Time to part company

myself | 4/1/05 | hchutch

[hchutch]

Six months ago, Free Republic was riding high, and I was proud to be a part of it. It was coming off having blown the cover off of Dan Rather’s use of forged memos against the President. The President was well on his way to winning re-election. It was a great time to be a Freeper.

However, things have changed. It started with the justifiable removal of ALIPAC. I supported that move by Jim Robinson, but the ugliness directed towards Alberto Gonzales. He was accused of everything under the sun, and Senator Mel Martinez was viciously attacked for speaking Spanish on the Senate floor. The tone and outright viciousness (terms like FROBL and traitor were fired off at anyone who did not toe the line established by Michelle Malkin and Tom Tancredo) on immigration threads had concerned me, but I had concluded it was an isolated incident. After ALIPAC was removed from FR, I had hoped the tone there would improve. But it only got worse. I was point-blank called a traitor because my views on immigration differ from those of Michelle Malkin’s groupies. On immigration threads, questioning the questionable is not allowed. One must accept the unacceptable and allow folks to defend the indefensible. Never mind that VDARE, American Renaissance, and other sites are racist or have no problem hanging out with those that are racists (I’m just going to call a spade a spade here).

There were folks who had the long knives out for Senator Rick Santorum, one of the strongest pro-life members of the United States Senate. Why? Because he endorsed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey. It was stunning to see these long knives out for a conservative. And all it would accomplish would be his replacement by a Democrat. How in the world replacing Rick Santorum with a Democrat would aid conservatism is beyond me, but it was demanded because Santorum endorsed Specter. The long knives were out, and I suppose it was a sign of what was to come.

The whole Terri Schiavo case has changed everything for me. A mob mentality took over the first few days after the order to pull the tube was given. Anyone who did not toe the line was attacked. I saw a dedicated active-duty member of our armed forces called a “Maine liberal” for simply asking why troops in harm’s way did not get the same sort of “all-nighter” attention that Terri Schiavo got. It was a reasonable question – we have 40-year-old P-3s still out there. We have a war on terrorism still going on, in case folks have not noticed. We have to get Social Security fixed. I say this as a person who believes that at best, Michael Schiavo’s relationship with a woman (and having two kids with her) meant he had a conflict of interest – and that he had decided that Terri was inconvenient. I cannot take his word alone that Terri would have wanted this. I also believe that George Felos is a supporter of euthanasia, and that he is using this case for his own ends. Those folks give me the creeps, and I think that Jim Robinson was on the right side of this issue. However, I also got a very bad feeling when the Schindlers embraced the likes of Randall Terry and Bo Gritz. I had to wonder what has happened to the conservative movement when the threads were allowed to spiral so out of control. The concept of euthanasia is repulsive and disgusting, but it does not excuse allowing the threads to spin out of control.

I have seen the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and the Governor of Florida, John Ellis Bush, take huge political risks in an effort to save Terri’s life. I believe they were doing their best to do the right thing, and that the original law passed in 2003 was a reasonable one that was wrongly stuck down by Judge Greer and the Florida Supreme Court. I think that the Republican Party has taken a huge risk to give Terri a chance at life, and I am disgusted with those who seek a pretext that will justify leaving the GOP in the lurch. I’m sick of the way the Terri threads spun out of control, and the vicious attacks launched at reasonable people who came to a different conclusions about the situation or who pointed out facts that certain people found inconvenient. This is not what I signed on here for.

I believe in a strong national defense, cutting taxes, and in general trying to keep government involvement as minimal as possible (there are times when the best one can do is to limit government involvement in a situation). I am pro-life (with exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother) and pro-Second Amendment. However, I do NOT want the federal government to be involved in any culture war. “Culture” was never mentioned in the constitution, thus I believe it is left to the States or TO THE PEOPLE (see the Tenth Amendment). I do NOT think immigration is a problem, but I believe some mistakes were made along the way (like eliminating the bracero program). I also think that the President of the United States has proposed a sensible plan that will go a long way towards solving the problems on our border with Mexico and do much to alleviate the problems surrounding illegal immigration. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me and Free Republic to part company, because Free Republic has left this limited-government neoconservative. In the process of Free Republic leaving me, I now find that I fear the social conservatives as much as I fear the loony left. As a result of coming to this conclusion, I ask that my account be deleted and all posts I have made, save for this opus and the ping to my friends be removed.

I do this with regret, since I will miss some of those who I have met here, but I feel no other choice. So long.

[xJones]

What's goofy about my screen name.......other than it's incredibly boring and uncreative????????????????

I've got you beat. For deliberately boring screen names, 'xJones' is a winner!

I had to do a make-over on my previous creative FR screen name because it was hard to live with. Maybe I should have held on to it, though, like Frumious Bandersnatch has with hers.:)

[over3Owithabrain]

IIRC, we all pretty much rallied together here at election time and put the right guy back in office (and kept the wrong guy out). And I'm sure we will again - especially if Hillary runs!

[xJones]

What is with people getting their panties in a wad and leaving FR so suddenly???

The sharp rise in maudlin opi during FR fund raisers has been noted by casual observers in the past.

[paltz]

please delete

[international american]

ROTFLMAO

[american spirit]

Exactly right.......it's about the only thing I can see to cure a liberal (or other assorted useful idiots) suffering from rectal/cranialitis.

[MeekOneGOP]

I found that pic on a Google Search a while back. The whole thing is perfect to show his total ego/self-centered attitude or whatever.

I'm at a disadvantage regarding this Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. Haven't watched the show.

haha! Google is my GOOD friend:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Mr.+Burns+Simpsons&hl=en

LOL! I see what ya mean now! Thanks. :)

[MikefromOhio]

hehe....

yeah its kinda scary what plastic surgery did to his face....

[MeekOneGOP]

"Thanks for the ping, meekie. What is ALIPAC? If Jim dropped it,
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care for it."

Here is a thread regarding that:

Ban me Jim
[Re: Illegal Immigration, ALIPAC and the Minuteman Project]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1342689/posts

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Jerry Jones:

You mean...IT ISN'T ABOUT ME???!!!

(Glum, introspective owner Smiley.)

[cyborg]

I don't get it with some people. I don't need to be attacked or anything like that to know that illegally entering someone's country is wrong.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out. What a loser. Everyone doesn't agree with me. Call the waaaaaaaambulance. If we all just gave up like you the libs would take over in a heart-tick. What a loser! Most everything you bring up has legitimate fallacies and needs scrutiny and discussion. No one here believes he or she has the ultimate solution. It is a world of compromise, like it or not. The way to effect change is not by withdrawing from the discussion.

[american spirit]

Yeah, I'm right there with you on this subject. What's mind-boggling to me is that FR has thread after thread concerning illegal crime statistics, hospitals on the verge of bankruptcy, anchor babies, billions of our tax $ spent on people here to colonize (not assimilate), employers openly flaunting federal law.......yet all this is lost on the open border pom-pom crew I suspect are pretty intelligent folks who probably wonder daily why their taxes and various insurances keep going up......I don't get it......but I'm sure many of them will when the day comes their own ox is gored.

[FBD]

The first sign of an impending nervous breakdown is taking oneself or one's own opinions/views too seriously.
Good luck finding a political/philosophical discussion forum, where everyone agrees with your POV.

Until you find that magical and wondrous place...:

---

"One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs
The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains"

---

.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"We have enough home-grown cretins so why import more Luis? You might like your tax $ going to support this wave of humanity with their never ending need for services paid for by American tax $ but I know this is a path to national suicide. How many more hospitals need to be bankrupted, schools overloaded, innocent people violated before you and the rest of illegal pom-pom crew get the message........will it take one of your loved ones being assaulted before you get it?"

Your entire post is one long misinformation campaign.

No one is advocating illegal immigration, least of all me...a legal immigrant, so shove your "pom-poms".

You sound like a typical leftist crying about "how many more innocent people need to die as a result of ultra-right-wing nutjobs need to posses weapons"?

Rhetoric is rhetoric.

Immigrants are not "cretins", unless of course you consider your ancestors (the ones who migrated here) to be cretins too. The cost of immigration is a debatable issue, what impact an individual immigrant has on the nation's finances is relative to the immigrant's age upon arrival. An even the impact of illegal aliens on the economy is unclear; certainly not the "drain on our tax dollar" crap that's put out there for the rubes to swallow willingly. Michele Malkin's whining about Bush's Social security totalization agreement with Mexico would have us paying hundreds of millions (even billions) of dollars in S.S. payments to illegal aliens. Funny...

The S.S. system is a "pay to play" system, you can't collect if you didn't pay in. Ms. Malkin has just argued that illegal aliens have paid hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) into Social Security!

And if they had S.S. payments deducted from their pay checks, then they must have billions deducted in income taxes as well!!!

Some immigrants commit criminal acts, and those that do should be punished, but most are not, so they should not be judged based on the actions of others.

You don't begin to understand what the true American Spirit is...here's someone who did:

"And now, let me speak directly to the young people and the students here. I wonder yet if you've appreciated how unusual -- terribly unusual -- this country of ours is?"

"I received a letter just before I left office from a man. I don't know why he chose to write it, but I'm glad he did. He wrote that you can go to live in France, but you can't become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Italy, but you can't become a German, an Italian. He went through Turkey, Greece, Japan and other countries. but he said anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American."

"Some may call is mysticism if they will, but I cannot help but feel that there was some divine plan that placed this continent here between the two great oceans to be found by people from any corner of the earth -- people who had an extra ounce of desire for freedom and some extra courage to rise up and lead their families, their relatives, their friends, their nations and come here to eventually make this country."

"The truth of the matter is, if we take this crowd and if we could go through and ask the heritage, the background of every family represented here, we would probably come up with the names of every country on earth, every corner of the world, and every race. Here, is the one spot on earth where we have the brotherhood of man. And maybe as we continue with this proudly, this brotherhood of man made up from people representative of every corner of the earth, maybe one day boundaries all over the earth will disappear as people cross boundaries and find out that, yes, there is a brotherhood of man in every corner."

"Thank you all and God Bless you all." -- Source

I just returned from a vacation in New York City.

I spent several hours walking through Ellis Island, where I looked into the eyes of immigrants. I walked the grounds of Liberty Island, and I walked the streets of the Lower east Side; Little Italy and Chinatown. I ate in Hell's Kitchen and heard more languages spoken in one place than I've heard in my entire life, and I had a cabbie tell me that the real America was not to be found in papers stored in D.C., the real America was in the immigrant neighborhoods of the Big Apple...and I believe he's right.

The greatest city in the world is an American city filled with immigrants from every corner of the globe.

Cretins?

Hardly.

[kildak]

I hope there aren't any sharp knives or loaded guns in your house. Better stay away from the medicine cabinet too....

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

What is up with these dramatic goodbuys. Its a political website if you dont like it leave. To think your so important where you need to have an exit statement is kind of funny. JUST GO

[bitt]

you do what you think best...there seems to be plenty of opinion expressed on all sides of the Terri Schiavo death. I am glad to express my opinion, and if I don't agree with someone else, I tried to avoid fighting with them. Period.

I DO think there is more to her story than we know, and I fault Michael for never allowing her outside for 5 years, even denying her a good taste of juice on a washcloth.

THAT's torture.

[AmishDude]

Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from the Eagles.

[american spirit]

Hey Luis, spare me your sanctimonious comments on immigration......FYI, my roots are hispanic which I'm very proud of because I know that my inherited work ethic has allowed me to achieve far more than I ever expected and I hold the same regard for many other ethnicities sharing similar traits.

Whether you like to think about such realities or not, anyone who violates the most basic tenets of the common law (do onto others as you would have done to you) in the form of brutal rape, murder, etc. is a cretin, low life or what ever term applies (illegal or US citizen) and this reality occurs daily regardless if you believe it or not....can't make it any simpler, that's the REALITY of the situation and if you choose to deny certain truths that's your problem and I stand by my statement "we have enough homegrown cretins why import more"?

Certainly illegals contribute something into SS and may pay some taxes on their minimal wages but the average illegal costs us taxpayers much more than they or their employers will ever pay in.......you really want me to believe that these "anchor baby" illegals will ever be able to pay back in taxes what their baby's birth, feed and house that child will cost taxpayers.....and what happens if there's ongoing health problems?.......surely you're not that delusional!

That's an excellent quote from Pres. Reagan concerning people wanting to come to this country, although I don't see any tacit approval of illegal immigration in those comments however seeing as you've included Mr. Reagan into the discussion I'm sure you also well aware of his comments to the effect that...."a country that cannot protect it's borders is not a country anymore"......sure seems like a pretty clear opinion about illegal immigration doesn't it?

I choose to live in a constitutionally limited republic which was our intent since America's creation......if we continue down this path we'll be a republic alright.....a "banana republic".....is that your desire for our children's future?