Outside the Beltway

If 33 states can muster support to kill a law, how would it have gotten enacted to begin with?

The two English language newspapers who have been Julian Assange’s accomplices in disseminating stolen secrets defend themselves.

There is a simple mathematical equation that explains why deficit reduction is so difficult.

Only 46 percent of Americans know that Republicans will have a majority only in the House when the new Congress convenes in January.

Yet another sign that the GOP’s biggest nightmare may actually end up coming true.

Democratic consultants Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell offer some free advice for President Obama. It’s worth every penny.

As the counting of write-in ballots in Alaska continues to go in Lisa Murkowski’s favor, the Miller campaign is getting more desperate in its ballot challenges.

Of the five countries that use the death penalty the most, only one is a democracy.

Virginia Senator Jim Webb is the last of a dying breed of Democrats, but his party may need him if it wants to remain competitive anywhere outside of a Blue State.

A longish NYT postmortem titled “Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan” attributes Tuesday’s Republican victories to a January 2009 PowerPoint presentation. But structural factors were more important.

While Matt Yglesias is right that talk about “Realignment” after a single election is ridiculous, there have indeed been realigning elections in U.S. history.

A Chicago voter is less than thrilled with the political slate for which he’s voting today.

The younger voters that flocked to Barack Obama two years ago feel let down. They need to grow up.

The Onion spoofs life at a think tank with Boy, I Really Thought Like Shit Today.”

Jonah Goldberg has written a bad column. In this case, an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune headlined “Why is Assange still alive?”

Instead of decades-old retreads like talking about abolishing the Department of Education, it would be nice if we had a real debate about the fiscal circumstances in the country.

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?

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

Reason’s Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie have a pretty amusing rejoinder to the Obama administration’s attempts to smear the anonymous funding of television ads opposed to their agenda in a video titled “Who is Publius? or, Who’s Afraid of Anonymous Political Speech?”

“Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement.”

Venezuela have reached a series of agreement on energy. Should the US be concerned?

Jim Treacher has coined a new term, Oprahturfing, to describe wealthy celebrities funding attendance at political rallies. While clever, the concept of “Astroturfing” is being misused by both sides.

Former car czar Steve Rattner sat down with Ezra Klein to whine about how the American people and its Congress wouldn’t just turn over the whole economy to unelected experts such as himself.

Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo has dedicated his Nobel Peace Prize to the victims of the June 1989 massacre in Tianamen Square. Proving again that the events of that day still live on in the memory of many Chinese people.

Citizens United really wasn’t that big a deal.

President Obama and the Democrats are charging the Chamber of Commerce of funneling foreign money into ads for Republicans. It’s a desperate move unlikely to work.

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. He probably doesn’t know it, though, because he’s currently sitting in a Chinese prison.

Daniel Larison’s “The Case Against NATO” makes compelling reading. In my New Atlanticist post “The Case Against the Case Against NATO,” I explain why it’s wrong.

If the Republicans win back Congress in November, it will be largely unearned. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no incentive for change in American politics.

Andrew Sullivan has figured out the solution to all that ails us: “If we could end all loop-holes (and I mean all), and have three or so effective rates, can you imagine how cleaner our politics would be? And how much more efficient our economy?”

Pakistan yesterday blocked NATO’s primary supply line into Afghanistan in retaliation for an air strike that killed three Pakistani paramilitaries. Are the two countries truly allies?

Support for the Tea Party is at record levels but that movement does not have a coherent policy platform. Can the energy be harnessed to good use?

The Obama White House is asserting that the President has the authority to issue assassination orders against American citizens, and that no Court has the authority to review his decision. If that doesn’t worry you, it should.

If the Obama Administration gets it’s way, your secure Internet communications won’t really be all that secure.

According to a new book from Bob Woorward, American policy in Afghanistan is the result of a decision making process that can only be described as chaotic at best.

Most voters want their representatives to take a stand.

Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections were marked by another round of allegations of widespread voter fraud, once again bringing to the forefront the question; what exactly are we trying to accomplish in Afghanistan ?

The Tea Party movement and the populist backlash against DC mayor Adrian Fenty are a sign that things are changing so fast that a lot of people simply can’t adjust.

Turkey reformed its constitution over the weekend, in what Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised “will go down in history as a turning point in Turkish democracy.” But there’s strong disagreement over which way it’s headed.

The winners of state legislatures in November will have a great deal of influence over Congressional elections for the next decade. Should it be that way?

Elena Kagan has announced that she will not participated in the consideration of more than half the cases currently scheduled to be hear by the Supreme Court when it’s new term begins in October.

The Obama administration has persuaded the nation’s most liberal appellate court that the executive branch’s right to secrecy trumps the rights of people claiming they were tortured by the United States Government.

Both the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, impressive as they are, must be understood in terms of not just applied political philosophy, but practical politics as well.