U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/world/middleeast/28yemen.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=u.s.%20widens%20the%20terror%20war%20to%20yemen&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  After our failed hit on al-Awlaki, it is scarcely news that the U.S. has widened the war to Yemen. Still, the article has the power to surprise. How can a journalist note that al-Awlaki is "a radical cleric in Yemen" but fail to mention that he is an American citizen who fits our Constitutional definition for treason? Noting that our policy is now a year old, how does the article not mention whether this was the first act of the president-elect, or one of the last acts of the lame-duck?  How many hands have edited this piece? After so much scissor work, I marvel that the page didn't dissolve in my hands into a heap of confetti.

Barry Levine

Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=banks%20bundled%20debt&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Subject: re: Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The world of finance is too abstract to grasp easily. I do know however that a professional athlete's earnings go up if he wins and down if he loses. It is therefore prudent that he hedge his bets by betting on his opponent. What is prudent is not legal for the athlete. The laws for investment bankers should be as clear.

Barry Levine

Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Subject: re: Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Half a year into the debate on health insurance, we still pretend that that debate is about healthcare. Now when we talk about end-of-life decisions, you characterize that as a discussion of "costs" as if that were different. Dr. Patrick T. Dowling gets to to the heart of the matter: "The more tubes you put in, the more you get paid".  The American healthcare system is therefore geared to do ever more and more, and charge ever more and more, quite independent of what's best for the patient.  Adam Smith taught us 200yrs ago that the incentives are the system. As long as the U.S. keeps a fee-for-service model for our physicians, our healthcare costs will continue to rise, until they consume our entire economy.

Barry Levine

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia Remains a Threat in Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/world/middleeast/21qaeda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi%20qaeda%20group%20shifts&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Subject: re: Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia Remains a Threat in Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   So Iraqi Sunnis still consider the central government a hostile Shiite tool, and expect open hostilities to erupt between Sunni and Shia and between Sunni and Kurd when the foreign peace-keepers are gone. This isn't news, but perhaps it's necessary background to the war coverage to come.  What is missing is any effort to reconcile this reality with the bland assertions that the Petraeus strategy has succeeded. If this is the model for our Afghan strategy, we  will be stuck a peacekeepers there too until hell freezes over.

Barry Levine

Pakistan Reported to Be Harassing U.S. Diplomats

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/world/asia/17visa.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 12:57 PM
Subject: re: Pakistan Reported to Be Harassing U.S. Diplomats
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If the U.S. continues to focus on the Zardari's empty cape instead of Kayani's sword, our adventure in Afghanistan and Pakistan is going to end with out ears hung on someone's trophy wall.   As head of Pakistan's army, Ashfaq Kayani continues to protect assets inside the Taliban whom he cultivated when when he ran the ISI.  This has always been the axis of real power in Pakistan. While we may continue to cheer for the emergence of democracy, there, Zardari isn't the credible partner we need.

Barry Levine

Clinton Outlines U.S. Policy on Human Rights

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/14/world/international-uk-usa-rights.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=clinton%20outlines%20obama's%20"agile"%20agenda&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 9:41 AM
Subject: re: Clinton Outlines U.S. Policy on Human Rights
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As long as president Obama's Department of Justice continues to provide immunity for those who tortured and wiretapped in violation of our own laws, his Department of State has no credibility in arguing for Human Rights. "Pragmatic and agile" is high praise for a harlot. I want something more principled in a leader.

Barry Levine

Interest Rates Are Low, but Banks Balk at Refinancing

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business/economy/13rates.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: Interest Rates Are Low, but Banks Balk at Refinancing
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   For a year now, the Federal Reserve has tried to inject money into American society by depressing interest rates. In a well-functioning market, each bank would compete to refinance another bank's loans at a more attractive rate, and the borrowers would have more money to drive the economy. If, instead, the banks collude to line their own pockets and not to lend out this money, they should be broken up without hesitation or sentiment. That's what anti-trust laws are for.

Barry Levine

With Lure of Cash, M.I.T. Group Builds a Balloon-Finding Team to Take Pentagon Prize

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/technology/internet/07contest.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=m.i.t.&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 9:36 AM
Subject: re: With Lure of Cash, M.I.T. Group Builds a Balloon-Finding Team to Take Pentagon Prize
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It is tempting to speculate how Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon would have found these same eight red balloons. They would spent thousands of tons of aviation fuel flying aircraft with video gear over the whole country, while a crew of image analysts studied the video for signs of red balloons. Given the same task, the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) would have offered small monetary rewards to the millions of people already on the ground to report back where they saw red balloons. One hopes that Obama's Pentagon has the wisdom to learn what they just paid for. Those red balloon could as easily have been leaders of al-Qaeda.

Barry Levine

Similarities to Iraq Surge Plan Mask Risks in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/world/05policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=surge%20afghanistan&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 10:44 PM
Subject: re: Similarities to Iraq Surge Plan Mask Risks in Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Our Iraq experience is unreliable ground on which to build an Afghanistan strategy. If the Surge in Iraq is judged a success, it is because--in the game of ever-changing criteria of success there--the spinner now points to "minimize monthly death-toll".  Consider how such a criterion would have sounded in January 2003, when zero American servicemen died in Iraq, and it had been zero for a decade. It wouldn't have passed any one's giggle-test, yet that was the time when we needed to enunciate a definition of success.

   President Obama isn't responsible for the messes he inherited, but he is responsible for reading our history responsibly as he commits the lives of American troops looking forward. He has told us that we can succeed in Afghanistan. What will that success look like? 

Barry Levine

3 Secret Service Officers Put on Leave in White House Gate-Crashing To: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/us/politics/04party.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=service%20officers%20put%20on%20leave&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Subject: re: 3 Secret Service Officers Put on Leave in White House Gate-Crashing
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   I am not privy to the raw data. Still, when the head of the president's secret service asserts that there have not been more death threats against president Obama than there were against his predecessors, eyebrows across the country should go up. If our secret service is redefining "death threats" to get the number they want, they are not doing their job. Some of us remember a national security team who insisted they had had no warning of the attacks of 9/11 because they had defined "warning" to give the number they wanted.

Barry Levine

Obama Team Defends Policy on Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/world/asia/03policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=obama%20team%20defends%20policy&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 10:42 AM
Subject: re: Obama Team Defends Policy on Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Secretary Gates may well be correct when he states that Afghanistan is unique as the site where the attacks of 9/11 were planned. He is also irrelevant. Yemen is unique as the site of the only al-Qaeda attack on a U.S. warship, and Saudi Arabia is unique as the homeland of a majority of th 9/11 bombers  and the list could go on. Let the Department of Justice prosecute the crimes of the past. I need a military leadership that looks to our future good when deciding where to send our troops who are alive today and may be dead tomorrow.

Barry Levine

Oil Companies Look to the Future in Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/world/middleeast/01iraqoil.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=foothold%20in%20iraq&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Subject: re: Oil Companies Look to the Future in Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    From the hour of our invasion, the U.S. has studiously ignored our most important potential ally in Iraq.  Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani welcomed the demise of Saddam Hussein and the advent of democracy in his adopted country. As the highest-ranking Shiite cleric alive, his pronouncements carry huge weight among Iraq's population.  Our Bush administration however couldn't accept his insight that Iraq's mineral wealth belongs to the nation, and cannot be privatized.  Now, the major international oil companies are signing service contracts with the Iraqi government, rather than production-sharing agreements. The implication is that the mineral wealth remains the asset of Iraq.  Now that the interested parties have agreed on this, shouldn't the government of the U.S. enjoy a relationship with the most powerful man in Iraq? The government that prefers a relationship with a fugitive like Chalabi to one with a revered leader like al-Sistani earns only derision in Iraq.

Barry Levine

Taxing the Speculators

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/opinion/27krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=taxing%20the%20speculators&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Subject: re: Taxing the Speculators
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The Financial sector has acquired vast and unhealthy influence over our society in the last three decades.  An increasingly large fraction of its energies are spent on non-productive games rather than on empowering innovation and production in society.  A government that was serious about serving the people, rather than the donors would  find ways to harness this energy.  The Tobin tax on currency speculation is a good start. More important would be a steeply graduated capital gains tax.  Stock purchases that are held less than an hour do nothing to fuel industry. Tax any profits on them at 100%. Stock purchases that are held two years or more provide the capital on which the real economy runs. Tax profits on them at 15%. Stocks held for intermediate periods should be taxed at intermediate rates. Until we do both these things, our stock markets will be driven by those with the fastest trading algorithms and the shortest wire-links, and our national governments will be hostage to speculators playing with careers and industries as if they casino chips.

Barry Levine

Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/us/24crime.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=supreme%20court%20spotlight&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Subject: re: Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The alliances forming as federal law is challenged in the Supreme Court this season are less about the meeting of Left and Right than about the dissolution of the unnatural coupling of American Libertarians to the Right.  The more natural alignment has always put the Libertarians on Left, in opposition to government intrusions into worship, into our privacy and into reproductive matters.  The question of how much government we need is a real political issue that will be re-argued as long as our republic lasts. The identification of the Libertarians with the American Right was a fluke of our tax code, and has out-lived its day.

Barry Levine

Pentagon to Review Shootings at Fort Hood

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/20inquire.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pentagon%20to%20review%20shootings&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 9:12 AM
Subject: re: Pentagon to Review Shootings at Fort Hood
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The FBI-led counterterrorism team that examined Major Hasan's contact with al-Awlaki was probably right to find that the conversations were protected by the first amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. The more interesting case was at the other end of those conversations. Al-Awlaki is an American citizen who has attached himself to our enemies. Our constitution calls that "treason". Perhaps someone with jurisdiction in Yemen should have been notified.

Barry Levine

Why We Should Put Jihad on Trial

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/opinion/18simon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=put%20jihad%20on%20trial&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Subject: re: Why We Should Put Jihad on Trial
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Predictably, John Yoo argues against  trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a duly-constituted court of law.  What is the "intelligence bonanza" that he fears will be opened to our enemies? Plainly, it's nothing time-sensitive. These crimes and the evidence of them are eight years old. As usual with the "State's Secrets" argument, it is the government's embarrassment that is being protected. While torture, abuse and extraordinary rendition are no longer our policies, some of these crimes of the Bush administration may indeed be relevant to this case. Let mr. Mohammed have his day in court, and let the U.S. repudiate our past crimes.  No legitimate democracy can function by just locking up inconvenient people and inconvenient facts.

Barry Levine

Medicines to Deter Some Cancers Are Not Taken

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/health/research/13prevent.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=drugs%20to%20deter&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Subject: re: Medicines to Deter Some Cancers Are Not Taken
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The failure of Americans to take drugs that have been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer points to a greater failure. The current American healthcare "system" makes no provision for preventative care.  We have succeeded against smallpox, polio, rubella etc. by pretending that "public health" is independent of a healthcare policy. Because these are contagious diseases, the state can coerce vaccination. Human papilloma virus is also communicable and eradicable, but don't hold your breath to see that vaccine prescribed for all our kids. Where does that leave drugs that can cut the risk of prostate cancer? Ask again if and when we have a healthcare policy. Until then, it's every man for himself.

Barry Levine

Gerrymandering, Pure and Corrupt

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/opinion/12thu1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gerrymandering&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:47 AM
Subject: re: Gerrymandering, Pure and Corrupt
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The "reasonably compact" standard for a congressional district is toothless, and has clearly failed to insure the free exercise of democracy. If we want a standard that will stop gerrymandering, we would mandate a maximum ratio of perimeter to area for each district. 

   Better still, we should eliminate electoral districts. Give every eligible voter in New York State 29 votes to cast as he or she chooses. Twenty-nine votes for one candidate, or a straight party-slate vote down the ballot or any combination in between. Every race would now be competitive and the resulting delegation would better represent the people of the state, every time.

Barry Levine

From 19th-Century View, Desegregation Is a Test

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/us/10bar.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=desegregation%20as%20test&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Subject: re: From 19th-Century View, Desegregation Is a Test
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Two years ago, in order to reach a result he likes in the Medellin case, justice Scalia found that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution doesn't mean what it plainly says.   Any claim to originalism in light of this case is mere opportunism--the same opportunism that he claims to reject categorically.

Barry Levine

For Abortion Foes, a Victory in Health Care Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/politics/09abortion.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=victory%20in%20health%20care%20vote&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 8:02 AM
Subject: re: For Abortion Foes, a Victory in Health Care Vote
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It defied logic to count the current health care bill as a coup by Catholic Bishops. They have been singing the same song for a long time. What has changed is Rahm Emanuel's strategy of packing the congress with anti-abortion Democrats. If there is change coming, it is because of what is novel, not because of what is constant.

Barry Levine

Italy Convicts Former CIA Agents In Rendition Trial

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/04/us/politics/politics-us-italy-renditions-verdict.html?scp=3&sq=magi&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Subject: re: Italy Convicts Former CIA Agents In Rendition Trial
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The conviction of our C.I.A. agents in absentia presents the U.S.  a new invitation to honor our treaties and to rejoin the community of law-abiding nations. "The United States shouldn't need a foreign court to distinguish right from wrong".  Our chosen leader should think hard before rejecting this gift from judge Magi. 

Barry Levine

Karzai Vows Corruption Fight, but Avoids Details

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/asia/04afghan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=karzai%20vows&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Subject: re: Karzai Vows Corruption Fight, but Avoids Details
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If president Karzai's anti-corruption campaign is limited to "draft[ing] some new laws", his case is hopeless. Corruption is a failure to enforce existing law. We would be fools to expect that any new laws his government might draft would be any less toothless.

Barry Levine

U.S. Use of Drones Queried by U.N.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/28nations.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=use%20of%20drones%20queried&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Use of Drones Queried by U.N.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   International law recognizes that uniformed members of our armed forces can and will kill kill enemy combatants on the field of battle; it calls them "soldiers" or "marines" or "airmen" or "sailors". It provides for very different treatment of others who kill. If members of our C.I.A. are killing Pakistani and Afghan citizens, they are unlawful combatants. They are properly called "assassins" or "terrorists" or "murderers".

Barry Levine

Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/policy/27fda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=years%20behind%20on%20testing%20approved&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Once a therapy has been approved for market, a drug company has scant incentive to complete further ("Phase IV") testing that might show risks of inefficacy.  All the incentives are in the wrong direction. Better to take clinical trials out of industry's hands entirely. Let a third party or the FDA conduct and analyse clinical trials that the drug companies have designed. The current honor system pits the public interest against human nature.

Barry Levine 

Offer Raises Idea of Marriage for Catholic Priests

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/22church.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pope's%20invitation&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Subject: re: Offer Raises Idea of Marriage for Catholic Priests
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If the pope's outreach prompts the most intolerant members of the Anglican clergy to join the Church of Rome, surely it is the Anglicans that will emerge more liberal, more than the Catholics.

Barry Levine

Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20fossil.html?scp=1&sq=fossil%20fuels'%20hidden%20cost&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Subject: re: Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    After eight years of faith-based policies, it is invigorating to hear the voice of science. Beyond conservation, any forward-looking energy policy has to compare the costs of the various energy sources. No honest comparison can begin by pushing "externalities" off the ledger. Dumping CO2 and mercury into the atmosphere come with burning coal, and those costs must be counted with every kilowatt-hour from coal plants. Likewise the degradation of a river's ecosystem must be counted against hydro-electric power, and the cost of storing radioactive waste for a thousand years must be tallied and counted against the cost of fission power.  

   The cleanest kilowatt-hour is always the one we don't use. Turn down the thermostat in Winter, insulate your home, drive less--and don't pretend to make a comparison of costs until all the energy purveyors are reporting real costs.

Barry Levine

Stanley McChrystal’s Long War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/magazine/18Afghanistan-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=McChrystal&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Subject: re: Stanley McChrystal’s Long War
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

     If we are to model our strategy in Afghanistan on our strategy in Iraq, we will have to understand Iraq. We got in there with an ever-changing causus belli, and we are aiming at an ever-changing definition of "success".  The Petraeus strategy did reduce the daily deathtoll, but did so by empowering and arming sectarian militias. These groups will not willingly cede their power to the central government were the U.S. to leave. The result is an Iraq permanently poised for civil war if and when the U. S. forces go home. If this is the model for our strategy in Afghanistan, we are going to need to find a few trillion dollars to sustain our occupation over the coming decades and will need to recruit or draft a few hundred thousand soldiers to carry it out.

Barry Levine

6 Are Killed by Bomber at Funeral in West Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?scp=2&sq=iraq&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 9:33 PM
Subject: re: 6 Are Killed by Bomber at Funeral in West Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com

- Hide quoted text -

To the Editor:

   General Petraeus' strategy over the last two years drove down the monthly death toll in Iraq by empowering sectarian militias to patrol their own people and territory. The result was a national army that was even more skewed towards the Shiite majority; a Sunni enlisting in the army rather than a Sunni militia faced accusations of disloyalty to his own people. This has produced an Iraq poised for civil war if the U.S. troops as the U.S. troops leave. If we are to blame president Obama, it is only for keeping on the architects of Bush's poison-pill strategy.

Barry Levine

House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/us/politics/09hate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=house%20vote%20says%20antigay&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:45 AM
Subject: re: House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Representative Boehner contradicts long-established American jurisprudence when he argues against considering intent in defining a crime. In doing so, he puts himself into a pretty rhetorical box. It is established that the U.S. under president George Bush waterboarded detainees, that waterboarding is torture, that torture is both illegal and a War Crime and that responsibility rests with the president. The only barrier to trying and convicting Mr. Bush for a War Crime is the argument that--on the advice of an incompetent Office of Legal Counsel--the authorized criminal acts without criminal intent.

Barry Levine

Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/health/policy/01swiss.html?scp=1&sq=swiss%20model&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Subject: re: Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It is good and prudent that we are assessing other countries' healthcare solutions before we commit to our own. If we are to copy a system from elsewhere, we want to do it honestly and with our eyes open. It is therefore with alarm that I find no mention in the article that Swiss Insurance Companies are non-profit organizations. For lack of a detail like that, our whole national wealth could be routed into the hands of our insurers.

Barry Levine

Several Afghan Strategies, None a Clear Choice

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/world/asia/01policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=possible%20strategies%20for%20afghanistan&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Subject: re: Several Afghan Strategies, None a Clear Choice
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   What the U.S. learned in Vietnam is still lost on (British) major general Peter Gilchrist. "Insurgents continue to maneuver around us and set I.E.D.'s which kill our people" not because we have too few troops, but because the populace tolerates them. It is easy and predictable for a military leader to argue that he would have succeeded if only he had been given more troops. Until we convince the Afghan people that the NATO forces are going to make their lives better, and then leave Afghanistan to the Afghans, the insurgency cannot be defeated by any number of troops.

Barry Levine

The Next Culture War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/opinion/29brooks.html?scp=1&sq=the%20next%20culture%20war&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Subject: re: The Next Culture War
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Mr. Brooks may be astonished to learn that the excesses of the eighties that he decries are widely known as "Reagan's America". Likewise, the virtues for which he grieves were those of Jimmy Carter. Get a sweater, Mr. Brooks. Turn down your thermostat. Maybe re-register as a Democrat.

Barry Levine

In a Parched Los Angeles, the Streets Suddenly Run Wet

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/us/29water.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=water-main&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Subject: re: In a Parched Los Angeles, the Streets Suddenly Run Wet
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   While the break of a water-main gets news coverage, Southern California's ongoing waste of water during a drought is treated as normal.  Vast amounts of water are pumped from the Sacramento river to be lost to evaporation in open canals before ever getting to Southern California.  The current system of hundreds of miles of open ditches would have been an engineering marvel in the age of Conan; in the age of Arnold, it's an outrage.

Barry Levine

A War President?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/opinion/28douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20war%20president&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Subject: re: A War President?
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   President George W. Bush was a war president by choice. He disdained to lead a broad international coalition to apprehend the criminals who had attacked the world trade center and the pentagon. President Barack Obama inherited two wars.  He has told us that "war" is an unhelpful descriptor of our struggle against terrorists. but time is running. If he doesn't quickly  reformulate our effort in Afghanistan as a law-enforcement effort to eliminate Al Qaeda, the war there will stick to him as surely as Vietnam stuck to Dick Nixon.

Barry Levine

Pre-existing Conditions and Insurance Pools

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/pre-existing-conditions-and-insurance-pools/?scp=1&sq=exchanges%20would%20be%20required%20to%20take%20all%20comers&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 8:53 AM
Subject: re: Pre-existing Conditions and Insurance Pools
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The HealthCare bill currently in front of the Senate Finance Committee would create a problematic "high risk pool" for people with pre-existing conditions. The problems grow insuperable in 2013, when regular insurance exchanges "would be required to take all comers".  In such a system, I would be motivated to carry the cheapest insurance available, but to buy up to a more comprehensive plan if and when I were hit by a bus or diagnosed with cancer. A private insurer "required to take all comers" would be in an untenable position. I don't pretend that SinglePayer is the only way forward, but the package in front of the Senate Finance Committee doesn't even pass the giggle test.

Barry Levine

Justice Dept. to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/us/politics/23secrets.html?scp=1&sq=state-secrets&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 9:16 AM
Subject: re: Justice Dept. to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It is half a century over-due that we reassess the matter of State Secrets. While there are matters--like troop movements in times of war--that are legitimate secrets, the doctrine has more often been used to cover government embarrassment and malfeasance.  The proposed changes are an insufficient gesture in the right direction. Invocations of State Secrets should have to pass the scrutiny of a judge outside the department of Justice, and that judge must have the power to get all relevant documents, and to deny the claim of State Secrets  when that is warranted.

Barry Levine

Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/world/asia/23policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=strategy%20shift%20in%20afghan&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Subject: re: Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Eight years ago, the civilized world stood united in solidarity with the U.S., ready to join together to visit justice on the terrorists who had attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  It was perceived that Al Qaeda threatened legitimate governments everywhere,  in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia no less than in the U.S. President Bush and his team quickly alienated key allies in this effort, calling for "crusade" and launching wars against the governments of Afghanistan and then Iraq. It is time and past time that we re-assess these choices. Osama bin Laden is still at large, and the Afghans are showing no enthusiasm for our continued presence on their soil. Until we have finished our real fight with Al Qaeda, we have no credibility in picking other fights.

Barry Levine

Refitted to Bury Emissions, Plant Draws Attention

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/earth/22coal.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=refitted%20to%20bury%20emissions&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: Refitted to Bury Emissions, Plant Draws Attention
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     There is convincing evidence that carbon can be sequestered for geological ages either as cellulose (peat) or as elemental carbon (coal or biochar). Corresponding evidence that carbon dioxide will stay stably sequestered is much scarcer. Recently, it was shown that what had long been dismissed as ancient carbon dioxide had actually be bound as carbonate rock until liberated by magmatic heating.  "Clean Coal" is an idol to whom those who seek senator Robert Byrd's favor bow down. It is not a solution to our energy or climate woes.

Barry Levine

Leading Senator Pushes New Plan to Oversee Banks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/business/economy/20regulate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=regulator&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Subject: re: Leading Senator Pushes New Plan to Oversee Banks
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:  

    The United States has a long and inglorious history of quasi-governmental agencies from Alexander Hamilton's bank to the Federal Reserve. Each has cost our government (ourselves) a great deal of money to safeguard the profits of the private partner.  Senator Dodd is absolutely right; if there is to be a powerful regulator of our banking system, it should be our regulator, rather than an additional power given to the already-too-powerful Federal Reserve.

Barry Levine

A Short History of Fast Times on Wall Street

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/opinion/18silver.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 7:04 PM
Subject: re: A Short History of Fast Times on Wall Street
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It is the mandate of each stock exchange to provide a level playing field on which investors trade. Someone will always be maneuvering for advantage, and the regulators will always be lagging. There is a general fix that will end the arms race on speed trading. It is a more steeply graduated capital gains tax. It is proper that capital gains tax on long term investments should be low; these are the investments on which publicly traded companies run. That might be left at 15% for assets held over two years. Assets held less than an hour are more game than investment. Tax them at 100%. Ramp the rate in between.

Barry Levine

Former C.I.A. Chiefs Protest Justice Inquiry of Interrogation Methods

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/former-cia-chiefs-protest-justice-inquiry-of-interrogation-methods/

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Subject: re: Former C.I.A. Chiefs Protest Justice Inquiry of Interrogation Methods
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    No American is above the law. This applies as much to agents of our C.I.A. as to anyone else. In extremis, our president may pardon an agent for crimes if he/she judges such a pardon to be in the national interest. Were the president to block the investigation of violations of our statutory law or of our treaty obligations, he/she would be obstructing justice, in violation of his/her constitutional duty.

Barry Levine

Rockefeller Stands Up for Liberals on Health Care

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/health/policy/18rock.html?scp=1&sq=rockefeller%20stands%20up&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Subject: re: Rockefeller Stands Up for Liberals on Health Care
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Senator Rockefeller duly held his peace while chairman Baucus elaborated on his vision for healthcare reform. Now the deliberative function of the Senate requires that he speak.  The gang of six held out no real prospect of bipartisan reform, because the Republicans in both houses are bent on handing president Obama a tactical defeat.  Rather, the gang of six accepted millions from the Insurance industry to split a few key centrists away from any plan that included the dreaded Public Option.  Senator Rockefeller's timing is strategic. His message is timeless.

Barry Levine

Afghan Vote Uncertainty Sparks Dilemma for U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/asia/18policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ballot%20uncertainty%20creates&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Subject: re: Afghan Vote Uncertainty Sparks Dilemma for U.S.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The time for a major anti-corruption drive in Afghanistan is, and always is now. Every life and every dollar we pour into that conflict is wasted if we are seen to be propping up a corrupt regime.

Barry Levine

Obama Offers Ways to Rate Efforts in Afghan Region

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/asia/17policy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=rate%20efforts%20in%20Afghan&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 9:36 AM
Subject: re: Obama Offers Ways to Rate Efforts in Afghan Region
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     The prospects of success in Afghanistan are not in American hands alone, nor only in the hands of our NATO allies. As long as the Afghan people perceive that we are propping up a corrupt and illegitimate government in Kabul, our continued presence will be a recruitment bonanza to Al Qaeda.  To succeed in Afghanistan, we need the Afghans to reject Al Qaeda.  That is unlikely when our only relationship is to an isolated, corrupt, unrepresentative urban elite.

Barry Levine

Where Cancer Progress Is Rare, One Man Says No

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/health/policy/16cancer.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Subject: re: Where Cancer Progress Is Rare, One Man Says No
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In most disease areas, the FDA requires evidence of both safety and efficacy before one can launch the first study in humans. In the Cancer area, only evidence of safety is required, because animal models of cancer correlate only weakly with the disease in humans. It  therefore seems obvious that the FDA must require evidence of efficacy coming out of these clinical trials, before approving a new therapy.  The definition of efficacy however is vexing.  If the only measure of efficacy is the extension of life, then patients will be chosen for these studies who are already near death. These patients are the least likely to respond to treatment. The consequence is that we have probably disallowed many drugs that would have shown efficacy if they had been tested against younger cancers.

Barry Levine

Land First, Then Peace

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13turki.html?scp=1&sq=land%20first,%20then%20peace&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 8:38 AM
Subject: re: Land First, Then Peace
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 1921, the British created the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan by partition of their mandate in Palestine. The remaining 23% of the land was then further partitioned by the United Nations in 1947 into three parts. These were to be a Jewish State, an Palestinian State and the International Enclave of Jerusalem. The proto-Israelis accepted this partition, the proto-Palestinians rejected it, and no one spoke for Jerusalem.  Now ambassador al-Faisal proposes that talks of peace should posit that Jordan, and the West Bank and the city of Jerusalem are eternally Arab lands, and only the remaining 12.7% of the land of the British Mandate is to be discussed.  From such a starting point, I can't see any prospect of peace.

Barry Levine

Pick for Lebanese Prime Minister Withdraws

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/world/middleeast/11lebanon.html?scp=1&sq=pick%20for%20lebanese&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Subject: re: Pick for Lebanese Prime Minister Withdraws
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    You will have noticed that a construction like "Syria, which dominated Lebanon militarily for three decades.." is stilted. An native speaker of English would call this a military occupation. As long as you reserve the language of military occupation to the Israeli presence in the West Bank, but find circumlocutions for the Syrians in Lebanon, the Chinese in Tibet and the Russian in Chechnya, your pose as an impartial reporter of the world's news is shaky indeed.

Barry Levine

Obama Faces Doubts From Democrats on Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/world/asia/11military.html?_r=1&hp

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 7:54 AM
Subject: re: Obama Faces Doubts From Democrats on Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     In September 2001, peoples and governments around the world stood united to join the U.S. it our battle with Al Qaeda. Key allies in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia recognized the common threat, to themselves as much as to our government.  President Bush preferred to assert broad war-time powers and proceeded to alienate allies on the front line by calling for "crusade".  It is against this background that president Obama now pitches his case for Afghanistan. There is no support for a military occupation, and scant support for nation-building.  If president Obama means to rally the American people, it must be for the original task of eliminating the threat from Al Qaeda.

Barry Levine

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=big%20food%20vs.%20big%20insurance&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Subject: re: Big Food vs. Big Insurance
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   I was taught as a child that there are only three bargains in healthcare: potable water, sanitary sewers and vaccines. Anything else you can contemplate that improves human health and extends human life is vastly more expensive. Michael Pollan invites us to broaden the discussion to include a good diet. Like the classic big three, this also has no place in the current American paradigm of pay a lot when you get sick. Only when we have a national and universal healthcare plan will there be an incentive to pursue these bargains rather than sticking ever more tubes into the dying.

Barry Levine

Obama Faces a Critical Moment for His Presidency

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/politics/07obama.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Subject: re: Obama Faces a Critical Moment for His Presidency
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It would be a grave error to conclude that Obama's supporters have gone soft on him because healthcare reform and the economic recovery haven't happened swiftly. We are not so naive as to believe that either of these could be solved without a lot of effort and some real disagreements. Rather, Obama's backers have gone soft on him because he has gone soft on the simple things. Warrantless wiretapping is a violation of our constitutionally-guaranteed freedom from unreasonable search. Where is the investigation and prosecution? We have clear statutes banning torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners. Why are we still only talking about investigations and prosecutions?  It is because president Obama has not been clear and forceful on the clear and simple issues that his backers are coming to mistrust him on the broader ones.

Barry Levine

Advisers to Obama Divided on Size of Afghan Force

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/us/politics/04military.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=obama%20advisors%20are%20split&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: Advisers to Obama Divided on Size of Afghan Force
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Secretary Gates would do well to listen to admiral Mullen.  We will be welcome or unwelcome in Afghanistan according to our behavior, more than our numbers. I trust that General McChrystal has impressed this on all our troops. Unfortunately about half our force there--our contractors--don't report to him. Where there is not military discipline, what else can enforce proper behavior? Perhaps we need to rely more on Gurkhas, who bring a culture of sober probity and order, rather than on Blackwater and ArmorGroup, who bring the culture of drunken fratboys.

Barry Levine

C.I.A. Resists Disclosure of Records on Detention

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/us/02intel.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=cia&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 8:53 AM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Resists Disclosure of Records on Detention
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    We have been told that George Bush's detention policies are no longer the U.S.'s policy. What then is protected by sealing these documents about policies that no longer pertain? As in the Reynolds case that established the notion of a "states secrets privilege" these documents would embarrass some members of the former administration. That however does not amount to a threat to our national security. We, the sovereign electorate, deserve to know how our public servants are using our resources and abusing our reputation in the world.  

Barry Levine

Cheney Calls Interrogation Inquiry ‘Political’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/us/politics/31cheney.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Subject: re: Cheney Calls Interrogation Inquiry ‘Political’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Dick Cheney proceeds from a false conception that the agents, officers and contractors of the C.I.A. are answerable only to guidelines promulgated by the Executive branch, and not to laws duly enacted by our legislation. This is not and has never been the American system of government. It is a continuation of his 35-yr campaign to seize all powers for an imperial executive.   Asserting that no man is above the law is not a partisan assault. It is the duty of our Executive.

Barry Levine

The C.I.A. in Double Jeopardy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30finder.html?_r=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 6:40 AM
Subject: re: The C.I.A. in Double Jeopardy
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Even before the United States were the United States, we had values and standards. In 1775, George Washington charged his men: "Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country."

These values are still our values, now enshrined in our statutory law.  Joseph Finder turns our system of government on it's head, making a set of "guidelines" propagated in the Executive branch trump the law, duly enacted by our Legislature, in accordance with our Constitution.  It is to the law that every American in answerable, and it is the sworn duty of the President of the United States to "see that the Law is faithfully executed".

Barry Levine

Democrats Eye Maine Senator for a Health Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/health/policy/29snowe.html?hpw

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Subject: re: Democrats Eye Maine Senator for a Health Vote
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Senator Snowe is a popular Republican senator in a region where Republican leaders are increasingly rare because her loyalty is to her constituents, rather than to her party.  In passing president Obama's stimulus  bill, she--with senator Collins--brought $10billion dollars to Maine's ship-building industry. That stimulus money had to create jobs somewhere, and she took the opportunity to serve the people of Maine.  The American people cannot afford to continue the Gingrich era of hyper partisanship. If senator Snowe isn't permitted to serve her people within "the party of No", she knows knows that she will be more than welcome across the aisle.

Barry Levine

Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/us/politics/24detain.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Subject: re: Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases
To: letters@nytimes.com

- Hide quoted text -

To the Editor:

   For too long, the Obama administration has views the torture issue as a backwards-looking distraction from its forward-looking foreign policy goals.  To compartmentalize thus is to ignore the power of our example in the world. As long as it is perceived that the U.S. tortures or countenances torture, we will never win the allies we need to establish a free and sovereign Afghanistan. Without those allies, we're stuck in a quagmire.  Our foreign policy is hostage to our perception, and our perception rests on our seeing that our laws are faithfully executed. Prosecuting torturers seems a fine place to start.

Barry Levine

Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/us/politics/24detain.html?_r=1&hp

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 8:48 AM
Subject: re: Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Until now, we have treated reports of detainee deaths and reports of torture as two different stories. Now that the extent of an inquiry is being discussed, we must be clear.  It is not yet demonstrated that the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are non-lethal. When our military or our C.I.A. take custody of a prisoner, they are accountable--minimally to the Red Cross--for that prisoner's life. 

   This is not about looking back or looking forward.  The abuse or extra-judicial killing of detainees is a war crime.  If it is perceived that the U.S. commits or countenances war crimes, we will never win the allies we need to leave Afghanistan in peace.

Barry Levine

Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/us/26prison.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Subject: re: Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The U.S. Constitution enumerates the sources of the laws by which we are governed. It permits no exception in which the guidelines of the department of Justice, or of the C.I.A.--no matter how minutely detailed--supersede our treaty obligations and our statutory laws. We look to Attorney General Holder to faithfully execute the law which forbids torture. If the C.I.A. guidelines violate that law, their authors should also be investigated.

Barry Levine

Report Provides New Details on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/politics/23cia.html?scp=1&sq=report%20provides%20new%20details%20on%20C.I.A.%20prisoner%20abuse&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: Report Provides New Details on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As long as president Obama insists "that C.I.A. officers who adhered to Justice Department interrogation guidelines should escape prosecution", we need to be in his face. No one in the Department of Justice has or had the authority to violate our treaty obligations, or our statutes. Professor Obama taught that no man is above the law. If president Obama has forgotten this, we will have to remind him.

Barry Levine

In Brazil, Paying Farmers to Let the Trees Stand

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/science/earth/22degrees.html?ref=todayspaper

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: In Brazil, Paying Farmers to Let the Trees Stand
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As urgent as it is to stop deforestation, we must keep track of what it can accomplish. If the world went "carbon neutral" today, and if we restored the world's forests to their state in 1800, we would still have a greenhouse gas problem. We have spent 200 years pumping carbon from fossil reserves into the atmosphere and oceans, and we need to recapture that carbon. With our current technology, that means letting plants fix carbon from the atmosphere as cellulose, and then sequestering that cellulose in forms that won't get back to the atmosphere, either as biochar or as anthropogenic peat.

Barry Levine

C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21intel.html?scp=3&sq=james-risen&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Should we be comforted that an agent of the C.I.A, and not a contractor fires the hellfire missiles from our drones in Afghanistan? Since he is not a uniformed member of our military, such an agent is an "unlawful combatant". That makes the U.S. a "state sponsor of terrorism". There is enough wrong with this world to keep the employees of our department of Justice busy for several lifetimes. There is no place in their mission for playing soldier.

Barry Levine

Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=super-rich%20hits&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Subject: re: Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The pool of unemployed Wall Street bankers who were getting multi-million dollar compensation a year or two ago should put to rest the myth that such pay packages are necessary to get and keep talented investment bankers. These guys have real expenses; make 'em an offer. But let them compete in the real market of supply and demand, not in the fantasy world of other people's money.

Barry Levine

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=outsiders%20were%20hired%20as%20C.I.A.%20planned&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

It now emerges that the Bush administration contracted out for assassins to dodge an executive order barring the C.I.A. from such work, and brought in C.I.A. torturers to dodge an Army Field Manual prohibition against such conduct by our soldiers. In each case, the motive was not to advance our war aims, but to evade the law. How much more evidence is needed to build a case that the Bush Administration orchestrated a pattern of criminal activity subject to prosecution under RICO statutes?

Barry Levine

The Greenback Effect

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/opinion/19buffett.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20greenback%20effect&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Subject: re: The Greenback Effect
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Warren Buffet warns that cheap money policies can come at high costs, and I'd be a fool to dismiss his analysis. He goes too far however in arguing that the current Fed policy is unprecedented. To do this, he has to exclude data from the years 1942-1946. These were exactly the years in which the U.S. finally escaped the Great Depression. FDR had boldly initiated deficit spending in 1933, but the Depression surged back when he tried to balance the budget for his next election campaign. Only when we put three million men in uniform and undertook to arm the free world--on a wave of deficit spending--did we emerge from the Great Depression and emerge as the driving economic engine of the world. We all hope that the world can be pulled from the current economic crisis without the widepread loss of life of 1942-1946. It would be reckless to discard the data from these years to score a rhetorical point.

Barry Levine

The Swiss Menace

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20swiss%20menace&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Subject: re: The Swiss Menace
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If we mean to use the force of law to coerce the transfer of wealth from healthcare consumers to an insurer, that insurer must be public. Such a government taking for private profit would not be in the public interest.

Barry Levine

‘Public Option’ in Health Plan May Be Dropped

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/health/policy/17talkshows.html?_r=1&hp

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 9:37 PM
Subject: re: ‘Public Option’ in Health Plan May Be Dropped
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As long as private health insurance companies compete to insure the young and the healthy and to exclude those with actual healthcare needs, anyone writing those policies will carry a disproportionate share of America's healthcare costs. It may be impossible to legislate real healthcare reform until we first reform campaign finance and the gerrymandering of congressional districts. Still, any bill without a robust Public Option should face a presidential veto. At least the office of the president should be beyond the influence of the insurance lobby.

Barry Levine

Iraq’s Sunnis

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/opinion/14fri1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Iraq's%20sunnis&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Subject: re: Iraq’s Sunnis
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

To say that Washington "did almost nothing to restrain" the Baghdad government in its discrimination against Sunnis is technically correct, but dishonest. "Debaathification" was L. Paul Bremer's announced policy, barring Sunnis from office in both the government and the army. More recently, the Bush administration diverted interested Sunnis into the Awakening Counsels, thereby further purifying the Iraqi army along sectarian lines. If there is to be a peaceful unified sovereign Iraq, it must have non-sectarian national institutions. As long as the government and army are perceived as Shiite bastions, the American occupying army will be needed to forestall civil war.

Barry Levine

The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11tier.html?scp=1&sq=adjust%20the%20thermostat&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Subject: re: The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If we define the problem as atmospheric warming, then reducing the planet's albedo or reducing greenhouse gases may be equivalent strategies. Alas, 200yrs of CO2 dumped into our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution is causing both atmospheric warming and acidification of our oceans. Reducing our albedo may serve only to make a dead planet more comfortable if we don't address the acidification problem as well. Sequestering gigatons of carbon (e.g. as biochar) promises to address both problems.

Barry Levine