Los Angeles Times

Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, said the bills set "a horrendous precedent globally" and that much of the content users put online — such as open publishing, crowd-sourced information gathering or ...

The United States needs new immigrants to continually remind itself of its own values. That's the simple lesson I learned last week after a moment of despair.

Just when you thought the Republican far-right had enough enemies to keep itself busy — gays, socialists, Muslims, Arabs, illegal immigrants — it launched a new war against babies "dropped" (in the loving words of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham) by illegal immigrant mothers. These politicians want to change the 14th Amendment so that those U.S.-born children would be excluded from "birthright citizenship."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to get its priorities straight. Over the last three decades, the state's investment in universities has eroded while prison spending has shot through the roof. It's "out of whack," says Schwarzenegger.

To remedy that, he would guarantee that no less than 10% of the state's general fund budget go to the universities by 2014, a doubling of their current share. He also wants the deal written into the state Constitution -- both to show he's serious and to commit future governors to the plan.

Mexico's violent drug war may be pushing Mexican immigrants and their families to put down deep roots in the United States more quickly and firmly than ever.

For generations, immigrants have dreamed of going back to Mexico to enjoy the fruits of their U.S. labors. Today, fear of violence is keeping more people focused on their futures north of the border and changing longtime patterns of assimilation and migration.

Way back in the 20th century, "buzz" was the je ne sais quoi of the marketing world. Every company wanted it, but few presumed to know how to get it. Back then, corporations generally lobbed their products into the marketplace, bombarded consumers with repetitive messages and sat back and prayed that buzz would magically appear.

A few weeks ago, a statewide ballot initiative petition signed by a California voter named Michael Ni was delivered -- quietly and without fanfare -- to the clerk's office in San Mateo County.

Strange as it may sound, this is no exaggeration: Ni's John Hancock may reshape American politics forever.

Let me get straight to the point: Americans' profound distrust of government is neurotic -- irrational, defensive and born of emotional trauma.

That doesn't mean I discount other sources of our disabling distrust of Washington. I believe the scholars who cite watershed events like Watergate and Vietnam as having undermined our belief in governing institutions.

I don't know about you, but images of the tragedy in Haiti made me feel pretty silly about having paid so much attention recently to Tiger Woods' sex life, Harry Reid's gaffes or Conan O'Brien's future. There's nothing like real pain and suffering to make us realize that the stuff we tend to obsess about can be pretty meaningless.

I was interviewing a writer in a hotel lobby in Bucharest, Romania, last October, when he glanced at the CNN coverage of the "balloon boy" aftermath and interrupted himself to ask, "Is that what you people in America care about?"

All last week, commentators recounted the dramatic swing in the national mood between this January and last. In 2009, President Obama was talking about bending the arc of history. In 2010, it doesn't look like he can bend enough arms to get healthcare reform through Congress.