Smell That? Smells Like… Victory
For those reading this blog from Foggy Bottom, can you smell it? Something different in the air? No, no it’s not napalm from the latest group of grateful Muslims freed from another tyrant’s grip by...
View ArticleHillary Yucks it Up Over Iran War (Libya Redux)
We all still have nightmares remembering America’s diplomat, Hillary Clinton, laughing it up over the death of Libya’s Qaddafi last year. If not, here’s the clip: But now, what could be funnier than...
View ArticleAfter a Year of Serious Roars and Growls, State Dept Officially Retires...
The most important foreign service blog out there, Diplopundit, has a nice write up, sort of an obituary really, of this past year, my struggle with the State Department. Diplopundit focuses on the big...
View ArticleTorture and the Myth of Never Again: The Persecution of John Kiriakou
Originally published September 11, 2012 on TomDispatch.com John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, pleaded guilty October 23, 2012 to leaking the identity of one of the agency’s covert operatives to a...
View ArticleMilitary Review: We Meant Well
Military Review, the professional journal of the U.S. Army, recently ran a review (p. 92) of We Meant Well. The review found both some good and some, er, less than good: We Meant Well contains valuable...
View ArticleI did not vote for a candidate for president. I’m sorry.
I’m really sorry, but I did not vote for a candidate for president. Whatever bad comes of this election, I guess you can blame it on me. But I don’t think I’m alone. I couldn’t vote for Romney. He is a...
View ArticleOperatic Turning Points of the Iraq Invasion
Leon Panetta declared that the US is at a “turning point” in the Afghan War. “Turning Point,” like “robust,” is one of those words that when used by someone in government should make you run away....
View ArticlePlease Not Susan Rice for Secretary of State
Obama, please do not nominate Susan Rice for Secretary of State. It has nothing to do with her being a woman, or a sort-of African-American, or even the Benghazi mess (though that’s a symptom of the...
View ArticleState Department to Have USG’s Most Restrictive Social Media Rules
Diplopundit has a copy of the (leaked) revised rules for the use of social media by State Department employees. The rules have not been formalized, so let’s hope some smidgen of change is still...
View ArticleDeedy: Bar Hopping, Three Shots, One Kill
The Washington Post, reluctantly getting off the sofa with a grunt to copy ‘n paste a story from the Honolulu newspaper, tells us: A State Department special agent charged with murder in the shooting...
View ArticleState Department Lost in Cyberspace Over New Social Media
Foreign Policy features an article, Lost in Cyberspace, commenting on the silly, stupid, restrictive, likely even unconstitutional new rules under review at the State Department to regulate the social...
View ArticleHillary Calls in Sick on Benghazi
Or will she go all-out and claim total amnesia? Hillary, now suffering from a self-inflicted concussion, dodges for the fifth time publicly testifying about the disaster in Benghazi. 2016 baby! Here is...
View ArticleSILENCED: Documentary to Watch for in 2013
Keep an eye out in 2013 for a new documentary film, SILENCED: Washington’s War on Whistleblowers. In addition to appearing in the film, I had the privilege of observing some of the other interviews....
View ArticleBenghazi Deaths: Gosh Darn, No One Really at Fault
The State Department’s own version of reality in Benghazi, the Accountability Review Board (ARB) report, is ever so predictable. The report took close to three months to complete, conveniently...
View ArticleLamb to Slaughter: Benghazi, Cheryl Mills and Hillary Clinton
An interesting bit of information, unconfirmed, raises new questions about how close Hillary was to the Benghazi decisions and decision-makers. Here is what we have: Lamb to the Slaughter One of the...
View ArticleYour State Department: Male, Pale, Likely Yale
The new Secretary of State will fit right in at State, being a white man from Yale (the previously Secretary fit two of the three criteria as well). In the good ol’ days, there were three requirements...
View ArticleDestroying Rights Guaranteed since the Magna Carta
Here are the Department of Justice’s legal arguments granting permission to the president to assassinate Americans if they are connected with al Qaeda, essentially destroying rights guaranteed citizens...
View ArticleSticking to Our Rights to Protect Our Rights
Q: If a foreign organization kills an American overseas for political reasons, it is called… A: Terrorism. Q: If the United States kills an American overseas for political reasons, it is called… A:...
View ArticleI am Patient Zero in our New Economy: Raise the Minimum Wage
This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post In his State of the Union Address, the president said that the federal minimum wage should be raised to nine dollars an hour. He said also that a...
View ArticleCompetence v. Loyalty at State: The Return of McGurk
They say one definition of mental illness is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. McGurk Gets a Job? Such is the story of the State Department and Brett McGurk. Having...
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