Outside the Beltway

A Federal Judge wasn’t very pleased when Administration lawyers told her that she doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit over the President’s drone policy.

A late-night announcement that Gitmo detainees will get hearings raises more questions than it answers.

Marine Harriers dropped four unarmed bombs into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week after missing another target.

Once again, a Federal Court rules that the First Amendment rules does not protect a reporter from being compelled to reveal sources or the results of an investigation.

An overweight Republican from the northeast is thinking about running for president. No, not that one.

Until the presiding Judge in the case rules otherwise, the identities of the members of the jury in the Zimmerman is secret. Should that be the case?

New technology brings the day of round the clock tracking of citizens who’ve done nothing wrong ever closer.

My first piece for RealClearDefense, “Enough with the QDR Hype,” has published.

Some thoughts on a decade old video in which Samantha Power speculates on actions to take against an unfolding genocide.

Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, al Qaeda’s number two man in Yemen, is still dead. Or dead again. Or finally dead.

President Obama has appointed a lot of donor’s and supporters to plumb Ambassadorial slots. That’s not at all unusual.

President Obama is rightly outraged by a wave of sexual assaults in the military. He unwittingly made them harder to prosecute.

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

North Korea’s nuclear weapons aren’t going anywhere.

The US Navy is moving transport ships near Egypt. Just in case.

Ostensible allies in the fight against the Assad regime, al Qaeda and the Free Syrian Army are killing each other.

President Obama is losing public support in the one area where he’s generally had broad support from the public in the past.

A state of perpetual war is incompatible with good mental health and stable family relationships.

The US military’s lavish new headquarters in Afghanistan has been completed just in time for our exit.

Frustrations with the mercurial leader of Afghanistan may increase the pace of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

A privacy rights group has filed a Petition with the Supreme Court regarding recent actions by the FISA Court.

Michael Donley announced he was stepping down as Secretary of the Air force in April and did so in June. No replacement has been named.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says revealing that the United States is spying on its allies has undermined their trust.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

Chief Justice Roberts is the only person who gets to say who sits on the FISA Court.

Don’t blame “secret courts” for the government’s expanded spying on American citizens and allies.

A decade ago. a certain New York Times columnist was more right than your humble host.

The events of the last week in Egypt raise a whole host of questions.

The French were indignant about reports of the NSA’s surveillance programs. Now we know they have own of their own.

Contemporary Americans accept actions by the state that were once the cause for revolt.

Egyptians celebrated last night, but the future is far from clear.

Every piece of mail you send and receive is being logged by the Postal Service.