You will often see potentially important pieces of legislation languish in the US House. A bill will remain active, meaning that it can be brought to the Floor at any time. But it flies just under the radar. Other times the language floats around Washington for years...

How did the US empire begin? In his important new book, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, Stephen Kinzer tells the story of the nationwide debate in 1898 over whether the US should attempt to intervene in the affairs of...

Washington is talking about military spending reform...again. Much of the noise emanating from the think tanks on this subject is intended to maintain the policy status quo at all costs while giving the impression that money is being spent more carefully. But the...

Over the weekend, President Trump indicated that he would continue in his predecessor's foreign policy. The US conducted some 31 airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and two drone strikes in Yemen. Will we achieve different results doing the same thing over and over? More in...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wants to spend five trillion dollars over the next five years in a massive build-up of the US military. Dozens of ships will be be built, as well as more than a hundred new fighter jets -- including the problem-plagued F-35. The Army and...

Although the Founders expected the legislative branch of government to be first among equals, especially in the past 20 years the executive branch has consolidated power at the expense of Congress and the Courts. But the two losing branches have been more than...

Martin Luther King's 1967 sermons and speeches against the Vietnam war may not be as well-remembered as his famous "I have a Dream" speech, but they demonstrate a commitment to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize he won in 1964. Others who have won this award have not...

Watching the Senate hearing for President-elect Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, it seemed arch-neocon Bill Kristol might have been hiding somewhere feeding the former Exxon CEO his lines. He's going to stop China from accessing islands it has constructed in...

We all know what money laundering is. When you need to hide the fact that the money in your possession comes by way of nefarious sources, you transfer it through legitimate sources and it appears clean on the other end. It's standard practice among thieves,...

Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up Donald Trump's nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be his Attorney General. Sessions is billed as a "Constitutional conservative" but how is his record on civil liberties? The drug war? Whistleblowers? We hold a...