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Today, I sent a letter to President Obama, cosigned by 4,700 Americans, including 1,700 Veterans, calling on him to abide by our Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq, which sets a deadline of the end of this year for US troops to come home from Iraq. But, for different reasons, I could have written him a similar letter on Afghanistan.
First, there’s Iraq. I was moved to write this letter, because over the course of twelve days (June 6th-June 18th), nine American service members were killed in action in Iraq — a significant increase in American deaths for that short of a period. In comparison, two Americans were lost in combat in Iraq in all of

Fareed Zakaria recently joined a growing group supporting a National Infrastructure Bank. His piece, though, moves the ball forward. Zakaria begins to make the case for Republican and Tea Party support. Let’s flesh it out a bit.
Zakaria makes two main arguments:
An American Infrastructure Bank would make decisions based upon project merits rather than upon formulas or earmarks
Today, the US infrastructure market is dominated by the government, and an infrastructure bank would introduce greater private participation
I’d like to make five additional points:
Rather than give projects grants or gifts, an IBank would provide loans and loan guarantees with the expectation of getting repaid
State and local governments, and the private sector would be responsible for spearheading projects, rather than marching to the federal government’s

Is it remotely possible to close the gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel?
62 percent of Palestinian Arabs who live in Israel believe that Israeli Jews “are foreigners who do not fit in this region, and they will eventually leave the country,” according to a recently released poll by Haifa University’s Jewish-Arab Center. A similar proportion opposes Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish Zionist state.
Meanwhile, 68.1 percent of Israeli Jews told the pollsters that they oppose public commemorations of what Arabs call the Nakba, the “catastrophe” that occurred when Palestinian refugees fled or were expelled in 1948. 53 percent say the state has the right to encourage Arab citizens to emigrate, and 62 percent say as long as the conflict continues, Arab voters should have no say in Israeli foreign policy, according to another poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute.
Gaps in the narratives are matched by disparities in income and educational achievement, as well as systemic discrimination against Israeli

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (“DSK”) is accused of sexual attack on a hotel chambermaid. But will his status as the IMF head allow him to wriggle out from under criminal prosecution in New York by claiming immunity?
Theoretically, DSK would have two available types of immunities: status-based immunity and conduct-based immunity. These immunities are significantly different in the extent of protection they confer. However, the broader scoped status-based immunity is applicable only to a narrowly defined group, such as heads of state and

As if looking for love weren’t intimidating enough, online dating can have shattering consequences. Take Carole Markin, a TV producer in Hollywood who recently sued a dating website claiming she was brutally attacked at her home by a man she met online who, she later discovered, was a convicted sex offender. Thankfully, Markin’s experience is not the norm, but it contains lessons for online daters.
Meeting someone in cyberspace is significantly different from meeting someone in person. In the real world, your dating “site” is made up of friends, co-workers, family and

The misuse of antibiotics in medical care for humans and in the animal industry is at the center of the increasing problem of antibiotics resistance. Low-dose antibiotics are used prophylactically in the animal industry with the goal of preventing illnesses in crowded animal facilities and to promote growth.
In the US, approximately 70% of all antibiotics are fed to chicken, pigs and cattle. Resistant or partially resistant bacteria have been isolated from the fecal matter of those

Happy Wednesday everyone, here’s my Top 5 for June 22, 2011 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
NFL players and owners are resuming negotiations today in Boston.
NBA prospects of avoiding a lockout in eight days look grim.
Another formful day at Wimbledon. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick all won in straight sets. Serena Williams won her first-round match in three sets.
Last year, John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70 games to 68 in the fifth set of a record-setting 3 day

Since 9/11, the FBI’s power to investigate and collect information about Americans, often without any indication of wrongdoing, has expanded on several occasions. Now, according to the New York Times, the FBI is once again poised to extend its authorities by issuing a new version of the rules governing its domestic investigative activity. The changes represent another significant and troubling expansion of power, approved not by Congress or the Attorney General, but apparently by the Bureau itself.
Modifications to the FBI’s rules governing agents’ undisclosed participation in groups, such as religious congregations or political activists, are perhaps the most

Joe Nocera in the New York Times has decided he’s in favor of more bank capital. In his column, he makes this seem like his personal endorsement is necessary to push across the line what he calls “the most important reform moment since the financial crisis broke out three years ago. More important even than the wrangling over Dodd-Frank.” Well, this falls within the pundit’s right to hyperbole, as the headline on the column, “Banking’s Moment of Truth,” falls within the bounds of the headline writer’s exaggeration exemption — though the more I look at it, the more that “truth” bothers me. Personally, turning to the most important person in the world — moi — I would, if forced to take a stand, vote for higher capital standards for the big banks, though the question is not nearly as clear and straightforward as Nocera makes

As the situation stands in Albany today, I have untold amounts of people fighting for my right to get married in my home state of New York. In most countries around the rest of the world, this remains a pipe dream.
Early this morning, buses coordinated by the five-coalition effort headed by the omnipresent gay rights group, Human Rights Campaign, left Midtown, shipping hundreds of LGBT people and their allies to the steps of the labyrinthine New York State Capitol to hold signs, shout, phone senators from their mobiles and demand the State Senate hand over the gays’ inalienable right to marry. This follows a week of much of the same in Empire State Plaza, culminating in the city on Sunday afternoon with a “Last Day of Inequality” rally in Union

Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that leaked millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, has largely blamed BP for the disaster.

In a report into last year's spill, Swiss-based Transocean said the UK oil giant failed to properly assess and communicate the risks around the well.

Transocean and BP – which owns the actual well – continue to be locked in legal dispute over who is to blame.

BP said it was studying Transocean's report.

The explosion in April 2010 killed 11 workers and resulted in oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for three

I’ve been working on explaining pictures like the one below, trying to understand why middle-class incomes so dramatically stopped tracking productivity growth. Productivity gains are society’s main path to improved living standards, but if those gains elude the middle class, it’s not a reach to say that the glue holding our society together starts to weaken.
Sources: BLS, Census Bureau
There are many reasons for this split and I’ll try to get to all the ones I can think of in coming days, but here’s one of my favorite, presented in a slightly complex, but hopefully intelligible way.
The diminished ability to bargain for their fair share of productivity growth is a major factor in the productivity/income split.
You may think I’m talking unions here, but I’m not. I’m talking high unemployment. (Unions matter too and I’ll get back to their role.)
The figure below plots the unemployment rate since the 1950s against a construct called the NAIRU–it’s the flat line, and it’s an acronym that stands for the lowest unemployment can go without triggering runaway

Today I am joining more than 50 of the nation’s most effective and innovative international development companies in announcing the formation of the Coalition of International Development Companies (CIDC), a major new voice in the international development community. CIDC was created to inform and educate policymakers and the public about the critical role we play in delivering accountable and transparent development projects that support US national security, economic, and humanitarian goals. There is a wealth of experience and knowledge on development among IDCs — who have been key implementing partners with USAID for decades — and now that experience will be available to better shape policy debates.
Our member companies support American efforts abroad by bringing highly-skilled, entrepreneurial assistance to developing countries to create sustainable solutions and local capacity. The new coalition was formed to highlight those skills and contributions, and to become a more active voice in the development dialogue because we collectively bring decades of experience, expertise and lessons learned to share with

Life can be such a beautiful thing unless you’ve been surrounded, handcuffed and “taken down” by your fears and defenses.
It’s easy to feel trapped and manacled by your day to day existence; you may have even had the experience of someone or something seeming to hold you hostage, emotionally speaking. And after living like that for even a short while, you may discover that you are angry, resentful and bitter.
Pretty soon you may find yourself “locked in” a negative mindset and the universe seems to become a place of paucity. It appears that there is not enough love, money or resources to go around and there is no way out. The resulting frustration, sadness and anxiety can be unbearable.
“Me In A Prison Jumpsuit? But Orange Isn’t My Color.”
You see, we human beings often build emotional/psychological jails for ourselves, ostensibly for the purpose of “protective custody” to guard against disappointment and

A spokesperson for Enbridge Inc. recently claimed that the chance of a catastrophic spill from the oil tanker traffic which would accompany the energy giant’s proposed pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to British Columbia’s north coast was “one in 15,000 years.”
However, the “independent risk analysis” commissioned by Enbridge suffers from industry’s usual self-serving biases, primary amongst these being an over-emphasis on imprecise and unknowable probability as opposed to impact or consequence. This is the recipe for “Black Swans,” the highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact.
If the Enbridge Northern Gateway project is approved, an estimated 225 supertankers a year would enter Kitimat, B.C. to load about 318 million litres (two million barrels) of oil for shipment to American and Asian

He Says…
I’ve always viewed Vancouver as a beautiful, welcoming city, the big jewel of our Canadian West Coast. And what transpired post-game of the seventh tilt in the Stanley Cup finals, did nothing to damage that image.
The riot that followed the Bruins cup win was no more Vancouver’s fault than it was the NHL’s.
Unfortunately, like all cities, Vancouver has an A-list of a-holes and last Wednesday night they were in fine form!
They wreaked havoc on the downtown core; cars burned, stores looted and a number of people wound up in hospital.
The next day, words like ‘shame’ and ‘embarrassing’ were employed in headlines and the scribes queried as to who was to blame. At whom should we point the finger?
The obvious answer, of course, is the rioters. They, and they alone are responsible for their

I like seeing A’s on my daughter’s report card as much as any parent does. But may I ask a politically incorrect question? What does an A, or a C+ for that matter, mean about success in life, or even in university?
The answer: Less than you think.
We’ve all heard about the kids who stumbled through high school with mediocre marks and then made it big. Just in Canada, the long list includes mega-rich entrepreneurs, prominent lawyers, gurus who write books and give speeches to large crowds, the impresario of a prominent Toronto theatre and even the winner of a Nobel Prize.
It’s the revenge of the C+ student, and it makes you think of that great old line — “School is a place where former A students teach mostly B students to work for C students.”
High school grades were never designed to assess the qualities that make you a success in the working world — like single-minded drive, creativity, and the ability to read people

Are you taking a long distance trip this summer and wish you could take your dog? If you’re anything like me, you consider your pet a key part of the family and his travel arrangements are just as important as yours. As a travel writer, I’m usually the one testing out new hotels and flights.
But this time, I wasn’t allowed on board. It was pets only when my new rescue fox terrier Phineas a.k.a Finney flew from the East Coast to Denver on Pet Airways, the airline where pets, and pets only, fly in the comfort of the plane’s cabin.
Follow Finney along on his journey through the slide show below and find out why I’m so enthusiastic about this new travel option for pets and why Finney can’t wait to take to the skies

CAIRO — In my first trip to Egypt since the fall of the Mubarak regime four months ago, I found a vibrant society dealing with the realities of deep national transformations and facing challenging headwinds. Based on interactions with a cross-section of society involved in building a “new Egypt,” I came away with the hope that proper coordination and determination can deliver the revolution’s central objective of a “better Egypt” for future generations; but the country also needs better and stronger support from outside. Today’s Egypt is an exciting place. Political debates

Yesterday, several people called my Columbus Circle office with urgent appointment requests. It turned out three of them had a common, suddenly severely painful condition some doctors don’t believe exists — sacroiliac joint derangement.
Like several other back problems, sacroiliac joint derangement is difficult to diagnose and while injections can be helpful, they aren’t always effective. Here’s help in figuring out whether you have it — and then what to do.
Anatomy
The sacroiliac joints are on each side of your back, a little below the waist and in line with your

So you think you control your smartphone? Think again.
Late last week reports uncovered a plan by Apple, manufacturer of the iPhone, to patent technology that can detect when people are using their phone cameras and shut them down.
Apple says this technology was intended to stop people from recording video at live concerts, which should worry the creative commons crowd. But a remote “kill switch” has far more sinister applications in the hands of repressive

The original idea for a whole book about dangerous things you should let your children do was a bit of a uke. But after spending a weekend watching kids lick a 9-volt battery for the rst time (at Maker Faire Bay Area) or reading about families who blog their way through the book (like the Johnsen Clan, featured in this slideshow) it’s clear that what kids needs these days is… more danger in their lives!
Of course, I’m not talking about things that are life-threatening or emotionally scarring. However, kids these days are often hardly allowed the time and freedom just to be

As he was announcing his second increase in troops for Afghanistan in December 2009, President Obama promised that by July 2011 those troops would begin coming home. As relayed by Bob Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars, we know the president was skeptical about the United States’ war effort in Afghanistan. Now, as we review the results of that policy, we find his skepticism justified and his call for a drawdown prescient.
President Obama announced his first surge of 20,000 troops in spring 2009. Pushing American forces well above the 50,000 mark and reinforcing a counterinsurgency campaign, he escalated a war entering its fourth decade for the Afghan people.
Thousands of Marines and soldiers were rushed in, with the announcement that they were there to ensure free and fair Afghan

US First Lady Michelle Obama has paid tribute to apartheid victims on a visit to South Africa's township of Soweto.

She was speaking to young women from across Africa in a church that became a landmark in the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Mrs Obama said the successful fight against apartheid as well as the US civil rights movement should inspire them to overcome the problems of today, such as HIV or violence against women.

On Monday, Mrs Obama met the former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The trip to South Africa is the first lady's second official solo visit abroad since her husband Barack Obama became president in 2009.
‘Queen of our world’
It is just more than 35 years since the Soweto uprising, a black student protest against a policy forcing them to learn in Afrikaans.
“Start QuoteYou can be the generation that holds your leaders accountable for open, honest government at every level, government that stamps out corruption”
End QuoteMichelle ObamaThe riots spread to other townships and was seen as a milestone in the growth of the movement against white minority rule, which was finally ended in 1994.

Mrs Obama delivered her keynote address in the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, which was at the heart of the