Outside the Beltway

Apparently Juan Williams is really, really, really important.

While the displacement of poor blacks from their neighborhoods by affluent whites may be lamentable, it’s better than the alternatives.

Sarah Palin is causing headaches among fellow Republicans regarding her 2010 endorsement activities.

Mickey Kaus quips, “Andrew Sullivan has “small staff of four people to help him handle the blog” says NPR. Er, what’s a “big” staff for a blog? . . . In ten short years Sullivan’s created a bloated blog bureaucracy! “

NPR says it fired Juan Williams for remarks that were “inconsistent” with its editorial standards. In reality, it appears that Williams was the victim of the same convenient editing that cost Shirley Sherrod her job earlier this year.

While the American economy languishes, China is booming again.

NPR has fired Juan Williams over controversial comments about Muslims.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is once again the law of the land.

Tonight’s topics: The foreclosure mess, low GDP growth, and the world-wide Tea Party.

Jonah Goldberg observes, “It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass.”

Andy Borowitz suggests “Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas’s Wife Calls You.”

President Obama is reportedly avoiding a visit to India’s Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, for fear that he’ll be accused of being a Muslim.

Voters head to the polls in thirteen days, and current indications are that they’ll be handing a big victory to the Republican Party.

Lisa Murkowski, who lost the Republican primary, may be on the verge of winning re-election as a sore-loser write-in.

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party aren’t as clueless as their detractors think.

Recklessness.

Nineteen years after they ended, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings are back in the news thanks to a voicemail that Thomas’s wife left for Professor Hill.

The story about the private security guards who “arrested” a journalist at a Joe Miller campaign event just keeps getting stranger by the day.

Actor Tom Bosley, best known for his role as Howard Cunningham on TV’s “Happy Days,” had died at 83.

It’s looking less and less likely that the GOP will gain control of the Senate, but they’re going to come awfully close,, and that might be just as good from their point of view.

Honors go to YahooNews and/or AP for “Levi Johnston wants to be mayor; has no platform.”

Remember that $400 tax cut President Obama gave you? Neither do 90 percent of Americans.

The blogosphere spends more time dissecting the lyrics of a classic Beatles song than John Lennon did in writing them.

Politico says 99 Democratic House seats are “in play.” They’re not. But dozens are.

Will Digital Video Recorders kill the campaign commercial? Unfortunately, no.

Salon has video of the aftermath of the Hopfinger handcuffing. Plus: if we remove the partisan labels and just assess what happened, would we view this situation differently?

Tom Brokaw notices something peculiar about the campaign debates: Nobody’s talking about Iraq or Afghanistan.

The retired superstar linebacker drove off a 30 foot cliff at 70 mph and walked away with barely a scratch.

An English instructor commenting at Balloon Juice takes issue with my characterization of taxation as “confiscating” income.

Republicans greatly fear the government — when Democrats are in power. And vice versa.