Outside the Beltway

Is Jon Stewart the next Edward R. Murrow? No.

Do republics expire after 200 years due to fiscal irresponsibility?

The seemingly sensible end-of-life counseling that was originally part of the Health Care Reform Bill is making a comeback.

Hawaii’s new Governor is taking on the Birther myth.

Frustrated that it couldn’t achieve desired environmental legislation despite huge majorities in both Houses of Congress, the Obama administration has decided to govern by executive fiat.

Republicans are renaming three House committees, including bring back Ethics and taking out Labor.

The TSA’s crusade to fondle whomever they please continues.

The new year will bring major changes to the White House Staff.

Now that the US has ratified New Start, it’s Russia’s turn.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

A case in Montana brings to the forefront a power most prospective jurors aren’t aware they have.

The abuse of the filibuster is just a symptom of a much wider problem.

The Presidency has lost the aura of mystique that used to surround it, and that’s a good thing.

For the first time in 35 years, the Senate may finally be on the verge of reforming the filibuster.

If Democrats had been this effective the previous two years, would they have lost as badly in November?

With DADT Repeal now on its way to being fully implemented, the right is now claiming that it poses a threat to the religious liberties of military chaplains. As with their other arguments, this one is totally without merit.

More celebrations of secession are on tap.

Contrary to current conservative talking points, Net Neutrality is not a nefarious government scheme to takeover the Internet, but is aimed to address a real problem. Like most ideas that involve the government, though, it doesn’t really address the real source of the problem; not enough freedom

Might Rudy do better in 2012 than he did in 2008?

Is calling Côte d’Ivoire “Ivory Coast” linguistic colonialism? Where do we draw the line when English names for countries go out of vogue?

The new House Republican majority will force lawmakers to vote when they want to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, publish committee attendance records, ban former members from lobbying in the House gym and require new mandatory spending to be offset by cuts to other programs.

A little history about the Citizens’ Councils.

Sarah Palin waded into the foreign policy pool today with a piece about Iran, and it was about as empty as most of the other ideas on Iran that we’ve heard over the last six years or so from everyone else.