As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/as-scorn-for-vote-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 9:11 AM
Subject: re: As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Many of our Founding Fathers sincerely believed that they were designing a government for the Ages, but Thomas Jefferson dissented. He held that we would need a new revolution in each generation, because those how hold wealth and power at any moment will always pervert the institutions of government to keep wealth and power. For this, he earned the enmity of many of his colleagues. With time, we're learning that the new revolutions don't come off like clockwork, but neither can they be stopped entirely; an educated electorate will eventually see whose interests are served, and whose are not.

Barry Haskell Levine

The War on Insider Trading: Market-Beaters Beware

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/magazine/in-the-insider-trading-war-market-beaters-beware.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20greed%20police&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 8:35 PM
Subject: re: The War on Insider Trading: Market-Beaters Beware
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  The ongoing vigilance of the SEC is necessary if we are to have a fair and open market. "Compliance with the unenforceable" may define ethics, but it doesn't characterize Wall Street. When the Cheney/Bush administration let it be known that SEC prosecutions were not a priority, a few unscrupulous traders made fortunes but faith in the whole market crashed.  Mere enforcement however can never be enough; regulators and legislators are necessarily less nimble than the crooks here. We need to redesign the incentive system. Any profit on an asset held less than an hour should be taxed at no less than 95%. That rate can ramp down to the long-term capital gains rate over a year or two.  Until we change the capital gains incentive system, we will go on losing the Red Queen's race.
Barry Haskell Levine

Split Decision and Barbed Comments Show a Court Deeply Divided on Wiretapping

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/us/split-court-decision-on-wiretapping-and-barbed-comments.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 12:29 PM
Subject: re: Split Decision and Barbed Comments Show a Court Deeply Divided on Wiretapping
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has surely fallen halfway through the LookingGlass--or half that court's members have fallen all the way through.  They argue that Americans--who aren't allowed to know that they are suffering searches--still enjoy freedom from unreasonable search, because those searches happened through due process of law--in secret.  The Fisa Amendment doesn't need to be interpreted and it doesn't need to be fixed. It needs to be repealed. It is inimical to legitimate democracy.
Barry Haskell Levine

Obama Rejects Obamaism

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/opinion/brooks-obama-rejects-obamaism.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=david%20brooks&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 8:15 AM
Subject: re: Obama Rejects Obamaism
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Mr. Brooks is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts. The stratum of Americans who pay 31% tax on their salaries pay far less than that on their income because salary is only a small part of their income; income on Capital Gains is taxed at less than half that rate. Traders on Wall Street have long exploited this deception, claiming their contractual compensation (what normal people call "salary") as "capital gains" precisely to get this lower tax rate.

Barry Haskell Levine

How Dick Cheney Reined in Presidential Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/how-dick-cheney-reined-in-presidential-power.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Subject: re: How Dick Cheney Reined in Presidential Power
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If Jack Goldsmith had argued that Dick Cheney showed us why we must be ever vigilant to rein in presidential power, I would be applauding. Instead he argued that Cheney had reined in presidential power. He is wrong. Worse than that, he tries to lull us into letting our vigilance lapse. The Obama administration has not rolled back the power grabs of the Cheney years. It continues to invoke "state secrets" to hide the extent of illegal wiretaps and it refuses to honor the treaties our Congress ratified requiring extradition of torturers.  As long as the Obama administration remains complicit in the excesses of the Cheney years, we would be fools to  congratulate ourselves for "reining in" an Executive amok.

Barry Haskell Levine

Support for Obama Slips; Unease on 2012 Candidates

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/us/politics/obamas-support-is-slipping-poll-finds-but-his-jobs-plan-is-well-received.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=obama%20base%20democrat&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 9:32 PM
Subject: re: Support for Obama Slips; Unease on 2012 Candidates
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Since the election of 200, president Obama's political advisors have presumed that his base voters were in the bag. There would be no challenge from the Left in the primary; to whom could we turn?  He was therefore free to drift ever right-wards, in pursuit of the mythical crossover voter.  That--and $10billion in naval contracts--got him exactly two votes in the senate for his stimulus bill. When American voted for CHANGE in 2008, we voted for a broad and a deep repudiation of Cheney's America. Since then, no one has been prosecuted for torture,  no one has been extradited in compliance with out treaty obligations and I am still not allowed to know if I was among those subject to illegal wiretaps. I voted for change in 2008 and  I mean to vote for change again, and again until I get it.

Barry Haskell Levine

re: Palestinian Statehood

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/opinion/palestinian-statehood.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Subject: re:
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    An Obama administration determined to "look forward and not backwards" seems to have forgotten that the U.N. has already voted to create a Palestinian State. The partition plan adopted in 1947 created not just Israel but also a new Palestinian State and the International enclave of Jerusalem. Harry Truman was quick to put himself on the right side of history when he welcomed Israel to the community of nations. President Obama seems determined to stake his ground on the wrong side of history in vetoing the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations.

Barry Haskell Levine

U.S. Is Appealing to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=palestinian&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Subject: re: U.S. Is Appealing to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  When the U.S. joined the United Nations, we endorsed the UN's call for National Self-determination of Peoples. That applies to Palestinians and Chechens and Tibetans as surely as it applies to Jews and Algerians and Danes.  If the U.S. is no longer a beacon of liberty, but rather the global enforcer of the status quo, we should re-evaluate our participation in the U.N.
Barry Haskell Levine