Outside the Beltway

Sarah Palin was back speaking to a Tea Party crowd yesterday, but it just doesn’t seem like matters anymore.

Roger Ebert lays the smack down on the Atlas Shrugged film — but not for the reasons you’d think.

Judge Sumi’s TROs arise from a veritable cornucopia of error.

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

Apparently in the Walker administration, one need not be qualified to get an $80k/year position.

Rather than fighting over the remnants of the FY 2011 budget, the GOP should make a deal and get ready for the bigger, and more important, battle ahead.

Is asking to see a professor’s e-mails a legitimate open records request or is it an attempt at silencing a critic?

Regardless of one’s preferences in terms of endgame in Wisconsin, democracy will win out.

Players from the Los Angeles Clippers chipped in to pay for the surgery of assistant coach Kim Hughes back in 2004. It’s been a secret until now.

The Adult Swim Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

A Welcome to Wisconsin sign with another sign saying “A Division of Koch Industries” is going around Twitter.

Recent events in Wiscosin seem to undercut the hypothesis that public sector unions have undue political influence.

Was the GOP’s maneuver legit? And what’s next?

Wisconsin Republicans stripped state employees of collective bargaining rights without the Democratic senators who fled the state to prevent a quorum.

The Blue Man Dupe Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

The funny thing is that the quorum-busting in WI is more like a filibuster ought to be: a true delaying tactic that eventually has to give way to a democratic outcome.

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

As the standoff in Wisconsin drags on, there is no sign that the public accepts the argument being made about public sector unions by Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans.

Why can’t the Wisconsin Stand-off end in compromise?

The Moral High Ground Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Scott Walker’s attempt to crush the Wisconsin public employee unions may be the first wave in a fight to elect Republican governors in 2012.

Opposition to marriage equality is no longer the wedge issue it used to be.

A former Democratic state attorney general thinks Wisconsin’s Republican governor may have violated state ethics laws while on a prank phone call.

Wisconsin’s taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the cost of the benefits programs for state employees. But the benefits amount to a payment in kind.

The Big Bird Flips Big Bird Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker did not campaign on the union-busting package he’s proposing now.

Federal laws designed to protect unions add yet another wrinkle to the Wisconsin standoff.

Is Jon Stewart a useful idiot?

There are a lot of issues on the table, so to speak, in the WI situation. Here I try to entangle them a bit.

A new national poll suggests that moves to restrict the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions are not popular with the public at large: