Outside the Beltway

Marvel has created an alternate universe in which Spiderman is a half-black, half-Latino teenager. Some people are angry.

The reviews are in on the debt negotiations, and the public isn’t happy.

Vice President Biden has called Congressional Republicans and their Tea Party backers “terrorists.”

Their mouths were moving, but nothing of substance was coming out.

Some history of the last 7+months.

It wasn’t a good day for the debt ceiling negotiations.

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.

Workers picketing a Chicago Hyatt hotel yesterday got an unpleasant surprise: Heat lamps.

Moody’s is on the right track. The current debt ceiling law has done more harm than good.

The biggest news story of the past six weeks was something completely trivial.

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the arrogant French aristocrat whose career was ended by a courageous chambermaid, shedding light on a corrupt social system? A funny thing happened on the way to the slammer.

As the President prepares to announce his plans for the future in Afghanistan, a majority of Americans want the troops home now.

Recent polls seem to indicate a shift in public opinion in a more libertarian direction.

President Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of the 30,000 Surge troops.

WaPo’s Jackson Diehl asks, “Will the GOP nominate a dove?”

The American public is increasingly skeptical of foreign adventurism. Why aren’t our political candidates reflecting that?

Is it appropriate for news organizations to decide that the people don’t need to hear from certain political candidates?

James Arness, best known as the iconic Marshal Dillon on Gunsmoke, has died at 88.

Sarah Palin will be heading to yet another important primary state while insisting she isn’t running for President yet. And the press follows her like a lonely puppy.

As of today, the United States is legally barred from borrowing money to finance its operations. Thanks for nothing, Congress.

It’s Campaign Fact of Life No. 1: If you aren’t a factor in the race, you aren’t going to get free media.

Do people really understand the taxes we pay?

The defense of torture as an extreme measure for extraordinary circumstances has evolved.tortu

There’s not much movement in the President’s job approval numbers.

President Obama chided the media for paying too much attention to the birther issue, but his criticism was unwarranted.

The new CBS/NYT poll is out and the numbers are not exactly happy, no matter whom you support.

It is waaay too early to be putting much stock in polling for 2012 (either in terms of X v. Obama or GOP v. GOP).

One of the Tea Party movement’s favorite Senators used the dreaded c-word.

Demographic information about TV viewers is worthless to advertisers.

President Obama’s budget speech was light on specifics, but that’s because it was really the opening salvo of the 2012 campaign.

Would you like President Obama to speak at your graduation? You’re the only one.

Why is Charlie Sheen seen as likable despite his serial abuse of women?

Mike Huckabee channels Dan Quayle when he decides to comment on the pregnancy of Oscar winner Natalie Portman.