Global Warming Update - Walter Williams Vested interests, with trillions at stake, aren't about to reverse cour The Case Against Gays in the Military - Mackubin Thomas Owens Open homosexuality would threaten unit cohesion and military effectiveness.
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Today in History: Boy Scouts Of America Founded (1910) ... Birth of General William T. Sherman (1820) ... Russo-Japanese War Commences (1904) ... First Radio Installed in White House (1922) ... First U.S. Execution by Gas (1924) ... Watergate Investigaton Committee Named (1974)
Crash Course - Book review by John Gapper Detroit was not always a basket case. Rather, it was mismanaged into it. A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy - Michael Kelly Less about the man, no more fallible than most, than the corrupting influences of incumbency. A reprint of Mr. Kelly's highly respected 1990 article for GQ. Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth: Answering the Critics - Brian M. Riedl How President Obama's stimulus bill failed by its own standards. Another round would fail just as badly, burying the nation deeper in debt. ... More In-Depth
No More Speech Rationing — Advocates of campaign finance regulation, what George Will calls "speech rationing," say letting corporations -- including non-profit corporations -- spend unlimited money on political speech corrupts democracy.
Actually, muzzling speech is what corrupts democracy and the point of it: i.e., to protect our freedoms, INCLUDING FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Protecting these freedoms is a vital political good, even if some speech is deplorable.
The recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, dramatically strikes down unconstitutional limits on electioneering by businesses and nonprofits. But it leaves intact unconstitutional limits on their direct contributions to campaigns.
It also doesn't touch requirements forcing campaign donors to disclose personal information. In his partial dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas pointed to how California donors giving more than $100 must reveal their names and addresses, info then publicized on the Internet. Supporters of a recent controversial ballot proposition were subjected to intimidation and property damage as a result.
The disclosure laws have spawned what Justice Thomas calls "a cottage industry that uses forcibly disclosed donor information to pre-empt citizens' exercise of their First Amendment rights."
Thomas is right. And campaign finance regulation should be tossed out root and branch.
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"In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature." - James Madison, Federalist No. 52 (1788)