Happy Holidays from America’s Banks by Michael Winship Never mind Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope. It’s the audacity of the banks that takes your breath away. Mean old Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life seems like Father Christmas by comparison. A recent report that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs may have received preferential treatment getting doses of the swine flu vaccine was enough...

Guest post by Michael Lieberman Michael Lieberman, a Truman National Security Project fellow, is an associate at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington D.C., where he works on international regulatory and compliance issues. (The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.) This post was originally published at Partnership for a Secure America. ********** President Obama...

We’re a month short of a year since Barack Obama took office with sky-high approval ratings and the people prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on a range of issues from the economy, to health care reform, to the environment. I think in order to be fair, we should acknowledge that unlike George Bush, Barack Obama has tackled head on some very difficult, and divisive problems at the outset of his...

Hello there, it’s Dr. E here, deputy editor at TMV… and just as I came home from a four day sudarshan kriya meditation with my family, in came this piece on veganism by Mr. Elijah Sweete, who has written on TMV before, including a news story about a Governor seemingly trying to influence a panel inquiring into a death penalty case in Texas. Oddly, before I received this piece by Mr. Sweete on...

Guest post by Jared Stancombe Jared Stancombe, a 2009 graduate of Indiana University, is currently an analyst for a U.S. government agency responsible for national security. He is also in the officer selection process for the U.S. Marine Corps. He lives in Washington, D.C. Obama’s decision to send approximately 34,000 new troops to Afghanistan is a necessary decision to finally disable al-Qaeda’s...

Guest post by Michael Foote Many critics of Attorney General Holder’s decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his fellow 9/11 conspirators in federal criminal court seem to believe military commissions would be an efficient and straightforward solution to all the weaknesses present in criminal courts. They promote military commissions as some kind of panacea that would disperse efficient...

Independents Are a Sleeping Giant Part 2 – How We Limit Our Own Success by Alex Hammer In Part 1 of Independents Are a Sleeping Giant I talked about how Independents represent a large section of the electorate but a minute slice of elected representation. I discussed in rather general terms the role that such a disconnect may play in our government overall. For example, I noted that: “We’ve shortchanged...

Martha’s Big Adventure – Keep Your Chin Up by Martha Randolph Carr There’s one last operation for me to get through before the end of 2009 and while you’re reading this one, I’ll be recovering one more time. Ironically, before October of this year I had managed to go 50 years without ever being put under. Lately, I’ve been caught in a surgical loop. As you all know, the first two were both for melanoma...

Guest post by Jonathan Powers and Robert Diamond Jon Powers is the Chief Operating Officer of the Truman National Security Project. He is a veteran of the Gulf War, serving as an officer in the United States Army, and the founder of War Kids Relief. He was previously Veterans Program Director at the Eleison Group, where he worked on outreach efforts by the progressive community to veterans and military families....

Priorities and Midterms by David Goodloe “For all the attention the White House and Congress have given to health care and Afghanistan this fall, no problem poses a greater political threat to the Democrats in 2010 than joblessness and slow economic growth.” Dan Balz Washington Post Are Barack Obama and the Democrats beginning to realize that unemployment could undermine their grandiose plans when...

The War-ette Raging Moderate, by Will Durst The best part of a long-term Afghanistan occupation is there’s no shame in failing, since we’ll be joining so many other proud names on such a very long list. The worst part of a long-term occupation of Afghanistan is the many moons it’s going to take for us to figure that out. And according to the president, we should input that online calendar repeating entry...

Martha’s Big Adventure – ‘Tis the Season By Martha Randolph Carr The holiday season is the time of year when we are all reminded to treat each other with a bit more respect and a lot more love. We take the time to give to those who do their best to make our lives a little easier like the mailman or the doorman and we volunteer to wrap presents or feed the hungry. All of the outpouring comes from a place...

Guest post by Michael S. Chase Michael S. Chase is a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and an Assistant Professor at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. The views expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Naval War College, the U.S. Navy, or the Department of Defense. In the two weeks since President Obama’s...

WASHINGTON — The most surprising and disappointing aspect of our politics is how little pushback there has been against the vile, extremist rhetoric that has characterized such a large part of the anti-Obama movement. President Obama’s administration has largely ignored those accusing him of “fascism” and “communism,” presumably believing that restraint in defense...

Turkey Holocaust Day ‘09 Raging Moderate, by Will Durst I’m itching like a like a volleyball-playing nudist in a field of poison oak to inflate the first four-story tall balloon and kick-start the national parade of giving thanks down Main Street, because Turkey Holocaust Day couldn’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned. Be honest, doesn’t a little comforting tryptophan poisoning amongst family...

A Jane Goodall Thanksgiving by Michael Winship Give thanks. Because this isn’t one of those Thanksgiving lists of things for which we should be grateful — although health, family,friends, laughter, etc., would certainly all be on mine. And Jane Goodall. Yes, that Jane Goodall, the woman we all grew up with watching those National Geographic specials on TV as she communed with the chimpanzees...

Guest post by J.F. Murphy J.F. Murphy is a former Marine infantry officer and Iraq veteran who graduated from the U.S. Navy’s SERE program. He is a fellow of the Truman National Security Project. After nearly two months of deliberation, some have criticized the Obama Administration of foot-dragging a decision on Afghanistan. As a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, I could not disagree more. If the previous...

On my trips abroad, I have rarely found an Indian restaurant that would satisfy my native taste buds. In the West, there has been a “curry” revolution and its impact has been the most in Britain. However, there is a growing realization that Indian cooking is not just meant to set your tongue on fire or titillate the palate, it actually mixes common sense with the ancient science of Ayurveda, gaining...

WASHINGTON — Imagine a time when government work was exciting, widely admired, and much sought after. It seems an outlandish thought at a moment when you cannot turn on your television without hearing government spoken of as almost an alien creature. It is cast as far removed from the lives of average Americans and more likely to destroy the achievements of private citizens than to accomplish anything...

Guest post by Ziad Haider Ziad Haider is an MPA/JD candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School and Georgetown Law, and a Truman National Security Fellow. He conducted field research on governance in FATA with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in the summer of 2008 and previously worked as a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent three-day visit to...

Mix Apple with Politics – Not a Good Recipe By Daryl Cagle I’m holding my breath. I’m now into my third month of waiting for Apple to approve my iPhone app. Yesterday I heard from Apple that they need more time to think about it. My app is pretty cool; it is called “MSNBC.com Cartoons” and it features a real time news feed of political cartoons by top cartoonists from around the world. My app will...

This GUEST VOICE piece is by Rafael Jesús González from California, on Veterans’ Day 2009. It is a perspective on ‘supporting the troops’ …or not. I brought it here to give a small x-ray into how one family’s three generations of soldiers is evolving nearly ninety years after what was supposed to have been ‘the war to end all wars, World War One’ …GUEST VOICE...

The Iraqi Army Diaries—entry 3 By s d liddick In the spring of 2009 I embedded with the U.S. Army’s 1-63 Combined Arms Battalion, in the small town of Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The town is a cardinal point on what American soldiers have termed the Triangle of Death. Within a month I was offered a de facto embed spot with the Iraqi Army (IA), by General Mohammed, commander of the 17th Division....

Israel-Monsters and Arab Cartoonists By Daryl Cagle The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians still looms large in political cartoons around the world, with an endless flow of cartoons from Arab countries showing monster-Israel assaulting, eating, crushing or somehow decimating the poor Palestinians. The dove of peace has been killed by Israel in every imaginable cartoon — crushed, squeezed, stabbed,...

Guest post by Jared Stancombe Jared Stancombe is a 2009 graduate of Indiana University, where his studies focused on peace and conflict studies in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. His other academic interests include counterinsurgency and complex military operations. He is currently an analyst for a U.S. government agency responsible for national security and is in the officer selection process...