03-15 07:44 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Okiereddust]... Bottom line is Jews and Nazi's are basically the same (when they aren't the same :ph34r:) - both are mainly if not solely intent on sabotaging WN, Christians and paleoconservatives)[/QUOTE] Here, Here.

:cheers:

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-15 19:43 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Phantasm]Here, Here.

:cheers:[/QUOTE]

Only Frank Collin; Howard Covington and Dan Burros would know for certain...

Phantasm

2005-03-16 22:59 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]Only Frank Collin; Howard Covington and Dan Burros would know for certain...[/QUOTE] Also individuals like Alex Linder and "Von Bluvens..." who are noted for their antisocial lifestyles and "misfit" rhetoric. With people like these being hailed as leaders... how far can the "movement" go?

:rolleyes:

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-03-17 06:33 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]Centinel,

To be honest I haven't the foggiest. I simply couldn't resist the quip. I was going to look, but realized that I really didn't care. If he is a shamless Israel Firster, then I think he would benefit from limited coverage. Still, Rimjob does have to appease two masters- the Likudniks and the Wall Street plutocratic types. At times he must flip a coin.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.editorialcartoons.net/archives/identity17.gif[/url] :thumbsup:

Phantasm

2005-03-17 07:12 | User Profile

Great cartoon HC!

:lol: