Outside the Beltway

David Brooks is mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore.

President Obama has walked out of negotiations on the debt ceiling with an agreement is nowhere in sight.

What if in 1861 a cable news network existed to broadcast the events of the day?

Pawlenty proposes the “Google test.”

Business Week’s cover story examines the coming implosion of the US Postal Service as we know it.

You know those creepy running shoes that look like fluorescent feet? They’re going mainstream.

An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in “The Hobbit”; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)

There has been some buzz on the national security backchannels that a heretofore secret “stealth” helicopter was used in the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout.

Tax compliance employs more workers than Wal-Mart, UPS, McDonalds, IBM, and Citigroup — combined.

The Japan nuclear meltdown has now topped the scale used to measure such things, reaching the same level as the Chernobyl disaster. It’s a stupid scale.

As yesterday’s budget negotiations began, the GOP had a choice – appease the base, or make a deal. They made the right choice.

Lawyers in US court case spent ten pages of transcript arguing what a photocopier is. “Do you have machines where I can put in a paper document, push a button or two, and out will come copies of that paper document, also on paper?”

The United States Army is radically redesigning its physical fitness test.

Did a unit in Afghanistan engage in an IO operation against U. S. senators?

After years of flying people for less than it cost and trying to make it up with volume, the airlines have changed course.

Despite the recent media outrage over TSA search procedures, public attitudes on the subject remain largely supportive.

The U.S. Postal Service is warning Congress that it could run out of cash next year without a government bailout. Meaning that this is the perfect opportunity to reform an organization that has been out-of-date for a decade now.

Peggy Noonan argues that Tuesday’s elections shows that Americans want to be led by accomplished grown-ups and will reject people who seem empty or crazy.

It’s looking less and less likely that the GOP will gain control of the Senate, but they’re going to come awfully close,, and that might be just as good from their point of view.

Polls show the Republicans easily retaking the House but falling short in the Senate. But 2006 showed us that wave elections can produce shocking outcomes.

A group of conservative activists is planning a last minute ad blitz that could help put several Republican challengers over the top.

American troops in Afghanistan are overindulging in the fast food fare brought in to raise their morale.

Thirty-two years after the first “Test Tube Baby” was born, the doctor who pioneered the procedure that created her has been recognized with a Nobel Prize.

Has modern life robbed America’s youth of their ability to think? Or simply caused them to think in different ways about different things?

Even with some key seats trending Democrat, Republicans are primed to take over both Houses of Congress come November 2.

Fareed Zakaria argues that the fact al Qaeda has not launched a major attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 proves we overreacted to those attacks. I beg to differ.

Rand Paul’s initial mis-steps after winning the Republican primary seem to be largely behind him.

The 9th Circuit yesterday ruled that Stolen Valor laws violate the 1st Amendment and that there is a limited right to lie.

Every new report out of Iran seems to bring us closer to the moment when Israel has decided it’s heard enough. What happens if that day actually happens ?

November’s elections will set modern records for most Senate seats and governorships on the ballot.

Depending on which papers you read, the British NHS is undergoing minor restructuring, secretly planning major cuts in basic services, or doing nothing of concern.

The late Senator Robert Byrd’s legacy as the master of pork barrel spending is secure.