Outside the Beltway

Well, let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet.

After months of fits and starts, it appears anti-Gaddafi forces are on the verge of victory.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the strongest signal ever that there will be some U.S. military presence in Iraq after December 31st.

Not only is the US outspending all our allies and competitors combined in real dollars on defense, we’re doing so in terms of GDP as well.

The U.S. and its allies are calling on Bashar Assad to step down, but there’s little we can do when he says no.

British courts are handing out swift and harsh sentences for people involved in last week’s riots, including four-year prison sentences for two 20-somethings for Facebook postings in support of the mayhem.

Michele Bachmann is promising $2.00 gas. Not surprisingly, she has no idea how to achieve this seemingly impossible goal.

Iraq has become so dependent on Iran for its survival that it is endorsing the brutal tactics of Bashar Assad.

The First Lady takes a lot of days off from her unpaid “job.”

The Telegraph’s chief political commentator sees moral decay at the top as well as the bottom.

What’s a little thing like freedom of speech when there are shops being looted and burned?

Examining the impact of current events requires stepping back from them just a little bit.

What you think you know about the U.S.-China trade relationship may not be entirely true.

Some thoughts on the riots (especially some US partisan responses to it).

Honoring the fallen by ensuring that the didn’t die in vain is a recipe for getting more good men killed.

Joseph Nye explains why China’s “demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets” is really just talk.

Michele Bachmann’s view of history is based in a world view that would be foreign to most Americans.

Lost in the hubbub of S&P downgrading the US bond rating is news that the Italian government has the ratings agencies under criminal investigation.

International options with respect to Syria are limited and likely to have little impact on the governments treatment of civilians.

Will the trial of Hosni Mubarak actually change anything?

The world is starting to denounce the crackdown in Syria, but the reaction seems unlikely to go much beyond strongly worded statements.

A take on the conflict that’s probably different from the one you’ve been reading.

It is always useful to go inside the numbers.

The Supreme Court is being asked to decided if Congress can overrule a foreign policy position the U.S. has held since 1948.

Contrary to myth, China holds only 8 percent of US federal debt.

News that Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik was a fan of anti-Islamist sites, including Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch and Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs has opened a big can of schadenfreude.

A bomb blast in Oslo’s government center has killed at least two people and a presumably related shooting spree at a nearby children’s camp are being investigated as terrorist related.

Is NATO prepared for what happens when they win?

I must confess to having only paid peripheral attention at first, but it is clear that there is a major story here that requires attention.