Ousted Lebanese Leader Swallows Rivals’ Bitter Pill

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/world/middleeast/26lebanon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ousted%20Lebanese%20leader%20swallows%20rivals'%20bitter%20pill&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: Ousted Lebanese Leader Swallows Rivals’ Bitter Pill
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In the Byzantine game of Lebanese politics, Walid Jumblatt's candor is bracing. He alone acknowledges that he does what he does in the pursuit of "stability at the expense of justice". Anyone who has read U.S. history knows what a poor gamble he is taking. We followed his logic in backing Marcos in the Philippines, the Shah in Iran...the reader can extend the list. In each case the people eventually demand justice and the blood of those who backed their oppressors.

Barry Levine

Hezbollah Chooses Lebanon’s Next Prime Minister

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/middleeast/25lebanon.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=shadid&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: Hezbollah Chooses Lebanon’s Next Prime Minister
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Hassan Nasrullah has now told us on the one hand that he won't
allow any member of Hezbollah to be arrested for the assassination of
Rafik Hariri, and on the other hand that he will "respect the
institutions of the state".  Of course no legitimate functioning state
can cede the decision of whom to arrest or not arrest to a partisan
chieftain.  If there were a functioning government in Beirut, Mr.
Nasrullah might have long ago been punished for dragging Lebanon into
war against the people's will. In the absence of a government, we can
judge Mr. Nasrullah only by his action, and not by his
self-contradictory babblings. His actions announce that he means to
make Lebanon an Iranian puppet state.
Barry Levine

Afghan Report Revives Concerns About Scrutiny of Private Security Firms

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/world/asia/24afghan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Afghan%20report%20revives%20concerns%20about%20scrutiny%20of%20private%20security%20firms&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 9:39 AM
Subject: re: Afghan Report Revives Concerns About Scrutiny of Private Security Firms
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Few Americans seemed to care that president Obama excluded private
contractors when he promised to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. By the
end of last year, our 180,000 contractors on the ground there
outnumbered our uniformed troops almost four to one. Shall we blame
president Karzai for not being as easily duped? Did he agree to
participate in the Cheney/Rumsfeld con game when he accepted our aid
money?
Barry Levine

Premier Defies Hezbollah as Talks on Lebanon Fail

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/world/middleeast/21lebanon.html?scp=1&sq=premier%20defies%20Hezbollah&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Subject: re:Premier Defies Hezbollah as Talks on Lebanon Fail
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   If as you write Syria feels pressured by the tribunal, it is more
likely because Syria is complicit in the assassination, than because
Syria responds to pressure from Washington.
Barry Levine

In Knotty State Secrets Case, Justices Ponder Telling Litigants to ‘Go Away’

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/us/19scotus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=in%20Knotty%20State%20Secrets%20Case,%20Justices%20Ponder%20Telling%20Litigants%20to%20'Go%20Away'&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 9:47 AM
Subject: re: In Knotty State Secrets Case, Justices Ponder Telling Litigants to ‘Go Away’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Subsequent history has revealed that the State Secrets doctrine was
built on a lie; the court acted in the Reynolds case to protect our
government not from a national security threat, but from
embarrassment.  Now, to protect the flawed precedent of  Reynolds,
justice Scalia proposes to gut both Youngstown and Marbury. If "go
away" were established as doctrine, our Executive would be above the
law both in wartime and in peace.
Barry Levine

Lebanon Delays Talks on New Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/world/middleeast/18lebanon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=lebanese%20leader%20delays%20talks%20on%20new%20government&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:07 PM
Subject: re: Lebanon Delays Talks on New Government
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If Hassan Nasrullah has the power he claims--to determine who will be and who will not be arrested in Lebanon--then the government has already fallen. No legitimate government can tolerate such impunity in a private citizen. The United States survived the challenge of Shays' rebellion, but only after putting it down forcefully. Beirut will have to decide whether Hezbullah is a threat to the Lebanese state, or has become the Lebanese state.  They can't both wield this power.

Barry Levine

Won’t You Be My Wireless Neighbor?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/14rubinstein.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=won't%20you%20be%20my%20wireless%20neighbor&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Subject: re: Won’t You Be My Wireless Neighbor?
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In 2004, American cities were vying to be the first to provide free wireless access to all their residents. Tens of millions of Americans stood to benefit, a few telecomm corporations would lose a stream of revenue for landlines. Alas, tens of millions of Americans aren't big political donors, and the telecomm companies are. The idea was quashed.

Barry Levine

For Hezbollah, Claiming Victory Could Be Costly

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/world/middleeast/14lebanon.html?scp=1&sq=for%20Hezbollah,&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: For Hezbollah, Claiming Victory Could Be Costly
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    If as you write "the prospect of [Hezbollahs members'] arrest is almost impossible to fathom", then the crisis in Lebanon is not potential; it is upon us. Where the central government can't enforce the law on its citizens, the state has failed. We have experience with such failed states in Somalia and in Afghanistan. They provide incubators for terrorism and piracy. Lebanon is a bleeding wound; the status quo shouldn't be acceptable to anyone.

Barry Levine

The Anosmia Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/14fri3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20anosmia%20case&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 9:17 AM
Subject: re: The Anosmia Case
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The anosmia case cries out for a remedy that we've already had. Until 1994, anyone peddling a remedy for a cold had to get by the FDA. Only in that year did congress create a new classification that is neither "food" nor "drug" and therefore available to the consumer without having first shown safety and efficacy. Nutriceuticals account for billions of dollars in trade annually; most of that money is spent on products that are both harmless and useless. For the sake of the few that turn out to be dangerous, the federal government has a compelling interest in regulating them all.

Barry Levine

The Rule of Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/opinion/08sat3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The%20Rule%20of%20Law&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 8:48 PM
Subject: re: The Rule of Law
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editors:

    There are both active and passive elements in upholding the rule of law. In violating the FISA statute (and our Fourth Amendment) to wiretap Americans without warrants, President Bush actively attacked the rule of law. Likewise when he authorized torture.  President Obama hasn't actively attacked the rule of law to our knowledge (although a lot remains hidden behind "State Secrets").He even passively accepts the Rule of Law in honoring the Congress's distribution of moneys for detainees at Guantanamo.  I'll call all of these things progress. Still, I'm waiting for the Change we voted for.  That would require an active embrace of the Rule of Law. When our Constitution says that our chief executive must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" it means that he (through his Attorney General) must prosecute torturers even when that's politically inconvenient, and must prosecute wiretappers even when they're big political donors.  We're waiting.

Barry Levine

Anti-U.S. Cleric Returns to Iraq, and to Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Anti-U.S.%20Cleric%20returns%20to%20Iraq,%20and%20to%20Power&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Subject: re: Anti-U.S. Cleric Returns to Iraq, and to Power
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   What would constitute enough data to make a meaningful judgment on Bush's venture into Iraq? After seven years, $1.1trillion and 4432 American deaths there, Iraq now has a government that  dares not  enforce its own murder laws on one of its citizens.  Abdul Majid al-Khoei was murdered in public eight years ago, yet the government that we have worked so hard to install in Baghdad lacks the will to find the killers.  If this were our goal, we could have had such a failed government much more cheaply.

Barry Levine

G.O.P. Sets Up Huge Target for Budget Ax

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/us/politics/04fiscal.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Subject: re: G.O.P. Sets Up Huge Target for Budget Ax
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In 1936 as FDR faced his first presidential re-election campaign, Washington was seized with a fever for balancing the budget.  Surely deficit spending had achieved its goal of ending the Depression!  History's verdict was blunt and swift. Unemployment surged, the economy relapsed and Roosevelt spent his whole second term digging out from that folly. Deficit spending to stimulate an economy in crisis incurs the responsibility to pay that debt down in the good times. It does not require us to remove the stimulus when unemployment is still at crisis levels.

Barry Levine