Outside the Beltway

A song written when Grover Cleveland was President is still protected by Copyright Law. That makes no sense at all.

Meet Edward Snowden, the 29 year old CIA/NSA contractor who has confessed to leaking the details of the NSA’s data mining projects.

Sometimes it seems like all John McCain does is appear on Sunday morning news shows. The problem goes deeper than that, though.

Apparently, it’s not just reporters whose phone logs the Obama administration is tracking.

Denied her chance at being Secretary of State, Susan Rice will be moving to a position that is arguably just as important in shaping American foreign policy.

TIME says Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe is “The Dirtiest, Nastiest, Low-Down Campaign In America.”

When does politics become the “primary activity” of a 501(c)4?

The US Senate wants to know why Apple and other big technology companies are paying so little into the US Treasury.

Almost no one can confidently explain, let alone define, the specifics of the 501(c)4 designation.

Arming the Syrian rebels may do nothing more than prolong a seemingly endless war, and pull the United States into a conflict it shouldn’t be involved in.

Is someone who’s only be a Senator for just over 100 days a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2016?

The wacko fringe of the GOP is increasingly finding room in the mainstream of the party.

The politics of gun control is not nearly as easy as its supporters believe it to be.

We treat violence by lone individuals differently than organized violence. Race, religion, and national origin have nothing to do with that.

Republicans seem to think they need fewer Presidential debates in the 2016 cycle, but it’s unclear how they can make that happen.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum apparently talked about uniting to stop Romney during the 2012 Republican primaries.

Senator Rob Portman changes his position on same-sex marriage. Another sign of the times.

The Canal made a number of impressions.

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

Alex Pareene’s annual hack list omits an obvious candidate: Alex Pareene.

Robert Bork, the controversial jurist whose failed Supreme Court bid ushered in a new climate in American politics, has died at 85.

Will the massacre of twenty children in a Connecticut elementary school mark a turning point in America’s gun culture? Don’t count on it.

Ross Douthat says American women should stop being decadent and have more babies, explaining that raising children is easier than it used to be, so there’s really no excuse for women to be so selfish.

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.

The Governor of Iowa thinks the Ames Straw Poll should be ended, but he really ought to go further than that.

Not as much learning going on as one might like, to be honest.

Was Rick Perry the worst candidate to run in the 2012 cycle? It certainly appears so.

The “makers vs takers,” “the 99 percent vs. the 1 percent,” and “53 percent vs. 47 percent” memes are getting tiresome.

Neither member of the Republican ticket seems to understand what really happened on Election Day.

Mitt Romney wasn’t a perfect candidate, but he was much better than most of the 2012 Republican field.

Republicans are trying to figure out what went wrong. Will they learn the right lessons from their loss?

I just came across Peggy Noonan’s pre-election column. It is quite illustrative.

Tthere’s enough bad punditry going around that there’s no need to invent cases to expose.

The 2012 Election should be a warning to the GOP that it needs to open itself up to minority groups, especially Latinos.

Democrats Barack Obama and Tim Kaine have gained momentum in Virginia in weekend polling.

Republicans already seem to be blaming Hurricane Sandy in the event Mitt Romney loses.