Outside the Beltway

The US drug policy gang: Dopey, Boozy, Smokey and Stupid?

Once again, the frontrunners for the 2012 GOP nomination aren’t looking very good at all.

Wondering why CATO doesn’t rail against big business is like demanding to know why NARAL doesn’t spend more time advocating for the plight of stray cats or why PETA doesn’t seem to care about the homeless.

In a new interview, Justice Antonin Scalia says that the 14th Amendment does not bar discrimination against women, whether it’s done by public or private entities. He couldn’t be more wrong.

As they did last year, several top social conservative activist groups are boycotting next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference over the extension of an invitation to a gay conservative group, and nobody seems to care that they won’t be there.

Was John McCain’s place of birth as big an issue to the fringe left as Obama’s has been (and continues to be) to the fringe right?

Contrary to current conservative talking points, Net Neutrality is not a nefarious government scheme to takeover the Internet, but is aimed to address a real problem. Like most ideas that involve the government, though, it doesn’t really address the real source of the problem; not enough freedom

The institutions charged with solving our Information Age social problems are stuck in the Industrial Age.

Judicial activism doesn’t mean “reaching a decision I don’t like.”

The weekend arrest of a Columbia University Professor for an apparently consensual act raises some interesting questions about why precisely a specific act should be subject to criminal prosecution.

What will Republicans think of a candidate for President who admitted to smoking marijuana as recently as two years ago?

Sorting out, to some degree, the role of the states in our constitutional order.

Further thoughts on a rather radical proposed Amendment to the Constitution, prompted by a link from Instapundit.

Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is speaking positively about an Amendment that would drastically alter the relationship between the Federal Government and the states, and a method of ratifying it that could do serious damage to the Constitution as a whole.

Thomas Ricks laments that the combination of the all-volunteer military and lower top marginal rates mean that the wealthy have “checked out of America and moved into physical and mental gated communities.” To solve this problem, he proposed bringing back the draft.

Are the American people finally waking up to the absurdity of TSA security theater? One can only hope they are.

The battle between social and fiscal conservatives continues, with the SoCons now saying that criticism of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is now considered evidence of ideological impurity.

The response from social conservatives to the call for a truce on social issues is about what you’d expect.

The GOP is being urged to avoid social issues and concentrate on reducing spending, shrinking government, and economic freedom. It’s a good idea.

Former Congressman Bob Barr argues that the right should not be so eager to rehabilitate George W. Bush. He’s right.

He’s the darkest of dark horses right now, but Gary Johnson stands as the heir apparent to Ron Paul’s surprisingly energetic 2008 run for the GOP nomination.

Will the incoming “Tea Party” caucus in the House and Senate force the GOP to reconsider its views on foreign policy? Don’t count on it.

Republicans either lost or barely won a whole lot of races because their vote was split with minor party candidates.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson To Launch Presidential Bid In February?

The PL issues a statment on immigration policy.

Republicans are promising two years of gridlock and obstructionism if they take control of Congress, but is that really what the people who are likely to vote for them next week really want?

The Tea Party movement doesn’t seem to have a coherent view on foreign policy. Which means that a Tea Party victory will just mean more of the same Republican neo-conservatism.

A new law allows Presidential candidates to set up transition offices while they’re still running for election, perhaps providing an opportunity for shortening the 2 1/2 month interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day.

Thomas Friedman engages in some early speculation about a serious third party presidential run. As usual, such speculation ignores the basic structures of American politics.

Do those who succeed in our economy benefit unequally from the benefits of government?

In 1994, it was the Contract With America. In 2010, it’s the Pledge To America. But does it really mean anything regardless of what it’s called ?

While it will be difficult, the idea that Lisa Murkowski could win a write-in bid to retain her Senate seat is not at all implausible.

I was never particularly hopeful that the GOP would retake the Senate, but even if it turns out that O’Donnell’s nomination prevents it from happening, I can’t bring myself to care all that much.

Despite constantly hiring more examiners, the patent application backlog is 728,044 and it takes 6 years to get a decision.

Despite conceding the primary race last week, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is apparently still trying to find a way to get on the November ballot.

Christine O’Donnell has become the latest star of the Tea Party movement, and her primary battle with Mike Castle the latest battleground over the future of the Republican Party.

Lisa Murkowski’s one chance at political survival if she loses the ongoing vote count in the Alaska GOP Senate Primary has gone out the window.

The Miller-Murkowski showdown is starting to get silly.

Up in Alaska, Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller remain deadlocked and waiting for a vote count that could take two weeks to complete. In the meantime, though, the Senator is already considering other options for getting on the November ballot.

Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski still has a mathematical chance of pulling off a victory over Joe Miller, but it’s going to take an electoral miracle at this point.

It would appear that the Pauls have different views on Park51.

Rand Paul is apparently taking heat from some of his more socially conservative supporters after FEC reports indicate he received a donation from the owner of an Adult web site. People need to get a life.