Outside the Beltway

President George W. Bush had a running battle with the CIA throughout his eight years in office. Now, they’ve given him an award.

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.

The “ticking time bomb scenario” is a TV trope and, therefore, is a terrible guide for making policy.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

What now?

A dark and regrettable time in American history is finally seeing the light of day.

A critic of the imperial presidency becomes an imperial president.

Dan Froomkin says Obama is as bad as Bush, if not worse.

No surprises so far.

How long should we expect people to work?

Brian Schweitzer has a reputation for saying things that most politicians wouldn’t, but that may be just what he needs to get attention if he runs in 2016.

Good intentions and good results aside, the President’s disrespect for the Rule Of Law should concern everyone.

There’s little evidence for the conservative contention that the President has damaged America’s position in the world.

Good intentions aren’t an excuse for failure to follow the law.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is a name we’re likely to be seeing in the news for some time to come.

So, this happened.

Continuing the discussion from earlier this week on hate crimes.

Jeremiah Denton, a Vietnam War hero and one-term US Senator from Alabama, has died. He was 89.

Virginia Tech English prof Steven Salaita implores us to “Stop saying ‘support the troops.'”

An overweight Republican from the northeast is thinking about running for president. No, not that one.

The events of the last week in Egypt raise a whole host of questions.

Yesterday saw some of the biggest protests ever to rock Egypt. Where does it go from here?

Does David Gregory consider Glenn Greenwald to be a reporter deserving of protection, or “just a blogger” who may be a potential criminal?

Outrage over leaks like those that Edward Snowden makes doesn’t exist when its politicians doing the leaking.

We’re actually not speculating about who might be running any more than we used to.

The Boston Marathon bomber must be tried in a court of law.

If you expose your breasts in rural Georgia but have a penis, jailers are liable to think you’re a dude and make fun of you.

A bipartisan commission of elder statesmen confirms what we’ve known for years.

A new report confirms that the United States did engage in torture in the wake of the September 11th attacks.

We treat violence by lone individuals differently than organized violence. Race, religion, and national origin have nothing to do with that.

Providing a little context for Pope Francis’ background+Erick Erickson needs to learn a little history.

George Will declares solitary confinement tantamount to torture.

The Obama Administration has given us a peek at its legal arguments for targeted killings and they are troubling to say the least.

An ode to one-term Congressman Allen West.