Outside the Beltway

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.

Is the current media environment a problem for proper political discourse?

Hamid Karazi says that the United States needs to reduce it’s military presence in his country. Perhaps we should listen to him.

While not inherently unconstitutional, lame duck Congresses have the potential for violating the spirit of the Constitution and create the potential for mischief on the part of Representatives who have been thrown out of office.

New details are out about the upcoming Defense Department report on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The Federal Reserve is injecting $ 600,000,000,000 into the economy, primarily in the hope that it will boost stock prices and, in turn, the economy. It might work, but if it doesn’t the consequences could be severe.

George W. Bush’s new memoir reveals that he briefly considered replaced Dick Cheney as Vice-President before the 2004 elections. His decision not to do so reveals much about the relationship between Presidents and Vice-Presidents in modern American politics.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson takes a look at the Tea Party movement and claims to find racism.

David Broder offers up some odd ideas on the relationship between a war with Iran and the economy.

With polls opening in less than 48 hours now, the final pre-election polling is showing that 2010 is going to be a pretty bad year for Democrats.

Another poll confirms that Sarah Palin continues to be viewed negatively by the majority of American voters, but that doesn’t seem to matter to supporters who seem have a degree of adulation usually reserved for celebrities than serious politicians.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen argues that it’s time to put the debate over the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill mess to rest. He’s right.

Thanks mostly to Virginia Thomas’s decision to place an early Saturday morning phone call to Anita Hill, a woman who had remained silent since 1986 appears in the press to claim she can corroborate the charges that Anita Hill made nineteen years ago.

John Cole is ashamed that some House Democrats are running against Nancy Pelosi, given her effectiveness. It’s all a matter of perspective.

NPR has fired Juan Williams over controversial comments about Muslims.

A new law allows Presidential candidates to set up transition offices while they’re still running for election, perhaps providing an opportunity for shortening the 2 1/2 month interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day.

The Washington Post looks around and discovers that the Tea Party isn’t racist after all. Their bad, I guess.

Banks are faced with a huge number of foreclosures and that resources they’ve allocated towards handling them was woefully inadequate.

Responding to the rant that got Rick Sanchez fired, Slate’s Brian Palmer investigates the question, “Do Jews Really Control the Media?” His short answer, “Maybe the movies, but not the news.”

Pakistan yesterday blocked NATO’s primary supply line into Afghanistan in retaliation for an air strike that killed three Pakistani paramilitaries. Are the two countries truly allies?

Bob Woodward reports that President Obama was looking for options other than staying the course in Afghanistan. The military didn’t provide any.

What’s so wrong with saying that America will survive even if al Qaeda manages to hit us again ?

According to a new book from Bob Woorward, American policy in Afghanistan is the result of a decision making process that can only be described as chaotic at best.

Dan Drezner asks, “Has Bob Woodward jumped the shark?” My snarky response is that he did that in Bob Casey’s hospital room.

In yet another sign of how rapidly the media landscape is changing, longtime Newsweek stalwart is leaving for the Huffington Post.

The Tea Party movement and the populist backlash against DC mayor Adrian Fenty are a sign that things are changing so fast that a lot of people simply can’t adjust.

Sarah Palin had a very good track record in her primary season endorsements, but it’s not at all clear that she will have much of an impact on the 2010 General Election.

U.S. forces are still engaged in full-scale counterrrorism operations in Iraq. In what sense are “combat operations” over?

The Delaware GOP now has, according to Nate Silver, a 17% chance of winning the Senate seat.

Elena Kagan has announced that she will not participated in the consideration of more than half the cases currently scheduled to be hear by the Supreme Court when it’s new term begins in October.

Ted Koppel thinks our actions since 9/11 have helped Osama bin Laden fulfill his goals. He couldn’t be more wrong.

A new poll indicates that there are some disturbing motivations that seem to be associated with opposition to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.”

The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart is suffering a little New Media embarrassment after writing a blog post based on comments by a Congressman who doesn’t exist.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell blogs from newspapers.

As the mid-term elections enter their final eight weeks, there’s more bad news for Democrats.

Democrats are sending some of their candidates to the Death Panels.

Facing a difficult economy and a very bad November, the Obama administration is considering a tax cut proposal to spur hiring.

Epic flooding in Pakistan is a humanitarian crisis which dwarfs the combined devastation of the 2004 Asian tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Why aren’t we paying attention?

The guy who ran George W. Bush’s campaign and the Republican National Committee has realized after only 43 years that he likes dudes.

Critics of WikiLeaks have no affirmative proof that the release of tens of thousands of classified documents has gotten anyone killed. The truth is that we’ll likely never know.

The only reasons Michael Kinsley can conjure for opposing the Park51 project are bigotry and political opportunism. Unless you’re a really smart columnist.

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.

The signs point to 2010 being an even worse year for Democrats than 1994.

While American politics concerns itself with trivial issues, Pakistan finds itself dealing with a devastating natural disaster that could have real geo-political implications.