Outside the Beltway

Israelis and Palestinians don’t agree on much these days, but they do agree that Barack Obama hasn’t helped the peace process at all since coming to office.

It’s not hypocritical or racist to support an aggressive pursuit of terrorists while getting outraged over abuses of Americans’ liberties.

Conservative Republicans who are typically deferential to the military are ignoring the advice of the military leadership on the new START Treaty.

Terrorism risk assessment: Russia at “Extreme Risk”, Greece at “High Risk”, U. S. at “Medium Risk”, Canada and Germany at “Low Risk”.

So will there be an efficacious backlash against TSA policies? I am guessing no.

The incoming freshman of the 112th Congress say that they won’t repeat the mistakes that Republicans made when they gained power sixteen years ago, but some of the advice they’re getting virtually guarantees it will happen if they aren’t careful.

Here’s my plan for creating a budget surplus of $126 billion by 2015 and $592 billion by 2030.

Is the current media environment a problem for proper political discourse?

Hamid Karazi says that the United States needs to reduce it’s military presence in his country. Perhaps we should listen to him.

Former Congressman Bob Barr argues that the right should not be so eager to rehabilitate George W. Bush. He’s right.

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

Dana Milbank asks, “Would we be better off under a President Hillary Clinton?” His affirmative answer isn’t very convincing.

He’s the darkest of dark horses right now, but Gary Johnson stands as the heir apparent to Ron Paul’s surprisingly energetic 2008 run for the GOP nomination.

George W. Bush’s new memoir reveals that he briefly considered replaced Dick Cheney as Vice-President before the 2004 elections. His decision not to do so reveals much about the relationship between Presidents and Vice-Presidents in modern American politics.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson takes a look at the Tea Party movement and claims to find racism.

Pundits and partisans constantly overreact to the momentary mood expressed in a single election. The Republicans have already rebounded from 2008. The Democrats will recover from 2010.

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

The Pentagon is looking at a system that would flag suspicious access to data, similar to the alerts by credit cards companies designed to prevent fraudulent charges.

Michigan Iraq War veteran gets NOT FUN vanity plate.

In what is being described as the largest leak of secret documents in U.S. history, Wikileaks has made public more than 400,000 documents related to the seven year long Iraq War.

The Tea Party movement doesn’t seem to have a coherent view on foreign policy. Which means that a Tea Party victory will just mean more of the same Republican neo-conservatism.

Tom Brokaw notices something peculiar about the campaign debates: Nobody’s talking about Iraq or Afghanistan.

Justice Alito said recently he won’t be attending the next State of the Union address. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Politicians are, by definition, a bit abnormal. However, this year we seem to have more than our fair share of the truly odd.

General Jim Jones is stepping down as National Security Advisor.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has endorsed Ron Klein, who never served a day in uniform, over retired LTC Allen West, a decorated veteran of several foreign wars. Is this an outrage?

Yet another study shows what any of us who’ve ever spent any time around soldiers already knew: Our Army is not comprised of stupid people who couldn’t find a decent job.

The Supreme Court yesterday heard oral argument in a case where being on the right side means supporting some vile people, but that’s what the First Amendment is all about.

Bob Woodward reports that President Obama was looking for options other than staying the course in Afghanistan. The military didn’t provide any.

Many commenters on civil-military relations change their tune according to whose ox is gored.

What’s so wrong with saying that America will survive even if al Qaeda manages to hit us again ?

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.

A US military platoon was apparently able to target innocent Afghans for murder. Without senior commanders suspecting a thing.

U.S. forces are still engaged in full-scale counterrrorism operations in Iraq. In what sense are “combat operations” over?

Newt Gingrich is feeding the fires again, this time claiming that the President may be guided by a “Kenyan,” “anti-colonialist” worldview.

Taking a short trip back in time via Instapundit’s archives reveals a September 11th post that turned out to be prophetic.

Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta is the first living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

Ted Koppel thinks our actions since 9/11 have helped Osama bin Laden fulfill his goals. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Over the course of a little more than two hours, the “Burn A Koran Day” story merged with the “Ground Zero Mosque” story in a bizarre media circus that seems to have accomplished little other than give press attention to a bigoted Pastor in Florida.

According to Gallup, there was a ten point move in the public’s preference on the Generic Congressional Ballot between last week and this week. What’s more likely is that Gallup is making a mistake somewhere.

Robert Gates has been a reluctant Secretary of Defense but his impact at the Pentagon has been tremendous.

Will Israel attack Iran ? You’d better hope not.