One difference between the United States and most European countries is that in the US legal restrictions on freedom of expression are not nearly as strict. One example is David Irving, a sad case of a guy who could have become a quality historian if he hadn't been such a Nazi-loving tinfoil-hat-wearing anti-Semitic nutjob, who has been charged under Austrian law for Holocaust denial. Now, I can understand why Austria would have a law like that after its excessively enthusiastic Nazi past, but it would be unconstitutional in the US.

The first amendment to the United States constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

We've had a couple of cases that would not pass first amendment muster recently in Spain. First, the Tripartite (Socialist-Communist-ERC) administration here in Catalonia has created this thing called the Catalan Audiovisual Council, whose job it is to monitor the media and, get this, punish media outlets that it judges are not telling the truth. You get two strikes, and if they decide you're guilty a third time, they can close you down. No judicial review, no nothing. And the Council is in the hands of the Tripartite. What this means is that broadcasters like Cope Radio, whose message is to say the least uncomfortable to the Generalitat, are under threat of being silenced. You couldn't get away with that in Kansas.

(Full disclosure: The Spain Herald, which hosts this blog, is the English-language version of Libertad Digital, whose editor is controversial ex-Communist-now-conservative Federico Jimenez Losantos, sort of a cross between David Horowitz and Rush Limbaugh. Federico is also the morning host on Cope Radio.)

Another one is the controversy over whether the Batasuna "national assembly" scheduled for next weekend will be shut down. Batasuna is the ETA-front political party, and they are terrorist scum. I hold no brief for Batasuna. But they've been banned. They can't run for office, assemble publicly, or give speeches. Agreed, they were banned by a court of justice after a law was passed illegalizing terrorist groups, so outlawing them is perfectly constitutional in Spain. I argued yesterday that the Basque regional government is obliged to obey the law and stop the assembly from occuring. But you couldn't get away with banning a political party in Kansas, either.

Oh, by the way, I thought I'd clear something up. A Socialist clown named Yanez said yesterday that in the United States impersonating the president is punishable by ten years in jail. I thought I'd look it up. Well, it is true that impersonating a federal agent or officer is punishable by five years in prison, but court decisions make it clear that action is only taken if the impersonation is for criminal or fraudulent purposes. Satire is specifically exempted by the courts. If this weren't true, then Chevy Chase couldn't have impersonated Gerald Ford, and Dana Carvey couldn't have done George Bush I ("Wouldn't be prudent...". And the South Park guys would most certainly not have gotten away with "That's My Bush," which presented the president as a moronic crackpot married to an alcoholic shrew and manipulated by evil spinmeister Karl Rove.