Outside the Beltway

Some members of Congress sleep in their offices in lieu of renting residences in DC. Fiscally responsible or kinda odd?

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.

President Obama is likely to issue a signing statement in order to keep his Gitmo options open.

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.

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

Earmarks or no, members of Congress are going to bring home the bacon to their districts. It is what their constituents want (and expect) them to do.

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.

Is calling Côte d’Ivoire “Ivory Coast” linguistic colonialism? Where do we draw the line when English names for countries go out of vogue?

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.

Do graduates of elite colleges earn more because of where they went to school? Or because of the traits that got them selected?

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

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.

Yes, a federal judge has ruled the individual mandate to be unconstitutional. However, this issue is hardly settled yet.

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

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.

Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever?

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.

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.

Should blogs and other online forums ban anonymous comments?

Roughly 150 years ago, the CSA was born. Is this something worthy of celebration?

Sarah Palin has taken to her Facebook page to raise “Serious Questions about the Obama Administration’s Incompetence in the WikiLeaks Fiasco.” They’re more interesting than I’d expected.

After 1 1/2 years in office, President Obama has yet to grant a single request for a pardon or clemency, continuing a thirty year trend in which the Presidential pardon power has nearly fallen in to disuse.

The choice is between a world in which officials can share information and carry out reasoned debates with one another and a world in which nothing can be written down.

The two English language newspapers who have been Julian Assange’s accomplices in disseminating stolen secrets defend themselves.

The major outlets that received document drops from Wikileaks are covering the story in different and interesting ways.

After days of hype, National Opt-Out Day fizzled. It’s a classic collective action problem.

A new round of Wikileaks documents is out, and it opens the door on diplomatic correspondence previously hidden from the public.

McCain brings up “regime change” in re: the DKRP and China apparently isn’t doing enough.

Tom DeLay is a sleazebag and has been found guilty by an Austin jury for skirting the law. But it may in fact be a miscarriage of justice despite the victim being as unsympathetic as it gets.

As bicycle advocates have been getting new lanes and other concessions in major cities across the country, a minor backlash has formed in reaction.

North Korea has unveiled to the world a new nuclear processing facility that puts back on the table the question of just what we should, or can, do about the fact that a rogue state possesses nuclear weapons and wants to build more.

A new poll about the proposals coming out of the Deficit Commission makes it clear that the American public needs to grow up.

Yet another sign that the GOP’s biggest nightmare may actually end up coming true.

Here’s my plan for creating a budget surplus of $126 billion by 2015 and $592 billion by 2030.