Outside the Beltway

Marco Rubio is currently leading the three way race for the open Florida Senate seat, despite not spending a dime on television advertising in recent months.

Your Tweets, Facebook wall posts, and FourSquare announcements obviously provide a lot of insights into your life. But so does what you’re not posting.

Has MAD MEN jumped the shark? Or is it getting better?

Sarah Palin’s decision to back a long-shot candidate in the GOP Senate primary in Alaska didn’t exactly work out as planned.

Most people who record television shows skip the commercials. Despite that, TV remains by far the most effective form of advertising.

Glenn Greenwald argues that the “Ground Zero Mosque” debate is about more than just a “mosque” near Ground Zero. He’s right, but that also means the debate is likely to get uglier.

Rick Lazio is running for Governor of New York and he’s found an issue in the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” but it doesn’t seem to be helping him in the polls.

Political campaigns are engaging in a new form of “new media outreach” — paying bloggers for favorable coverage.

Rand Paul is apparently taking heat from some of his more socially conservative supporters after FEC reports indicate he received a donation from the owner of an Adult web site. People need to get a life.

Why are people’s views about Islam so screwed up ? Mostly because the only things they know about it tend to be the worst possible aspects of all.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is superbly qualified for the presidency. But our system virtually assures that he won’t be a serious contender for the job.

Should black people quit using the N-word to set an example for white folk?

Renowned author Ray Bradbury hates big government but wants it to fund the colonization of Mars. That a man of his intelligence and insight can hold such diametrically opposed thoughts is an amusing reminder of the limits of human rationality.

Harry Reid has spent the summer trying to portray is opponent as a kook. So far, it’s working.

Senior staffers are already leaving the Obama administration due to burn-out. But are 18-hour days really necessary for running the White House?

The average federal government employee earns twice as much as the average private sector worker. An outrage? Not so much.

Remember when dealing with the utterances of Hugo Chávez that you should take them with a grain of salt (or twelve).

There’s a war of words developing between the Pentagon and the information-sharing website Wikileaks.

Congress has been wrestling with the net neutrality issue for years. Two major players may force a decision soon.

Blogs are all grown up now and indistinguishable from other online media.

ABC’s Sunday talking heads show has a new host. Is she a secret Taliban sympathizer?

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan shared his views on extending the Bush tax cuts today on MTP.

Angle is smartly focusing her commercials on the economy, and it is helping her numbers.

President Obama went on TV and said something true. What was he thinking?

The Internet has given us many good things, but it’s also led to a decline in political discourse that we’d do well to reverse before it’s too late.

Daniel Schorr’s journalism career ended far too early, lasting a mere eighty-one years.

A rare case of a headline underhyping the story: “Survey: Half of Journalists Think Their Offline Publications Will Eventually Fold.”

Recently Lt. Dan Choi chained himself to the White House fence to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Yesterday, he found out that he’d been discharged from the Army because he’s gay.

If it’s online, it’s forever.

Among the other lessons it teaches us, the Shirley Sherrod incident shows that the Obama Administration is seemingly becoming weaker by the day.

While political junkies dissect every vote and utterance, most Americans vote based on their gut sense of how the economy is doing.

Former Vice-President Cheney has apparently entered a far grimmer phase of his chronic heart problems than many realized.

Should outrageous people like Pamela Gellar be invited to spread their message on national television?

Oakland’s police chief, miffed at recent budget cuts, has listed 44 crimes that his officers will no longer respond to.

A common sense decision on broadcast “decency” standards was handed down by a Federal Appeals Court today.

It’s time for the Gingrich For President speculation to begin again.

Journalists have been following Maxwell Scott’s advice since long before “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” was made.

There is an al Qaeda link to yesterday’s terrorist attack in Uganda.

The evidence that humans are irrational continues to mount. What does this mean for self-governance?

Despite new breakthroughs, an HIV vaccine is still some ways off. But, my, we’ve come a long way.

Let’s revisit the question of crime levels in Arizona.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner reacted to his star player’s departure with a scathing open letter. Was it fair?

Muhammed may be in a bear suit, but he still got an Emmy nomination.