The New York Times’ Michael Brick does some journalistic assisted suicide, letting the U.S. military hangs itself through professing love for Ultimate Fighting Championship. U.F.C. is a pro league of mixed martial art and jujitsu fighting, what John McCain once called “human cockfighting.”

Now it’s all ...

It’s Public Service Recognition Week and the Council for Excellence in Government has kicked off the festivities with a survey about the federal bureaucracy. In a poll of 18-to-29-year-olds, apparently also known as millennials, the survey found out that if asked by a parent, teacher, or new president of ...

Andrew Tilghman writes in The Washington Monthly about a growing problem:  the departure of career officers from the U.S. Army.  As Tilghman writes, "an all-volunteer army has few tools at its disposal to staunch the loss of high-grade junior officers," a loss that is increasing as the wars in Iraq ...

Washington Post reporting shows the importance of independent voices within government with the resources and authority to criticize government performance.  Two new GAO reports have emerged:  one describes in detail the lack of progress in meeting benchmarks in Iraq, and the second criticizes State Department effectiveness in hiring, staffing embassies, ...

The federal government is in something of a recruitment crisis.  And it looks like the government’s own hiring and contracting practices are partly to blame.

Understanding Government wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last, to acknowledge the importance of recruiting a more educated and skilled executive branch workforce.

Several earlier postings have discussed these developments.  We’re seeing a need for better educated government workers to deal with increasingly complex issues.  We’re also ...

Stephen Barr (“Federal Diary,” Washington Post) reported that Max Stier (Partnership for Public Service) and others are endeavoring to lure alluring talent to government ranks.OPM and Stier’s organization are working with hundreds of colleges and dozens of federal agencies to achieve a laudable goal.  There’s only one problem.  It won’t ...