A few observations regarding the move of the IRC channel to a new server:
Jim has run the channel well for a long time, that's true. But that was quite a while ago, and the only contributions I have seen from him have to do with drunken rants about firewood, mortgages, politics (yes, he starts those rants, and when they don't go his way he gets mad) and working overtime. Not that I mind, but to hijack a server that's meanwhile due to lack of interest from the original 'owner' being run by other, appearantly more interested parties because you don't like the conversations going on is childish at least. It's typical of strong proponents of any political administration that they prefer to shut down communications instead of arguing the facts, be they American or otherwise. IRC channels, and most other communications media are there for their users, not for their owners.
I'd personally rather have the dissent and discussions out in the open, we might learn something that way.
From what I can see the move seems to have backfired more than just a little bit, the channel is as active as ever, on the new server - and the old one has 'jimu' sitting on his own in a totally dead chatroom.
Too bad, to me a chatroom is like a livingroom. Occasionally things will come up that lead to heated discussions, which is fine with me, as long as people keep their tempers to the acceptable. If you can't do that you do not usually have a place to hold on to. And owning the domain is a far cry from running the server, it means you run the naming system, but not the house. It's a bit like changing the street sign in an otherwise active street because you do not like what's going on in a bar in that street.
As far as Mr. Moore's comments are concerned, they seem to be more along political lines than anything else, since from what it looks like the 'original' irc channel is now running on his machine. Other than that I do not recall mr. Moore making any contribution either here on fieldlines or on the irc channel that had anything to do with Renewable Energy.
Republicans, Democrats ? It really doesn't matter. Try to get along and try to recover some of the prestige that America had less than 4 years ago, it will do a world of good. And don't let politics destroy your friendships, it's really not worth it. It breaks the country in two roughly equal halves and that is not a healthy future.