>From my post to the list on 9/9/03:

"This gets at the question I posed to the list a month ago about overt
broadcaster electioneering.  No, it doesn't happen very often right now but
there's really nothing that special about these media corporations - and if
shame isn't enough to prevent mid-decade re-redistricting or gubernatorial
recalls premised on unpopularity, I suggest it won't persist long in
preventing broadcaster electioneering either.  You wanna do independent
expenditures with 100% soft money?  Buy a broadcaster."

>From yesterday's Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41774-2003Dec6.html):

"Hoping to spend as much as it wants on next year's elections, the National
Rifle Association is looking to buy a television or radio station and
declare that it should be treated as a news organization, exempt from
spending limits in the campaign finance law."

Eighty-nine days, by my count.  QED.


________________________________
Joseph M. Birkenstock, Esq.
Special Counsel
Smith Kaufman LLP
777 S. Figueroa St., Suite 4050
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 452-6576
*only admitted to practice in DC