A President Trying to Work the Levers He Still Possesses

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/us/politics/congress-and-economy-limit-obamas-domestic-agenda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20president%20trying%20to%20work%20the%20levers&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:06 AM
Subject: re: A President Trying to Work the Levers He Still Possesses
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  The power to tax and the power to spend and the power to stimulate are powers of the US Congress. On this, our constitution is clear. An intransigent opposition can deny our President progress on the economy for partisan gain.  The President however remains our Chief Executive, and the department of Justice reports to  him.  As sympathetic as we are to his frustrations with Congress, we still look to him to deliver the promised change. Let him show us the prosecution of torturers. let him tell us who among us were subjects of warrantless wiretaps. Let him dismantle the Bush/Cheney machinery of fear. Let him do this now, because it has always been in his power. Then we'll give him a second term in office, and a loyal Congress that can get his agenda passed.
Barry Haskell Levine

Panetta’s Pentagon, Without the Blank Check II

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/us/at-pentagon-leon-panetta-charts-change-of-course.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Panetta&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 7:53 PM
Subject: re: Panetta’s Pentagon, Without the Blank Check
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 That secretary Panetta alleges that we "hollowed out" the U.S. military after WWII is newsworthy, and has a proper place in this paper.

 What is missing is a notation that his allegation is false. It is precisely because we didn't hollow out the U.S. military after WWII that 

president Truman was able to go into Korea without consulting Congress. The military was already armed and funded.  No one in Washington

 operates with less oversight than the head of our CIA. It is not comforting to see that his grasp of reality is so tenuous. And it's disappointing

 to see the press so supine.
Barry Haskell Levine

Panetta’s Pentagon, Without the Blank Check

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/us/at-pentagon-leon-panetta-charts-change-of-course.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Panettas%20pentagon&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 9:05 AM
Subject: re: Panetta’s Pentagon, Without the Blank Check
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    It was never clear what secretary Panetta brought to the office of Secretary of Defense. As you note, he knew nothing of making wars. It turns out he knows nothing of history either. It was exactly because we did not "hollow out" our military at the end of WWII that president Truman could invade Korea without going to Congress; the military was already funded and armed.

   No cabinet-level secretary can be expected to know everything that goes into doing the job. That secretary Panetta would blunder ahead with a lie rather than ask a staffer for the facts however should worry us all.

Barry Haskell Levine

U.S. Scales Back Diplomacy in Iraq Amid Fiscal and Security Concerns

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/world/middleeast/us-scales-back-diplomacy-in-iraq-amid-fiscal-and-security-concerns.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=u.s.%20scales%20back%20diplomacy&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 6:49 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Scales Back Diplomacy in Iraq Amid Fiscal and Security Concerns
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   With the capture of Saddam Hussein, a window of opportunity opened for U.S. diplomacy. At that time, we could have created a free Kurdistan. Sure, it would have irked our Turkish ally, and a landlocked Kurdistan would have to live in a rough neighborhood. But we would have gotten in return a staunch ally and a valuable airbase. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld team preferred to double down on a foolish wager. That window has long since closed. Now, we propose to walk away from Bush's $2trillion venture and the graves of 4,000 of our sons and daughters with nothing. And that's the best scenario available anymore.

Barry Haskell Levine

A Mitzvah Behind the Price of a Soldier’s Freedom

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/us/pidyon-shvuyim-validated-the-price-of-shalits-release.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20mitzvah&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 7:54 AM
Subject: re: A Mitzvah Behind the Price of a Soldier’s Freedom
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The matter of Gilad Shalit was never going to be easy. The Talmud calls ransoming the captive a great mitzvah, yet forbids paying more than his value.  Abraham risks his own life to redeem his nephew Lot, but he does with at swordpoint, paying no ransom. Likewise when God redeems Israel from Egypt, it is with signs and wonders and eventually violence, not with cash.

  Benjamin Netanyahu's own brother died at Entebbe freeing the captives held there in a military raid, as Abraham freed Lot. This Israeli government however pays ransom like a powerless ghetto Jew. It is them that Meir ben Baruch warned seven hundred years ago. He forbade his friends to pay the exorbitant ransom demanded because to do so would make every Jew a kidnap target. He died in prison, but he was right.

Barry Haskell Levine

Officials Deliver Warning in Pakistan Over Extremists

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/asia/clinton-issues-blunt-warning-to-pakistan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 10:52 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Officials Deliver Warning in Pakistan Over Extremists
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As commanding general of MNF-I, David Petraeus conceived and implemented a strategy of deferring the Iraqi civil war until we leave. That war is still inevitable--we ourselves armed the partisans--unless we stay forever.  Now, as head of our CIA, he appears in meetings between our secretary of State and Pakistan's (military) head.  Will he propose a permanent U.S. military presence in Afghanistan? Will he tamp down the violence there only long enough for us to leave? However brilliant he is as a soldier and as a leader of soldiers, he was not elected to write our foreign policy.

Barry Haskell Levine

Failed Attack on U.S. Base Rattles an Afghan Valley

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/world/asia/failed-attack-on-us-base-rattles-panjshir-valley-in-afghanistan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=panjshir&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 10:43 AM
Subject: re: Failed Attack on U.S. Base Rattles an Afghan Valley
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    To acknowledge that the Taliban are "Pashtun anchored" is much like acknowledging that the Ku Klux Klan is "white anchored". Without being false, it fails to convey what's going on. Of forty-four million Pashtun divided between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a minority constitute the Taliban. But that minority is determined to either impose their mores and culture on  all of Afghanistan or to have a state of their own. There is no place in their ideology for a free multi-ethnic Afghanistan. Ashfaq Kayani of course prefers that Pashtunistan be carved out of Afghanistan if it is to be created at all, rather than out of his Pakistan. To this end he has continued to harbor and fund the Haqqani network, even when they are killing Americans.  The U.S. has no dog in this fight. The sooner we're out of there, the better.

Barry Haskell Levine

In Israel, Swap Touches Old Wounds

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/world/middleeast/israel-prisoner-swap-touches-old-wounds.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=swap%20touches%20old%20wounds&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 7:40 AM
Subject: re: In Israel, Swap Touches Old Wounds
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Jewish law (Gittin 45a) forbids ransoming a prisoner for more than his value. It may play well to Netanyahu's backers on the far Right to value Palestinian prisoners at 1/1000th of a buck private in the Israeli army. But the snub will not go unnoticed among those who have long accused him of racism.

Barry Haskell Levine

Justifying the Killing of an American

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/justifying-the-killing-of-an-american.html?scp=1&sq=justifying%20the%20killing%20of%20an%20american&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 8:31 AM
Subject: re:Justifying the Killing of an American
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen, with constitutional guarantees of due process of law. Indeed, if our courts were empowered to strip any of us of citizenship, all our "rights" would be merely boons granted at the courts' pleasure. Unless he walked into a U.S. courthouse or embassy to renounce his citizenship, U.S. law permits only one scenario in which he would not be entitled to a full trial (whether in person on in absentia).  Our statute provides that we can infer that one has renounced U.S. citizenship by:"serving in the armed forces of a foreign state if such armed forces are engaged in hostilities against the United States" .  Name that state and show that al-Awlaki served in armed forces, and you have a case for denying him a trial. Until then, he's a murder victim.
Barry Haskell Levine

The Secrets of Government Killing

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/the-secrets-of-government-killing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20secrets%20of%20government%20killing&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 6:53 AM
Subject: re: The Secrets of Government Killing
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If our president disdains to tell the people what it is that he's doing in our name, he must be hauled before Congress to answer articles of impeachment. The killing of a citizen without charges, without a trial, without even a nod to due process of law is a crime. Such a precedent cannot stand unchallenged. No man, and no office can be above the law.

Barry Haskell Levine

Confronting the Malefactors

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/opinion/krugman-confronting-the-malefactors.html?_r=2&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: Confronting the Malefactors
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The monstrous edifice that is Wall Street stands on three legs. The first is the vast revenue reaped by millisecond and microsecond trading on the stock market. The second is the vast political influence that this wealth buys. The third is a claim to personhood as interpreted by the Supreme Court in re Citizens United.  The protesters on Wall Street need more that slogans. We need new legislation to topple this monster. The first bill would reform taxes on capital gains. Any profits 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 two years. The second bill would take donations out of campaigns for federal office. The third bill would define personhood. Corporations may be legal persons in that they can be sued in court, but they do not deserve rights that are properly reserved for humans. Only when campaigns for the senate, for the White House and for the House of Representatives are federally funded will we have achieved one Person, one vote.

Barry Haskell Levine

Iraq Denies Legal Immunity to U.S. Troops After 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/middleeast/iraqis-say-no-to-immunity-for-remaining-american-troops.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqis%20say%20no%20to%20immunity%20for%20u.s.%20troops&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: Iraq Denies Legal Immunity to U.S. Troops After 2011
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The U.S. department of State advanced claims of diplomatic immunity for Raymond Davis in bad faith; as a CIA hitman, he had no legitimate expectation of immunity from Pakistani law. Now it seems the department had intended the same deception in Iraq, covering 16,000 "embassy staff".  The surprising display of spine from Pakistan's Foreign Office forced a reevaluation of this policy of perfidy. If we want to claim credit for setting up a free and sovereign Iraq, we must allow Iraq sovereignty. That means American there will have to abide by the law, however inconvenient.

Barry Haskell Levine

Judging a Long, Deadly Reach

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/american-strike-on-american-target-revives-contentious-constitutional-issue.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:43 AM
Subject: re: Judging a Long, Deadly Reach
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It would have been easy to convict Anwar al-Awlaki of treason if he had been tried in an American court of law; he had attached himself to our enemies. But he was not tried in court. He was not even charged with a crime. That puts him in the  other category: American citizens who cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Our law provides no third category. Summary execution by the Executive of an American citizen should concern us all. Republicans in congress could initiate impeachment--but many of them seem to believe that Muslims don't deserve constitutional rights. Democrats in congress could initiate impeachment--but many of them seem to believe that re-electing their man is more important than the Rule of Law. It is an occasion for sober reflection on America's values. If you're not queasy, you're not paying attention.

Barry Haskell Levine