Drugs Aim to Make Several Types of Cancer Self-Destruct

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/health/new-drugs-aim-to-make-cells-destroy-cancer.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Subject: re: Drugs Aim to Make Several Types of Cancer Self-Destruct
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     p53 is mutated or deleted in a majority of human tumors.  A therapy that could restore p53 function to--or just kill--such cells would be revolutionary.  That therapy however is still  just an aspiration.  A far smaller class of tumors are driven by MDM2 inhibition of wild-type p53.  A therapy that relieves this inhibition is an exciting prospect. But to bill that as solving "half" the p53 problem is to misrepresent a great piece of work. 

Barry Haskell Levine

Kerry Suggests Military Role in Diplomats’ Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/world/africa/kerry-calls-on-military-to-help-protect-diplomats.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Subject: re: Kerry Suggests Military Role in Diplomats’ Security
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If the U.S. is to be a world leader rather than just a military power, we must redress how we deploy our finite resources. That means not just cutting back our bloated military--we spend as much as the next fifteen nations combined!--but also how we spend money within our State Department budget. Sixteen thousand staffers at our Baghdad embassy aren't typing. They're just more soldiers by another name, on another budget.

    There's enough proper work for our diplomats in the world without asking them to fight, too. Protecting them may be the best thing our military can do.

Barry Haskell Levine

Obama and Boehner Diverge Sharply on Fiscal Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/politics/obama-says-republicans-given-fair-deal.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Subject: re: Obama and Boehner Diverge Sharply on Fiscal Plan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The U.S. has survived as many as forty-seven recessions over our history. Many of them were spurred by financial crises. What is novel in the recession of 2008 is that Wall Street has been propped up without fixing the problem.  Behind secretary Geithner's Potempkin economy, federal aid programs are still straining to keep many Americans from starvation.

     Until he discards the Geithner narrative that we have recovered, president Obama can't fully answer speaker Boehner's calls for austerity.  It is overdue that president Obama use his pulpit to explain to the American people that our economy is still weak and will remain weak until there is a surge is spending. Barring a war, or supernatural intervention, that spending must come from Federal stimulus. Between a policy of stimulus and a policy of austerity, compromise isn't a virtue. It is continued paralysis.

Barry Haskell Levine

Rubble and Despair of War Redefine Syria Jewel

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/world/middleeast/aleppo-residents-battered-by-war-struggle-to-survive.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: Rubble and Despair of War Redefine Syria Jewel
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   The fear of chaos underlies most political philosophy. A thousand years before Hobbes' "Leviathan", the Talmud warned "Pray for the welfare of your government, were it not for the fear of the rulers, every man would devour his fellow alive." A dozen centuries before that the book of Judges warned "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
    So now Syrian schoolhouses are stripped for firewood and the sick and wounded are uncared for.  Will we marvel that Syrians embrace a new strongman who promises order? American foreign aid--for healthcare, for education, for the necessities of life--are needed now.  Syrians must be able to see that their choice is not between al-Assad and chaos, but between al-Assad and a freer future. 

Barry Haskell Levine

Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/us/zero-dark-thirty-torture-scenes-reopen-debate.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 10:16 AM
Subject: re: Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As Scott Shane notes, our CIA's use of torture under president George W. Bush was "morally and politically treacherous".  As much as anything else, the American electorate rejected this in voting for change and for president Obama. But the CIA's actions were also illegal, and it is to "take care that these laws be faithfully executed" that we elected a new Executive. Law enforcement necessarily looks backwards, not forwards, because that's were the evidence of crimes is. 

   Even as we go forward in setting policies for our future, we must be investigating and prosecuting our crimes of the past.

Barry Haskell Levine

In a Farewell Speech, Lieberman Reflects on His Political Journey

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/nyregion/lieberman-in-senate-farewell-speech-reflects-on-his-political-journey.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:53 AM
Subject: re: In a Farewell Speech, Lieberman Reflects on His Political Journey
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Save the schmaltz for his obit; Joe Lieberman ain't dead yet.  On this occasion of his departure from the U.S. Senate, we need to take account of his signature achievement. This is the man who defeated the Public Option, preferring to keep the big Insurance Companies in charge of our health care.    

   And so in the twenty-first century, insurance companies control ever more of America's wealth and political influence, while Americans pay more than any ever has since the invention of money for health care, while achieving less than nations that pay a fraction as much.

Barry Haskell Levine

Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb in Groin, Afghanistan Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/world/asia/afghan-spy-chiefs-attacker-hid-bomb-by-his-groin.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 7:49 AM
Subject: re: Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb in Groin, Afghanistan Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Any government too prissy to detect weapons in an assailant's underwear or under a burqa cannot effectually safeguard the people's rights.  It follows that individuals will turn to vigilanteism and both security and liberty will be diminished.  

   Privacy is a great right; the U.S. Supreme court has found it implicit in our Constitution. But this means that our police and courts must demonstrate a compelling state interest before invading privacy, not that the State is impotent here.

Barry Haskell Levine

High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors, a Study Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/business/high-speed-trades-hurt-investors-a-study-says.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors, a Study Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor: 

   In the normal course of events, potential profits on stock sales motivate investors to underwrite growth and innovation in industry.  Recently, high-speed trading has broken this system. A few computer-driven traders have found ways to realize profits on the stock market as if it were a casino, while doing nothing to drive industry. Now it emerges that--in doing so--they are undercutting the stock market's founding purpose.

    There are two ways to redress this. One is to make the capital gains tax much more sensitive to time. Let any profit on an asset held less than one hour be taxed at 95% and let that taper to the long-term capital gains rate over a year. The other is to impose a transaction fee.  Over time, the two approaches aren't very different. If the "fee" has a better chance in Congress because it's not called a "tax", let's go with that.

Barry Haskell Levine

Marine Life on a Warming Planet

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/opinion/marine-life-on-a-warming-planet.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 7:07 AM
Subject: re: Marine Life on a Warming Planet
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     While it is urgent that the world "reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide", that cannot be enough. Even if we were miraculously to reduce worldwide industrial emissions to zero there would still remain the burden of carbon dioxide that we have pumped into our atmosphere and oceans since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.  If Earth is to remain inhabitable, we have to capture and sequester that carbon.  The only technology at hand that can do this is photosynthesis. Worldwide, minute by minute and year by year, photosynthetic plants strip twenty times as much carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and oceans as ALL human activities contribute. In time, of course, this carbon is reliberated when that plant material is burned or digested. What we have to do is take some of that plant material out of the carbon cycle as biochar.

   It is in our power today to start repairing our atmosphere and oceans. If we don't, there may be no future generation to blame us for our failure. 

Barry Haskell Levine

Letter From Syria

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/opinion/sunday/friedman-letter-from-syria.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Subject: re: Letter From Syria
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If it is Mr. Friedman's intent to extol the multiculturalism of Syria, why does he offer us the example of Antakya? Antakya is in Turkey.  We all know that--despite the expulsion of the Greeks and persecutions of Armenians and Kurds--Turkey is a multiethnic nation. But what is this supposed to teach us about Syria? That the modern national borders are arbitrary? Has Thomas L. Friedman achieved such august stature as a pundit that no editor dares tell him that he's making no sense?

Barry Haskell Levine

To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/to-save-congo-let-it-fall-apart.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 7:35 AM
Subject: re; To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 1980 Josip Tito died; by 1991 Yugoslavia--which had been arbitrarily hacked from the Austro-Hungarian empire by the victors after WWI--had fallen apart. Forty-six years after the U.N. charter, the several Peoples finally were free to pursue  their rights to "national self-determination".  Bizarrely, the UN security council still pledges to preserve the "sovereignty, independence unity and territorial integrity" of equally unnatural countries elsewhere. It is an indefensible policy. Instead of the Beacon of Liberty, the U.S. has signed on as the guarantor of imperial caprice. 

   Of course the Spanish are afraid of Basque separatists, and the Chinese fear the aspirations of Tibetans and the Turks want to pretend that the Kurds have no legitimate national aspirations and Joseph Kabila wants to claim all the wealth of the Congo. But if the United States has any role in those conflicts, it must be on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors.  

   No sane person would advocate jamming the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians back into Yugoslavia and expect them to play nicely together. We should grant the various Peoples of the Congo the same dignity.

Barry Haskell Levine

Soldier in Leaks Case Says He’s Been Punished Enough

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/us/wikileaks-suspect-bradley-manning-describes-confinement.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: Soldier in Leaks Case Says He’s Been Punished Enough
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Since our debacle in SouthEast asian, the U.S. military has labored long and hard to insure that our news media would never again "bring the war into our livingrooms".  The response is obvious and misguided.  The U.S. military is an arm of the U.S. government and--as such--is answerable to the will of the people. We need to know what's being done in our name, on our tax dollars, at the expense of our sons' and daughters' blood. There will always be tactical forward-looking details (e.g. troop movements) that must be kept secret even from the American public for a time during war.  But the "battlefield video file" that he is pleading guilty to leaking is exactly the sort of document that--belatedly--ended the madness in Vietnam.  If it is a crime for us to see that, we no longer have civilian oversight of the military.

Barry Haskell Levine

Japan’s Nuclear Mistake

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/opinion/japans-nuclear-mistake.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: Japan’s Nuclear Mistake
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   As Mssrs. von Hippel and Takubo observe, "uranium remains cheap and abundant". What they neglect is that more than 99% of that is uranium 238 and is not fissionable. If we look only at the uranium 235--on which current nuclear generators run--the analysis is quite different. Indeed, there's not even enough to bridge the world over until greener carbon-neutral energy sources can displace our current addiction to fossil fuels.  

   Breeder reactors are not without problems. The plutonium generated is toxic and could be diverted to weapons. But if we are to have a serious discussion of energy policy, it must start with the real cost and risks of the options, not with lazy deceptions.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Palestinians’ U.N. Bid

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/opinion/the-un-bid-from-palestinians.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 9:12 AM
Subject: re: The Palestinians’ U.N. Bid
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Sixty-five years ago, the U.N. voted to create in what had been Mandate Palestine a Jewish State, an Arab State and the international enclave of Jerusalem. The Jews said yes, the Arabs said no and no one spoke for Jerusalem.  Time runs forward. The Jews now have a state, an educational system, a healthcare system and a voice in the councils of nations; the Arabs do not. The U.N. General Assembly can't undo the mistake of '47. But that's where the repairs must begin. Prime Minister Netanyahu has no more right to veto that progress than the Arabs had to veto the creation of Israel.

Barry Haskell Levine

Close Guantánamo Prison

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinion/close-guantanamo-prison.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 9:05 AM
Subject: re: Close Guantánamo Prison
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The best time to roll back the Cheney/Bush assaults on the rule of law and human dignity is now almost four years behind us; the second best time is now. For too long, the president of the United States was held hostage to the last administration's rearguard, protecting torturers from prosecution and keeping potentially innocent men incarcerated. The American people voted for change, and we mean to have it. Now that he is no longer running for office, perhaps president Obama is finally free to deliver.

Barry Haskell Levine

Election Spurred a Move to Codify U.S. Drone Policy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/world/white-house-presses-for-drone-rule-book.html?hp&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 6:41 AM
Subject: re: Election Spurred a Move to Codify U.S. Drone Policy
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:  

     The Obama administration's assertion that "the process [of extrajudicial killings by drone] is meticulous and lawful" should fool no one. Our constitution provides that laws are created in the Legislature, not the Executive branch.  Two administrations now have tried to elevate the internal musings, guidelines and proclamations of their own departments of Justice to the level of law. But as long as the department of Justice is a part of our Executive and not Legislature, it cannot be.

    Presidential power-grabs are to be expected in times of war, whether it's Lincoln's suspension of Habeas Corpus or Truman's seizure of the steel mills. In this undeclared war, it's particularly critical that we get it right; we cannot tolerate a temporary imbalance "for the duration of hostilities" when the duration may be forever. Our system of checks and balances only works if our Judiciary our Legislature and our People push back.

Barry Haskell Levine

Brigades That Fire on Israel Are Showing a New Discipline

Brigades That Fire on Israel Are Showing a New Discipline

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/middleeast/brigades-that-fire-on-israel-show-a-deadly-new-discipline.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:39 AM
Subject: re: Brigades That Fire on Israel Are Showing a New Discipline
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    On June 20th, 1948 the Israeli Defense Forces shelled and sank a ship carrying arms to an independent Israeli militia. When the Altalena went down, Israel had a single military structure, to whom the people ceded a monopoly on force. At that point and only at that point, what had been a movement was a State.  

    In 2012, The Egyptian government may negotiate with the Qassem brigades over smuggling at Rafah , and Israel's  government may hold talks with Hamas over ransoming prisoners. But until the people of Gaza have a single command to whom they cede a monopoly on force, they are doomed to a Hobbesian state of chaos.

Barry Haskell Levine

Life, Death and Deficits

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/opinion/life-death-and-deficits.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: Life, Death and Deficits
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The "political realism" that forced president Obama to settle for a national healthcare plan mediated by the big insurance companies accommodated the congress of 2009.  But with Joe Lieberman's retirement, big insurance will no longer have their man inside. Now, with Obama back in and with Lieberman leaving is the time to deliver what president Obama advocated almost four years ago: a system run for the health of Americans, not for the profit of our insurers.

Barry Haskell Levine

Obama’s Nightmare

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/friedman-obamas-nightmare.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 8:05 AM
Subject: re: Obama’s Nightmare
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Ten years ago, Thomas Friedman asserted that Iraq was the keystone to the Middle East; by sponsoring regime change there, the U.S. could bring peace to the region. Now he pins that target onto Syria.

        I no longer care whether Mr. Friedman can learn from his mistakes or not. But it is important that the U.S. should learn, and change our behavior.  Regime change in Iraq has been very profitable to arms merchants and oil companies. It has cost America thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. We can't afford another such adventure.

Barry Haskell Levine

Afghan Warlord’s Call to Arms Rattles Officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/world/asia/ismail-khan-powerful-afghan-stokes-concern-in-kabul.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 8:24 AM
Subject: re: Afghan Warlord’s Call to Arms Rattles Officials
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Warlords in Afghanistan have been learning from America's last decade, even if we haven't. General Petraeus's signal achievement was built on deception. Under cover of a temporary build-up of manpower (one can always use more headcounts) he shifted our focus from building national institutions in Iraq to arming and enabling sectarian militias there.  The result was a rapid drop in deaths; nobody messes with these militias on their home turf.  But in the long-term, it has guaranteed that Iraq will break up into smaller states along ethnic lines.  

   Now warlords in Afghanistan see that the U.S. has given up on a fool's errand, building strong national institutions there. They know that if there is to be any order when we're gone, they will have to create it. Eventually, Uzbeks and Tajiks and Hazaras and Pashtuns and a dozen other groups who were lumped together when the British drew the border of Afghanistan will (and should) achieve national self-determination as promised in the U.N. charter. Until then, we would be wise to avoid spending American lives and wealth trying futilely to command the tides.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Foreign Policy Agenda

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/opinion/president-obamas-foreign-policy-agenda.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Subject: re: The Foreign Policy Agenda
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   President Obama's signature stamp on our Foreign Policy agenda has been his assertion of a novel presidential power to kill anyone--citizen or foreigner--without due process of law.  Governments will come and go in Libya and Syria and around the world.  But the evil precedent that president Obama set in killing Anwar al-Awlaki will haunt us as long as the American republic endures, unless he corrects it now.
Barry Haskell Levine

A Second Chance on Human Rights

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/a-second-chance-on-human-rights/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Subject: re: A Second Chance on Human Rights
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Professor Lewis correctly identifies sins of president Obama's first term that must be fixed in his second. But his proposed cure for the summary execution of Americans by drone-strike is no fix at all. No court can be simultaneously "ad hoc" and "duly constituted".  If it is formed just for the purpose of approving the president's hit-list, it is "ad hoc". If it is not "duly constituted" it cannot preserve the target's right to due process of law.

   It is likely that Anwar al-Awlaki would have been convicted of treason if he had been charged and tried. But he was neither charged, nor tried. All that has been established is that he engaged in noxious political speech. That's his right as an American citizen.

Barry Haskell Levine

An Invigorated Second Term

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/opinion/an-invigorated-second-term-for-president-obama.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Subject: re: An Invigorated Second Term
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Four years ago, to his enduring credit, president Obama proposed reinventing the American healthcare system. That discussion was swiftly narrowed to a discussion of healthcare coverage. Although coverage is a necessary component, it cannot be the whole system.  Now in his second term, it is for president Obama to dive back into the fray. Americans need to know not only who pays the doctors, but how much treatment we want. Ongoing advances in medicine and medical devices have allowed us to prolong the dying process more often than they have allowed us to restore quality of life and autonomy. The current fee-for-service paradigm means that most Americans will die with the maximum number of tubes stuck into our bodies. Yet we haven't even begun the discussion of whether this  vast outlay of money is aligned with our values.

    The rancor and distraction of the political campaign are behind us. As we begin president Obama's second term America has to decide what our values are, and where we will spend our wealth.

Barry Haskell Levine

Romney’s Closing Argument: ‘Look to the Record’

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/romneys-closing-argument-i-promise-change-and-i-have-a-record-of-achieving-it/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 7:51 AM
Subject: re: Romney’s Closing Argument: ‘Look to the Record’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Voters  can't know if this newest incarnation of Romney is anything more than a disposable mask. But there is no more time to "shake the Etch-A-Sketch".  The Romney going into the election is blaming president Obama for Mitch McConnell's strategy of obstructionism.  If you believe that (or even if you believe that he really believes that), by all means vote for Romney. For myself, I've started working on a new constitutional amendment. It is not enough that to run for president of the United States one must be 35 yrs of age and a natural born citizen. One must also not be a spineless liar.

Barry Haskell Levine

C.I.A. Played Major Role Fighting Militants in Libya Attack

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/world/africa/cia-played-major-defensive-role-in-libya-attack.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Played Major Role Fighting Militants in Libya Attack
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Seven weeks after the fact, it's still somehow contentious whether we had a consulate in Benghazi at all. Rest assured, if only for purposes of staffing and funding, our Department of State knows that answer; it is no.  What exactly we did have in Benghazi is less clear. Is it normal that the CIA should comprise a majority of the staff at any diplomatic compound? If Ambassador Stevens was killed while on a mission to provide a charade of legitimacy to a nest of spies, the episode takes on yet another layer of tragedy.

Barry Haskell  Levine

The Upside of Opportunism

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/opinion/brooks-the-upside-of-opportunism.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 9:23 AM
Subject: re: The Upside of Opportunism
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    David Brooks sketches two unsatisfactory scenarios. In one, president Obama is re-elected but is hamstrung by a Republican-dominated House. In the other, Mitt Romney is elected and spends his term fighting with a Democrat-dominated Senate.  But of course we, the people aren't constrained to pick from Mr. Brooks' menu. If we were to re-elect president Obama and put Democratic majorities in both houses of congress, we could actually, finally get the CHANGE we voted for four years.

Barry Haskell Levine

Panetta Says Risk Impeded Deployment to Benghazi

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/world/africa/panetta-tells-of-monitoring-situation-in-benghazi.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 9:54 AM
Subject: re: Panetta Says Risk Impeded Deployment to Benghazi
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It was never clear what qualifications Leon Panetta brought to the post of Secretary of Defense. Was he the man who would make our CIA serve our military ambitions? Was he the man to subordinate our Military to our CIA? Having protected our CIA from criminal prosecutions over torture, was he going to set our Military above the Law as well? 

   Now he proposes that our military shouldn't be sent into harm's way. Perhaps only our diplomats should risk hostile fire?  If he aspires to running the Swiss Guard, he has the wrong employer.

Barry Haskell Levine

A Sad Green Story

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/opinion/brooks-a-sad-green-story.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Subject: re: A Sad Green Story
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   To hear David Brooks tell it, our Congress' hyperpartisan dysfunction is president Obama's fault. I ain't buying it. President Obama labored heroically for years to heal the rancor that has been the culture of Congress since New Gingrich's heyday.  In this, he has not succeeded. GOP strategists have preferred to destroy the planet that we will leave to our children rather than to accept that president Obama--or vice president Gore--was right on anything.

  It's seventeen years since senator Bill Bradley walked away from a congress that had already become "dysfunctional" long before president Obama arrived in Washington. As he puts it "we can all do better".

Barry Haskell Levine

A Grand Experiment to Rein In Climate Change

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/science/earth/in-california-a-grand-experiment-to-rein-in-climate-change.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 12:54 PM
Subject: RE: A Grand Experiment to Rein In Climate Change
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor;

     As important as capturing carbon into woodlands is, it cannot be enough. Even if we were to restore the Earth's forests to their state before the Industrial Revolution, there is still the matter of the gigatons of carbon we have moved from fossil pools to our atmosphere and oceans in the last two centuries. To repair that damage, we must not only capture carbon through photosynthesis, but we must keep that carbon from cycling back into carbon dioxide and methane.  In essence, through biochar, we must rebuild the fossil fuel pool and must refrain from burning it.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Policy Verdict I

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/opinion/brooks-the-policy-verdict-i.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 8:59 AM
Subject: re: The Policy Verdict I
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If you require a columnist to submit enough words, over time he'll write just about anything, if only as filler. And so David Brooks comes to "replace the fee-for-service system" for healthcare. Nothing else in his column points in this direction. In his hands, it's an empty buzz-phrase to make Paul Ryan's intellectually bankrupt voucher system seem somehow hip. But it is the core of the conversation America needs to have. As long as physicians are "paid to stick in more tubes" we will go on prolonging dying rather than extending life and our healthcare costs will inexorably grow until they consume our entire economy.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Patent, Used as a Sword

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/technology/patent-wars-among-tech-giants-can-stifle-competition.html?ref=todayspaper

---------
When professor Kesan argues that the current patent system works, one must note that he makes his living inside that patent law system. Every megabuck court case is billable hours for him and for the lawyers he trains. But it is a system fundamentally skewed to the powerful, who can afford years and lawyers for these battles. OK for a drug company or a cellphone manufacturer with billions in annual revenues, but wholly prohibitive to a lone innovator who may have the invention that will make life on earth better in the new century.

F.B.I. Agents Scour Ruins of Attacked U.S. Diplomatic Compound in Libya

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/world/africa/fbi-agents-scour-ruins-of-attacked-us-compound-in-libya.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 1:28 PM
Subject: re: F.B.I. Agents Scour Ruins of Attacked U.S. Diplomatic Compound in Libya
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    What was the nature of this "diplomatic compound" in Benghazi? We have established that it was neither an embassy nor a consulate, and that it had a substantial C.I.A. contingent.  Subtracting those, was there a legitimate diplomatic mission at all? Was our ambassador sent there merely to lend a false veneer of respectability to a nest of spies? While we mourn the loss of ambassador Stevens and his staffers, we mustn't balk at asking why we continue sending Americans into harm's way.

Barry Haskell Levine

Moderate Mitt Returns!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/opinion/brooks-moderate-mitt-returns.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 9:16 AM
Subject: re: Moderate Mitt Returns!
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Like president Bush gazing into Vladimir Putin's eyes, David Brooks watched the post-Etch-A-Sketch Romney on Wednesday and proclaims it "a more authentic version of himself".  He certainly has had enough versions to choose from. By now, Mitt come down on both sides of almost everything, including the truth. Look for this debate footage to play endlessly in the coming weeks, as team Obama uses clips of it to illustrate Romney's inconsistencies, flip-flops and lies.  "Winning" a couple more debates like that one could cost him dearly.

Barry Haskell Levine

Inquiry Cites Flaws in Counterterrorism Offices

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/us/inquiry-cites-flaws-in-regional-counterterrorism-offices.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:42 AM
Subject: re: Inquiry Cites Flaws in Counterterrorism Offices
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     The Department of Homeland Security and its fusion centers were brought to us by the same wisemen who promoted our National Security Advisor for her failures of 9/11. Anyone who expected them to advance national security rather than the centralization of all power into the fist of a police state is a fool. The scandal is not that they are ineffectual in their stated mission, but that they have been tolerated and funded so long.

Barry Haskell Levine

A.O.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/opinion/aos.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 8:21 AM
Subject: re: A.O.S.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  We miss Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. Let one example stand for all. In 1971, he defied pressure from the White House and from the Pentagon and the threat of imprisonment to publish the Pentagon Papers.  He saw clearly that the  American electorate needed to go into the presidential election of 1972 with the best information available to make their choice. His successors have not consistently shown as much spine. The story of illegal warrantless wiretapping was quashed under pressure from the White House.  Only after the presidential election of 2004 did the electorate learn that one of the major candidates had been running a vast criminal enterprise. We miss Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, and our democracy is less legitimate for his passing.

Barry Haskell Levine

Election to Decide Future Interrogation Methods in Terrorism Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/politics/election-will-decide-future-of-interrogation-methods-for-terrorism-suspects.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:09 AM
Subject: re: Election to Decide Future Interrogation Methods in Terrorism Cases
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The U.S. took a welcome step towards rejoining the community of civilized nations when president Obama renounced what had been our policy of torture.  But a crime that is systematically not prosecuted is illegal only on paper. Our constitution provides for the separation of Powers. The paper form of our Law is entrusted to Congress. It remains for the president to "take care that the Laws be faithfully executed".

Barry Haskell Levine

In Arab Spring, Obama Finds a Sharp Test

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/us/politics/arab-spring-proves-a-harsh-test-for-obamas-diplomatic-skill.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Subject: re: In Arab Spring, Obama Finds a Sharp Test
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Every U.S. president within memory has faced choices between an untidy relationship with a popular foreign government and a handy strongman.  Too often, we have backed a Shah, a Marcos, a Pinochet...and turned a blind eye to violations of human rights.  In Egypt, Tunisia and Libya this year president Obama is on the right side of history. That should count for something even as we weather a new season of anti-American protests across the region.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Satanic Video

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/opinion/keller-the-satanic-video.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Subject: re: The Satanic Video
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  As long as Bill Keller continues to posture as the mature voice of responsible journalism, it remains for us who remember that it was he that kow-towed when Dick Cheney called him onto the carpet. It was he who quashed the story of illegal wiretapping rather than embarrass the Bush/Cheney campaign. It was he who sent Americans to the polls without knowing that one of the major candidates in 2004 was engaged in a pattern of criminal activity.  As long as the editor of the New York Times doesn't have the balls to publish what some in the White House think might be embarrassing, We the People will have to put our faith in WikiLeaks to stay apprised of the issues on which we are deciding.

Barry Haskell Levine

A Manager of Overseas Crises, as Much as the World Permits

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/us/politics/tom-donilon-a-manager-of-overseas-crises.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 8:42 AM
Subject: re: A Manager of Overseas Crises, as Much as the World Permits
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   A system that requires the president of the United States to toss the reins of foreign affairs to his unelected consiglere while he focuses on a political campaign is a broken system.  Our public servants are elected and paid to do the nation's business, not to run for their next terms.  The current bloated American political campaign is a huge boon to the corporate media who grow fat on campaign commercials. It is also an invitation to rogues around the world to meddle in our affairs while our president is too busy kissing babies and raising money to do the job to which he was elected.

Barry Haskell Levine

Temerity at the Top

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/opinion/brooks-temerity-at-the-top.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 9:14 AM
Subject: re: Temerity at the Top
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   In a shoddy bit of rhetorical bait and switch, David Brooks
proposes to defend elites, but spends his column extolling ambition.
The case for ambition was made  more eloquently fifteen centuries
before Mr. Brooks. Nachman ben Samuel wrote ""Were it not for
ambition, man would not build a house, or take a wife, or beget a
child, or engage in business". So what shall we say of Mr. Musk? As an
immigrant and  millworker who went on to shape American transportation
in the 21st century, he does not represent our elites. But he embodies
the ambition that enriches any nation.
Barry Haskell Levine

U.S. Warns Judge’s Ruling Impedes Its Detention Powers

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/us/politics/us-warns-judges-ruling-impedes-its-detention-powers.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Warns Judge’s Ruling Impedes Its Detention Powers
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Many of us who voted for CHANGE in 2008 with hope and enthusiasm now register disappointment and betrayal as president Obama's Department of Justice defends and expands the Cheney/Bush assault on our Constitutional guarantees.  No ad hoc seizure of extraordinary presidential powers can ever substitute for the Due Process of Law.

Barry Haskell Levine

As Low Rates Depress Savers, Governments Reap Benefits

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/business/as-low-rates-depress-savers-governments-reap-the-benefits.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: As Low Rates Depress Savers, Governments Reap Benefits
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Willfully or not, secretary Geithner's policy of low interest is driving depositors to move money from FDIC-protected savings accounts into riskier pools like stock or real estate.  As Secretary of the Treasury, rises in the stock market and in housing values look good on his report card. But it erodes yet another of the New Deal supports that brought the U.S. to the post-war prosperity and stability.

Barry Haskell Levine

Why Democrats Lead

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/opinion/brooks-why-democrats-lead.html?src=twr

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 8:17 AM
Subject: re: Why Democrats Lead
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   David Brooks' summation that "[t]he next president has to do three big things, which are in tension with one another: increase growth, reduce debt and increase social equity. " would have been as apt in 1932 as it is in 2012.  Those of us out here in the "reality-based community" who insist on learning from our history recognize that the way to achieve these things is through Keynesian deficit spending in the crisis years and repaying that debt in the good times.   Since the power to tax and the power to spend and the power to stimulate don't belong to our Executive, the way to get there--now, as then--is to elect not only a Democratic president, but a Democratic Congress.

Barry Haskell Levine

The Elevator Speech

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/opinion/obamas-elevator-speech.html


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Subject: re: The Elevator Speech
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   In 2008, Americans elected Barack Obama on his promise to heal a
democracy that had been poisoned by political rancor. For two years he
reached tirelessly across the aisle for compromise despite Democratic
majorities in both houses of Congress. He was met by a Republican wall
of obstruction.  Strategists on the Right deemed it better that
Congress should neglect the nation's business than that president
Obama should be seen to be leading.  Four years later, we still have
no more urgent task than to heal our poisoned democracy.  Throwing out
all those obstructionist members of our House of Representatives would
be a good start.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/world/asia/us-seems-set-to-designate-haqqani-network-as-terror-group.html


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Subject: re: U.S. Seems Set to Designate Haqqani Network as Terror Group
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor,
   The official recognition  of the Haqqani network as a terrorist
organization may not, as you note, "[H]amper...the group’s ability to
raise money from wealthy private donors in Persian Gulf countries" But
our law restricts not only money, but "material support". That would
invite an investigation of general Ashfaq Kayani's ongoing
relationship to the Haqqanis going back to his days as head of the
ISI.  It would be awkward to discover that our key ally in the region
is a "state sponsor of terror".
Barry Haskell Levine

No Charges Filed on Harsh Tactics Used by the C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/holder-rules-out-prosecutions-in-cia-interrogations.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:26 AM
Subject: re: No Charges Filed on Harsh Tactics Used by the C.I.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  It long been established that: 1-men were waterboarded while in U.S. custody, 2-that waterboarding is torture, 3-that torture violates both U.S. statute and our treaty obligations and 4-that our Executive is sworn  to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed".   Yet the only investigation launched to date was John Durham's inquiry in to possible violations of the Department of Justice's internal guidelines, not of the law. Attorney General Eric Holder hints darkly that there might have been a prosecution but the evidence is not admissible in court. That may prove problematic in all the torture prosecutions. But it does not excuse his failure in his sworn duty to properly investigate these crimes.

Barry Haskell Levine

We Need a ‘Conservative’ Party

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/opinion/friedman-we-need-a-conservative-party.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 9:53 AM
Subject: re: We Need a ‘Conservative’ Party
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In an American political spectrum that is already laughably narrow, Thomas Friedman suggests that all could be well if we would just split the difference. He has been inside the beltway too long. What America needs is a new voice to president Obama's Left, not to his Right. Who will prosecute torturers, rather than hold the CIA above the law? Who will defend citizens from illegal wiretaps, rather than grovel for telecom corporations' political donations? Who will question the Military/Industrial complex that consumes  half of our nation's tax revenues?  Yes, there are important voices lacking in our national political discourse. They won't be found in the aisles of Congress.

Barry Haskell Levine

Serving Foie Gras

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/opinion/serving-foie-gras.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Subject: re: Serving Foie Gras
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If we are to take Gabe Walters' logic seriously, anyone who has let her date pay for dinner has engaged in prostitution.

Barry Haskell Levine

No Criminal Case Is Likely in Loss at MF Global

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/no-criminal-case-is-likely-in-loss-at-mf-global/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 9:12 AM
Subject: re: No Criminal Case Is Likely in Loss at MF Global
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     In 2005, we learned of a pattern of illegal wiretaps of U.S. citizens in violation of the FISA statute of 1979 and of our Fourth Amendment. In 2007 we learned that men had been waterboarded while in U.S. custody. In 2011, we learned that hundreds of millions of USD had vanished from MFGlobal's investors' accounts. In each case, a crime is manifest. In each case, Eric Holder's Department of Justice has demurred to mount a prosecution. Instead, our DoJ is in court right now asserting a novel presidential power to circumvent citizens' guarantee to Due Process of Law.  Attorney General Holder is not an elected official. He serves at the pleasure of our president, to execute the president's agenda. The president of the United States has broad latitude to set that agenda, but can't escape the Constitution's charge to  "take care that the laws be faithfully executed".  If Attorney General Holder is too busy seizing novel presidential powers to do the job of enforcing existing laws, he should be replaced immediately.

Barry Haskell Levine

On Wall Street, the Rising Cost of Faster Trades

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/business/on-wall-street-the-rising-cost-of-high-speed-trading.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 1:58 PM
Subject: re: On Wall Street, the Rising Cost of Faster Trades
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor;

    Doing the wrong thing more efficiently is a poor substitute for doing the right thing. Yet efficiency is easy to quantify and right is often elusive.  Faster, cheaper trading has made Wall Street less an engine to provide capital to build and innovate than a casino for speculators. To get money into ventures that will create wealth over the next decade, rather than post paper gains over the next milliseconds, we need to impose transaction fees like those Europe already has.

Barry Haskell Levine

Romney Presses Obama on Work in Welfare Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/us/politics/romney-accuses-obama-of-taking-work-out-of-welfare-law.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Subject: re: Romney Presses Obama on Work in Welfare Law
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Until our Press finds the spine to skewer a politician caught in a falsehood, our political process will belong to the most skillful liars.  To blandly note that Romney's "claim seemed a stretch even by the low standards of 30-second political ads" is namby-pamby. This newspaper as much as anyone else is the guardian of our historical record. As long as Romney's people are free to savage president Obama for fictive outrages, they will never engage real issues.

Barry Haskell Levine

unprosecuted crimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-unprosecuted-crimes.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 12:16 AM
Subject: re: unprosecuted crimes
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If we are to catalogue the privileged classes who are not held accountable to the Law, the list begins with the officers and agents of our CIA.  Director Panetta famously announced that no one in his agency would be prosecuted for torture even before these crimes were investigated. When an investigator was belated named, he was charged only with finding violations of the DoJ's internal guidelines, not violations of the law.  Our constitution provides the presidential pardon as the unique exception to the rule of one law, applied equally to all.  There is no place in it for a CIA above scrutiny and accountability.

Barry Haskell Levine

A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/us/drone-pilots-waiting-for-a-kill-shot-7000-miles-away.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 9:45 AM
Subject: re: A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     To the law, it is irrelevant that in our AirForce, "only pilots, all of them officers, employ [drones] for strikes".  Within the law of war, any uniformed member of our armed forces can be expected to use deadly force. Missile strikes from drones become problematic when they are used by our CIA. Since agents and officers of our CIA are not members of our uniformed military, their use of deadly force is either murder or a war crime.

Barry Haskell Levine

israels-settlers-are-here-to-stay

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/opinion/israels-settlers-are-here-to-stay.html

Although Israel's relationship to the United Nations has been fraught, she remains signatory to the U.N. charter. That charter asserts that "all people have the right of self-determination". That applies to Palestinians as surely as to Jews. If a few Jews want to stay and apply for citizenship in the new Palestinian state just as Palestinians Arabs stay as citizens in Israel, that should be satisfactory to everyone. I expect that most of the settlers will prefer to move into Israel.

The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/us/politics/sidebar-public-in-the-dark-about-surveillance-orders.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 9:55 AM
Subject: re: The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The American experiment in self-governance began with the assertion that "We the People" are sovereign here.  If that sovereignty is to mean anything, we must know what is done in our name. There have always been tactical exceptions; e.g. troop movements must be held secret by our military for the duration of a conflict. But a broad policy of spying on our fellow citizens in secret is an assertion that our police agencies don't answer to us.  Any court that would allow this has set itself to undo the Revolution of 1776.

Barry Haskell Levine

A Week in the Life of Libor

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/opinion/a-week-in-the-life-of-libor.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re; A Week in the Life of Libor
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If we really mean "to reform the banks themselves" we must start by sealing Washington's revolving door.  The power to make a former Secretary of Treasury rich after he/she has left the cabinet is the power to block any meaningful regulation.  Let's start with a twenty year block on working in the banking sector after leaving office. Parallels to other regulatory offices will suggest themselves to any reader who gives it a moment's thought.

Barry Haskell Levine

Where Obama Shines

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/brooks-where-obama-shines.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 7:06 AM
Subject: re: Where Obama Shines
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor;

  The Arab Spring is a "problem" only to those who value autocratic stability over Human Rights.

Barry Haskell Levine

Russia’s Summer of Idealism

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/opinion/russias-summer-of-idealism.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 7:05 AM
Subject: re: Russia’s Summer of Idealism
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Marx  and Engels dreamed of a world in which the People were empowered and enlightened and the State would shrivel into irrelevancy. Lenin and Stalin took many of Marx's words, but elevated the State to center of a destructive cult in which the citizen was infantilized.  Modern Russians are heirs to all their legacies.  No one can see today whether this is the beginning of a revolution or just a blip. But it affirms that Lysenko was wrong. The grandchildren of the Russians whom Stalin pounded flat are standing upright, helping their fellows without appeal to the State. That's a long way from a triumph for Marx's vision, but it is a repudiation of Stalin's, and Putin's.

Barry Haskell Levine

More Demands on Cell Carriers in Surveillance

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/us/cell-carriers-see-uptick-in-requests-to-aid-surveillance.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Subject: re: More Demands on Cell Carriers in Surveillance
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   For two hundred years, Americans' freedom from unreasonable search and seizure was guaranteed by our courts. That was amplified in the wake of Nixon's crimes by the FISA act of 1979. Additionally, that act provided for retroactive court warrants in cases of unusual urgency. That was the state of our law when the Bush administration invited several telecomm companies to participate in a program of illegal (indeed, unconstitutional) wiretaps on American citizens.  Qwest, to its credit told the federal agents to go away unless they could provide a valid warrant. Other companies showed no such character.  Candidate Obama in 2008 announced that he "opposed[d] any form of immunity" for the telecomm companies who committed these crimes. Half a year later, he voted in the Senate to immunize these companies from civil suits, then failed to direct his attorney general to pursue the criminal violations. Should we be shocked that our police state is becoming ever more intrusive when it operates under such a shield of impunity? What's the news here?

Barry Haskell Levine