This is one piece of summer entertainment that is definitely not mindless. When I say Iron Man belongs in the West Wing, I don't mean as President, but more along the lines of Special Advisor on National Security. I saw this movie on opening night last week at the Avalon,...

It is common practice for Hollywood producers to ask the Department of Defense for help in filmmaking. The asks range from helicopters to technical advice -- the decision rule for the DoD is whether or not the product placement will boost recruitment. Hence, the more explosions and shiny metal, the...

"I've been thinking so much about this lately, while I stand on the corner -- dressed in black during rush hour -- protesting the Iraq war. I was part of the generation that tore our government down, but never took the time to put something back in its place" This...

That seems to be our national strategy these days.

I'm going to start an internet campaign of putting the words "defense budget" in quotations because -- according to my unscientific survey out around the country -- Americans are feeling pretty uneasy about their security and our leadership priorities. In other...

Thanks, Hollywood. For those of us working here in D.C. on national security issues, Sunday night gave our nation a good dose of reputation rehabilitation: Spain, France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Canada (please let me know who I've missed). It reminded the worldwide audience that America is connected in...

I know we all want to gawk about Michigan and now speculate over Nevada, but before you head to the strip, take a minute to think about Tennessee, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia and Texas.

This month might be dominated by presidential politics, but January is also a great...

Last week I had breakfast with a friend who works in the Senate as a national security staffer. In years past, we worked together in Congress and frequently schemed to get issues like climate change onto the national security agendas of staff and Members. Given Al Gore's Nobel Prize, the...

So the "inept" Iraqi government did what the U.S. Congress should have done years ago. They threw out private military contractor Blackwater and caused unprecedented interest in commercial war fighting. Despite this, I have a sneaking suspicion that if KBR or Halliburton had received a no-bid billion dollar contract to...

So Congress passed a 459.6 billion dollar defense budget early this morning.
It included billions for the fancy Cold War-hangover hardware so beloved to the Bush Administration and conservatives. The outrageousness of it provides a good segue into the comments I wrote up for our panel...

The Edwards campaign recently took an important step forward in citizen engagement. This website asks Americans to celebrate Memorial Day by showing support for the troops while opposing the war in Iraq. This is a smart move for many reasons. Despite the efforts of Rove and his PR minions,...

Not too long ago, I did a live radio show and one of the callers told me I sounded like a socialist. Hmmmmm. I thought. Silly man! don't you know that only the private sector enjoys the benefits of socialism in this country? Take last week's conservative media onslaught about...

Remember that old movie "Escape from New York?" the one where the city has become a large prison populated by violent and depraved criminals. A story that fell between the cracks of the State of the Union--two downed Blackwater helicopters, five Americans dead--made me remember the images from that...

Progressives have more in common with the military than they think. I learned this from my friend Col Ike Wilson, who returned home in March 2004 from a 12 month deployment in Iraq. One thought remained with him: "Why such a deliberate plan to fight the war, but none to...

I often write about the decay of our legislature through the deliberate neglect and outright destruction of institutional memory and capacity to organize around new ideas....The new Congress promises to reverse this trend.

Over the next few days, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will be recruiting new Members...and especially working to...

Flying out of BWI last week made me realize one thing: I have to choose between carrying my laptop and my four month old baby. So happily I arrived at my mom's house in the Four Corners where I found a new DSL line. This is a big deal seeing...

For the last several years, I have been riding my bike home, out of the Rayburn Building, down the Mall and then along the river to Adams Morgan, the neighborhood in DC where I live. Every evening, I'd stop my bike, turn around at the reflecting pool and say to...

Yesterday's over the top White House rumpus over Senator Kerry's flubbed line about troops in Iraq is truly ridiculous. It was a dorky mistake but in no way merits a new swiftboating of Democrats. The calls for apology coming from left and right alike are, well, they are...

Is the Taliban weapon of choice in the hearts and minds campaign to win Afghanistan. I learned this at a Capitol Hill discussion yesterday with Sarah Chayes, a former NPR reporter who now runs a humanitarian organization there (check out her new book ). Seems death obeys that...

This past week, in between stompdancing on the constitution, Members of Congress found time to rename seven post offices and three federal buildings. Yet the 109th Congress recessed Friday without enacting a budget resolution, without funding several important military matters, and without passing nine of the 11 annual laws that...

Every once in awhile, those of us who follow defense issues here in Washington will catch a glimpse of pre-9/11 wonkdom. Optimistic progressive types, though bummed by the election results, were beginning to find some hopeful ways to co-exist with the Bush Administration. One of those Hobbits-in-the-Shire flashes came to...