Digital Government

Here Comes the Navy Cyber Forces

The Navy plans to stand up its new cyber outfit, Navy Cyber Forces, at the Joint Expeditionary Base in Little Creek - Fort Story in Virginia on jan. 26. It will ultimately have some 40,000 cyber warriors under its command, I'm told.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Top Posts of 2009

Here are the top 10 most read What's Brewin blog items in 2009, in order:

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

On Vacation

Bob Brewin will be back Jan. 11.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Senate Health Care Bill: Reader Beware

If you really want to ruin your day, try reading and comprehending the health care bill, which I did Tuesday and much of Wednesday.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Who Needs Boring Spending Tables?

I know they're real busy on the Hill right now, adding verbiage to an already incomprehensible 2,000 page-plus health care bill, but I'm appalled at the sloppy work done on the fiscal 2010 <a href=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/Z?r111:H16DE9-0030>Defense appropriations bill</a> signed by President Obama on Monday.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Defense's Senior Mentor Slush Fund

Folks on the Hill evidently read <em>USA Today</em>, which <a href=http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20091118/1amentors18_cv.art.htm>reported</a> last month that the Defense Department's senior mentor program amounted to a slush fund for retired generals and admirals, who just happen to work for contractors.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

The Year of the Earmark Restraint?

The final version of the 2010 Defense appropriations bill debated in the Senate on Friday contains a mere 1,720 earmarks worth $4.2 billion. The number is down 17 percent and the value dropped 14 percent from the fiscal 2009 bill, the green eyeshade folks at Taxpayers for Common Sense <a href=http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=2696&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS>reported</a>.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

SkyGrabber How To

The Wall Street Journal <a href=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html>reported</a> on Thursday that the bad guys in Afghanistan and Iraq have cleverly figured out how to use a $29.95 software package called SkyGrabber to intercept video feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Marines on the Moon

Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday that he strongly disagreed with a U.S. Central Command directive that the infrastructure in Afghanistan needs beefing up before more troops can be sent there.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Where's Mullen?

I have not hung out in the Web-sphere with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in about a month, so I decided to do some social networking with him this afternoon.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Press Releases of the Day

From two quite loopy press releases I received today:

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

TSA 'Soldiers On'

A lot of troops will be coming home for the holidays, and the Transportation Security Administration <a href=http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57090>wants</a> them and their families to know it has special airport meet and greet procedures.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

So Many Earmarks, So Little Time

The 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Bill bundles spending for six departments - Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State and Veterans Affairs - into one Brobdingnagian pile of paper that makes it hard to figure out earmarks.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Not for Sale

I usually ignore reader comments (and I get some doozies) but the comment on the <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/12/a_100_million_dental_bill.php>$100 Million Dental item</a> I posted on Monday deserves a reply.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Super Fast Passport Service

I live in New Mexico, one of the 36 states whose drivers licenses will no longer qualify as identification for domestic air travel as of the New Year. That caused me to worry that I might <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/12/unreal_id.php>never return</a> from my holiday trip to Hawaii.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

A $100 Million Dental Bill

I <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091125_6460.php>reported</a> last month that the Military Health System plans to evaluate two competing applications for its dental electronic health record to make sure it fields the right system, including one it already sunk $100 million into, my sources close to the MHS Skyline HQ in Falls Church, Va., told me.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

How to Bury $187 million

I start many work days by trolling through upcoming procurements and contract awards on FedBizOpps.gov, a task somewhat akin to looking for needles in a haystack. Today I found some real interesting needles

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

A Combat Robo Doc

Navy field corpsmen who serve with Marine units probably are the best on-the-scene trauma care specialists in the world, but there's only so much one corpsman can do on the battlefield or during a medevac.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Army Modernizes V-Mail

The letter is routed via the Internet to one of 10 locations in Afghanistan where special equipment will automatically print, fold, address, stuff the message into an envelope and then seal it. The envelopes are then placed into the regular intra-theater mail delivery system.

  • By Bob Brewin
Digital Government

Unreal ID

As everyone on the planet knows by now, all you need to attend a state dinner at the White House is either a red sari or a tuxedo -- and lot of chutzpah. But, and this is even stranger, unless something changes drastically within the next 30 days, I'm going to need a passport to take a domestic air flight.

  • By Bob Brewin
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