Older Feds Aren't Playing to Their Strengths
Is It Too Hard to Fire Misbehaving Feds?
Americans Still Like the Postal Service
A Forced 4-Day Weekend for Many Feds
No More Tax-Cheating Feds, Senators Say
Video: The Daily Show on Apple's Taxes
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Afghanistan killings: Not the first time
March 12, 2012 U.S. officials said they were shocked by Sunday’s killings allegedly carried out by an American soldier who went home to home and opened fire on 16 Afghan civilians, including women and children. Attacks on innocent civilians are not without precedent during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The big ...
McCain calls for air strikes on Syria
March 5, 2012 As the bloodshed intensifies in Syria, Senate Armed Services ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., on Monday became the first senator to call publicly for Washington to launch air strikes on President Bashar al-Assad's forces to protect the Syrian people in their fight to overthrow the longtime leader. The crisis in ...
Paul asks Clinton about U.S. apology for Koran burning
February 29, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, used Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to ask her about the U.S. apology over the military's alleged accidental burnings of Korans. The Koran-burning incident has led to widespread protests and the killing of several Americans ...
Clinton pledges $10 million to 'scale up' humanitarian efforts in Syria
February 27, 2012 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday pledged $10 million to enhance humanitarian efforts in Syria, denouncing the escalating bloodshed at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad as an “appalling humanitarian disaster." Conditions on the ground in Syria are dire and getting worse, Clinton said in Tunisia at the first ...
Insiders: Pentagon should not bail out defense contractors
February 14, 2012 National Journal’s National Security Insiders said the Pentagon should not offer bailouts to keep defense companies or capabilities afloat, despite defense-budget cuts and shrinking military markets. The Defense Department’s top weapons buyer said last week that defense companies feeling the pinch of budget downsizing could receive a Pentagon bailout to ...
State Department budget request only slightly higher than 2012
February 13, 2012 President Obama on Monday requested $43.4 billion for the core budget of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development for fiscal year 2013, with an additional $8.2 billion in a separate “overseas contingencies operations” account for civilian-led missions and programs in frontline states such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and ...
State Department pushes back on reports of plans to slash Iraq staff
February 8, 2012 The State Department is vociferously pushing back against what it called “funky” reports that the U.S. plans to cut the size of its diplomatic presence in Baghdad by as much as half because of security concerns and ongoing tensions with the increasingly authoritarian government. “Contrary to some of the news ...
Pentagon: Even ‘independent’ Afghan battalions still rely on NATO
February 8, 2012 The U.S.-led coalition’s day-to-day commander in Afghanistan said that “a very low number” of Afghan battalions are able to operate independently in the country--and even those still rely on coalition partners for logistical, medical, and maintenance support. Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the No. 2 ranking officer in Afghanistan who heads ...
Insiders: Pentagon's budget cuts are pragmatic for changing times
February 7, 2012 Three-quarters of National Journal’s National Security Insiders said the Obama administration’s plan to cut the Pentagon budget was a smart decision driven by the end of the Iraq war and the nation’s current fiscal crisis, dismissing criticism by defense hawks who maintain that chopping nearly $500 billion over 10 years ...
Long haul for U.S. to secure weapons stockpiles in Libya
February 3, 2012 In a sobering update on the effort to secure loose weapons in Libya, a senior State Department official on Thursday said the U.S. still doesn’t know how many antiaircraft missiles are missing from deposed leader Muammar el-Qaddafi’s massive stockpile — or even if any of them have slipped across the ...
