Outside the Beltway

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

Demographic information about TV viewers is worthless to advertisers.

Presidential wannabe Jon Huntsman wrote some embarrassing letters about President Obama and the Clintons.

Donald Trump is waiting to announce whether he’s running for president until after taping of “The Apprentice” concludes. Some thing NBC shouldn’t allow him to wait.

A Huffington Post contributor who had no expectation of being paid for his contributions is suing HuffPo for $105 million.

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

Paul Krugman is disappointed with the President, but it’s really his own fault for being so naive.

The Federal government is funding a Pakistan version of Sesame Street for $20 million.

Another bizarre case from the annals of rogue judges and runaway sentencing.

Breathless hysteria over the trend toward a less white America misses an important fact: most Hispanics are white.

Glenn Beck will leave his Fox News show in December.

The war on childhood fun reaches the East Coast.

Bristol Palin was paid $262,500 by Candies Foundation as an anti-teen pregnancy spokesman. That’s 7 times what they spent on teen pregnancy prevention.

The Obama Administration has given up on the idea of trying the September 11th suspects in a civilian court. Considering how much that trial would have perverted the justice system, that’s a good thing.

Philip Greenspun wonders, “How did the New York Times manage to spend $40 million on its pay wall?”

Rather than fighting over the remnants of the FY 2011 budget, the GOP should make a deal and get ready for the bigger, and more important, battle ahead.

The experiences of two well-known academics denied tenure at Chicago provide some clues.

The New York Times wins for “Afghans Avenge Florida Koran Burning, Killing 12.”

Nor, it would seem, are really tired clichés.

Xavier Alvarez lied about having been awarded the Medal Of Honor. Should that be a crime? The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals says no, and they’re right.

Warren Christopher, Bill Clinton’s first Secretary of State, has died at 85.

The Obama Administration is asking the U.N. Security Council to authorize direct military intervention in Libya. The question is, why now?

In less than two weeks, much of the content of The New York Times will go behind a paywall.

Will one of the worst natural disasters to hit Japan in centuries change the relationship between the Japanese government and the people?

New York Times journalists Anthony Shadid, Stephen Farrell, Tyler Hicks, and Lynsey Addario have not been heard from in more than 24 hours.

Alain Juppé’s concession that “the moment has passed” for NATO to successfully intervene in Libya is correct.

Facebook limits accounts to those who say that they are at least 13 years old. Shockingly, some kids lie to get on the popular social network.

It’s institutions of government – not its size – that matter when it comes to how good a job the government does.

As gas and oil prices rise, the pressure is increasing to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s a dumb idea.

Pfc. Bradley Manning is being treated worse than a Prisoner Of War, and he hasn’t been convicted of a crime yet.

James Franco is a film director, screenwriter, painter, author, performance artist and actor. And working on a PhD at Yale.

Mike Huckabee apologized for saying Barack Obama grew up in Kenya, explaining only that he meant that the president isn’t a Real American.