I have an opinion on this that I will share with Eric privately.

I'll say it like this here, though. A lot of people thought that the way to make the political process more fair was through the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). What it will ultimately amount to is restrictions on speech. Hosters of private web pages beware!

very interesting - thanks Laura. So far, due to our "eutral" political position, ie, we cover the entire spectrum with individual writers presenting their own views freely, we haven't had any direct political ads that I can think of. And we haven't done any direct fund-raising either - we just cover it all as news.

OK. It just seems to me that even though we are debating rather than advertising per se, a broad interpretation might lead to attempted regulation of sites like this: must have an equal number of posts pro-Bush and pro-Kerry, etc. I agree with Mike though - yet another encroachment onto freedom of speech.

(I must admit that I'm curious as to why Mike needed to share his pov privately, but I won't pry. :-)

the media isn't required to give equal time for news stories, or paid ads (I don't think) - my God, that would be insane intrusion - just on political advocacy. I wouldn't worry too much about that here.

I think this will be as successful as the attempt in Canada to prevent posting election results from the East Coast before polls on West Coast close (nearly four hour time difference, half an hour later in Newfoundland).

What this points out, is you change the system to suit the reality.