Outside the Beltway

Bradley Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, but is still likely to spend most of his life in prison.

The US backed Egyptian government is massacring supporters of the ousted democratically elected government.

Not surprisingly, the United States is not going to place aid to Egypt’s military in legal jeopardy by calling this month’s events a coup.

Conservatives are doing what the criticized JournoList for doing—even though JournoList didn’t.

The two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are clashing on defense appropriations.

Americans tell pollsters that hate Congress, but they never seem to do anything about it.

Time to “pivot to the economy” again.

A Federal Judge wasn’t very pleased when Administration lawyers told her that she doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit over the President’s drone policy.

Secretary of State Kerry becomes the latest American official to wade into the Middle East’s longest lasting quagmire.

Once again, a Federal Court rules that the First Amendment rules does not protect a reporter from being compelled to reveal sources or the results of an investigation.

Evidence that George Zimmerman acted out of racial bias is completely lacking, which means the Federal Government should stay out of this case entirely.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons aren’t going anywhere.

President Obama is losing public support in the one area where he’s generally had broad support from the public in the past.

The latest House GOP pronouncements on immigration reform make it exceedingly unlikely that any bill will pass this year.

The military’s finance and accounting system has been dysfunctional for decades and is getting worse.

Frustrations with the mercurial leader of Afghanistan may increase the pace of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Some thoughts on the ongoing situation in Egypt.

Michael Donley announced he was stepping down as Secretary of the Air force in April and did so in June. No replacement has been named.

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

Forget about the budget deficit and spending. The Tea Party apparently now considers stopping immigration reform to be its most important task.

On a slow news day, a major concession on Obamacare

The blowback from yesterday’s revelations about U.S. surveillance on European allies continues.

The Supreme Court’s handling of standing in the two same-sex marriage cases likely seems contradictory to many outside observers.

The 5-4 ruling was much more sweeping than needed to strike down DOMA.

CNN is reviving the Crossfire shoutfest with Newt Gingrich, S.E. Cupp, Stephanie Cutter, and Van Jones as hosts.

A new theory circulating on the right asserts that IRS targeting of Tea Party groups had an impact on the 2012 elections by diminish the Tea Party’s effectiveness. It’s mostly nonsense.

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

Just when you thought the sequestration process couldn’t get more cynical.

Opponents of immigration reform are using “border security” as a shield to hide their true desire to kill the very idea of immigration reform.

There are risks to Republicans in blocking immigration reform, but there are also incentives for them to block immigration reform. Getting past that contradiction to passage isn’t going to be easy.

Two polls indicate that most Americans oppose the President’s latest moves on Syria. This makes sense considering actual policy there seems to be entirely incoherent.

President Obama’s poll numbers seem to be suffering under the weight of nearly two months of scandals and/ media attention.

The U.S. is now confirming that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. What’s next?

Thanks to the Supreme Court, your DNA cannot be patented.

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

Even if you trust the current occupant of the White House to exercise the powers granted to the agencies operating in secret under him, do you trust all future Presidents?

The infamous VA backlog is finally dwindling. Much of it was a function of good intentions.

The ACLU is suing over the NSA’s data mining. Does it really have a chance?

The Administration has accepted reality in its fight against a ruling that made the “morning after” pill available regardless of age.

Sometimes it seems like all John McCain does is appear on Sunday morning news shows. The problem goes deeper than that, though.

Jay Stanley and Ben Wizner, privacy experts at the ACLU, argue that metadata is more sensitive than we think.

Has the West inadvertently handed Iran a victory in Syria?