Telamon, you sound like Claude Rains in Casablanca,
you are "Shocked, shocked!" that a bunch of liberal
Democrats are spending a lot of money in media, and part
of their motivation might be
to support a Democrat in an election. As people have pointed
out in this newsgroup, various of the rightwing commentators
have support that comes from "foundations," I've pointed
out that often political magazines - which almost always strongly
support one side or the other, are at least partly bankrolled by
individuals. As for not planning to make any money for two or three
years, this isn't a sign of evil intent, as Peter Maus pointed out in
his response, this is about normally what they should expect.

And calm down a little. If this plot is such a clear and present
danger, but Al Franken will honestly answer about it if you call
him - THEN CALL HIM, and expose the whole charade for what it is.
He's a pretty lame conspirator in that case, anyway.

Look, there has been talk about doing this for a couple of years. Any
even-numbered year they would have done it in is a congressional
election year, and you could get all up in arms in that case about
the same issue.

Telamon, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander - people
on the left have every right to throw their money around to influence
elections, just as people on the right have been doing. Their secret
plan that you are so worked up about, if it is indeed merely a plot
to influence the election, and not a business venture, is to elect
a government that spends a little more on education and health care
and a little less on military, respects environmental treaties, and
throws our military weight a little less. I don't think a Kerry
administration is going to suspend civil liberties and install secret
tribunals and socialize the means of production - is that what you
really think is in the offing?

And by the way, you refer to the "older, established" means of raising
money having been eliminated. Were they fair? Didn't groups on one side
or another abuse campaign financing laws of all kinds? And also if the
law has suddenly become so Draconian how come Bush is spending a couple
of hundred million in his un-opposed PRIMARY campaign alone, before even
gearing up for the general election? The total capitalization of Air
America is dwarfed by what Bush is going to spend this spring alone.


Telamon wrote:


The following Public service message uses non standard capitalization
for the reading comprehension impaired.

I don't use profanity very often but WAKE THE HELL UP !

They are not planning to make any money for 2 to 3 YEARS !

This effort is designed to influence the coming ELECTION THIS FALL.

WHY ?

BECAUSE of last years campaign finance reform. It's an end run around
the rules to abuse the electorate by Lawyer's doing their thing.

Let me put this another way for the thick heads out there. People who
are not willing to have intentions known are using the startup of this
network to influence the election since the older and established
methods of doing so were eliminated last year.

It's not about FREE SPEECH.

It's not about MAKING MONEY.

It's just a POLITICAL MANEUVER.

If you don't believe me then just call AL Franken on his show. He's
honest enough to tell you why its happening now. Go ahead and CALL HIM
or write to

http://www.airamericaradio.com/www/p...balDefault.htm