Outside the Beltway

The DOD says Walmart was violating its trademarks.

Eric Katz of Government Executive points to “The Incredible Shrinking Pay Raise in One Chart.”

My latest for The National Interest, “The U.S. Military’s Ethics Crisis,” has posted.

A new book by former SecDef Robert Gates is making political waves in Washington power circles, but will it matter to ordinary Americans?

At least one person wonders why the US Army honors Confederate generals.

The defense authorization law requires the Defense Department to go back to a single camouflage pattern.

Without hard choices on pay and benefits, the Pentagon will have to make big cuts in readiness.

A better than expected jobs report in October, but one that comes with a few caveats.

Fifty years after the Stand in the Schoolhouse door, there’s another standoff with recalcitrant states on civil rights.

A Pentagon Equal Opportunity training manual points out the obvious.

NSA Director General Keith Alexander really doesn’t like the idea of a free press.

Nearly two-thirds of House Republicans voted for default. They lost.

Why the federal government is so bad at information technology and getting worse by the day.

The Pentagon is recalling up to 300,000 furloughed civilian employees on the same day that Congress voted to pay all furloughed employees when the government reopens.

The Defense Department might open for business while the rest of government remains shut down.

The NFL donates its game broadcasts to troops deployed in harm’s way but they still won’t get to see them during the shutdown.

Air Force lieutenant colonel (designate) Erik Brine is so unessential that it hurts.

Today will be my first day at Marine Command and Staff College.

As President Obama’s red line has been crossed more brazenly, he continues to sound reluctant to intervene in Syria while positioning forces to do just that.

The Army and Navy are finally doing something about brass bloat.

West Point graduates account for nearly one in fifty deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Until this year, being gay could get you kicked out of the military. Now, it comes with perks.

Bill Clark, who served as National Security Advisor and Interior Secretary under Ronald Reagan, has died at 81.

The Pentagon is considering doing away with two combatant commands—and no longer calling them combatant commands.

The Pentagon is considering making military retirees ineligible for civil service pensions.

The Defense Department would like to get a handle on how it spends its money by 2017 but the Navy won’t go along.

The Defense Department may have found the money to furlough its civilian workers fewer than 11 days.

Sequestration is even dumber than we thought.

The two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are clashing on defense appropriations.

Last month, a retired Navy SEAL came out as transgender. Those still in uniform, however, must serve in silence.

Tony Kornheiser celebrated becoming a senior citizen by playing a round of golf with the president.

The Pentagon has canceled a popular air show even though it operates at a profit and takes place next fiscal year.

The Defense Department will freeze promotions, cut workers, and suspend training in the face of across-the-board funding cuts.

The military’s finance and accounting system has been dysfunctional for decades and is getting worse.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has wasted no time issuing a full-throated statement endorsing today’s DOMA ruling

We’re paying a lot of money for defense contractors. It’s not clear how much of this is wasteful.

This is a problem of culture and leadership that can’t wait.

Did President Obama’s comments about taking a tough stand on military sexual assault constitute “undue influence” on specific cases? One military judge says that they did.

Federal workers are facing being laid off several days without pay; they’re being advised not to seek private sector employment to make up the difference.

The Obama Administration’s aggressive pursuit of leaks is threatening freedom of the press.