143 posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:49:32 AM by null and void: “No. Editors are not suicidal. Welcome to 1933. Even FR buckled. (Of course we did it for the children!)”
I'm going to defend the anonymous Free Republic Admin Moderator cited on The Blaze, here:
Maybe I **AM** suicidal, but last night I basically did to a local official what montag813 suggested, and did the same thing this morning to another one. I was politer in both cases and didn't hang up, but did use the F-word to make my point very clear. Let's just say I'm not known for gutter language, and when I do things like use the F-word, it's to make crystal clear I'm not backing down when the law is on my side.
Details on my situation are irrelevant here other than that the law is crystal clear on the points involved, the officials have a short period of time time to fix the issue quietly, and if they don't, it's not my fault that they chose to violate the law shortly before municipal and school district elections which are coming up in the first week of April. One official already did the right thing. The other, after talking to lawyers, will probably call a special meeting to fix the problem.
Picking your First Amendment battles is important. Publicizing the vacation plans of teen and pre-teen children is perfectly legal, but it is incredibly unwise. Free Republic needs to be fighting battles that count, not battles that will antagonize people for no good reason.
Whatever we think of Barack Obama, a large number of fathers and mothers will have great sympathy for not wanting to put his kids at risk of attack, and instead of blaming him for sending them to Mexico will blame the media (and Free Republic) for printing details of where they're staying. That's the wrong fight.
A local official is qualitatively different from the full power of The White House.
What was your risk? The zoning commission wouldn’t approve your plans to put in a hot tub?
That being said, you did well, both telling them to FOAD and giving them time to fix the underlying problem.