Thirty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court compromised the First Amendment when it ruled that the Constitution’s prohibition on laws regulating free speech did not apply to limits on donations to political campaigns. Ever since, Congress, state legislators, and voters have struggled to apply the court’s logic, with varying degrees of success and plenty of unintended consequences.
One of the fascinating things about the Internet is the ease with which any one of us can tap into the ugly tangle of hate, fear and suspicion that seems to shape so much of our national standoff.
Another month, and Congress is pouring more money into the extravagant marble-lined Taj Mahal officially called the Capitol Visitor Center. The much-delayed three-story project is buried from public view under five acres of the Capitol’s east front.
President George W. Bush, trying to tap into Independence Day patriotism to revive domestic support for an unpopular war, vowed on Tuesday that U.S. troops would not leave Iraq until their mission was complete.
President Bush’s stalwart foreign friends are fading fast. Most of the leaders who defied criticism at home to stand with him on Iraq and win his friendship are no longer players on the world stage, or are on their way out. And it was a small band of brothers to begin with.