Outside the Beltway

I’ve got to get a new BlackBerry or move to the iPhone and am looking for suggestions.

Democratic Governor Joe Manchin appears to have no serious challengers for the late Robert Byrd’s Senate seat.

The movie version of Captain America will dress like the flag but won’t be waving it.

Some principles transcend political borders.

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

The median duration of unemployment is at levels not seen in decades. What do we do about it?

The inside story about a crappy wireless network’s loveless marriage with a beauty queen phone.

Now we’re doubling down on the Karzai government.

Journalism and the New Media combined in a feeding frenzy yesterday and a woman lost her job. She probably shouldn’t have.

By filling out Captcha’s two word phrases, you’re helping digitize old books. It’s still really annoying.

Steve Jobs took the heat off his crappy iPhone 4 by pointing out that other phones suck in different ways.

While people keep flocking to Facebook in droves, the site has the lowest satisfaction rating of any e-business site.

My latest for The National Interest, arguing that the talk of crisis in Europe is overblown, is up. Naturally, they’ve titled it “Crisis in the EU.”

Electronic books outsold paper books on Amazon over the past three months, but the death of the hardcover is greatly exaggerated.

Rural whites are outperformed by Jews and Asians and passed over by blacks and Hispanics in the name of “diversity” by elite universities.

Andrew Sullivan is back from vacation and back obsessing over the birth of a two-year old kid in Alaska.

Democrats have opened up a 6 point lead in the Gallup generic ballot tracking poll, their first statistically significant lead of the cycle.

Is the left to blame for unpaved roads?

WaPo’s Breaking News Blog highlights a story that is, well, hardly breaking news: inconsiderate people on the DC subway.

BP is hiring Gulf State scientists with the condition that they stop being scientists.

It’s a myth that the problem with Social Security is that people are living much longer after retirement than they used to. The reality is that a whole lot more people are living long enough to draw benefits.

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

Sarah Palin tweeted, and took the wrong side in a story that doesn’t even deserve to be a controversy.

Yet another “hidden” provision of ObamaCare is revealed to hold nasty surprises for America’s small business owners.

Recent debates over the economic and fiscal impact of the Bush tax cuts indicate that Republicans still haven’t learned the lessons of the Bush years.

Oakland marijuana growers worry that regulation will turn their product from a niche specialty to a mass market commodity.

Vice-President Biden glances into the future and sees a relatively good year for Democrats. Is he right ?

Elena Kagan may be smiling because her confirmation is assured, but she doesn’t have as much public support as previous nominees.

Affluent, educated people in the DC policy community hold different views than the larger American public.

Nate Silver provides yet more bad news for Democrats: When screening for “likely voters,” Republican numbers look even better.

Time for the Monday OTB Caption Contest^TM

California has an initiative on the ballot this coming November to legalize marijuana. However, it’s not that easy.

Inception has imposed itself as the film to beat for Best Picture and, I would guess, will become the lodestone for “mind movies” for a generation. Don’t miss it.

Some Republicans in Congress are worried they won’t be able to control the future Congressmen and Senators that the Tea Party might be sending to Washington.

Virginia’s governor wants the state to get out of the liquor business after 76 years. It’s about time.