Posted on 12/25/2007 8:40:34 AM PST by Josh Painter
Indeed as you know I eschew banning anyone one, I am always game for a fight.
Anyways, you see there is this thing we humans have about not being a jackass when you are a guest in another person’s house.
Yeah, Charles. Your alien leaders should have taught you this before they sent you to our planet.
Such as this one, listed just below the Post button:
NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.
There's been a lot of people ignoring that common-sense request lately.
I for one know you are not an alien Charles, you are never at our meetings.
As for the rest I think refering to Free republic as a Fredhead cesspool is ban worthy, don’t you?
Did we get to see any of those in action this year at the memorial shoot? You sure have some beauties in your collection!
If some newbie said it, sure. I would think a warning might be nice for someone who has been around as long. I’ve seen much worse statements that simply were deleted.
Banning just seems like a severe step for someone who has a history of conservative postings to the site.
I’m not defending the statement. I do believe there is a tendency toward group-think here, but I see no need to denigrate the site for it — it’s not Jim’s fault, it’s not endemic to the site, it’s just how people are.
See, a lot of people look to FR and their fellow freepers to validate their “conservatism”. They come along, they read people who think like they do, and it makes them feel good. They post something, get slaps on the back, and think “yes, I’m one of them, I’m a conservative”.
So when they see the “gods” of the site running around calling people liberal if they argue a position, those Freepers, not wanting to lose their “conservative” credibility, jump in with those in charge.
Here, if you support Fred Thompson, everything is smooth sailing. You can make any jokes you want about other freepers or other candidates, you can call people names, you can make up quotes and say you were being “funny”, you can mislabel and make up polling numbers, you can post your own thoughts in news and put your own quotes as if they were in an article you are supposedly posting, and you will get pats on the back.
You can call people jack*sses, aliens, liberals, trolls, slime, whatever you want, and so long as you are supporting Fred, all is well.
In that environment, you couldn’t expect anything other than majority support for Fred, and a lack of candor regarding anything he does.
My approach is to find threads I’m interested in, and if I disagree with either an article or another poster, I simply explain why I think they are wrong. I ignore the personal attacks, I could care less what people here label me, and so long as they don’t call me a liar I pretty much let it go.
If I see someone attacking another Freeper, I’ll point out the moat in their own eye. If I see some freeper who has called others liars making his own clear lies, I’ll point it out. But that’s as far as I’ll go toward making ANYTHING here personal.
I’m here to discuss candidates, issues, policies, and applications of conservatism. I expect the smart people here to be able to apply conservative principles to the problems we face, and to be able to cogently argue their point of view.
If I decide that I can defend forced health care insurance as a conservative value, I expect someone who disagrees with me to be able to use conservative principles to argue against me, and to refute my argument. Same is true for any subject, be it illegal immigration, guns, CFR, Dubai Ports, Ramos/Compean, whatever the issue.
BTW, wanted to make it clear that I don’t know if there was a history with the poster. Maybe he had gotten private mail telling him to back off, maybe there were other threads where he had been warned.
I’m just arguing based on the one incident I observed.
I just now saw the thread that got you and JCEccles banned. I can’t believe it. Petronski and the other Fredheads have done nothing but personal attacks and I cannot see that a description of FR as having become “in the tank” (a certain kind of tank, to be sure) for Fred constitutes a personal attack. Having been away from FR all day yesterday, I noticed this morning a relative dearth of anti-Romney threads compared to the past few days. But I had no idea that you guys had been banned.
I’ve slowly been growing disenchanted with FR as a source of analysis from the heartland of news stories. What seems to me growing narrowness of viewpoint is offputting. I’ll find some other source for good analysis. Perhaps Townhall—it has a wide range.
In any case, could you let me know if you get unbanned?
>>“Fred Thompson 3%
Say’s it all.”
Incidentally, his latest poll numbers in Iowa and NH are also 3%.<<
Fred’s at 9% in Iowa and fighting with Guiliani for 3rd but they both have the money to continue no matter whether they finish 3rd or fourth.
JCEccles you always have a place with your LDS family!
CHEERS!
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I'm starting, just in the past few days, to feel more and more optimistic about Fred's chances myself - at least as far as Iowa, and then the nomination is concerned.
First, it is a fact that among Iowa voters, Fred is viewed as the most conservative AND he has the fewest negatives.
More importantly, though, it almost seems like the stars are aligning for him in Iowa:
-Guiliani isn't campaigning.
-Huckabee peaked too soon. He started getting lots of attention, and what did we see? Pardons, Dem-style economic policies (I heard where he's now saying the government needs to do something about CEO salaries - with Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?), tax breaks for illegals. He's deflating fast.
-Romney is getting exposed and his support was ALWAYS thin. I honestly don't know who these passionate supporters of his are - but they are NOT movement conservatives. He's a moderate/liberal, and many who weren't aware of that before are now.
So....when those who are becoming disillusioned in Romney and the Huckster look for a second choice, where will they go?
Well, some may gravitate toward McCain (God help us). But he's got his own baggage with conservatives. No, I think they'll slide toward Fred. Combine that with his Silky Sullivan style late charge, and I think you have the makings of a stunner next week.
At any rate, I think the media has written him off so decidedly that they won't be able to ignore a 2nd or even a strong 3rd place finish. And if he wins? The money flows in and we get a week of stories about what a genius of a plan he's been following. From there, Fred goes on to SC and probably wins it. It won't be easy, but after that, I think he'll have as good a shot as anyone.
With one week to go, here's my official Iowa prediction:
Romney - 28%
FDT - 24%
McCain - 20%
Huckster - 17%
Guiliani - 9%
Others - 2%
Hell, maybe Fred Barnes will even mention Thompson's name!
Hamk
Good riddance.
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