Politics

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This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, purports to show anti-Syrian regime mourners chanting slogans, as they carry the coffins of Syrian citizens who were killed by Syrian forces shelling, in Daraa, southern Syria, Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Syria's elite Republican Guard forces clashed with rebels just outside Damascus Tuesday in some of the most intense fighting involving the special forces guarding the capital since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began last year, activists said. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)

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In this July 6, 2012, photograph, following the unveiling of GreenTech Automotive's new electric MyCar, former President Bill Clinton speaks to attendees at their manufacturing facility in Horn Lake, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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"To Fly" traces the history of aviation, from the early days when trains and horses were means of travel through balloons and hang gliders, the early biplanes, military jets and space travel. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films)

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"People are innocent until they are proven guilty; they aren't guilty until they're proven innocent," D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray said Thursday. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Witness Carrie Pecover, from Seeds of Tomorrow, Inc., answers questions during Chairman Phil Mendelson Committee of the Whole and the Committee on the Judiciary roundtable on Truancy Reduction in the D.C. Public Oversight Roundtable on Thrusday, July 12, 2012, in Washington D.C.. (Raymond Thompson/The Washington Times)

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Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks with Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong Wednesday during her historic visit to Laos, the first by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955. She also visited a Buddhist temple and viewed artificial limbs at a center that provides free prosthetics to Laotians wounded by bombs left over from the Vietnam War. (Associated Press)

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton place flowers at a statue after during a tour of the Ho Phra Keo Temple, in Vientiane, Laos, Wednesday, July 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Brendon Smialowski, Pool)

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Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (center) is flanked by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi (left) and Chief of Staff Sami Anan at a ceremony at an Air Force base in Cairo on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in the Egyptian capital on Saturday amid growing concern in Washington that a power struggle in Egypt could imperil the transition to democratic rule. (Associated Press)

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Nawaf Fares, Syria's ex-ambassador to Iraq, sided with "the revolution" against President Bashar Assad. (Associated Press)

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Filip Forsberg was taken 11th overall in the NHL draft last month. He is viewed by the Capitals as a future top-six forward. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Book talk: David Lamp at CATO Lovers of free markets and individual liberty like to say that the GOP is a big tent. But to suggest that conservatism is more about building coalitions than adhering to first principles is to erase what makes being a Republican different from being anything else. First principles, when adhered to consistently, are what keep Americans and their markets free. Theoretically, this means that a change in the Republican platform has to undergo an intellectually rigorous test. In “A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights,Ó Cato's David Lampo makes the case that recognizing gay rights is consistent with the ideas of individual liberty and small government, and that grassroots Republicans are in favor of civil unions for same-sex partners, even if their leaders are not. Lampo, along with Michael Barone, speaks July 18 at the Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Phone: (202) 842-0200. Web: http://www.cato.org/