Outside the Beltway

Understanding the outrageous.

Not surprisingly, most of the Republican candidates for President aren’t too keen on reducing the excessive growth in Executive Branch power.

In a year-end fundraisers, VDARE’s founder wished Paul had “defened his letters on the basis of truth.”

Where is the economy headed? The signals are mixed at best.

Time Magazine has chosen “The Protester” as its Person Of The Year. Let the outrage ensue.

The memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor is, inevitably, fading into history.

Some good news in the November jobs report, but not very much of it.

Expect plenty of GOP infighting if President Obama is re-elected next November.

With the Super Committee dead, 2012 is likely to see a fight over the defense cuts set to take place starting in 2013.

Why we shouldn’t be surprised that police are using tools of violence against protestors.

The most disturbing part of Saturday’s debate came when most of the GOP candidates endorsed torture.

Last night, most of the leading Republican candidates for President acted as if Europe was on another planet.

The CIA’s drone war in Pakistan has gotten so out of hand that the Pentagon and State Department are reigning it in.

Should we be outraged over the manner in which Muammar Gaddafi died? I’m not losing any sleep over it.

The prospects for real economic recovery are not good.

With the advantage of hindsight, it’s clear that more creative strategies were needed. But they probably couldn’t have been passed.

Marcia Anderson has become the first African American woman to be promoted to a two star general in the US Army.

A new poll shows that Americans are starting to look East.

Not every 10th anniversary of a horrible surprise attack has been treated the same.

Whether it’s a “Ponzi Scheme” or not, Social Security has serious systemic problems that must be addressed.

The Solyndra case is a classic example of what’s wrong with “government investment.”

No matter how weak he becomes, no President will ever be completely irrelevant to the political process.

Did World War II teach us anything about spending-as-stimulus? Not really.

Another bad report from the Labor Department.

Repeating the “destruction creates wealth” fallacy every time there’s a natural disaster doesn’t make it any less of a fallacy.

That a popular two-term governor of Utah is being rejected by likely Republican primary voters as insufficiently conservative shows just how extreme American politics has gotten.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the strongest signal ever that there will be some U.S. military presence in Iraq after December 31st.

Rick Perry’s vision of capitalism doesn’t exactly comply with what Adam Smith had in mind.

According to Paul Krugman, what the American economy needs is for a bunch of space aliens to invade us.

Watching the news and reading the op-eds makes it clear: America is doomed.

Former Oregon governor and long-time US Senator Mark Hatfield has died.

The defense spending lobby is already engaging in fear-mongering over very modest defense cuts.

A legendary American soldier, General John Shalikashvili, has died.

A majority of Americans want to ban smoking in public; a fifth want to ban it even in private.

Should President Obama do whatever General Petraeus wants in Afghanistan?

Ppartisan politics no longer stops at the water’s edge. This is a bad sign for the Republic.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the GOP is wrestling with two diametrically opposed visions of foreign affairs.

Contrary to what Senator McCain, seeking realism in military policy does not make one an isolationist.

Tim Pawlenty’s new fiscal plan isn’t very grounded in reality.

The Anthony Weiner reveals once again the odd American obsession with the intersection of sex and politics.