A new book tracks data on US base presence and suicide bombings; there IS the correlation we all suspected.

90 Second Summary video of Debt, Deficits & Defense: A Way Forward

Today, President Obama came to my town to give an invite-only speech at the University of Texas. Lacking an invite, I wondered what people with invites had to say about the Afghanistan War. Here’s what I found: All the people who had tickets to the event who consented to be interviewed and who gave an [...]

The job market in its worst state since the Great Depression and is putting tremendous strain on millions of Americans. Without action from Washington, D.C., the unemployment rate will remain elevated for years to come, and almost certainly above 9 percent through the end of 2010. Public esteem for economic policymakers isn’t doing so hot either. There are several simple steps that President Barack Obama and Congress could take to create jobs, but of late, neither have shown much interest in doing so.

Tax time is a good time to reflect on the spending priorities in our federal budget.

Building peace means reaching out to the other side and trying to find common ground even with those people whose beliefs contradict so many of our own. If the Tea Party is really against runaway government spending, then certainly we can work together to cut a slice out of the military pork that is bankrupting our nation.

The FY2011 budget proposal acknowledges we face problems. That’s progress. But what we still have to demand are bold solutions to meet the challenges we face.

Chinese evaluation of U.S. defense policies

President Obama’s request comes in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, at a time when our country can least afford it. Economist Dean Baker recently pointed out that “in standard economic models, defense spending is a direct drain on the economy, reducing efficiency, slowing growth” and costing huge numbers jobs. These costs are so significant that President Obama felt the need to include mention of them when he announced his most recent decision to add more troops in Afghanistan.