Outside the Beltway

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.

A new study seems to show that student evaluations of teachers are something other than a popularity contest.

Have credit cards and ATMs eliminated the value of large currency zones?

Columbia political science professor David Epstein has been charged with a 3-year incestuous relationship with his adult daughter.

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender, you shouldn’t be having a party.” That’s the mantra of New York hipsters.

Republicans have blocked a bill that would have helped rescue workers who became sick helping others at Ground Zero.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he isn’t running for President, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s at least thinking about it.

Amid signs that Democrats in Congress might rebel against the tax cut deal he struck with Republicans, President Obama took to the airwaves today to defend it at the same time that his base is rebelling against it.

Julian Assange is a loathsome human being. Is he also a rapist? Under Swedish law, maybe.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

Many Congressional Democrats both campaign for a higher minimum wage and employ interns at less than the existing minimum wage, many for no pay at all.

Why would policy outcomes be different under the 17th Amendment?

In her new book, Sarah Palin puts forward a view of the role of religion in politics that is in direct contrast with America’s own traditions.

Democrats are losing the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, but when you look at the playing field it seems pretty clear that that they never had a chance.

The Obama administration is banning hundreds of thousands of federal employees from calling up the WikiLeaks site on government computers because the leaked material is still formally regarded as classified.

Viacom says a lower court ruling in favor of Google “would radically transform the functioning of the copyright system and severely impair, if not completely destroy, the value of many copyrighted creations.”

Despite recurring predictions that the Internet and mass communications would allow people to work from anywhere, talent continues to cluster in big cities.

Are the interests of a given state different than the interests of the people living in that state?

Mike Bloomberg says we’re electing people to Congress who “can’t read” and “don’t have passports.”