Gene Policinski: Technology takes freedoms forward, law catches up

  As it made the quantum leap from parchment to paper through the electronic era to digital formats, First Amendment law on freedom of expression has lagged behind technology. Today, this delayed legal reaction is playing out once again with Twitter, Facebook and the World Wide Web.

  The 45 words that protect our religious liberty, freedoms of speech and press, and the rights of assembly and petition, adopted in 1791, begin with the phrase “Congress shall make no law….” And for more than a century, courts saw the First Amendment through that legal lens, as restricting only federal laws and actions.

  But beginning in the 1920s the U.S. Supreme Court started, case-by-case, to apply the First Amendment to the states through the due-process clause of the 14th Amendment. With an eye toward current controversies, it’s worth considering the meandering path in which we have regulated, or decided not to regulate, new media and the technology of providing information, entertainment and communication.

Michael Josephson: Don’t brag, but be proud

  Today, after winning a big game it’s common for athletes and fans to chant, “We’re number one,” in a classless display of self-praise that comes off as conceit and disrespectful taunting. I sometimes feel that way about materials praising America. Still, national pride is important. Reminders about the high principles on which this nation was based are essential to keep our idealism alive.

Ken Paulson: Real cost of ‘free’ downloads

  Nashville’s Craig Carothers is a singer-songwriter whose livelihood depends on concerts and CD sales. Yet sometimes, his biggest fans make that job tougher.

  “I’ve had the experience more than once of having someone come up to me and — completely pure of heart — excitedly tell me they bought copies of my CDs when I was last in town and they enjoyed them so much they made copies for 15 or so of their friends,” said Carothers.

  There goes the revenue stream. The unauthorized copying and downloading of music has been a hot topic since the 1999 launch of Napster, the peer-to-peer file-sharing service, and neither prosecution nor legislation has meaningfully stemmed the tide. The failure of the Stop Online Piracy Act and a companion anti-piracy bill months ago knocked the entertainment industry back on its heels, raising questions about whether Congress has the political will to pass legislation.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: A Different Labor Day in Alabama

  This week we celebrate Labor Day. Like Memorial Day, it is a uniquely American holiday. Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer.

  It has been a long, hot summer here in the Heart of Dixie. For that matter is has been a record breaking hot summer throughout the nation.

  Labor Day also marks the official beginning of the presidential election campaign season and, more importantly here in Alabama, the beginning of college football season. When I was a boy it also marked the beginning of the school year in Alabama.

Steven Bucci: How will defense cuts affect you?

  Washington is abuzz with wonky discussions on potential mandatory budget cuts that will hit on Jan. 2. The process is called "sequestration." It is so technical that right now you may be tempted to move on to another article. After all, this is merely "inside Washington baseball," right? Sadly, it isn't.

  The Department of Defense (DoD) budget is set to absorb the lion's share of the New Year's cuts, which will go into effect if steps are not taken to stop them. DoD makes up about 11 percent of federal spending, but will eat 47 percent of the cuts. That's a pretty sizable chunk.

Michael Josephson: The Illusion of success

  A common management strategy to spur achievement is to set aggressive performance objectives that, like the mechanical rabbits that pace racing greyhounds, push employees to maximum effort. Using “stretch goals” can be successful, but unreasonably high performance goals often spawn dishonesty and irresponsibility.

Scott Lilly: Rep. Mack’s ‘Penny Plan’ disguises painful choices

  Budgets are about choices. Families must decide whether to replace the car or cut back on meals out and entertainment. Those of us who are weathering hard times must make far more difficult choices. But the fundamentals of budgeting are always about weighing alternatives and finding the one that is either the most enjoyable or the least painful.

  Then there are pretend budgets. The most egregious example may be the “Penny Plan” introduced in 2011 by Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), which now has more than 70 co-sponsors, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and is not really a budget at all. It contains the numbers but not the choices. Worse, it attempts to conceal from the public the kind of pain it would endure, particularly in states such as the one Rep. Mack represents, Florida.

Peter Brookes: Afghanistan mission's new woes

  The recent string of “green-on-blue” (Afghan on US/Coalition troops) attacks in Afghanistan are cause for real worry: Not only might the Coalition’s vital mission to provide security training to the Afghan police and army be in trouble, but the country’s entire future might be in question, too.

  Without the high-quality training the Afghan security forces desperately will need after Coalition forces leave in 2014 (or maybe sooner), it’s possible Afghanistan will once again fall to the likes of the Taliban.

  And that’s exactly what the Taliban, the Haqqani network, al Qaeda — and maybe others — want.

Cameron Smith: The Best prison sentencing reform you heard nothing about

  Since Alabamians will vote September 18th on a measure designed to prevent the “mass release of prisoners,” every voter should know about a change in Alabama’s prison sentencing enacted during the last legislative session. The new law, which garnered little attention outside of Montgomery, may provide a meaningful remedy for a portion of the budgetary issues facing Alabama’s prisons and the state General Fund.

  Alabama’s prisons face significant pressure from a number of sources. The annual cost to house an Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) inmate was $15,118.30, as recently as fiscal year 2009. When multiplied by the 32,000 inmates housed in 29 facilities statewide, the budgetary impact becomes apparent. More importantly, the U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics show that Alabama’s state prisons are operating at nearly 200 percent of their physical capacity to hold inmates. This overcrowding increases danger to prison staff, may result in costly litigation, and creates significant pressure to build costly new facilities.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: The Tampa coronation

  The Republican Convention is next week in Tampa, Florida. It is not by accident that this central Florida city has been chosen by the GOP for their national convention. They want to do everything under the sun to ingratiate themselves to Floridians.

  Under our Electoral College system only about six, maybe ten states matter in the process. I refer to it as a process rather than an election because our archaic Electoral College system of selecting our president is not really a national election. The states of Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia are the battleground states. The most important of these swing states is Florida. It is the grand prize with 29 electoral votes.