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For the past 15 years or so, the FBI has allowed itself to be ignored and even maligned in New York City.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has downplayed the Bureau’s successes and remained silent amidst claims by New York City’s loudest law enforcement official, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, that the Bureau cannot be trusted to protect New York from another terrorist attack.
So pusillanimous has the FBI become on the public relations front, that Mark Mershon, who headed the Bureau’s New York office from 2005-2009, stated proudly, on the record, that his first and most important job, at Mueller’s specific request, was to placate Kelly.
But change has come to the FBI’s New York office. A whirlwind has appeared in the person of Special Agent Richard Kolko, who is hell-bent on publicizing each and every FBI accomplishment.
Kolko, whose bio lists him as a former assignment editor and producer at CNN, is a throwback to both J. Edgar Hoover and Alfred Hitchcock.
He has Hoover’s flair as a master Bureau promoter.
And like Hitchcock’s on-screen cameos, he likes to slip himself into his own press releases by quoting himself.
Hard-line law enforcement reporters and even some federal colleagues say he grandstands and

On Sunday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling the speech given by President Barack Obama on the Arizona shootings “terrific,” moving and inspiring. “[The President] encouraged every American who participates in our political debates — whether we are on the left or right or in the media — to aspire to a more generous appreciation of one another and a more modest one of ourselves,” McCain wrote.
McCain went on to seemingly defend Sarah Palin, though not by name, who got into some hot water by using an anti-Semitic phrase to characterize the vitriolic political debate and finger pointing some believe lead to Arizona shootings. McCain wrote:
McCain noted that Americans have differing opinions and need not be “timid in our advocacy of the means we believe will achieve

Alaska was a cold, harsh place for the Inuit people 7,000 years ago. When a whale was caught, the Inuit held a huge party to celebrate their hunt and would utilize every part of whale — to waste anything was a religious taboo. In their resource constrained environment, the Inuit had identified a use for every part: blubber for oil, meat for food, bone for housing or sleds, skin for vitamins or covering — they used everything. (See a full whale hunt documented by Jonathan Harris)
Fast-forward to the

As the nation gears up to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, I would like to encourage all Americans – but particularly my fellow white Americans – to consider who this man really was and why he was murdered.
You see, most white Americans have reached a point where they can celebrate Dr. King, but that is ONLY because King has been sanitized, stripped of his prophetic zeal, made palatable to whites who 40 years ago may have been among the throngs of fools casting epithets, bricks, and firebombs at Dr. King and his followers.
Make no mistake about it; Martin Luther King was a

Last night, I was trying to think of ways to teach my young children about Martin Luther King. While searching online for books about Rosa Parks and “I had a Dream,” a Facebook thread caught my eye. A close friend had just seen Rabbi Capers Funnye, an African American convert to Judaism and the head rabbi of a Chicago synagogue, in a local restaurant. Rabbi Funnye, who according to The New York Times used to hear the joke “Funnye, you don’t look Jewish,” is also a cousin of Michelle

The recent one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti re-focused our attention on the crisis. As the world’s eyes turn toward that nation, so do the thoughts of aid workers around the globe, who have written numerous thoughtful posts about the recovery efforts and the challenges that lie ahead.
If you want to understand what is happening in Haiti, read these posts:
A Research Trip to Haiti: Personal Reflections – Brookings
Haiti: Constancy and Change – Brett Keller
Haiti, through our eyes – Wait…

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

President Barack Obama will be hosting Hu Jintao, President of China, on January 19 as part of a visit that will be complete with a State arrival ceremony, a joint press conference, and a glitzy State dinner. In addition to highlighting the importance of the relationship between the world’s two largest economic powers that have become so central to growth of the global economy and the stability of the international system, President Hu’s meetings with President Obama will provide an opportunity to press the reset button on the Sino-American ties.
The relationship has been straining since President Obama’s visit to China in November 2009: the tensions during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and in the aftermath of Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and his decision to authorize $6.4 billion in military sales to Taiwan.Then there have been continuing American complaints over allegations that China was manipulating its currency and Chinese concerns over U.S. naval and air military exercises with South Korean forces in the Yellow Sea and over American opposition to China’s newly assertive claims to disputed waters in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
The meeting also comes as the two nations are recovering from the global economic crisis and reassessing their geo-strategic interests in East Asia and

March on Washington for Jobs & Justice
24th National Commeration of Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birth
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
17 January 2011
As I face the Washington Monument — this sacred American landmark — and my “excalibar of justice,” I feel awed by all of you who have joined this March for Jobs and Justice. Today, we marched in honor of two of the greatest Americans in whose legacy we stand — Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. Building on the foundation of those who came before us, I am inviting you to commit today to build a 21st century “Era of Justice,” where liberty and justice for all becomes a way of life for all.
Last week’s tragic explosion of violence in Arizona, shocked my soul and mobilized my sense that our country is ailing, when six everyday Americans, including a 9-year-old child were needlessly killed, and more than a dozen others were seriously wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle

The announcement by White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs on December 26 that “it’s gonna be a while” before the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility closes did not deter nearly 200 activists in Washington, DC on a snowy January 11. Working as a group called Witness Against Torture (WAT), these activists rallied outside of both The White House and Justice Department to shut down the nine-year-old prison and end the use of torture against detainees there.
At around 11 a.m., the activists, dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, stood in silence behind a press conference announcing WAT’s ten day “Fast for Justice” as well as the day’s action: a march from The White House to the Justice Department’s Robert F. Kennedy Building.
Describing the reason for the group’s 10-day “Fast for Justice,” Kathy Kelly of the Chicago peace group Voices for Creative Nonviolence put it best: “Hunger and anger are like two live wires; if connected, they will

I’ve noted before that the PMC sector is a global one. This is an often repeated and certainly not original assertion but it is not taken nearly seriously enough.
Partly the reason is that coverage of PMCs highlights their activities in war and conflict zones; Executive Outcomes in Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s; the Balkans in the 1990s; and in this decade Iraq and Afghanistan. But everyday a private military or security contractor is doing something somewhere, whether doing logistics work, guarding someone as part of a personal security detail, or training police or military forces. But that is not say relationship between PMC and governments is always the same.
Let’s look at a region that we don’t normally think of; Southeast

Mama Gogo. Iceland’s 2011 Oscar entry.
Having lunch with Fridrik Thor Fridriksson for an hour is like sitting across the table from Steven Spielberg who has magically fused with the Dalai Lama, and then taken up residency in a tall Nordic man’s body.
It is an incredibly exciting time. Fridriksson’s film Mama Gogo is now a serious Oscar

When someone close to me was asked once what his life’s mission was, his answer was to spread love as far as possible. That left me wondering what mine was, until I realized it was found in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., in his most famous speech, when he urged America “to make real the promises of democracy.”
In its context, the quote reads:
What actions are we taking now?
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the holiday honoring one of America’s great heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It has been nearly 43 years since

In a courthouse in New York, former NFL star Lawrence Taylor pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and paying a 16-year-old sex trafficking victim for sex. In return, the ex-linebacker received a misdemeanor charge that carries no jail time though he will be put on probation and a sex offender list.
Prosecutor Patricia Gunning said this plea deal was “acceptable” in part because Taylor had assisted with other human trafficking investigations.
With all due respect to the prosecutor, there should be no room for acceptance in our civil society for men who buy sex with girls.
Criminals that feed demand and harm our children should face harsh penalties equal to the harsh and unimaginable abuse child sex trafficking victims suffer.
The 16-year-old girl Taylor abused is one of up to 300,000 children trafficked for sex in America every year. According to police reports, the victim was physically forced into the sex trade by her trafficker, Rasheed Davis, who posted ads for the girl online.
The account given to the police of what happened at a Ramapo hotel on that dark night in May paints a grim picture of what happens to thousands of girls every day across our country. The victim was allegedly beaten and forced into the car Davis used to deliver her to

You searched: local carpenters and contractors
Your search returned: We’ve found 17 listings for local carpenters and contractors, but before we clutter your mental and onscreen space with their listings, let us ask if you’ve considered the profound spiritual benefits to be gained from creating with one’s own hands.
There’s a sense not only of home improvement when you build your own shelves, or refinish your own cabinetry, or personally roto-root your overflowing toilet, there’s a sense of personal value. When you’re finished, you can look in the mirror and know that today you made something real, something tangible, something with character. Or in the case of the toilet, you made the smell finally go away, a pleasure almost as viscerally satisfying.
If you still don’t see it that way, feel free to scour those

The kitchen table is a potent symbol. During recent elections, it became the metaphorical site where families wrestled with the household budget, struggling to make ends meet in an unforgiving economy.
Yet, the image of a modest table where families gather is more than just a symbol of modern-day angst. It is also being rediscovered as the venue where bonds between busy parents and children, extended family and neighbors are reaffirmed and where breaking bread actually breaks down barriers.

The Golden Globes awards show is reputed to be the most fun of all the industry events, because it mixes motion pictures and TV, focuses on glamour rather than technical categories and everyone is sitting at dinner tables, drinking and table hopping throughout the night.
The winners are often surprises, too, and many times, to my mind, get it right even when the organization differs from its more prestigious cousin, The Academy Awards. So, we won’t know if Christian Bale will beat Geoffrey Rush at the Oscars, nor Melissa Leo over Mila Kunis. But I hope these wonderful actors from The Fighter prevail.
Indeed, I was pleased with most of the victors, but where the Hollywood Foreign Press Association failed was in its decision to invite Ricky Gervais back to host the show broadcast last night on NBC. Last year I thought he was bad, and this year he was God awful.
From his opening monologue and lame jokes about The Tourist and tasteless barbs aimed at Cher and Hugh Hefner, it was clear the man who often gave us side-splitting moments as a presenter at past awards shows can’t seem to connect when he takes the helm of such a program.
I can’t figure it out, because I like raunchy humor and was delighted in past occasions when he came forth with zingers that were spot-on, but there’s something about hosting the show that makes him lose

Three years ago, when Diana and I were kicking around book ideas, there was one that rose to the top for us, one we thought was pure gold. Its working title was: How to Raise a Child Prodigy. Although neither of us were prodigies — a fact that filled us both with regret — and neither of us were parents yet, we felt qualified to write the book anyway, because we were products of Hardass Asian Parenting, which was no different, in our minds, from Prodigy Parenting (see: the long, ever-expanding list of Asian prodigies). Plus, we imagined the book as a way to talk about what it’s like to be Asian American without getting heavy, a way to laugh at ourselves, something honest but still

In case you haven’t noticed the days of separation are over. Church and State. Me and You. The Media and Everyone

The holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth is always an occasion to think about issues of equality in American society.
So this morning, I find myself thinking about CNN and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
GLAAD, the activist group which advocates for equal treatment of gay people, released a petition earlier this month demanding CNN stop giving airtime during stories and debates on gay issues to experts whose only qualification is that they are opposed to homosexuality.
The group cites the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg as an example of what they call the “anti-gay industry,” a network of pundits whose primary goal is advancing the notion that gay people don’t deserve the same rights as other Americans. By pairing them with people have actual expertise when discussing issues such as the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy, GLAAD says, CNN is elevating their hurtful rhetoric.
This idea brings up an important question when considering press coverage of such issues: When does a news organization exclude the haters?
Put another way, when should news organizations conclude that purely anti-gay sentiment is prejudice that they should no longer support?
Back in Dr. King’s time, when debates over issues of civil rights were covered by the media, they also dutifully included those who favored segregation or denying black people the vote or banning interracial marriage. But eventually, the news media concluded that such views were prejudiced and stopped presenting them as equal arguments — reasoning that treating racists like equal participants in such debates only granted them a power they should not have.
So when will media take similar action with anti-gay activists?
It seems a simple

In New York City, where I grew up, the superintendent was the guy who fixed the plumbing or the boiler and twisted his face when you told him there was a dead rat inside your radiator. In my building, it was a surly guy named Eddie who had six children and sometimes argued with the oldest ones in the lobby or stood by himself in front of the rusty iron front door of the building puffing a cigar and drinking out of a brown paper bag.
In L.A. where I now live, the superintendent runs the school

I was almost knee-to-knee with Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish as we sat in the lobby of his hotel in downtown Los Angeles, talking about his new book, I Shall Not Hate, and the work he is doing to create a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. His energy was irrepressible and contagious and the smile that permanently graces his face as he talks belies a life of suffering and heartache. In January 2009, during the three-week long war in the Gaza strip and a mere four months after losing his wife, Nadia, to cancer, an Israeli tank fired two shells into