Outside the Beltway

The return of a really bad idea.

A thirteen hour filibuster by Wendy Davis ran out the clock on a special session of the Texas legislature, apparently defeating an abortion bill that passed 19-10 after time expired.

A major Constitutional ruling from the Supreme Court.

A new blog, Rejection Letters of the Philosophers, “imagin[es] what the greats of history might have been faced with, had they been forced to publish or perish.”

As of today, John Dingell has been a Member of Congress for 20,997 days, a new record. That’s not something to celebrate.

Turkey has had along and ongoing struggle with democratic consolidation.

Has the Arab Spring come to Turkey?

A starting point for two important stories.

Partisan targeting by the IRS should not be permitted to stand.

It would be nice if columnists for major newspapers would consult political science, rather than Hollywood, for their understanding of our system.

Revisiting an old posting of mine on the subject.

Because sometimes poorly contructed observations can set a fellow to writing.

One Virginia Republican Member of Congress recently got a lesson in what going against the GOP’s hyperpartisan atmosphere feels like.

Election rules should be oriented towards increasing participation, not based on partisan calculations.

Second thoughts about the Iraq War

Providing a little context for Pope Francis’ background+Erick Erickson needs to learn a little history.

Reminding government employees that they are employees of the government is suddenly controversial.

Walter Russell Mead presents his sitrep of the War on Terror.

The anti-communist icon is once again in hot water for making idiotic comments.

The regime we fought for in Iraq is now aiding the regime we’re fighting against (at least by proxy) in Syria.

The government of Malaysia paid a lot of money to get some blogs placed at various outlets.

Silly things members of Congress say (plus musings on authoritarianism).

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether limits on contributions to political candidates is Constitutional.

The main who coined the word “meritocracy” meant it as a pejorative term.

The smear campaign against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has taken a bizarre turn.

Andrew Bacevich bemoans the social impact of the all-volunteer force.

Despite some tough questions, Congressional Republicans didn’t land a glove on Secretary of State Clinton.

Congress is historically polarized.

The notion that guns prevent tyranny is based on fantasy and movies, not reality.

For the New Year, how about challenging your ideas just a little bit?

Representative democracy is a process of delegation of power to agents who act on behalf of citizens. The process of delegation matters.

There are factions of the American right that really need to understand this.

Conor Friedersdorf contends “The U.S. Already Had a Conversation About Guns—and the Pro Side Won.”

Richard Lugar puts in a word for compromise and good governance on his way out of the Senate.

My first piece for the New York Daily News, “A Drone Strike on Democracy,” has posted.

The Republican Party needs a new message on foreign policy that is true to the conservative principles of the base and yet has a broad appeal to the American public.

Fareed Zakaria declares “America’s election process an international embarrassment.” He’s right.

Republicans are starting to talk about immigration reform, but do they really mean it?