Outside the Beltway

What happened to the 15 million jobs that were supposed to be created in the past 10 years but weren’t?

The Republican Study Committee has come up with some significant budget cuts.

A new study suggests college students aren’t learning the critical thinking skills they’re supposed to learn, but that isn’t necessary the fault of the university they’re attending.

The American media and Sarah Palin have developed an odd symbiotic relationship, and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

NYT public editor Arthur Brisbane explains how it came to pass that his paper reported as fact the erroneous news that Gabrielle Giffords had been killed.

150 years ago, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln was presented with a chance to avert Civil War. He passed it up, and we should be glad that he did.

The Stuxnet virus that has set back the Iranian nuclear weapons program by several years at least appears to have originated as a joint project between the United States and Israel.

People find the most interesting ways to justify something that is obviously wrong.

After five days of nonsense, President Obama’s address in Tucson last night struck exactly the right tone.

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

There was now snow on the ground in every single one of the 50 states — including Hawaii, which had snowfall on one of its volcanoes — except for Florida.

Sarah Palin released a statement today about the Arizona shootings and the debate that has followed. It’s unlikely to help her.

Defying logic, New York City taxis are least available when they’re most needed: as people are getting off work.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that someone would attempt to draw a comparison between Saturday’s shootings in Arizona and the Oklahoma City bombing, but the two events really don’t have anything in common.

The debate over heated political rhetoric has now led one Pennsylvania Congressman to suggest that some speech should be banned. This must stop now.

The tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Arizona has started another debate about political rhetoric. It’s a stupid debate, and it’s utterly pointless.

Rumors are floating that Rudy Giuliani is thinking about running for President again. All of America asks, Why?

President Obama’s selection of Bill Daley as Chief of Staff is being seen as a sign that the White House is moving to the center and gearing up for 2012.

Just over 100 years after his death, Mark Twain’s two greatest novels are once again the subject of controversy.

Despite federal laws banning even prison officials from bringing phones inside, tens of thousands of inmates have smartphones.

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

The lawyer who argued The Pentagon Papers case points out how Julian Assange is not Daniel Ellsberg, and how prosecuting him could have disastrous results for press freedom in the United States.

A somewhat surprising court decision from the European Union gives a glimpse of what the situation in the United States would be if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

Streets in New York City like this one on Staten Island went unplowed for days thanks to a work slowdown by sanitation workers, which raises the question of what Public Sector Unions should be allowed to do.

The reaction to President Obama’s recent recess appointments provide us with yet another example of bipartisan hypocrisy.

Cory Booker, Michael Bloomberg, and Chris Christie have been in the news this week due to the political fallout over their handling of the East Coast blizzard.

With just over a week to go before the 112th Congress convenes, battle lines are already being drawn in battle over the defense budget.

Is Jon Stewart the next Edward R. Murrow? No.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

Might Rudy do better in 2012 than he did in 2008?

Red States should gain 10 seats while Blue States should lose eight.

Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus is suing a pro-life PAC for “defamation” and “loss of livelihood” over its role in his defeat in the 2010 Elections.

The repeal of DADT may open the doors for ROTC to return to many elite institutions, if cost doesn’t get in the way.

Washington D.C.’s 34 year-old Metro system is about to become the latest stage for Security Theater.

Dear New York Times: Your tireless efforts to make me stop reading you are having the desired effect.

The most walkable cities in America are also the most successful.

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.

While the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% is at record highs, real inequality is smaller than ever.

One of the most active American diplomats of the past twenty-five years has passed away.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows and, when it comes to the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, anti-tax Republicans are making common cause with soak-the-rich progressives.

The weekend arrest of a Columbia University Professor for an apparently consensual act raises some interesting questions about why precisely a specific act should be subject to criminal prosecution.