Report Faults 2 Authors of Bush Terror Memos

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/us/politics/20justice.html?scp=1&sq=margolis&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 5:25 PM
Subject: re: Report Faults 2 Authors of Bush Terror Memos
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Margolis would do well to read more and write less. If he had read the report from his own office more carefully, he would have learned that “situations of great stress, danger and fear do not relieve department attorneys of their duty to provide thorough, objective, and candid legal advice, even if that advice is not what the clients want to hear.” That's an excellent summation of why his office exists. Instead, he has gutted the report by writing his own (or is that Rahm Emanuel's?) politics over what had been well-reasoned conclusions. 

   In a better world, the Office of Professional Responsibility would be immune to pressure from the White House. Since Mr. Margolis has bent to pressure from that direction, he should expect an invitation to explain himself to Congress.

A Reasonable Bet on Nuclear Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/opinion/18thur2.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Subject: re: A Reasonable Bet on Nuclear Power
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As we try to undo the damage that 200 years of industrialization have wrought on our planet, it would be reckless to ignore nuclear power generation, and myopic to focus only on light-water-cooled fission plants.  The nuclear power plants that supply 20% of the U.S. power grid at present rely on large amounts of petroleum to mine, transport, refine and enrich the relatively rare U235 fuel. The cost of safely storing their radioactive waste for thousands of years has never been tallied.  We mustn't ignore breeder reactors, which use vastly cheaper U238 while producing far less radioactive waste. We face a crisis and an opportunity. Now is not the time to invest in old reactor designs when something better could be built.

Barry Levine

Find more of my (largely one-sided) correspondence with the New York Times at:

http://forgottencenter.blogspot.com/

Or write a letter of your own. Democracy only works when we engage in
the issues of our day

What’s Wrong With Us?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/opinion/16herbert.html?scp=1&sq=what's%20wrong%20with%20us&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Subject: re: What’s Wrong With Us?
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    For a government preoccupied with the budget deficit, "[i]t's easy...to push aside infrastructure initiatives". The U.S. however has millions unemployed. That is a more urgent problem than the budget deficit. These people need jobs, the nation needs infrastructure and the economy still needs to be stimulated. Airports and aqueducts, roads and rails, bridges and schools all need our investment, and the time is now.  

Barry Levine

After 9/11 Trial Plan, Holder Hones Political Ear

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/us/politics/15holder.html?scp=2&sq=eric-holder&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 10:37 PM
Subject: re: After 9/11 Trial Plan, Holder Hones Political Ear
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   We now know that men were waterboarded while U.S. custody, that waterboarding is torture and that torture is illegal. Let Attorney General Holder enforce this law. We know that the FISA statute of 1979 requires a court warrant for a domestic wiretap, that this was the controlling statute in 2001 and 2002, and that such illegal wiretaps were made on U.S. citizens. Let Attorney General Holder enforce this law. If Mr. Holder will not enforce these laws, let him hold his tongue and take legitimate criticism with dignity. We, the people have an interest in seeing that our public servants faithfully enforce these laws. We have no interest in Mr. Holders displays of wounded ego.

Barry Levine

Democrats Try to Rebuild Campaign-Spending Barriers

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/us/politics/12citizens.html?scp=1&sq=try%20to%20rebuild%20campaign-spending%20barriers&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Try to Rebuild Campaign-Spending Barriers
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   No democratic government can legitimately represent its constituents if those constituents don't share common values and aspirations. To grant corporations equal or preferred influence in our electoral system can only come at the expense of the sovereign People.  Alas, the bills so far proposed to remedy this run afoul of our Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids any state to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".  What is needed is a constitutional amendment limiting or eliminating corporate personhood.

    Our Founding Fathers had no difficulty in distinguishing between "legal persons" (corporations) and "natural persons" (humans). In our ongoing quest "to form a more perfect union" in the 21st century, we need to legislate what was clear to any thinking person in the 18th.

Barry Levine

Iran, Beacon of Liberty?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/opinion/11gerecht.html?scp=1&sq=iran%20beacon%20of%20libety&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re: Iran, Beacon of Liberty?
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The current regime in Teheran is neither Islamic nor democratic. People of good will around the globe look forward to a legitimate successor there.  Mr. Gerecht however turns history on its head to bolster the obvious. It was the breakdown in the 16th c. of Church influence over the instruments of State power that permitted the Enlightenment in the 17th century and the emergence of democracies in the 18th c.  Until we can agree on the direction in which time flows, we are unlikely to make correct predictions about the triumph of Iranian democracy.

Barry Levine

Obama Challenges Terrorism Critics

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/us/politics/08terror.html?scp=1&sq=White%20House%20challenges%20terror%20critics&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Subject: re: Obama Challenges Terrorism Critics
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Dissatisfaction is growing in the country, and it is not solely the Right that's unhappy.  The majority of the electorate who voted for change is disappointed that this administration is "not handling any of these cases any different (sic) than the Bush administration handled them".  "State Secrets" is a scant fig-leaf to conceal unconstitutional warrantless wiretaps, torture violated both our statues and our treaty obligations and detention "for the duration of hostilities" in a conflict that no one has the authority to end is an abomination.  We voted for a president who would "take care that the Laws be faithfully executed". To continue the Bush administration's evasion of the Law may appeal across the aisle, but it has alienated president Obama's own base.

Barry Levine

The Muddled Selling of the President

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/weekinreview/31stevenson.html?scp=1&sq=muddled%20selling%20of%20the%20president&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 8:42 AM
Subject: re: The Muddled Selling of the President
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   There is the risk that president Obama could be remembered as the leader of the party that couldn't pass a bill even with sixty senators and a majority of the House.  Let me propose that he instead  frame himself as the public servant who "take[s] care that the laws be faithfully executed".  Wrapping oneself in the constitution need not be a cynical partisan trick; in this case, it would be fulfilling his oath of office. Prosecution of torturers would be an excellent start. As long as we can't be trusted to enforce our statutes or to fulfill our treaty obligations, our government lacks legitimacy and our diplomats have no credibility.

Barry Levine