Outside the Beltway

Persuasion is sometimes an important part of being president.

Some thoughts on reform.

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

In both Egypt and Syria, it’s damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

Walter Russell Mead explains why a well intentioned, carefully crafted and consistently pursued grand strategy failed.

The Obama administration has issued a strongly worded statement on this morning’s massacre by the Egyptian government.

Some thoughts on a decade old video in which Samantha Power speculates on actions to take against an unfolding genocide.

President Obama has appointed a lot of donor’s and supporters to plumb Ambassadorial slots. That’s not at all unusual.

Texas has become the latest state to attempt to restrict abortion rights, and North Carolina isn’t far behind.

Ostensible allies in the fight against the Assad regime, al Qaeda and the Free Syrian Army are killing each other.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

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

Egyptians celebrated last night, but the future is far from clear.

if reports are to be believed, there is a coup d’etat underway in Egypt.

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

The return of a really bad idea.

A thirteen hour filibuster by Wendy Davis ran out the clock on a special session of the Texas legislature, apparently defeating an abortion bill that passed 19-10 after time expired.

A major Constitutional ruling from the Supreme Court.

A new blog, Rejection Letters of the Philosophers, “imagin[es] what the greats of history might have been faced with, had they been forced to publish or perish.”

As of today, John Dingell has been a Member of Congress for 20,997 days, a new record. That’s not something to celebrate.

Turkey has had along and ongoing struggle with democratic consolidation.

Has the Arab Spring come to Turkey?

A starting point for two important stories.

Partisan targeting by the IRS should not be permitted to stand.

It would be nice if columnists for major newspapers would consult political science, rather than Hollywood, for their understanding of our system.

Revisiting an old posting of mine on the subject.

Because sometimes poorly contructed observations can set a fellow to writing.

One Virginia Republican Member of Congress recently got a lesson in what going against the GOP’s hyperpartisan atmosphere feels like.

Election rules should be oriented towards increasing participation, not based on partisan calculations.

Second thoughts about the Iraq War

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

Reminding government employees that they are employees of the government is suddenly controversial.

Walter Russell Mead presents his sitrep of the War on Terror.

The anti-communist icon is once again in hot water for making idiotic comments.

The regime we fought for in Iraq is now aiding the regime we’re fighting against (at least by proxy) in Syria.

The government of Malaysia paid a lot of money to get some blogs placed at various outlets.

Silly things members of Congress say (plus musings on authoritarianism).

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether limits on contributions to political candidates is Constitutional.

The main who coined the word “meritocracy” meant it as a pejorative term.