Outside the Beltway

The novelist, playwright, and social critic Gore Vidal has died, aged 86.

Who should bear the cost of extra policing for candidate events?

Was money the reason Scott Walker won on Tuesday? The available evidence says no.

In an ideal world, today’s Recall Election in Wisconsin would not even be legally possible.

Recall elections in a hyper-partisan atmosphere are not a good thing.

The blind Chinese activist who daring escape from house arrest set off a diplomatic brouhaha that grabbed the world’s attention is about to get his wish to come to America.

The consequences of ten years of war?

Well, maybe a tiny one.

Russia is the most significant geopolitical player actively opposing significant American interests.

Jim Yong Kim is an impressive man. But he’s got no background in banking, finance, or economics.

My armchair pop psychology on George Zimmerman, the man who gunned down innocent black teenager Trayvon Martin, appears on target.

The PPACA now has a 3-1 record in US appeals courts.

By popular demand: An assessment of the latest polling numbers.

Dwayne Kennedy will spend 5 more years in prison for using a cell phone to call his family to tell them he’d been paroled.

Pete Gent, the former Dallas Cowboy and Michigan State player best known as the author of “North Dallas Forty,” has died at 69 from pulmonary illness.

Another entry in the ongoing follies of US border and immigration policy.

Ten Muslim students were found guilty on misdemeanor conspiracy charges for their “plot” to shout down the Israeli ambassador during a speech at UC Irvine.

Many in the GOP do not like the idea of extending payroll tax cuts.

America’s journalists are far more liberal than America.

Rick Perry’s vision of capitalism doesn’t exactly comply with what Adam Smith had in mind.

The GOP contenders are starting the regular ritual of decided how to navigate our rather odd nomination process.

CA’s budget battles continue.

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

Herman Cain: candidate du jour or something more permanent?

A summary of the status of the “Arab Spring” uprisings with links to news coverage and commentary.

Prisons can be so overcrowded as to constitute cruel and inhuman punishment.

With the customary hand-wringing over the low quality of the presidential field well underway, the corollary pining for other candidates to join the race is starting.

Not surprisingly, having ordered a successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden is being highlighted on President Obama’s re-election tour.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have announced their separation after 25 years of marriage.

Donald Trump has been surging in polls of Republican voters recently, but that doesn’t mean much of anything.

The last American veteran of a conflict which ended nearly a century ago has died.

One columnist argues that Sarah Palin’s response to the Arizona shootings mark the end of whatever political future she might have had. He’s probably correct.

Andrew Sullivan makes a rather bizarre charge offhandedly: “Who among the neocons would have thought that one of George W. Bush’s final legacies would be bringing pogroms, bombings and genocide to Christians in his new zone of freedom?”

UCSD grad student Mark Farrales is a good example of why something like the DREAM Act has merit.

Hinckley, California — the town that Erin Brockovich made famous — has slightly less cancer than we’d expect.

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.

Despite the Democrats sweeping quite literally every statewide office in California, Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization ballot issue, lost by 10 points.

The governator has terminated the use of welfare cards at medical marijuana shops, psychics, bail bond establishments, bingo halls, cruise ships and tattoo parlors.