Outside the Beltway

Our present-day politics reminds us that the “unfinished work” of democracy is never fully complete.  

Sarah Palin was back speaking to a Tea Party crowd yesterday, but it just doesn’t seem like matters anymore.

A 15-month-old was accidentally served a mixed drink instead of apple juice.

Apparently in the Walker administration, one need not be qualified to get an $80k/year position.

Is asking to see a professor’s e-mails a legitimate open records request or is it an attempt at silencing a critic?

This video “Teachers Unions Explained” isn’t particularly fair but it’s nonetheless amusing.

Was the GOP’s maneuver legit? And what’s next?

Wisconsin Republicans stripped state employees of collective bargaining rights without the Democratic senators who fled the state to prevent a quorum.

As the standoff in Wisconsin drags on, there is no sign that the public accepts the argument being made about public sector unions by Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans.

At what point does the legitimate right to demonstrate cross the line into infringing on the rights of others?

It’s not the size of your government that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.

A new national poll suggests that moves to restrict the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions are not popular with the public at large:

Either Andrew Breitbart controls the entire media complex or Crooks & Liars jumped the gun. “Figure it out.”

In the Middle East, protesters are marching for democracy. In the Midwest, they’re protesting against it.

Taking a dive into Mark Levin’s view of Federalism.

Examining Levin’s examination of the Constitution, jurisprudence, and property rights.

Arizona looks to be the latest state to try to revive the discredited doctrine of nullification.

Republicans in Idaho are talking about resurrecting the foolish and discredited idea of nullification as a weapon in the fight against ObamaCare.

I’m blogging Mark Levin’s Conservative Manifesto. Here’s part one…

208 years ago today, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to The Danbury Baptist Association that has resonated through the years.

Constitutional ambiguity is as old as, well, it’s as old as the Constitution itself

Like it or not, the U.S. Constitution has always been a political document, evolving depending on the players on the stage.

Do republics expire after 200 years due to fiscal irresponsibility?

For the first time in 35 years, the Senate may finally be on the verge of reforming the filibuster.

Judicial activism doesn’t mean “reaching a decision I don’t like.”

The battle over the individual mandate is really just nothing more than the latest round in a batter that has been ongoing for 221 years.

The archaic practice of calling one’s seniors by titles rather than their first name is actually quite useful.

If 33 states can muster support to kill a law, how would it have gotten enacted to begin with?

Further thoughts on a rather radical proposed Amendment to the Constitution, prompted by a link from Instapundit.

Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is speaking positively about an Amendment that would drastically alter the relationship between the Federal Government and the states, and a method of ratifying it that could do serious damage to the Constitution as a whole.

Eliminating earmarks is good policy and good politics.

Three of the Justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in Iowa have been removed by the voters. That strikes me as the beginning of a dangerous trend.

Reason’s Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie have a pretty amusing rejoinder to the Obama administration’s attempts to smear the anonymous funding of television ads opposed to their agenda in a video titled “Who is Publius? or, Who’s Afraid of Anonymous Political Speech?”

In his farewell speech on Friday, Rahm Emanuel said that the Obama Administration had faced tougher times than any previous President. That is a fundamentally absurd idea.