Edgar Hall
Bush is a "cokehead
Thu May 8 17:51:15 2003
67.1.128.216

CRACKDOWN!


By Edgar Hall, Political Editor
WHEN crusading Conservative Jim Robinson first set up Free
Republic six years ago, he had high hopes for his message board
baby. It wouldn't be like all the other political forums he
posted on, which regularly denied him free speech. Oh no, Siree!

His forum, to borrow from the mission statement on the homepage,
would "roll back decades of governmental largesse, root out
political fraud and corruption and champion causes which further
conservatism in America". If posters wanted to sound off against
the government, that was just fine with Jim. And if one of those
posters happened to believe George W Bush was a "cokehead felon
", good luck to him!

That was six years ago.

In 2003, things are rather different at the Fresno-based Free
Republic and the poster who trashed Dubya would now be banned
instantly. Ironically, that poster was... Jim Robinson himself.
In 1999, he incensed his readers by making the following post:

To: Freedom Wins

So, it doesn't matter if he [Bush] snorted coke as a youth? It
was a long time ago, a youthful in-discretion? Kinda like people
who frequented sneakeasies during prohibition? Kind of a cute
story, eh? Well, how about all the people whose lives have been
destroyed by being arrested for the felony of drug possession?
What about the millions of people who are rotting away in your
filthy drug infested prisons at this very moment?

Well, by God, if you people insist on electing another cokehead
as President, you damned well better throw open all the prison
cell doors and free every man, woman, and child you're holding on
drug charges. And if you're gonna elect another drug felon as
President, you'd better rescind each and every one of your
unconstitutional drug laws now on the books, including all of
your unconstitutional search and seizure laws, and your asset
forfeiture laws, and your laws that enable your unconstitutional
snooping into our bank accounts and cash transactions. Well, I
don't know whether to laugh or cry. You people are sick!
Conservatives my ass. You people are nothing but a bunch of
non-thinking hypocrits! You're a shame and a disgrace to the
Republic!

And, I, for one, am tired of taking orders from cokeheads and
felons! Elect another one and I'll tell you what. I'll be ready
for war! It'll be time to take up arms and run the filthy lying
bastards out!

Posted on 08/20/1999 03:19:31 PDT by Jim Robinson

Nowadays such attacks on Dubya are mightily unwelcome - don't you
know there's a war on? - and a new breed of "Texas Chainsaw"
moderators has instructions to stamp down on any insubordination.

Appalled at the change in direction, many of Jim's closest
followers have predictably deserted FR in protest - followers
like Joe Phillips, Robinson's friend and chief fundraiser, who
blames head moderator "Ms Anti Feminazi" for the change in
outlook. After longtime poster "Askel5" was zapped last month for
questioning Rumsfeld's integrity, Phillips blasted: "I tried and
tried to get JR to understand that banning folks like "Askel5"
was dumbing down the forum.

"But to my knowledge the only one he listens to is dumbass "MAF",
the leader of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre gang. I have been
consistantly amazed that the five or six good moderators have
stayed on with this mental midget dips**t."

In fact, the banning of "Askel5" had little or nothing to do with
"MAF". It was wholly Robinson's decision and the reason he gave
may have suggested he could give any self-respecting "mental
midget" a run for his money. When "Askel5" tried to reply to some
fairly hostile flamebaiting, she received the blunt message,
"Your posting privilege has been revoked. Reason: Saddam
apologist."

So are the moderators really out of control or is it perhaps Jim
who needs to take a break? "Jim calls the shots," insists one of
the mods, who agreed to talk to us under condition of anonymity.
"Sure, we get a little power-crazed from time to time and suspend
a few folks. But if we over-step the mark, these people are back
posting within days. Jim oversees everything. He isn't some
bewildered old man who doesn't know what's going on - he reads
the forum religiously.

"I don't know about the others but I get a little fed up with the
abuse we get. It's an unpaid job on one of the busiest political
forums there is. You see all these breakaway forums setting up
and they all swear they won't go the same way as Free Republic.
Yet within months they are banning posters willy-nilly."

But a former moderator sees things rather differently, claiming
her successors actually get a kick out of banning people's
accounts. Poster "Mercuria", who was once a moderator and member
of the elite Free Republic Advisory Board, insists: "The mods and
Jim (whom I'm sure is ALSO a mod) certainly chortle enough with
their ZAPS and ZOTS.

"They've made no secret that they enjoy being able to shut down
the debate of anyone who disagrees with them, no matter how
reasonable the dissenters are being. They think all this is cute.
Gives them that big Ego Rush of Belonging they obviously can't
get off-line."

One such dissenter was Christopher Knight, who also found himself
out in the cold recently for not loving the "cokehead felon".
This time the reason Jim gave wasn't "Saddam apologist" but
instead "Liberal". Which he isn't, unlike Robinson who used to be
a registered Democrat.

"I joined FR as "Darth Sidious" in January of 1999 because its
overwhelming mission was restoring the rule of law to this land
during Clinton's fiasco of an administration," explains Knight.
"What happened to Free Republic was the sad old story of
obsession: the site and its management became so obsessed with
destroying an enemy, it became the enemy.

"There is no more free and earnest discussion on this site. Anger
the Robinsons [Jim's son John is also involved in FR] or their
gang of "moderators" and you get banned. Do something they
particularly don't like and all your posts - years worth of them
even - get obliterated down the "memory hole". You cease to exist
on FR anymore... because there is no individuality where "the
party" is concerned."

Robinson has since reactivated Knight's account but he has not
posted there since his banning. And if Free Republic continues to
resemble the online version of Orwell's 1984, he probably won't
be back for a while.

As "Mercuria" says: "I'd always thought that being a conservative
was about respecting independent thought and open debate - am I
wrong?"

Apparently, she is wrong. "Independent thought and open debate"
are no longer permissable at Free Republic - except maybe for
that one little guy who thinks President Bush is a "cokehead
felon".


http://www.freerepublicsucks.s5.com/crackdownmay2003.htm 

• RE: Jim Robinson ... barf ... spit ... puke — Bob Scheidt, Thu May 8 18:35
• Bush May Invoke 9/11 Executive Privilege and Secrecy — Tom Flocco, Thu May 8 18:27
• Avoidance and total abuse of authority — Bee, Fri May 9 02:30
• Believing in America — aries72, Thu May 8 23:15