Outside the Beltway

Where do we stand after 224 years?

Allocating Electoral Votes by Congressional District is an idea whose time has come.

Madison argued that the people were the ultimate authority.

Let’s see if there is evidence to support the assertion.

We often conflate intentionality with design. However, even designers may not fully understand how what they have created will work.

Madison went to Philadelphia wanting to increase the power of the central government over the states (quite a bit, in fact).

The US came a lot closer to something resembling a parliamentary system than most people think.

The signs are not good.

Two cases in the news today raise questions about the NFL commissioner’s power.

Does a family court have the authority to tell a parent to delete a blog critical of his ex-wife?

Philadelphia’s marijuana decriminalization program has saved the city over $2 million so far.

Some thoughts on the American experiment at 235 years and counting.

And even more bad news.

A loud woman who was yapping loudly for hours on an AmTrak quiet car has been arrested after getting belligerent.

With a Federal ban on sales of incandescent light bulbs fast approaching, manufacturers are still scrambling to invent suitable substitutes.

Overnight, we celebrate the biannual ritual of resetting all our clocks so as to save daylight. Oddly, the amount of daylight continues to heed its own rhythms.

Players have taken control of the NBA from the owners. That’s bad for fans. But probably a good thing.

The tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Arizona has started another debate about political rhetoric. It’s a stupid debate, and it’s utterly pointless.

Is the filibuster essential for the Senate to function as designed?

President Obama was correct to commend the Eagles for giving Michael Vick a chance to redeem himself.

The National Football League’s decision to postpone last night’s Eagles-Vikings game due to weather is receiving a lot of criticism, but they made the right choice.

While the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% is at record highs, real inequality is smaller than ever.

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.

While not inherently unconstitutional, lame duck Congresses have the potential for violating the spirit of the Constitution and create the potential for mischief on the part of Representatives who have been thrown out of office.

The guys at Gawker took the web yesterday in an effort to justify their sleazy article about Christine O’Donnell. They failed.

Will a Republican-controlled Congress bring about the third Presidential Impeachment in American history? Jonathan Chait thinks it’s virtually certain that it will, I’m not so sure.

President Obama and the Democrats are charging the Chamber of Commerce of funneling foreign money into ads for Republicans. It’s a desperate move unlikely to work.

A renowned sports economist argues that black quarterbacks are treated differently than their white counterparts.

Both the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, impressive as they are, must be understood in terms of not just applied political philosophy, but practical politics as well.

Is our Federal system a mere political compromise? Or were the Founding Fathers visionaries with a plan?

The nation’s 2nd smallest state is becoming the biggest battleground between the Establishment GOP and Tea Party insurgents.

The Army and its officer corps are becoming increasingly Southern and rural. Is this a bad thing? If so, what can we do about it?

In the first entry in this series we looked at a basic question of democratic theory. In this one, we look at whether the EC ever worked as the Framers intended.

Conservatives aren’t as united over the “outrage” of the New Black Panther Case as you might think.