Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
Remember the “tea party” — the faction of Republicans devoted to fighting the establishment? Rafael Edward Cruz is what’s left of it. Whenever controversy is brewing, the one-term senator from Texas is never far from the TV cameras. In fighting for his principles, Cruz often tests the limits of his own party, as when he turned his protest over health-care … >>
The next US presidential election isn’t until November 2016, but the campaigning is well under way. Because neither the sitting president nor the vice-president nor the previous opponent is a candidate, new ideas and new faces have a shot at success. The last time this happened was in 2008, and it enabled a little-known senator named Barack Obama to rise … >>
It’s official: America’s spy agencies are not allowed to collect the communications data of Americans without a warrant. With a two-thirds majority, the US Senate amended the law on Tuesday to prohibit this specifically. Since Edward Snowden’s revelations two years ago, efforts had been underway in Congress to either make the spying program official or to rein it in. While … >>