Pakistan and Afghan Taliban Close Ranks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/world/asia/27taliban.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=carlotta%20gall&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Subject: re: Pakistan and Afghan Taliban Close Ranks
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As disparate factions of the Taliban seek unity, it is past time for the U.S. to examine how we could more effectively recruit support for our project. We should start by renouncing president Bush's call for "Crusade". With that one word, he alienated key allies in our effort to eliminate Al Qaeda. President Bush aggrandized his office and himself as a war-time leader, but he did it at the expense of our legitimacy in leading a broad-based coalition.

Barry Levine

In a Volatile Time, Obama Strikes a New Tone

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/us/politics/25obama.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tries%20to%20rally%20the%20nation&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Subject: re: In a Volatile Time, Obama Strikes a New Tone
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Just as the Clinton presidency was hobbled by a national focus on a non-issue, the Obama presidency risks damage from too much focus on a too-short list of real issues. Where is the re-establishment of the rule of law in the priorities? As long as we only enforce our treaties when they are politically convenient, we are an unreliable ally. As long as we only wink at those statutes that would embarrass the former administration, we are ruled by executive whim, not by law.

Barry Levine

Mr. Obama and the Rule of Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22sun1.html?scp=1&sq=obama%20and%20the%20rule%20of%20law&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 8:38 AM
Subject: re: Mr. Obama and the Rule of Law
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It was never possible that president Obama would fulfill all the wishes of all his backers; we hope that the disappointments will be in small matters rather than in great. We are therefore greatly worried by his promise to "look forwards, not backwards".  We can not be satisfied that Mr. Obama is personally virtuous, and that he pushes a virtuous agenda. If we are to have a "government of laws, and not one of men" he must see to it that those who violated our treaty obligations and statutes barring cruel and inhuman treatment and torture are tried by duly appointed courts. That list does not stop with non-commissioned officers; it might reach to the highest levels of government. All who broke faith with our treaties must be held to the same standard of law.

Barry Levine

The Art of Political Distraction

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/weekinreview/22stolberg.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=art%20of%20political%20distraction&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 8:31 AM
Subject: re: The Art of Political Distraction
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   After eight years of class warfare in which the nation was pillaged for the enrichment of the energy sector, the financial sector and the war sector, the A.I.G. bonuses did not land as a new distraction. They were received as evidence that we the people have not gotten the change we voted for. 

Barry Levine

Connecticut Senator Draws Voters’ Ire for His Bonus Role

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/nyregion/20dodd.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=connecticut%20senator%20draws&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Subject: re: Connecticut Senator Draws Voters’ Ire for His Bonus Role
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Six times since he was first elected, senator Dodd has sworn to support and defend the constitution of the United States. If he has preferred recently to support and defend his donors in the financial sector, he deserves to be voted out of office. In the matter of bonuses for A.I.G. however, senator Dodd has chosen to hide behind his own staffers. In this, he fails less as a senator than as a man.

Barry Levine

It’s the Regulations, Not the Regulator

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/opinion/19thu1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=not%20the%20regulator&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM
Subject: re: It’s the Regulations, Not the Regulator
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  You, sir or madam, need an editor. To argue in a single paragraph that "rules were...ignored" and that what is needed is to "develop new ones" punctures your starting thesis. Get some sleep. Read your editorial critically before we do. Rewrite it. I'm sure there's an idea in there somewhere.

Barry Levine

Few Ripples From Supreme Court Ruling on Guns

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/17bar.html?scp=1&sq=gun%20ruling%20was%20called%20a%20landmark&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Subject: re: Few Ripples From Supreme Court Ruling on Guns
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Judge James C. Francis IV asserted a core American principal when he said "There is no basis for categorically depriving persons who are merely accused of certain crimes of the right to legal possession of a firearm" While we do routinely deprive "persons who are merely accused of certain crimes" of their liberty, that detention is strictly limited--except in the case of George W. Bush's "war on terror". It is a cause of national shame that we have abandoned our dearest principals out of fear, and a source of moral dread that our Supreme Court has demurred to set this right.

Barry Levine

Forming Coalition, Netanyahu Agrees to Make Nationalist Leader Foreign Minister

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html?scp=1&sq=Netanyahu%20Agrees%20to%20Make%20Nationalist%20Leader%20&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Subject: re: Forming Coalition, Netanyahu Agrees to Make Nationalist Leader Foreign Minister
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Your readers look to this paper for news and news commentary. It is therefore with puzzlement and dismay that we read the assertion that "The Kadima Party...could not win the support of other parties to form a governing coalition".  If that assertion is not a baseless fabrication, that would be news. The president asked Mr. Netanyahu to form a government, and the latter did so. The leader of Kadima was never given that opportunity.

Barry Levine

Cheney Says Obama Has Increased Risks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/us/politics/16cheney.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=cheney&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Subject: re: Cheney Says Obama Has Increased Risks
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  As Dick Cheney sagely reminds us, if George W. Bush had governed by Barack Obama's principals, he would not have achieved his glorious success. He would not have apprehended bin Laden, would not have made Iraq the flower of democracy that it is, would not have brought peace to the Middle East, would not have ushered in a new era of global prosperity... oh, never mind.

Barry Levine

Tales From Torture’s Dark World

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15danner.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=torture's%20dark%20world&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Subject: re: Tales From Torture’s Dark World
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   So far, we know that agents of our C.I.A. have waterboarded detainees, that waterboarding is torture and that torture violates both our statutory law and our treaty obligations. Now it is revealed that these outrages were done on the orders of the deputy director of operations of our C.I.A. We can either prosecute him, or we can issue belated apologies to the war criminals whom we prosecuted and convicted at Nuremberg.  To do neither is unconscionable--it would be to put ourselves outside the community of humanity.

Barry Levine

U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/us/politics/14gitmo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=label%20terror%20suspects&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The administration's proposal to continue detentions without charges or trial fails on two counts. Our constitution grants the president no extraordinary war-time powers without a declaration of war from the Congress. Failing such a declaration, only a court can find that they "have substantially supported al Qaeda".

Barry Levine

How to Surge the Taliban

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/opinion/13boot.html?scp=1&sq=surge%20the%20taliban&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Subject: re: How to Surge the Taliban
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    When they state that "there is no question that we can succeed against [insurgents in Afghanistan]", professors Bot, Kagan and Kagan make an assertion that is testable, falsifiable, and false. Why should we accept anything else they say?

Barry Levine

Bipartisan Call for Food Safety Fixes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/health/policy/12fda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=demands%20overhaul%20of%20food&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Subject: re: Bipartisan Call for Food Safety Fixes
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    In 1994, Congress carved out an exception to the Food and Drug Act. This exception now accounts for billions of dollars annually in "nutraceuticals" that are tested neither for efficacy (as if they were drugs) nor even for safety (as if they were food). To rearrange the responsibility for food testing while preserving this loophole seems a misappropriation of effort.

Barry Levine

Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/washington/09lawyers.html?em

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Subject: re: Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Messrs Savage and Shane blandly deny that the Nuremberg trials provide meaningful precedent for trying members of the Bush administration. They offer nothing to substantiate the distinction. While no precedent is perfect, there is credible evidence that members of the Bush administration participated in violations of our statutes and treaty obligations as German judges participated in Nazi outrages. Of course the cases are not the same; Adolf Hitler was duly elected in 1933, while George W. Bush was installed by an extraordinary intervention of our Supreme Court.

Barry Levine

Justices Erase Ruling That Allowed Detention

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/washington/07scotus.html?scp=1&sq=justices%20erase&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 7:42 AM
Subject: re: Justices Erase Ruling That Allowed Detention
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editors:

    In demurring to hear the case of Ali al-Marri, the Supreme Court invites the Executive to game the judicial system. Apparently the Executive can now hold anyone without charges indefinitely--at least until her/his court gets to the Supreme Court. At that point--and only at that point--will they require that he/she be charged. This decision may preserve fragile alliances among the justices, but it does not serve the constitutional rights of the people.

Barry Levine

Six Years In, U.S. Troops Glimpse a Path Out of Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?_r=1&hp

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 7:32 AM
Subject: re: Six Years In, U.S. Troops Glimpse a Path Out of Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As mr. Myers observes, the Iraqi security forces require "basic intelligence [that] only the Americans can provide". Empowering sectarian militias while controlling the intelligence centrally, we have put ourselves into a position which we can never leave. If we were to leave, there would be bloody civil war. Those of us who remember Vietnam cannot be satisfied to see American troops renamed "advisers"; surely Al Qaeda won't be fooled and will cite their presence as an ongoing provocation to jihad.

Barry Levine

Future Dim for Nuclear Waste Repository

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/science/earth/06yucca.html?ref=todayspaper

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Subject: re: Future Dim for Nuclear Waste Repository
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Fission may yet be the indispensable power-generating technology for the foreseeable future, but any comparison of costs must include a full accounting. For fission, that means putting a real cost on the long-term storage of radioactive wastes, just as for coal that includes the cost of dumping CO2 into the atmosphere and the destruction of streams by mining. These matters are too grave to leave to the politicians. Nuclear fission is not merely the province of Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and coal power is not merely the province of Robert Byrd (D-W.Virginia) They are matters of grave importance to the nation and to the planet.

Barry Levine

Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/us/politics/03legal.html?scp=2&sq=memos%20released&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Subject: re: Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Many were disappointed and puzzled that president Bush demurred to
lead a broad international coalition to apprehend Osama bin Laden in
2001. Instead, he called for "crusade" and asserted extraordinary
war-time powers.  We are still learning the extent of these
extraordinary powers. The memos just released suggest that the rule of
law itself was a casualty of war.
Barry Levine

Obama’s Health Plan, Ambitious in Any Economy, Is Tougher in This One

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/us/politics/02health.html?scp=2&sq=robert-pear&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Subject: re: Obama’s Health Plan, Ambitious in Any Economy, Is Tougher in This One
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Americans have never been able to afford our current healthcare system, whether in the good times when president Clinton proposed to reform it or in the current crisis. Two big flaws make it unworkable. The first is one of priorities; we currently spend more than half of our healthcare dollars prolonging the last weeks of dying rather than in improving the health of the living. The second is one of mechanics; our system today is run for the profit of the insurance companies and their lobbyists. This is no time to timidly cling to a status quo that doesn't work. President Obama came in with a mandate for change. It's time.

Barry Levine