Outside the Beltway

Donald Trump was on Saturday Night Live last night. It wasn’t even remotely funny.

Conservatives finally seem to be waking up to the truth about Sarah Palin.

In the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on C.I.A. torture, some have suggested that eight years of Jack Bauer helped make torture more acceptable to the American public.

I’m going to put in a good word for my son Josh’s new album “Shame of Tones,” a parody compilation based on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

The bizarre conservative love affair with Vladimir Putin continues.

The IRS spent $50 million on 225 employee conferences. What did the taxpayer get in return?

The man who changed the way Americans viewed newspapers, just before newspapers themselves began getting pushed aside by technology, has died at the age of 89.

The man who played Captain Kirk is not amused by an IRS training video featuring his iconic character.

AP has won round 1 in a case against Meltwater that would severely limit the Fair Use concept in commercial cases.

As is often the case with sex scandals, pretty much everything ever written about General David Petraeus takes on an ironic double meaning in hindsight.

So, it’s been a quarter of a century since “Star Trek: The Next Generation” made its debut. As if I didn’t feel old already.

National Review’s Kevin Williamson has some truly bizarre advice for Mitt Romney.

Forbes media critic Jeff Bercovici is a bit late spotting a trend.

When I saw the headline “Black Mormons Face Tough Election Choice Between Romney And Obama,” I naturally presumed it would lead to a parody news piece in The Onion.

A Bill Clinton parody account created by the Romney campaign is both clever and yet another sign of what’s wrong with American politics.

Funny or Die gives us “The Wire: The Musical.”

The Geek Squad Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

An object lesson in the problems with our intellectual property laws

Not only does yogurt make mice slimmer; it also makes them sexier.

One Goldman Sachs employee decided to quit his job in a very public manner.

It was a photo finish in the Hawkeye State.

Time Magazine has chosen “The Protester” as its Person Of The Year. Let the outrage ensue.

Protests at least loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement were conducted around the globe yesterday.

Beginning with “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building,” a series of tweets with the #CongressHostage hashtag have been decidedly unfunny.

Either a bunch of bloggers or one of the world’s smartest economists doesn’t understand economics.

Some people have no sense of humor.

As of June 17, Sarah Palin is a registered US trademark, serial number 85-170,226.

Amusingly, the most recent episode of South Park, “You’re Getting Old,” perfectly encapsulates my view of recent episodes of South Park.

Stephen Colbert has been running an ongoing shtick in which he’s trying to start a political action committee, gets letters from his Viacom bosses poo-pooing the idea, and then inviting his lawyer on to explain ways to get around these concerns.

“Our records indicate that your annual income for the 2011 taxable year was $2,170,000,000,000. You have requested a credit limit of $17,000,000,000,000. These figures exceed the American Public’s guidelines for credit issuance”

Go The Fuck to Sleep, the children’s book aimed at parents, has become an Internet sensation and reached #1 on Amazon well before its release owing to a leaked copy.

Thanks to an appearance on Hardball we’ve got another story about a 47 year old law.

A discussion on Terry Jones’ moral culpability for the crazed reaction in Afghanistan to his Koran burning stunt.

Obama Captain America parody: I’m not punching you Gaddafi I’m having a limited humanitarian intervention with your face.

A handful of young male bloggers have launched themselves to the head of the line, leapfrogging those who’ve spent years playing the game by the old rules.juice