For Holder, New Congress Means New Headaches

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/us/politics/31holder.html?scp=1&sq=for%20Attorney%20General,%20New%20Congress%20means%20new%20headaches&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Subject: re: For Holder, New Congress Means New Headaches
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Attorney General Eric Holder--alone in this Democratic administration--has cause to welcome the new Congress.  For two years, he has been the lonely linchpin in the cover-up of Bush-era crimes. Now he will be able to point to partisans in the House of Representatives who wish to protect those who tortured and those who wiretapped illegally.  Given the American electorate's short attention span, he may even convince someone by 2012.

Barry Levine

Rights Groups Tie Pakistan to Militants’ Disappearances

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/asia/30disappear.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=disappearances%20tied%20to%20Pakistan%20are%20worr%20to%20U.S.&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 9:03 AM
Subject: re: Rights Groups Tie Pakistan to Militants’ Disappearances
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Since it was proclaimed nine years ago the "Global War on Terror" has provided carte blanche to governments around the world to liquidate annoying opponents.  If it is only in Pakistan that these make news, perhaps it is because we don't have reporters in Chechnya, Tibet, Xinjiang, Peru...A few governments joined the U.S. in the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. A rather different list has found it convenient to embrace the "Global War on Terror" to bolster their own repressive regimes at home.

Barry Levine

Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/world/middleeast/29israel.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Subject: re: Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Rabbi Ansellem--like Adam Smith--has grasped what David ben-Gurion did not. The incentives are the system. An open-ended guarantee of money to those who don't work stimulates an endless stream of those not working. Ben-Gurion felt he could afford to pension off 400 scholars of what he thought was the last generation of haredim. Israel today needs a workforce like any other developed nation.

Barry Levine

Taliban Fighters Appear Blunted in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/world/asia/27policy.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Subject: re: Taliban Fighters Appear Blunted in Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   On page one, we learn that the Haqqani network has been stymied. On page six, those who read the rest of the article learn that this same group has instead been staging successful assaults against remote American outposts. Perhaps Secretary Gates is satisfied that the carnage is now beyond the range of the news cameras. Will we declare "victory" just because our sons and brothers are now dying in more obscurity?

Barry Levine

Ending the War to End All Wars

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26macmillan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ending%20the%20war&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: Ending the War to End All Wars
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Would that WWI were over!   Now that Germany has retired its debt from the war, only the accounts of the U.S. remain to be settled. We have not yet repaid the principal borrowed from the Federal Reserve for that venture. For the better part of a century--through boom times and bust--the U.S. has lived as a debtor to an agency of its own creation.  I'm sure it's convenient to the bankers to keep Uncle Sam on such a leash; it remains an enduring embarrassment to the People.

Barry Levine

Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/world/asia/12drugs.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In January 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States. At that time, he signalled that some things would remain unchanged by keeping Robert Gates on the Federal payroll as Secretary of Defense. Now he signals that some things are changing by taking Juma Khan off the same payroll.  Of course, when a government has been paying a druglord, it can't just fire him. Khan must be silenced. If he won't make a deal, he will be killed to protect our "state secrets".   That's what it means to project American power around the world. it is a ponderous burden.

Barry Levine

Officials pressed Germans on kidnapping by C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09wikileaks-elmasri.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=officials%20pressed%20Germans&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: Officials pressed Germans on kidnapping by C.I.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If you or I were kidnapped and tortured while on holiday, we would expect our government to move heaven and earth to free us. If we were then dumped without identification or money by a rural roadside in a strange country, we would ask our government to get us home and to pursue the perpetrators. The German government kept faith with Khaled el-Masri. Now we learn that the Bush administration interceded to obstruct justice and to intimidate prosecutors from pursuing the kidnappers. These would be grave crimes if committed in the United States. Perhaps, for the U.S. government, they're just part of the game. Or perhaps our C.I.A. is not answerable to any law.

Barry Levine

Suit Over Targeted Killings Is Thrown Out

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08killing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=suit%20over%20targeted%20killings%20is%20thrown%20out&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Subject: re: Suit Over Targeted Killings Is Thrown Out
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Judge John D. Bates is shocking callous to say that "Mr. Awlaki could pursue [his Fifth Amendment Rights to due process of law] himself if he surrendered to American authorities". Anwar al-Awlaki has not been charged with any crime by the U.S. government.  Judge Bates himself has ruled that he is utterly alone in the world.  To rule that al-Awlaki's father didn't have standing to challenge the kill-order, judge Bates had to conclude that the father would suffer no tangible damage if his son were killed.

  If this is the level of law, order and civilization that we propose to bring to Iraq, to Afghanistan and perhaps to Yemen, the locals should resist us tooth and nail.

Barry Levine

Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/world/asia/03wikileaks-corruption.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=corruption%20afghanistan&st=cse&scp=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 6:51 PM
Subject: re: Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   In Afghanistan, president Obama must always ask: "[is] root[ing]
out corruption, at the risk of further alienating Mr. Karzai, really
worth it?" Anyone who remembers America's foreign policy follies of
the 20th century must answer that it is.  Any day that the U.S. is
seen to be tolerating and supporting a corrupt regime is a day on
which we earn more enemies than we can kill or co-opt. That's a game
that we can never win. It's not worth another cent or another life.
Barry Levine

A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29editornote.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20decision%20to%20publish%20diplomatic%20documents&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 8:32 AM
Subject: re: A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     We welcome Mr. Keller's defense of Americans' "right to know what is being done in their name".  How else is the electorate to make meaningful decisions?  We therefore look forwards--in this brave new world of tell-all journalism--to his account of why he suppressed the news of warrantless wiretapping of American citizens  until after the presidential election of 2004.  Surely the electorate has an interest in its own Fourth Amendment guarantees, no less than in the snarky repartee between foreign heads of state? 

   We're all ears.

Barry Levine

Our Constitutional Court

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/opinion/23tues3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=our%20constitutional%20court&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 8:50 AM
Subject: re: Our Constitutional Court
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    In 2008, the Roberts court ruled that our ratified treaties--the supreme law in the land--do not trump Texas state law. In that ruling (Medellin v. Texas), the Supreme Court came unmoored from the Supreme Law. By directly denying the plain text of the Constitution of the United States, the Supreme Court moved from interpreting the Law to gutting it.  Nothing the Supreme Court has done since then should surprise us; they're making it up at will.

Barry Levine

Nations That Debate Coal Use Export It to Feed China’s Need

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/world/asia/22fossil.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Booming%20China%20coal&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Subject: re: Nations That Debate Coal Use Export It to Feed China’s Need
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The world as we know it--the world in which dinosaurs and mammoths and humans evolved--was made possible in the Carboniferous era. Between about 350million and 290million years ago, gigatons of carbon were pulled out of the atmosphere by photosynthetic plants and sequestered ultimately as coal.  This raised the pH of our oceans and changed the climate of the planet.  With the Industrial Revolution, we began to undo this, pumping carbon from the fossil pool into our atmosphere. If we continue on this course, we will create a new, warmer more acidic world. Interesting life-forms will probably evolve to inhabit it, but humans are unlikely to survive to meet them.

Barry Levine

The Empty Earmarks Pledge

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/17wed1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Empty%20Earmarks%20Pledge&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re: The Empty Earmarks Pledge
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   This newspaper persists in underestimating the pernicious effect of congressional earmarks.  The cost of such earmarks is vastly larger than the sum of their facevalues. Whole bills that should never have passed have become law because an opposing vote was co-opted with an earmark. This is no side-show.  This is the main business of Congress in carrying out the business of the People.  We have local governments to handle local issues; U.S. senators need to be legislating and voting for the benefit of the nation, not for scraps of porkbarrel to reward their donors.

Barry Levine

Somali Pirates Free British Couple for Ransom After More Than a Year in Captivity

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/world/africa/15pirates.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=pirates&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: Somali Pirates Free British Couple for Ransom After More Than a Year in Captivity
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Your tale of piracy chilled my blood. If Somalis now command magic ships capable of "sail[ing] to Xarardheere, a pirate den in central Somalia", will they pop up in my backyard next? A moment's research set my heart at ease. Xarardheere is just 13miles from the coast, and there is moorage for a conventional pirate boat at El Ghan, without invoking flying ships. Your article might have said as much.

Barry Levine

Barack Obama, Phone Home

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07rich.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=barack%20obama%20phone%20home&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 8:54 AM
Subject: re: Barack Obama, Phone Home
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Two years ago, Americans voted for Change. We looked to the Professor of Law to bring us the Rule of Law; instead he has delivered the primacy of Politics. Refusing to look backwards, he has blinded Justice to evidence of torture, of war profiteering and of invasions of privacy.  History will credit president Obama with extending health care to millions who had been excluded, but it was accomplished by routing a large and growing fraction of our nations economy through the hands of the Insurance Industry that we mistrust.

   In 2010, Americans voted for Change, again.  President Obama would do well to consider that we mean it.

Barry Levine

Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/health/policy/06germ.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=U.S.%20considers%20subsidies%20to%20develop%20mew%20antibiotics&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 7:11 PM
Subject: re: Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The threat of pathogens resistant to all known antibiotics is a real and present danger to us all. The remedies proposed by congressman Gingrey and by David Brennan cannot suffice to stop it.  If the U.S. FDA were presented a miraculous new antibiotic today that worked against all known resistant pathogens, it would approve it only for last-line defense after other antibiotics had failed first. That's the responsible thing to do. Alas, that is such a small indication that the drug company could never make back the cost of R&D in the U.S. market at any credible price point even if you were to triple the length of patent exclusivity.  By then, sales outside the authority of the U.S. FDA would have long since driven the evolution of new organisms, resistant even to this new drug.  This is not a problem that our profit-driven drug industry can fix. If someone-government or private--doesn't step and and fund this work outright, we and our children will blunder into a dark new world in which a trivial infection--or mere childbirth--could prove fatal about twenty percent of the time, just as it did before the advent of "miracle drugs".

Barry Levine

War Reconstruction Fraud Draws Big Fines

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/world/asia/06contractor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=war%20reconstruction%20fraud%20draws%20big%20fines&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 7:51 AM
Subject: re: War Reconstruction Fraud Draws Big Fines
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

   After this fractious election season, the nation needs a non-partisan cause to pull us all together. Let’s hang prosecute some war profiteers. Everyone hates waste in government.  And any politician who would intercede for donors who give our sons and daughters in the Armed Services less potable water, less food, less chance to come home alive than we have paid for—let’s hang replace him while we’re at it.

Barry Levine

Major Technical Difficulties

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/opinion/03wed1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=major%20technical%20difficulties&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Subject: re: Major Technical Difficulties
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   While the 2008 amendment to the FISA statute did give "retroactive legal cover to more than five years of the [Bush] administration's illegal spying", that immunity is from civil suits only.    Attorney General Holder still has the power and the responsibility to prosecute these crimes.  Until our Department of Justice takes this responsibility seriously, Americans would be foolish to give the FBI any more tools to spy on us. Rather, until the telecoms are prosecuted for their known crimes, Americans will seek ever more ways to evade the FBI's criminal intrusions.

Barry Levine

The Riddle of Cancer Relapse

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/magazine/31Cancer-t.html?scp=1&sq=mukherjee&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 8:20 PM
Subject: re: The Riddle of Cancer Relapse
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

      Whether or not "cancer stem cells" drive cancer--and that proposal is still hotly debated--part of Dr. Mukherjee's argument is clearly wrong.  There is no therapeutic benefit to be had in discriminating between killing such a cancer stem cell and killing the rest of the cancer.  It is quite hard enough to "discriminate between normal and malignant cells" in treating cancers without adding artificial constraints. Give me a drug that kills all the cancer cells and I'm satisfied that any "cancer stem cells" are dead--and the cancer non-stem cells won't be missed.

Barry Levine

Don’t Aid Hariri Tribunal, Hezbollah Warns

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/world/middleeast/29lebanon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=don't%20aid%20hariri%20tribunal&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Subject: re:Don’t Aid Hariri Tribunal, Hezbollah Warns
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Hassan Nasrallah has a clearer view of Lebanon's past than of her future. In 2006, he conceded that Hezbollah wouldn't have seized those two Israel soldiers if he had known that Israel would respond by waging war on Lebanon. Now he warns that the tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri must be stopped. We are left to complete the thought--that the tribunal would find Hezbollah's involvement. 

    Politics in Lebanon is a difficult as it is anywhere in the world, but some truths are universal. If any group reserves the right to assassinate the nation's elected leaders, you have only the name of a nation, and not a nation.

Barry Levine

Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/25short.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Subject: re: Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Our current law requires the bank to choose: either they foreclose and get the house (valued at its last sale price) as an asset, or they allow the short sale and get their principal back.  Since banks aren't making a lot of loans recently, they don't need the capital.  It serves them better to keep the housing market inflated by claiming that the house is still worth what it brought on the market a couple of years ago.  This fiction--that the asset is worth more than anyone is willing to pay for it--has to die for us to return to a healthy housing market and a healthy economy.

Barry Levine

How to Really End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/opinion/21dellinger.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=dellinger&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 5:12 PM
Subject: re: How to Really End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If, as mr. Dellinger implies, our Department of Justice is motivated to appeal the court's rejection of DADT by a zeal to execute the will of Congress, other expectations follow. The Congress of the U.S. has ratified,e.g. treaties obliging us to prosecute or extradite those who torture.  Why does our Department of Justice leap to enforce one law, but not the other?  Are we really to believe that enforcing the bigotry of some individuals in our Armed Forces is a value greater than protecting human dignity and human lives? It seems that Justice is not blind to political calculation.

Barry Levine

Don’t Follow the Money

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/opinion/19brooks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=don't%20follow%20the%20money&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Subject: re: Don’t Follow the Money
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Brooks' analysis would be apt if representative democracy ended at the ballot box; it does not. I am represented not when my man goes to Washington, but when he votes my positions on the bills that come before congress.  If he believes--rightly or wrongly--that he will need money from telecom corporations to get re-elected, he is likely to vote to immunize those corporations from civil suits, whether his constituents want him to or not. Likewise, if my president believes that he'll need money from telecom corporations for his re-election, he is unlikely to direct his Attorney General to prosecute violations of the FISA statute.

    Follow the money. Corporations are spending millions to get their way in our legislation and in our courts, whether they get to name the players or not.

Barry Levine

Obama Seeks Stay on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Ruling

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/us/politics/15military.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=administration%20seeks%20stay%20of%20ruling&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: Obama Seeks Stay on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Ruling
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   On July 26, 1948 president Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981. With the stroke of a pen, he banned discrimination based on race, religion or national origin throughout the U.S. Armed Forces, years ahead of the rest of American society. If president Obama wants to play politics, he should go on blaming a paralyzed congress for not repealing "DADT". If he wants to end a policy that he campaigned against--and that the court has judged unconstitutional--he should follow the established precedent. He is the commander-in-chief; the buck stops with him.

Barry Levine

Gains in Afghan Training, but Struggles in War

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/world/asia/13kabul.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:00 AM
Subject: re: Gains in Afghan Training, but Struggles in War
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   While the U.S. media were all atwitter in 2007 over "the surge" in Iraq, general Petraeus' strategy was balkanizing the armed forces there. The creation of the (all Sunni) "awakening councils"  simultaneously sucked Sunnis out of the national army, making that in effect a Shiite sectarian force. These two are now poised to tear Iraq apart as soon as the U.S. moves out.  Is this the model that general Petraeus is now bringing to Afghanistan? It succeeded in suppressing the daily deathtoll in Iraq; it is the long-term cost of a renewed civil war in Afghanistan that should concern us.

Barry Levine

Allies in War, but the Goals Clash

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/weekinreview/10cooper.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=allies%20in%20war%20but%20the%20goals%20clash&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 9:37 AM
Subject: re: Allies in War, but the Goals Clash
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Missing from the analysis of Pakistan's (or should we say Kayani's?) motives are the aspirations of the Pashtuns.  If the Pashtun minority fail to impose their rule on Afghanistan, they may bid for an independent state. Since a majority of Pashtun live in Pakistan, their ambitions  may threaten Pakistan's integrity.  Until Americans learn to weigh tribal politics, we will be ineffectual in both war and diplomacy in this region.

Democrats Find Many Big Donors Cutting Support

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/us/politics/30dems.html?_r=1&dbk


From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 7:08 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Find Many Big Donors Cutting Support
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In this new era of unrestrained fundraising, many Democrats are reluctant to get into a dollar for dollar footrace with America's corporations. The conclusion is foregone and the lesson comes at high cost. Many also feel that a Democratic leadership that continues to ask for money as the system is being destroyed, instead of working at deep campaign finance reform is too dumb to use the money well.

Barry Levine

Insurgent Group in Iraq, Declared Tamed, Roars

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/world/middleeast/28qaeda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=insurgent%20group%20in%20iraq&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 8:07 AM
Subject: re: Insurgent Group in Iraq, Declared Tamed, Roars
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Anyone who is surprised at a resurgence of violence in Iraq hasn't been paying attention. When general Petraeus armed and empowered ethnic militias to patrol their own turf, he tamped down the monthly bloodshed. He did not move us towards a peaceful Iraq. Rather, each ethnic group took the opportunity to retrench and waited for U.S. troops to leave.  President Obama is working hard to get out without giving the signal to resume the Iraqi civil war. It may prove impossible. That should be no surprise.

Barry Levine

U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 8:26 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   When the general counsel for the FBI says "We're talking about lawfully authorized intercepts. We're not talking expanding authority", she deserves a serious hearing. She is, after all our public servant, executing the electorate's will. The request comes however against a backdrop of lawless behavior by our own public servants. In the only case to go to trial, judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the NSA's wiretaps of al-haRamain violated the 1978 FISA statute.  We still don't know how many illegal wiretaps were placed, or against whom they were placed, or indeed if they are still ongoing.  In the end, Congress may pass the legislation that the FBI is asking for. It would be foolish to do so before we have learned how existing authorizations have been trampled.

Barry Levine

Secrets Cited in White House Effort to Block Suit

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world/25awlaki.html?scp=1&sq=al-awlaki&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 8:05 PM
Subject: re: Secrets Cited in White House Effort to Block Suit
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The assertion of "State Secrets" has been advanced to quash many things since the Reynolds case; the courts have usually shown great deference.  It is not however an absolute trump. When it is advanced to justify killing a U.S. citizen with neither a trial nor even criminal charges, any legitimate court must reject the argument.  To acquiesce would be to concede that none of our Rights are in fact Rights, but that we enjoy them only when our absolute Executive doesn't object.  That's not the system our president and judges have sworn to protect. That is not my America.

The Responsibility Deficit

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24brooks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20responsibility%20deficit&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Subject: re: The Responsibility Deficit
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   I had to read this one twice. A professional pundit--a veritable priest of the Political Class--presumes to tell us what to be angry about, because the Political Class doesn't have our interests at heart. David Brooks has grown into a caricature of condescension. If this is populism, it is the populism of a salon inside the beltway, interested in the people only to manipulate them.

Barry Levine

Chief of Staff Pick Would Offer a View on Obama’s Strategy

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/us/politics/23bai.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=chief-of-staff&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 8:38 AM
Subject: re: Chief of Staff Pick Would Offer a View on Obama’s Strategy
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    In the last twenty months, president Obama (formerly of the U.S. Senate) and Rahm Emanuel (formerly of the U.S. House of Representatives) can point to some signal legislative achievements.  In that same time however the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the U.S. has failed to end discrimination in those Armed Forces, and our Chief Executive has failed to enforce our treaty obligations with respect to torturers. If professor Obama can't remind president Obama how the Separation of Powers works, perhaps a new Chief-of-Staff can.

Barry Levine

Lawsuits Accuse Megachurch Leader of Sexual Misconduct

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/us/22church.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=accuse%20megachurch%20leader%20of%20sexual%20misconduct&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Subject: re: Lawsuits Accuse Megachurch Leader of Sexual Misconduct
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    To bring a lawsuit, bishop Long's accusers have to identify themselves in a court of law. That is done in fairness to the accused. I would expect a newspaper to hold to a different standard. The victims of rape deserve anonymity in the press; no legitimate end is served by publishing the names of bishop Long's victims. Rather, the publicity is likely to deter other victims from coming forward, and justice is not served.

Barry Levine

The Angry Rich

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/opinion/20krugman.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=krugman&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Subject: re: The Angry Rich
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. famously said "I like paying taxes; with them, I buy civilization".  Alas, his level of mature responsibility has never been common. A generation of brats now hold the levers of wealth and power in this country and seem as eager to sequester the nation's wealth in their private bank accounts any swaggering third-world dictator. No one knows how to raise up an electorate as wise as justice Holmes. We do however know how to empower these brats.  As long our representatives in congress spend every day courting donors, they will socialize with donors and they will represent donors.  Only when their campaigns are financed with federal tax money will they be free to represent the electorate.

Barry Levine

U.S. Debates Response to Targeted Killing Lawsuit

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/world/16awlaki.html?_r=1&sq=charlie%20savage&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=2&adxnnlx=1284656450-WndI5KvvvwJ2JoN3xQCdvw

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:10 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Debates Response to Targeted Killing Lawsuit
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Barack Husein Obama has vast power has President of the United States of American and Commander-in-Chief of her Armed Forces. Still, this power has limits, even in war-time.  As an American citizen--even as an alleged traitor to his country--Anwar al-Awlaki can be deprived of life, liberty or property only by the due process of law. Even if Mr. Obama were a duly-constituted court of law, he couldn't impose a death sentence without first charging, trying and convicting Mr. al-Awlaki.  Professor Obama knew and taught this.  If he or members of his administration are now maneuvering to obstruct the workings of our justice system, he is doing it in violation of his oath of office.

Barry Levine

U.S. Debates Karzai’s Place in Fighting Corruption

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/world/asia/15corruption.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 9:56 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Debates Karzai’s Place in Fighting Corruption
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    If President Karzai can't be trusted to participate in the prosecution of corruption in Afghanistan, it is not worth the life of a single American to keep him in office. The U.S. has a long history of propping up corrupt regimes abroad. I can't think of an instance in which this has ended well for us. Rather, we have seen again and again that corrupt regimes are toppled and their backers earn a reputation for imperialist interlopers.

Barry Levine

Boehner Plays Central Role in Democratic Ad

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/us/politics/14boehner.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=boehner&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Subject: re: Boehner Plays Central Role in Democratic Ad
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Until we enact comprehensive campaign finance reform, congressman Boehner will be representative of both the Republican and the Democratic parties in our Congress. As long as our legislators have to be raising money for the next campaign all year, all the time, they will be disproportionately responsive to their donors at the expense of the rest of their constituents.  For the majority of Americans who aren't big campaign donors, there is a better way. If only we could  get the ear of our Legislature...

Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12rich.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=time%20for%20this%20big%20dog%20to%20bite%20back&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 2:31 PM
Subject: re: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    President Obama needs to remember what professor Obama taught: the power of the purse if vested in the Legislative branch. As head of the Democratic party in the U.S., he has a bully platform from which to cheerlead, but he does not hold the levers of power to tax or to spend or to stimulate.  As commander-in-chief of our Armed Services he has the power to end Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell today, as Truman ended segregation in our military. As President of the U.S. he has the power to prosecute torturers--as our statutes and our treaties require--today.  Likewise, he can enforce our constitutional guarantees from unreasonable (i.e. warrantless) wiretaps.

   Next month, we will send new representatives and senators to Washington to wield Legislative power. On some crucial issues, we're still waiting to see the president of the United States wield Executive power to deliver the Change we voted for.

Barry Levine

Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/us/09secrets.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 4:18 PM
Subject: re: Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In ruling that an assertion of National Security can preclude a trial--rather than just limit what evidence is admissible--the Ninth Circuit court has eroded a precious pillar of American self-government. If we enjoy due process of law only by grace of our Executive, then it is not a guaranteed right.  By this same logic, any other of the rights ostensibly guaranteed by our constitution can be waived at the Executives say-so.   We look to our Supreme Court to reverse this decision. If it stands, our republic falls.

Barry Levine

You Ain’t Seen This Before

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/opinion/01friedman.html?_r=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 4:23 PM
Subject: re:You Ain’t Seen This Before
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Eight years ago, when Thomas L. Friedman was banging the drum for war in Iraq, it was because toppling Saddam Hussein was going to bring us peace in the Middle East. Now Saddam is gone, and mr. Friedman sees that peace in the Middle East is still a difficult project. Perhaps he had other motives for leading Americans into war. Or perhaps he's growing up.

Barry Levine

Legacy of Torture

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/opinion/27fri1.html?scp=1&sq=legacy%20of%20torture&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: Legacy of Torture
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    When a human is tortured while in the custody of the United States of America, it taints more than his testimony; it taints our nation's soul.   We the people are the collective sovereign here. We are not innocent of the crimes committed in our name by our public servants. 

   We may try to disown these horrors and to put them behind us through a Truth and Reconciliation process like that in South Africa. To hide them and their perpetrators behind a veil of "National Security" would be unacceptable to a legitimate democracy.

Barry Levine

Aw, Wilderness!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/opinion/27stroll.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=aw,%20wilderness&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:07 AM
Subject: re: Aw, Wilderness!
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     If wilderness is dangerous, it is because 3.4billion years have made it so.  When mr. Stroll asserts that "the agencies have made these supposedly open recreational areas inaccessible and even dangerous..." he imputes to our bureaucrats powers to which even they don't aspire.  As an attorney, mr. Stroll may have schooled himself to deliver such tripe with a straight face. As the electorate, we would be remiss if we accepted it as credible.

Barry Levine

Coordinated Attacks Strike 13 Iraqi Cities

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Subject: re: Coordinated Attacks Strike 13 Iraqi Cities
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Watch these pages in the coming months as the authors of our Iraq strategy express shock (Shock!) that their game is working. Backing and arming sectarian militias (including the Awakening Councils) was never going to achieve a peaceful unified Iraq. It did however tamp down the death rate. Now when the Iraqi civil war resumes, it's no longer on George W. Bush's watch. Who is going to tell the mothers that this is what their sons and daughters died for?

Barry Levine

A Forgotten Fight for Suffrage

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/opinion/25stansell.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=forgotten%20fight%20for%20suffrage&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 11:45 AM
Subject: re: A Forgotten Fight for Suffrage
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As professor Stansell explains, the original intent of the words of the Fourteenth Amendment was to guarantee the rights of citizens, regardless of race or gender.   To use this amendment to expand the rights of corporations (which are "legal persons" but not "natural persons") would be anathema to a "strict constructionalist" on the Supreme Court--if he were logically consistent.

Barry Levine

A Case of Mental Courage

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/opinion/24brooks.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 9:56 AM
Subject: re: A Case of Mental Courage
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Brooks illustrates for us what Charlie Munger called "confirmation bias". He calls the Surge in Iraq a success not because Iraqis now have surrendered WMDs, or now have a stable government, or electricity, or running water or peace with Israel. As the Iraqi civil war gets back into gear, he blithely insinuates that anyone who doesn't accept the Surge as a success is delusional. It is educational to note how mr. Brooks can gaze into the pool of Iraq and see nothing but his own reflection.

Barry Levine

Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/asia/23taliban.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 3:27 PM
Subject: re: Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   How many editors did it take to delete General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani's name from this report?  When General Pervez Musharref was
both president and head of Pakistan's army, we didn't have to care
which office wielded the power. Now that the titles are split between
mr. Zardari and general Kayani, any day that we're not talking to the
general is a day wasted in our efforts.
Barry Levine

Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/middleeast/19withdrawal.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Subject: re: Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If we mean to replace the U.S. military presence in Iraq with the presence of a militarized U.S. Diplomatic Corp in Iraq, we're peddling a charade that no one will believe.  The American electorate repudiated George W. Bush's policies not because the Americans in Iraq were in uniform, but because Americans were dying where we had no compelling national interest. Draping new uniforms--or no uniforms--on the American bodies in Iraq will diminish the credibility of our Diplomatic Corps, but it won't satisfy anyone who is waiting for the day we bring our boys home.

Barry Levine

Islam in Two Americas

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=islam%20in%20two%20americas&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Subject: re:Islam in Two Americas
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Duthout cites what he considers laudable changes in Mormon practice coerced by the U.S. government as if this were a model for our relationship to immigrants of many faiths. Of course the Church of Latter Day Saints was never an immigrant creed; it is purely American. The community was founded in New York and ended up in what is now Utah because American bigots denied them the freedom to practice their religion, first in New York and then in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. If the defense of the American Melting Pot rests on such a model, it belongs to some other century that I hope to leave behind.

Barry Levine

U.S. and Iraqi Interests May Work Against Pullout

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi%20intersts%20may%20work%20against%20withdrawal%20deadlines&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Subject: re: U.S. and Iraqi Interests May Work Against Pullout
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Four years ago, while the media coverage was all about the Surge, general Petraeus made deep changes in our stance in Iraq. Instead of focusing solely on national institutions, we began backing and arming sectarian militias. While these groups were successful in reducing the daily carnage, they will resume the civil war the instant the U.S. forces are gone. It must now be the the U.S. president's goal to obscure that instant, or to push it off onto a next administration.

Barry Levine

The Marriage Ideal

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20marriage%20ideal&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: The Marriage Ideal
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Ross Douthout hasn't a scriptural leg to stand on when he invokes "Jewish and Christian beliefs about the order of creation" to privilege heterosexual monogamous marriage.  The Hebrew bible clearly presents polygamy as the norm. European Jews only renounced polygamy in the beginning of the eleventh century c.e. Rabbi Gershon ruled this because the possibility of polygamy among Jews was considered scandalous among our Christian neighbors. As to Christian scriptures, it is written "It is better to marry than to burn". The ideal implied here is not heterosexual monogamy, but celibacy.

Barry Levine

In Search of a New Playbook II

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08sun1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=In%20Search%20of%20a%20New%20Playbook&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Subject: re: In Search of a New Playbook
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    If November's election were only about employment and the economy, the Democrats would be in peril. It is not that president Obama's plan isn't sound. Rather, senate republicans have the power to kill, delay or eviscerate the legislation and expenditures needed to fix our economy. Alas, president Obama inherited much more than a wounded economy.  He has it in his power to restore the Rule of Law that was trampled under the last administration. Prosecute wiretaps that violated the FISA statute. Prosecute torturers or extradite them. Repudiate extrajudicial killings. Drop the "State Secret" ploy that keeps us from knowing the extent of crimes committed in our name.

     President Obama deserves praise for spearheading the legislative achievements of the last eighteen months, but those are legislative achievements. As chief Executive, he has work to do to show us that we no longer walk on Dick Cheney's "dark side".

Barry Levine

In Search of a New Playbook

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08sun1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=in%20search%20of%20a%20new%20playbook&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Subject: re: In Search of a New Playbook
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 2008, many of us turned out to vote for Change in repudiation of the Bush/Cheney policies on many fronts. If the Democratic National Party means "to delineate the differences between themselves and Republicans", they will need leadership from the Whitehouse.  Until we see prosecutions or extraditions for torture and prosecutions for warrantless wiretaps and a repudiation of extrajudicial killings, the Democratic electorate will not be energized.

Barry Levine

Taliban Exploit Openings in Neglected Province

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/world/asia/30baghlan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=taliban%20exploit%20openings&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Subject: re: Taliban Exploit Openings in Neglected Province
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Ms. Rubin's article makes clear what has been unspoken for seven years. The Pashtun minority in Pul-i-karmi--as in Afghanistan as a whole--means to impose their rule on all Afghans. That should be no more acceptable in Afghanistan (where Pashtun constitute a large minority) than it was in South Africa (where Whites constitute a small minority). As a Western-educated and democratically-inclined Pashtun, Hamid Karzai sits in the middle of this conflict. It's more than any one man can resolve, but  someone's got to lead, and he has the microphone.

Barry Levine

Envoy Says Corruption Helps Taliban Win Recruits

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/world/asia/29diplo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=corruption%20helps%20taliban&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Subject: re: Envoy Says Corruption Helps Taliban Win Recruits
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Before we send another body or another bullet to Afghanistan, we need to know more clearly what ambassador Holbrooke means by "adequate precautions to cut down on the misuse of billions of dollars in American aid".  Every day that the U.S. is perceived by Afghans to be supporting a corrupt regime moves us farther from credibility, farther from security and farther from peace. We lost in Vietnam pouring our resources into propping up a corrupt and unloved government there.  It would be unjust to ambassador Holbrooke to  conclude from his bland dismissal that he treats corruption lightly. It would be a graver injustice to our armed forces to spend their efforts and their blood in a futile effort to prop up yet another corrupt U.S. puppet.

Barry Levine

Getting Lost in the Fog of War

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/opinion/27exum.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=andrew%20exum&st=cse


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Subject: re: Getting Lost in the Fog of War
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 Mr. Exum proceeds from a false premise--that our government has the
right to keep secrets from us--and arrives at an accusation that
WikiLeaks is abusing the power of the Press. We rejected that premise
when we threw off the British empire 234years ago.  The American
system asserts that it is we the people who have a right (through our
free press) to the information needed to make decisions about ruling
ourselves. Government secrets (e.g. troop movements) are the
exceptions to this right, and must be narrowly circumscribed. A system
of government could be built on Mr. Exum's premise, but it would be
un-American.
Barry Levine

World Court Rules Kosovo Declaration Was Legal

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/europe/23kosovo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kosovo's%20declaration%20of%20independence%20is%20within%20law&st=cse


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Subject: re: World Court Rules Kosovo Declaration Was Legal
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Those of us who still aspire to being governed by the rule of law
and not the rule of men must be disappointed that Kosovo is treated
"as a special case that should not serve as a precedent".  When we
signed the charter of the United Nations, we entered a treaty calling
for "national self-determination of peoples". That applies no less to
Tibetans, Chechen and Palestinians than to Kosovars, Algerians and
Jews.
Barry Levine

Sadr Calls for New Iraqi Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=anti-U.S.%20cleric%20emerges%20to%20urge%20formation&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Subject: re: Sadr Calls for New Iraqi Government
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Moktada al-Sadr's anti-American activities are freighted with
politics. Whether he will be judged a freedom fighter or a terrorist
will be decided by history. Murder however is another matter. Any
Iraqi government that lacks the balls to try him for the killing of
Abdul-Majid al-Khoei cannot legitimately govern Iraq.  If al-Sadr's
militia buys him immunity from the law, the U.S. has merely replaced
the tyranny of Saddam Hussein with a new age of warlordism.
Barry Levine

The Pundit Delusion

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/opinion/19krugman.html?scp=1&sq=pundit%20delusion&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 4:35 PM
Subject: re: The Pundit Delusion
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Professor Krugman will be forgiven for pretending that economics alone drive the world and the election. Others of president Obama's backers remember than when we voted for him, we repudiated Bush era assaults on constitutional guarantees and human decency.  As long as president Obama's Department of Justice doesn't prosecute--and actively covers up--warrantless wiretaps and torture, the people who voted for him once will be left to wonder what party it is that he heads.

Barry Levine

A New Pumping Device Brings Hope for Cheney

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/us/politics/15brfs-CHENEYRECEIV_BRF.html?scp=2&sq=cheney&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 3:31 PM
Subject: re: A New Pumping Device Brings Hope for Cheney
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Surely in this case "bracelets or other identifications to alert emergency room doctors as to why [Dick Cheney has] no pulse" would  be redundant. No one who has lived through the last decade expects Dick Cheney to betray any evidence of a human heart.

Barry Levine

The Avandia Saga Continues

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/opinion/15thu1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=avandia%20saga%20continues&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:29 AM
Subject: re: The Avandia Saga Continues
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As you observe "GlaxoSmithKline...can't be trusted to report adverse clinical results fairly". One can go further. It is no more reasonable to expect any drugmaker to report adverse clinical results fairly than it would be to expect a restauranteur to phone in bacterial contamination in his kitchen.   Just as we sent inspectors into kitchens with thermometers and swabs, we need to turn the Phase III Clinical trials over to the FDA. When the drugmaker is satisfied with the Phase II trials, the protocols and the money should be turned over to the FDA to conduct the Phase III trial. Until we do this, we will replay this saga endlessly.

Barry Levine

Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/world/asia/27afghan.html?scp=1&sq=jolts%20afghan%20minorities&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM
Subject: re: Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   All Afghans are members of minority communities. At forty percent of the population, the Pashtuns are the biggest group, but that just makes them the largest minority community among many in the country.  The threat is not that minority groups will be oppressed by a majority. Rather, it is that the Taliban would again impose their particular Pashtun mores and culture on the nation.  After forty years of war, if we are to speak of a majority in Afghanistan, we should be looking at her women.

Russia Turns a Deaf Ear as Killing Cries for Justice

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/world/europe/04impunity.html?scp=1&sq=justice,%20and%20Russia%20turns&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 11:05 AM
Subject: re: Russia Turns a Deaf Ear as Killing Cries for Justice
To: letters@nytimes.com


While Americans may enjoy a moment of smug satisfaction in comparing Russian prosecutors to those of Stalin's USSR, we should spare a moment to consider the role of politics in our own DoJ.  Who is prosecuting torturers? Who is prosecuting wiretappers? Who is questioning the legality of extrajudicial executions? As long as Eric Holder's DoJ is subordinate to president Obama's political agenda, the Rule of Law is guaranteed only to the powerful.

Barry Levine

U.N. Report Highly Critical of U.S. Drone Attacks

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/world/03drones.html?scp=1&sq=American%20drone%20attacks&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:01 AM
Subject: re: U.N. Report Highly Critical of U.S. Drone Attacks
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The contentious issue of who is a military target must not obscure the simpler question of who may use lethal force.  The C.I.A. agents and contractors who are firing missiles from our drones are not members of our uniformed military, and don't answer to our Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to our own laws, if they're not soldiers or sailors or marines or airmen, they're subject to civilian law. The question is whether to charge them with murder or assassination or terrorism.

Barry Levine

U.S. Decision to Approve Killing of Cleric Causes Unease

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/14awlaki.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, May 14, 2010 at 9:28 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Decision to Approve Killing of Cleric Causes Unease
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   With all due respect, Scott Shane's article on extra-judicial
killings is namby-pamby. The story here is not that the executive
order  "makes some legal authorities deeply uneasy". The story is that
the executive order for an extra-judicial slaying of U.S. citizens
without charge or trial is illegal.  Next week we will mark the
thirty-third anniversary of Richard Nixon's bizarre assertion "When
the President does it, that means it is not illegal".  He was wrong
then, and this newspaper shouldn't pretend that he was right now.
Barry Levine

We’re Not Greece

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/opinion/14krugman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, May 14, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Subject: re: We’re Not Greece
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Professor Krugman lays out beautifully why the debt burden of the U.S. isn't like that of Greece. He stops short however of the larger structural lesson. Control of our currency is an important aspect of a sovereign state. Greece is hamstrung--unable to devalue its currency to redress the current imbalance--because the value of the Euro is beyond the Greek state's control.  Likewise the US has surrendered control of our currency to the Federal Reserve. The Fed is trying to serve two masters. Often it can make a profit for its constituent banks and stabilize the finances of the U.S. That's not good enough. As a sovereign nation, the U.S. needs control of its currency.

Barry Levine

Prosecutors Ask if 8 Banks Duped Rating Agencies

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/business/13street.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:20 PM
Subject: re: Prosecutors Ask if 8 Banks Duped Rating Agencies
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    After eight years of non-enforcement, it is refreshing to see prosecutors asking if many financial instruments got their exalted ratings because banks duped the ratings agencies.  To phrase the question this way however precludes another question. Did the banks and the ratings agencies collude to sell instruments that didn't deserve their ratings?  The ratings agencies shared their quantitative computer models with the banks and the banks dutifully gave back the numbers that everyone knew would make a triple-A pop out the other end. The banks paid the ratings agencies for their role. It will be for a court to determine if this is collusion, but we must give the case a chance.

Barry Levine

A Bad Bet on Carbon

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/opinion/13bryce.html?scp=1&sq=a%20bad%20bet%20on%20carbon&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Subject: re: A Bad Bet on Carbon
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Bryce makes clear that capture and sequestration of CO2 is an irreparably flawed strategy. He then generalizes to damn all carbon sequestration schemes. His unjustified rhetorical leap leads to an unjustified conclusion.  Until the Industrial Revolution, humankind's impact on atmospheric greenhouse gases was limited. The fuels we burned had been recently formed by photosynthesis and would have soon gone back to the atmosphere by natural processes anyway. This changed 200 yrs ago. Since then, we have pumped gigatons of carbon from fossil fuel pools--safely sequestered in the earth--into the atmosphere to trap heat and to acidify the oceans.  Even if we were to restore the world's forests to their state of 1800 and even if we were to achieve a carbon-neutral economy overnight, still we would have to address the gigatons of carbon we have taken out of sequestration.  Coal is a fabulous form in which to sequester carbon. To go on digging it up and burning it is an abomination. While we cannot put atmospheric carbon back into the earth as coal, we can and must put it back either as biochar or as anthropogenic peat.These technologies are at hand today. We must not let either senator Lieberman or Robert Bryce misdirect us from the task of implementing them.

Barry Levine

Holder Backs a Miranda Limit for Terror Suspects

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/us/politics/10holder.html?scp=1&sq=miranda&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, May 10, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Subject: re: Holder Backs a Miranda Limit for Terror Suspects
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Anyone who doubted the urgency of prosecuting Bush-era violations of our laws against warrantless wiretaps and torture didn't have to wait long for the answer.  The very next administration has now opined that your Rights are not Rights when they're inconvenient to the State.  If Miranda rights are Rights, then it is not at the discretion of the police to grant them or not; our Rights are ours. We can be rightly deprived of life or liberty or property--or our silence--only through the due process of a court of law.  The Separation of Powers was not a quaint eighteenth century exercise in philosophy. It remains the foundation of a legitimate representative democracy. We should all be worried that this administration now undermines it.

Barry Levine

Bill Targets Citizenship of Terrorists’ Allies

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/world/07rights.html?scp=1&sq=bill%20targets%20citizenship%20of%20terrorists'&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, May 7, 2010 at 8:49 AM
Subject: re: Bill Targets Citizenship of Terrorists’ Allies
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The U.S. Constitution establishes that "adhering to their Enemies [or] giving them Aid and Comfort" constitutes treason.  If e.g. Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan or  Anwar al-Awlaki were tried and convicted of this in a court of law, either might be subject to imprisonment or capital punishment.  Treason however can be committed only against one's own sovereign or nation. Our constitution therefore also establishes that one remains an American--subject to our law and possessed of our constitutional guarantees of due process--even while committing treason.

Barry Levine

France Won’t Extradite Iranian Sought by U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/world/europe/06france.html?scp=1&sq=france%20won't%20extradite&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, May 6, 2010 at 10:10 AM
Subject: re: France Won’t Extradite Iranian Sought by U.S.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    If the U.S. wants France to extradite suspects to face trial in our courts, we will have to honor our own extradition treaties with our allies.  Instead, the U.S. has refused extradition to both Germany and to Italy and has even intimidated those governments into withdrawing proper requests for extradition.  In the current matter, freeing an Iranian citizen may get the French favorable terms for oil and gas purchases. Currying favor the with the U.S. gets them neither thanks nor even an expectation that we will reciprocate in future cases.

Barry Levine

Goldman Sachs on the Defensive as Senators Ask Blunt Questions

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/opinion/l29goldman.html
: Re “Goldman Sachs on the Defensive as Senators Ask Blunt Questions” (Business Day, April 28): The Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Goldman Sachs is essentially defining the fine line between ethically abhorrent and illegal. How the courts ultimately rule is anyone’s guess. But most perturbing to me was how little attention is being paid to a big loser from Wall Street’s actions: the American saver. TARP and other money funneled to Wall Street has been largely paid back. The biggest and most hidden subsidy of all has not. Interest rates are near zero. They are at such a level so banks, like Goldman, can make money by using this almost-free money and investing in AAA-rated Treasuries yielding 2 to 4 percent more than their borrowings. Savers are the ones financing this by forgoing normal interest rates, but they will never get their day in court. If Goldman owes anyone, it’s not the “sophisticated” institutions that bought their risky mortgage products; it’s the citizens who didn’t have a choice in bailing out entities like Goldman. Michael Lebowitz Bethesda, Md., April 28, 2010