Outside the Beltway

A stroll down memory lane.

Sanders’ suggestion is not as outside democratic norms as one might think.

We may finally get a ruling applying the Excessive Fine Clause to the states and limiting the ability of police to confiscate property.

Ben Carson announced today that he is skipping the next GOP debate and admitted that he does not see a viable path forward for his campaign. However, he didn’t formally withdraw from the race for the Republican nomination.

As Ben Carson rises in the polls, it’s worth noting his many examples of having what can only be called a very odd relationship with truth and the basic facts of history.

Instead of eliminating the Department of Education, Ben Carson wants to give it a new, bizarre, and dangerous mission.

Ben Carson has no government experience, he has a history of saying things that don’t seem grounded in reality, and he lacks the resources for a credible campaign. And yet, he’s closing in on Donald Trump in the polls.

The problem goes beyond the War on Drugs.

Ben Carson is running for President.

Ben Carson will be entering the race for President next month, but don’t pretend for a minute that he’s a serious candidate.

Ben Carson is inching closer to running for President, and he’s continuing to pander to the most extreme elements of the Republican Party.

Convicted felon Bradley Manning has announced that she’d like to spend her confinement as Chelsea Manning.

George Will declares solitary confinement tantamount to torture.

The majority of all rapes in America take place in prison. Which means the majority of rape victims are likely men.

A system designed to protect the innocent has instead become a menagerie to imprison them. A legal code designed to proscribe specific behavior has instead become a vast, vague, and unpredictable invitation to selective enforcement.

The state has an 8th Amendment duty to protect those it incarcerates from brutality, a duty which it quite often fails to carry out because of indifference and the hiring of “corrections officers” who are often of incredibly low intellectual caliber and moral character.

Rape is the de facto sentence for prisoners placed in many of our prisons and penitentiaries.

Many of the things that happened at Abu Ghraib routinely take place in our domestic penitentiary system.