Paul Ryan has an aw-shucks boy-next-door appeal and talks about poor people and budgets sometimes. Therefore he is widely considered the face of compassionate conservatism. In fact he is a wacko, extremist class warrior. And not the good kind.

The media is very focused on the day-to-day minutiae and outrages of the presidential race, but it’s worth taking a step back to point out that the biggest outrage of all is looming in plain sight.

In Pennsylvania, the best kind of political scandal is unfolding: one with leaked emails, bad jokes, hardcore porn, photoshopped pictures of Sarah Palin, and a dash of old-fashioned racism. Best of all, it’s a scandal that absolutely no one will come out of looking good.

Americans tend to think of our Constitution as a hallowed source of wisdom that should be tampered with only in the most extreme circumstances. But what if it’s really just old—and dumb?

A group of New Hampshire fourth-graders who traveled to the state's capital in Concord to learn about the joys of civic engagement were given a surprisingly realistic picture of the American legislative process after one lawmaker used their bill—a proposal to name the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor—as an opportunity to rail against the evils of abortion.

Much like America, Congress–which tomorrow returns to whatever it is they do–is a picture of racial progress. Just kidding! It's still mostly run by a bunch of white, Jesus-loving men in bad suits. According to data from the Post, the 114th Congress is "80 percent white, 80 percent male, and 92 percent Christian."

Yesterday, President Obama waded into the ongoing—and somewhat confusing—debate about “net neutrality.” If you’re curious why this matters, or what “net neutrality” actually means, this explainer is for you.

A new Pew poll suggests that 14 percent of Americans—mainly male non-black college grads who make $75,000 or more—identify as "libertarian." Nearly a quarter of those self-identified libertarians failed to correctly identify what libertarians believe.

Dallas County, population 2.5 million, now officially stands for "monetary and substantial reparations" for black Americans' suffering, after the County Commission summarily approved a resolution by its only black member that the white commissioners never bothered to read.

People either really, really love the Central Intelligence Agency or really, really fear it. It's hard to tell which.

Now that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has fallen on his sword, the agency can finally give our growing population of ill and aging vets the care they deserve, right? Not according to the many frazzled VA employees who have sent Gawker their stories. Here's one.

Say you're a state bureaucrat. How do you make natural resources management sexy? With porn. Duh.

The Senate has confirmed Patricia Millett's nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first such confirmation to happen after the recent change to rules on filibusters.

The Federal Register, the daily journal of the United States government, still uses floppy disks to carry out important tasks, including the transfer of the text of executive orders, proposed rule changes, and presidential proclamations. Yes, floppy disks.

Here is a short video showing a meeting of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, a government agency. The strange thing is, only English speakers without accents are allowed to speak.

When that brave lady started ranting last night about the Freemasons and a United States controlled from the beginning by satanic money-worshipping pigs, the otherwise dull Congressional proceedings finally got a moment of excitement. Maybe this one lady, working within the House of Representatives all these years, could set off a devastating civil war that would leave the United States in ruins.

Many restaurants in the DC area are offering "shutdown specials" to furloughed employees so long as government remains closed, but members of Congress looking to take advantage of the budget deals will find that their business is often less than welcome.

The government shutdown is already affecting millions of people in a variety of ways, but for some of America's most vulnerable citizens, the abrupt lack of public services could literally be a death sentence.

Look at the nice illustration Google put together for the birthday of Yosemite National Park. Thanks to anarchist Republicans in the House of Representatives, today's "Google Doodle" also marks the closing of all U.S. national parks. Even the parks' websites are shut down.