European leaders have put another Band Aid on the Greek sovereign debt crisis while America’s leaders are trying to stave off a self-inflicted financial default.

Talk of passing a balanced budget amendment is nonsense.

Sunday afternoon musings on an electoral college sweeps.

The vast majority of the seats in the Virginia legislature will not even be contested this November.

Via Bruce Barlett (from OECD data), here is total taxes collected in the US as a percentage of GDP (this includes federal, state and local):   No analysis, point, or argument being made here, just a useful FYI.

More on the whole “republic not a democracy” discussion.

It’s just about time to schedule the piteous press conference.

If you are interested in increasing your basic understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I would highly recommend the CFR’s Crisis Guide on the subject. At a minimum, I would recommend the Video Overview and the whole of Chapter II:  The Territorial Puzzle, which includes a primer on all of the territories under discussion as well [...]

I get the impression that a lot of people don’t even know what “the 1967 borders” are or why they tend to be considered the logical point of departure for any type of peace negotiations.

The bungled politics of the Ryan plan.

As we all continue to try and understand the debt ceiling debate, here’s another attempt at explaining the situation via the CSM:  National debt ceiling 101: Is a crisis looming?

Erick Erickson questions Jon Huntsman’s loyalty to America.

Tomorrow, voters in the UK are being asked whether they want to trade in their current single member district, first-past-the-post electoral system (otherwise known as the same one we use to elect Congress and any number of other offices) for the alternative vote (also known as the instant run-off). For a very basic explanation, watch [...]

A conspiracy theorist is never troubled by facts.

As I noted yesterday, the pending release of Atlas Shrugged as a motion picture will likely spark a great deal of discussion of Ayn Rand. An example if Donald Luskin’s column in the WSJ:  Remembering the Real Ayn Rand. The whole piece is worth a read, but I was especially struck by the following: Rand [...]

Whenever I despair at the current state of the Republican Party, I remind myself that things aren’t much better across the aisle.

Judge Sumi’s TROs arise from a veritable cornucopia of error.

As you may recall, I gave up day to day political commentary for Lent. If you’re curious, here’s how it’s going: pretty damn well. I’ll admit, it was hard at first. But now that I’m in week five, I’ve noticed that getting out of the day to day political slog-fests has been rather liberating. It’s [...]

You remember how the House GOP was trying to pass laws without the Senate or the President agreeing? Yeah, about that….

Whether due to innumeracy or intentional deceitfulness, ThinkProgress has the JobsOhio bill totally wrong.

If you have any familiarity with Dan Drezner’s new book, Theories of International Politics and Zombies and/or with IR theory, you have to watch this. Who says polisci profs have no fun at conferences? (Although there has been nothing so amusing at the conference I am currently attending).

The Nixon Center has gone from one of the most controversially named think tanks in Washington to yet another blandly named one: Center for the National Interest.

Yes, bureaucracies can be annoying, but they are also vital for modern society.

Is Jon Stewart a useful idiot?

A commenter asks, “Why does Wisconsin have a quorum rule if not for situations like this?”

Republicans won the right to govern Wisconsin. What does that mean for Democrats?

What people (or transitional governments) say isn’t ultimately the issue. What they do is.

A few thoughts/historical examples, as to why I am guarded in my optimism on Egypt.

The Obama Justice Department says it can look at phone records without warrants or judicial oversight.

If Mubarak is driven from power, will that make Egypt a case of “revolution”?

The events in Egypt have led some to ask if the mere act of cutting off access to the Internet is, in itself, an human rights violation.

Demanding that the new GOP House hold the line at the current number is satisfying rhetorically, but all-but-impossible politically.

Via the Reuters: Schwarzenegger says governorship cost him $200 million VIENNA (Reuters) – Serving as California governor cost Arnold Schwarzenegger at least $200 million, the bodybuilding star turned actor and politician told a newspaper in his native Austria, insisting ‘it was more than worth it.” Counting expenses and lost income from acting in Hollywood films, [...]

In the course of some writing-related work, I came across the following: “Since a politician never believe what he says, he is surprised with others believe him” – Charles de Gaulle (as quoted in Newsweek on 10/1/62)

I’m blogging Mark Levin’s Conservative Manifesto. Here’s part one…

The relationships between inflammatory rhetoric and political violence is complicated.

I don’t like it when things my allies say are misquoted and attacked; it’s no better when my allies do it.

Mr. Yglesias has it exactly backwards.

I was looking for some data on tax rates vs economic growth for a longer piece I’m working on when I came across this interesting gem by Mike Kimel, in which he runs the numbers and finds no correlation between lower top marginal tax rates and real GDP growth (at least, in the United States). [...]

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson The Republican Congressional leadership is afraid. And that is good. Something has got into the Republican leadership, and that something is: fear. Wonderful, salubrious fear. For this we can thank the Tea Party movement, [...]

The battle over the individual mandate is really just nothing more than the latest round in a batter that has been ongoing for 221 years.

Are Marco Rubio, Haley Barbour, and Mike Huckabee the favorites to win the White House?

Is Congress too small and unequal to do its job?

Several smart center-left commentators argue that President Obama is not triangulating. At least one argues there’s no such thing.

If 33 states can muster support to kill a law, how would it have gotten enacted to begin with?

File this under So Blindingly Obvious, Only A Congresscritter Could Miss It: Raising taxes doesn’t lead to lower deficits because Congress will just spend the money: Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored a often-cited research paper for the congressional Joint Economic Committee (known as the $1.58 study) that found that every new [...]

Only 46 percent of Americans know that Republicans will have a majority only in the House when the new Congress convenes in January.

Democratic consultants Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell offer some free advice for President Obama. It’s worth every penny.

A longish NYT postmortem titled “Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan” attributes Tuesday’s Republican victories to a January 2009 PowerPoint presentation. But structural factors were more important.

While Matt Yglesias is right that talk about “Realignment” after a single election is ridiculous, there have indeed been realigning elections in U.S. history.