Outside the Beltway

Palin’s “blood libel” speech continued to keep here in the conversation about Tucson, and not in a positive way.

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…

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

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.

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.