Outside the Beltway

As the night of the State Of The Union Address approaches, the silliness in Washington has been taken up a notch.

After a fairly bad 2010, Barack Obama is starting off 2011 in a very good position.

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 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.

Anti-Immigrant groups are beginning their assault on the 14th Amendment, but don’t expect it to go anywhere.

The author of AZ’s SB1070 has a new idea.

Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies should rightly be enormously proud of their accomplishments. But comparing them to John Wooden’s is embarrassing.

Fed examiners made a bank take down a “Merry Christmas, God With Us” sign. Then the “system” kicked in.

Israelis and Palestinians don’t agree on much these days, but they do agree that Barack Obama hasn’t helped the peace process at all since coming to office.

Okahoma’s James Inhofe has a message for the Tea Party movement — don’t be fooled by the “War On Earmarks.”

A new Oklahoma law that bans Sharia law from being enforced in state courts may have some very unintended consequences.

Nancy Pelosi is strongly considering staying in Congress as Minority Leader. It’s her job if she wants it.

Recklessness.

Nine months after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, more than a billion dollars in reconstruction aid still hasn’t reached the country.

If there’s an area where our attitudes and behaviors have changed more radically in my lifetime than gender equality, I can’t think of it.

Strippers didn’t attack us on 9/11. Then again, neither did American Muslims.

That attitudes towards gay marriage varies by state won’t surprise you. The degree to which it does just might.

Are you really a nonprofit if your CEO is making a million dollars a year?

No, the founding fathers of the United States were not “very afraid of a central government.” Indeed, such an assertion makes no sense.

Sarah Palin is among a group of Republicans concerned that the Tea Party movement’s fiscal conservatism could pose a danger to defense spending.

The actress best known for her role as Blanche Deveraux on “The Golden Girls” has died of a stroke.