Flunking the Electoral College

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/opinion/20thu1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=flunking%20the%20electoral%20college&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 7:28 PM
Subject: Flunking the Electoral College
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The Electoral College was invented with a two-fold task.  First, it reassured the smaller states that they couldn't be trampled by New York and Virginia. Second, it reined in the whims of a populace that might be imperfectly informed on the issues of the day or on the candidates. In the 21st century, those small states still enjoy disproportionate power in the senate, and will block any effort to take that power from them. As to the second point, I am reminded that it was this newspaper that withheld news of illegal domestic wiretapping from the electorate when we voted in the presidential election of 2004.  The crises of the last years might have followed a very different course had the press given the electorate full information on the issues of the day.

Barry Levine

Our Home-Grown Melamine Problem

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/opinion/17mcwilliams.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=melamine&st=nyt&oref=slogin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Subject: Our Home-Grown Melamine Problem
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It is interesting that melamine is toxic, and interesting that we use melamine to fertilize our fields. To leap from these data to a "melamine problem" however suggests that the author has grown alienated from the earth that feeds him. If we were to spread nothing on our fields that is not itself fit for human consumption, what are we to do with manure?

Barry Levine

Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15marriage.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=saved%20same-sex&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 7:14 AM
Subject: Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    If marriage is a religious institution--as the "Yes on Eight" campaign asserts--then the State has no business regulating it. If it is a political issue, then the backers of "Yes on Eight" have no claim to tax-exempt status. For seven years, the IRS has been just one more lever that the Republican party used to enforce its will. The people have called for change. Revoking tax-exempt status for any organization meddling in politics would be a good place to start.

Barry Levine

Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/world/middleeast/14settlers.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=settlers%20who%20long%20to%20leave&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Subject: Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Of the several barriers to peace in the Middle East, the settlers in the West Bank deserve special prominence. If that barrier could be removed for a few billion dollars, it needs to be pursued. The U.S. has recently committed two to three trillion dollars to a war in Iraq that has delivered no dividends, although most of that sum has been hidden from the budget process. If we cannot come up with the money to make peace rather than war, perhaps our friends in Saudi Arabia will step up.

Barry Levine

Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Subject: Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   On December 8th, 1941 president Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor and Congress gave it to him, pretty much as the framers of our Constitution envisioned. That system hasn't worked since. Twice Congress has tried to delegate its role to the President, although it is not clear that that is constitutionally permissible. Now, by secret order, this administration has sought to delegate the decision to make military raids on countries with whom we are at peace to a mere appointee of the Executive. This violates both our Constitution and our treaty obligations. The incoming administration has much to repair. The balance of powers between Executive and Legislative has to be high on the list.

Barry Levine

Change I Can Believe In

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/opinion/07brooks.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=david-brooks&st=cse&oref=login

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 8:08 PM
Subject: Change I Can Believe In
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Now that the People have voted for change, Mr. Brooks counsels timidity. That's sage advice is the goal is to put the GOP back in the White House in four years, but a non-starter for mending what is wrong in America. Just as president Clinton began paying down our foreign debt in the fat years, these are the lean times that call for deficit spending.  With our climate collapsing, our transportation system out-dated, our education system in shambles, employment falling and bin Laden still at large, this is the time for bold governmental leadership. If that adds temporarily to our debts, so bet it.

Barry Levine

U.S. Decides One Nuclear Dump Is Enough

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/washington/07yucca.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=yucca&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Subject:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/washington/07yucca.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=yucca&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Subject: U.S. Decides One Nuclear Dump Is Enough
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 1987, Congress determined that nuclear power couldn't be responsibly developed in this country by private concerns alone. It determined that three sites should be studied for a national repository of nuclear waste that would be safe for thousands of years. Now our lame-duck administration wants to cut off the study phase and declare the geology of Yucca Mountain appropriate by decree, ending the consideration of other sites that may be safer and that will be needed for waste in the near future anyway.

Maybe it should spare us the tension and declare victory in the war on cancer at the same time.

Barry Levine

To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 1987, Congress determined that nuclear power couldn't be responsibly developed in this country by private concerns alone. It determined that three sites should be studied for a national repository of nuclear waste that would be safe for thousands of years. Now our lame-duck administration wants to cut off the study phase and declare the geology of Yucca Mountain appropriate by decree, ending the consideration of other sites that may be safer and that will be needed for waste in the near future anyway.

Maybe it should spare us the tension and declare victory in the war on cancer at the same time.

Barry Levine

Bring on the Puppy and the Rookie

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/opinion/06dowd.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=puppy%20rookie&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Subject: Bring on the Puppy and the Rookie
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    To equate Bill Clinton's hot tub with George Bush's policy of torture is not merely absurd. It is emblematic of a journalistic stance that invents false parity on all issues. The moral standing of the United States has been blotted by seven years of lawless rule in which innocents have suffered spying, detention, torture, humiliation and death . That needs to be said and it is not made more credible by pairing it with snarky comments about Bill Clinton's lifestyle.

Barry Levine

Report Backs Palin in Firing of Commissioner

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04palin.html?_r=2&bl&ex=1225947600&en=619f33f7ae064dcc&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 3:55 PM
Subject: Report Backs Palin in Firing of Commissioner
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    So now the taxpayers of Alaska have paid for governor Palin to hand-pick a panel of judges, who named an investigator, who dutifully exonerated her of wrongdoing. Why should he be more credible than the state legislature, who were chosen by the people, and who found that she had violated the public trust?  Governor Palin seems less interest in serving the public interest than in using the state's resources for her own advancement.

Barry Levine

Next President Will Face Test on Detainees

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/us/03gitmo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=next%20president%20will%20face%20test&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Subject: Next President Will Face Test on Detainees
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The allegations levelled at some of the detainees at Guantanamo are dire, but they remain merely allegations. It is long over-due that these men got to face their charges in a duly constituted court of law or went free. Our next president will face many challenges created by this administration. None is starker than whether we will be a nation of laws or a nation ruled by the whimsy of the Executive.

Barry Levine