A House plan to eliminate earmarks that largely benefit military contractors has made headlines the past couple of days. But these earmarked projects make up only $1.7 billion of the federal budget. The Washington Post's Dana Hedgpeth reports on a much bigger instance of government waste: Michael Sullivan, the U.S. Government Accountability Office's top analyst on Lockheed Martin's jet fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing that the cost of the program has increased substantially and that development is 2 1/2 years behind schedule.

The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau reports that House Democratic leaders have banned budget earmarks provided for government projects handled by for-profit companies. These earmarks are mostly no-bid military contracts that lawmakers write for home-district defense contractors. The earmark ban is a worthy response to a recent Office of Congressional Ethics Report that documented the snug relationship between defense lobbyists and lawmakers on the House appropriations subcommittee on defense. But it's hardly a landmark for either lobbying and ethics reform or fiscal responsibility.

The New York Times' Christopher Drew reports that defense contractor Northrop Grumman withdrew its bid to build a $40 billion fleet of Air Force refueling tankers. This means that Boeing wins the bid by default. It also suggests that the bidding to construct these aerial refueling tankers, a/k/a gas stations in the sky, is now in its third and final act. Here's a quick review of a saga that shows the need for defense contract reform.

Harper's Magazine, one of the best publications in America today, continues to expose hypocrisy in American government and the violence that is integral to our country today.  Read Scott Horton's shocking investigation into the deaths of three detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Naval Base.  These three men each "committed suicide" in one night, in the same way:  by first (somehow) stuffing rags down their own throats and then (improbably) hanging themselves.

The Washington Post's Dana Hedgepath gives one example out of control deficit spending -- the Air Force says that its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes will be more expensive to build than originally anticipated and construction will be delayed two years. The Obama administration has already earmarked $11.4 billion ...

Another in Understanding Government’s “Public Service Announcement” series profiling the careers and challenges of notable government employees By Norman Kelley Einstein once remarked that it is more important to have an imagination than knowledge. In the case of Markham K. Smith, now a program manager with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), one led to the other. As a child, Smith’s imagination was spurred by his mother’s admonishment not to lift the lid of the pot that was cooking rice, his favorite food. “She would always say, “Don’t lift the lid off the pot! Do not touch the pot!’” he remembers. Intrigued, Markham wondered why he could not lift the cover to see inside. “So, as a little kid I had the idea that I was going to invent see-through cookware so I could see what going on in that pot while that rice was cooking.” Little did he know that his mother’s command was actually stirring the pot of his imagination, leading him years later to work for the Defense Dept., managing programs devised to thwart chemical or biological Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Working at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, Smith is one of the people protecting America’s armed service members from chemical and biological weapons, a job that could have important implications if the U.S. faces a terrorist or military attack. DTRA was organized in 1998 as part of the U.S. Strategic Command to help face the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The agency’s brief includes detecting, stopping, and providing protection in the event of chemical and biological attacks on American military forces or the US public at large. DTRA’s mission is to think through possible threat scenarios and devise ways to neutralize them. “We are the science and technology arm of the Chemical and Biological Defense program,” explains Smith.

Consider what would happen if America's military became known more for humanitarian aid than for anything else.  This NPR story from Juan Forero on U.S. Army aid work in Haiti shows what a shift in America's priorities could mean for the ...

Did you know that America is the world's leading exporter of "non-lethal" crowd control technologies, and that you are paying for it?  Ando Arike takes an alarming look in Harper's Magazine at a change in the Defense Department's approach to crowd control that could have lethal implications for democratic, non-violent actions by people around the world and in America as well when they attempt to protest en masse in the streets of world capitals.  The techniques, which range from simple isolation of protesters into "free speech zones" to the use of sound blasts or even microwave barrages that cause nausea and disorientation, are part of the Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.  Besides the fact that many of these weapons can cause physical harm is the deeper problem -- they represent a shift in priorities that Americans should be concerned about.

The New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller reports: A comprehensive new study on foreign militaries that have made transitions to allowing openly gay service members concludes that a speedy implementation of the change is not disruptive. The finding is in direct opposition to the stated views of Pentagon leaders, who say ...

This blog has increasingly moved toward covering domestic policy, meaning that I almost never try to bring edifying analysis about either the Afghanistan or Iraq War. However, I can report with confidence today that the U.S. military and State Dept. ...