Outside the Beltway

Advantage: Hillary.

A big change in an important nation in the most volatile part of the world.

Not surprisingly, the Federal investigation of the Michael Brown shooting is ending much like the state investigation did.

The State Of The Union Address was more of the same, and the same will be true of Washington going forward.

ISIS owns more territory than it did when the US bombing campaign began.

New details in the shooting of 12 year old Tamir Rice raise more questions.

December’s jobs growth numbers were very good, but the numbers below the headlines show that there’s still work to be done.

The terror attack in Paris seems likely to undercut GOP efforts to use the DHS budget to attack the President’s immigration policies.

Just one day into the new Congress, the first confrontation is already set.

In the end, the Tea Party challenge to John Boehner was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The first popularly elected African-American Senator, and the first African-American Senator to serve since the end of Reconstruction ended, has passed away.

A man best known, perhaps, for what he didn’t do, has passed away

Some preliminary thoughts on the inaugural college playoff system.

The news cycle in 2014 seemed to be dominated by a series of real and phony “crises” that grabbed our attention for short periods of time.

The Commerce Department had a Christmas present for investors, businesses, and consumers today.

NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot dead while sitting in their patrol car In Brooklyn. And those suggesting that anyone other than the killer has “blood on their hands” are being absurd.

President Obama criticized Sony for backing down, and said that the U.S. would respond to North Korea’s cyber attack “at a place and time we choose,”

With major theater chains having pulled out, Sony bowed to the inevitable, but now there appears to be proof that a foreign power is behind the Sony hacking attacks and threats of violence.

The families of many of the Sandy Hook victims are seeking to have the manufacturer of the AR-15 held legally responsible for what happened. While understandable, their lawsuit is misplaced and largely without legal merit.

Hackers who have divulged embarrassing secrets from deep within Sony Pictures are now threatening violence if a film about a plot to kill Kim Jong Un is released.

An Oberlin College student makes it clear just why she needs an education.

Was Man Haron Monis a terrorist, or just a lone nut who had latched on to the rhetoric of ISIS to justify his own delusions? In the end, it hardly matters.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

Sony is warning the press not to publish material leaked by hackers, but it doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

The Justice Department won’t force James Risen to testify in a legal investigation, but faces a new choice in a different case.

As the second anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School approaches, a new poll finds that more Americans support gun rights than gun control.

Apparently, law schools are in the business of coddling their special snowflake children now.

Judging by recent polling, the President’s executive action has hardened GOP opposition to immigration reform, making progress on the issue going forward much less likely.

Even leaving aside the fact that it is far too early to be making such assessments, the idea that Rand Paul is the front runner for the Republican nomination in 2016 fails the logic test.

A dark and regrettable time in American history is finally seeing the light of day.

The GOP donor class would like the 2016 race to be short and sweet, but that’s unlikely to happen.

Many have suggested that prosecution of cases involving police misconduct should be handled by prosecutors who don’t work with local police departments on a regular basis. They’re right.

How will Republicans react if, as many expect, the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage across the nation?

Not surprisingly a new poll finds that African-Americans perceive the American justice system far differently than whites.

While conservatives have been generally as appalled as others with the news out of Staten Island, some of them are looking in the wrong place for blame.

Strong jobs growth in November means that 2014 is already the best year for jobs growth since 1999.

A former RNC chair says a black man’s life isn’t worth a ham sandwich.