So the planned furloughs for some 650,000 civilian workers at the Department of Defense have begun. Roughly speaking, this will mean about a 20 percent cut in each paycheck until September. This is supposed to save the Pentagon $1.8 billion, which is a drop in the...
IG: Toxic Burn Pits Still Burning Hell
Despite new rules put into place by Congress in 2009 prohibiting the use of open air trash-burning pits on U.S overseas bases -- yes, the same pits that countless numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, and their doctors, say have caused irreparable harm to their...
Onward Christian Drone Aviators!
The first response to Dave Swanson's "Drones for Christ" report in Sojourners magazine this month is to rub your eyes. This can't be real, it's too satirical -- a Christian university, sitting on $1 billion of assets in the conservative belt of old Virginia, run by a...
Michael Hastings, Truthteller, Dead at 33
By now much of the world has learned that Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone reporter, war correspondent and author, has died in a car crash at the age of 33. He will be best known -- and all of the eulogies so far lead with this -- for his breakout story, Runaway...
CNAS National Security Hive on Syria: “Meh”
President Obama is expected to make an announcement this week on whether his administration will begin arming the Syrian rebels in their suddenly uncertain effort to topple the autocratic regime of Bashar Assad. All signs point to a lifting of the White House...
A Slice of the Anti-war/Syria position in NYC
It shouldn’t be easy for a group of Antiwar.com writers and supporters to just walk in and dish about foreign policy at the Left Forum, which claims to be the biggest annual convocation of Leftwing activists in the country. But it was -- easy, that is. In fact, some...
While No One Was Looking: House GOP Voted Against GITMO Closure
Just because the whole world seems to be talking about closing Guantanamo Bay prison -- not to mention the President of the United States -- doesn't mean it's going to happen any time soon. Not if congressional Republicans have anything to do with it. Distracted by...
FISA grants warrant for dragnet of domestic calls — what’s next?
UPDATE: 'What's next?' Less than 24 hours later and we can answer that question. It's called total content awareness, or PRISM, reported tonight by The Washington Post. "I'm just an average man, with an average life. I work from nine to five; hey hell, I pay the...
Civ Worker on Afghanistan: “I’d give it 18 months before all hell breaks loose”
I received a sad missive from a friend who has been working in Kabul as a civilian teacher on behalf of the U.S aid effort on and off for the last 11 years. A staunch believer in the inevitable triumph of democracy over the Taliban and Afghanistan's brutal warlordism,...
Bradley Manning Trial Day 2
The court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning on charges that could land the celebrated Army whistleblower in prison for life, enters Day Two at the Fort Meade courtroom in Maryland on Tuesday. Check in with Kevin Gosztola and Alexa O'Brien, who are both covering the...
