Outside the Beltway

For a year that started out with regaining long-lost territory in Ukraine, 2014 is not ending so well for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is not running for President, and she is unlikely to change her mind on that. Nonetheless, the speculation that she is will continue for some time to come because it suits her interests and the interests of others.

Sony is warning the press not to publish material leaked by hackers, but it doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

Many have suggested that prosecution of cases involving police misconduct should be handled by prosecutors who don’t work with local police departments on a regular basis. They’re right.

Thinking about that the state, law, violence, and the Garner incident (and contributing to the tl;dr phenomenon).

Well, so much for that “people’s revolt” that brought down a military dictator.

A critic of the imperial presidency becomes an imperial president.

The SNL cold open updates a Schoolhouse Rock classic

Based on the available evidence, there’s very little evidence that Voter ID laws had a significant impact on the midterm elections.

After the 2010 elections, several newly Republican state legislatures flirted with the idea of changing the way their state allocates Electoral Votes. The outcome of last weeks elections raises the possibility that this could happen again.

A popular idea that does nothing useful while simultaneously violating the Constitution.

In addition to gains at the national level and in Governor’s races, the GOP also saw more gains in state legislatures around the country.

Looking into uncontested and partially contest House districts from the 2014 cycle.

There’s more to life than politics. Unfortunately, there are many Americans who don’t seem to recognize that fact.

Should the Legislature take back legislating from the Executive?

An unsurprising ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that only seems to bring closer the day when same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide.

This year was an especially acute case of no competition in Alabama.

The results of the 2014 midterms should teach us some lessons about how to handle and evaluate polling.

Two Duke University academics make an incredibly weak, ultimately unpersuasive, argument in favor of eliminating midterm elections by changing the length of Congressional terms.

Would increasing the size of the House of Representatives be the cure for what ails Congress?

There’s nothing wrong with choosing not to vote.

Important numbers in recent polling suggest big problems for Democrats on Tuesday.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to tell people they’re just “average Americans,” but they’re lying and the American people seem to have figured out that they’re lying.

Polls continue to show that most Americans are largely tuning the midterms out.

The passing of a true legend in American journalism.

Rich guys are backing organizations that are taking over traditional party functions. Is that a problem?

The Roberts court has been very good on First Amendment issues, but it needs to address the First Amendment issue right outside its front windows.

My ongoing crusade to spark thought and discussion on the quality of representation in the US Congress.

Frank Foer proclaims, “Amazon Must Be Stopped. It’s too big. It’s cannibalizing the economy.”

Apparently, the buck doesn’t stop in the Oval Office these days.

When I saw the entry at memeorandum proclaiming that “Wikipedia Is Now Trying To Eliminate The Federalist’s Online Entry,” I was flummoxed.

The sixth year of a presidency leads to some predictable commentary (and some comparative notes).

While the world pays attention to Syria and Iraq, Yemen is once against lurching into chaos.

Jess Zimmerman offers “An ingenious way to save the comments section,” if she does say so herself.

After success in Scotland, it may be time to consider allowing at least some teenagers to vote.

The thought they’d win big and silence the Scottish separatists. They were wrong.

After keeping his distance from them for three years, President Obama is placing much misplaced hope in the “moderate” Syrian rebels,

Another Federal appellate Court has struck down state law bans on same-sex marriage, but the only thing that matters now is the Supreme Court.

And presidentialism encourages this kind of behavior.

Yet another example of how institutional choices matter.

The United States is, in fact, doing the exact opposite.

There are plenty of other factors that help our two major parties retain power.

It’s hard for a party to win four straight presidential elections. The Democrats may pull it off.