Outside the Beltway

Contrary to myth, China holds only 8 percent of US federal debt.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed a simple deal to break the impasse on the debt ceiling: Cede power to raise the ceiling to the president, with a few minor caveats.

Byron York had some not unreasonable questions for Susan Feinberg, the woman who confronted Paul Ryan over $350 wine he consumed at a Capitol Hill restaurant. She won’t answer.

Real news reporting has never paid for itself. But the days of it being subsidized by the local car dealer are rapidly ending.

So, apparently, Paul Ryan has expensive tastes in wine.

Bachmann’s views on the Founders and slavery are more significant than simply a question of how to classify John Quincy Adams.

By now, everyone knows that John Edwards was indicted on campaign finance law violations stemming from the cover-up of the Rielle Hunter love child scandal. Most, too, recall the brouhaha over Edwards’ $400 haircuts. As it turns out, they’re at least tangentially related.

The main issue, above all else, is taxes.

As Congress left town for the long weekend, the Senate Minority Leader threw a grenade into the budget negotiations.

You thought the birther insanity was over? Silly you.

Surprising no one, President Obama’s release of his long-form birth certificate has satisfied none of the Birthers.

A major law firm has withdrawn from defending DOMA in Court, and a public controversy has erupted.

Paul Ryan unveiled an ambitious plan to cut the deficit today. The question is whether it will be the beginning of a debate, or an opportunity for Democratic demagoguery

A handful of young male bloggers have launched themselves to the head of the line, leapfrogging those who’ve spent years playing the game by the old rules.juice

The Democrats appear ready to come home (or, as per the update, maybe not).

Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum has received death threats after questioning the wisdom of the U.S. Army sponsoring a NASCAR Sprint Cup team to the tune of $7 million a year.

Shirley Sherrod’s lawsuit against Andrew Brietbart promises to be an interesting test of the boundaries of defamation law in the political blogosphere.

The media are wildly exaggerating the heckling at a gathering of conservatives.

State and AID budgets are a rounding error in the Defense budget.

Kay Bailey Hutchison will not run for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Republicans are renaming three House committees, including bring back Ethics and taking out Labor.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who may end up running for President in 2012, has reopened wounds that finally seemed like they were closed.

Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever?

The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear ended up having a point after all, but it’s not one that anyone is likely to take to heart.

Ivo Daalder, the US Ambassador to NATO, says that we are “seeing the corner and can peek around it in Afghanistan” and that a province-by-province handover of security responsibilities to the host government will “start in the first half of 2011.” But the final handover is not expected until “the end of 2014” and NATO forces will remain in an advisory capacity indefinitely. “The process will take years,” he emphasized.

Former Vice-President Cheney has apparently entered a far grimmer phase of his chronic heart problems than many realized.