Broccoli and Bad Faith

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/opinion/krugman-broccoli-and-bad-faith.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Subject: re: Broccoli and Bad Faith
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Whether "to tax everyone — healthy and sick alike — and use the money raised to provide health coverage" is constitutionally different from "requir[ing] that everyone buy insurance, while aiding those for whom this is a financial hardship" is a matter that the SCOTUS may have to decide in the coming months. Out in the larger world, of course the two are different. One uses the power of the Federal government to guarantee the profits  of private insurance companies, and the other does not. From the vantage of an Insurer, or an Insurance lobbyist, or a lawmaker in the pay of the Insurers, the two are as different as night from day.

Barry Haskell Levine

Language Deemed Offensive Is Removed From F.B.I. Training Materials

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/us/politics/language-deemed-offensive-is-removed-from-fbi-training-materials.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:53 AM
Subject: re: Language Deemed Offensive Is Removed From F.B.I. Training Materials
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     FBI spokesman Michael Kortan is in an impossible position. In order to assure the public that FBI agents would never "bend or suspend the law" as laid out in their own training materials, he must acknowledge that FBI agents are broadly willing to violate the letter of their own law--including that training material. Spokesman Kortan is paid to tie himself into such knots.  Readers look to this paper to expose such nonsense.

Barry Haskell Levine

For New Generation of Power Plants, a New Emission Rule From the E.P.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/science/earth/epa-sets-greenhouse-emission-limits-on-new-power-plants.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Subject: re: For New Generation of Power Plants, a New Emission Rule From the E.P.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It is no longer acceptable for any journalist to print the Coal Industry's spokesman's assertion that coal is "affordable" without comment. The Coal Industry continues to operate in the black only by foisting huge costs onto the public. These externalities--including CO2 in the atmosphere, acidification of streams, lakes and oceans, and mercury poisoning in our children--amount to many times the profits the Coal Industry reports. In short, American Coal destroys American wealth, kilowatt-hour by kilowatt-hour.  If we are to discuss the costs of carbon capture and sequestration honestly, we must also discuss the costs of  burning coal.

Barry Haskell Levine

When other voices are drowned out

http://www.google.com/#q=when+other+voices+are+drowned+out&hl=en&prmd=imvnsu&source=lnms&tbm=nws&ei=PO9xT9mdLqfg2QXH56HhDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=5&sqi=2&ved=0CBgQ_AUoBA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=6776a50ccb573219&biw=892&bih=653
re: When other voices are drowned out


In 2012, the equation of political donations with protected free speech is the law of the land. But that fails to define what is "free speech" by a long shot. If I am free to speak, but only where loud background noise drowns out my voice, has my right been denied? If I can use my voice but not a megaphone? If I can use my voice but not the airwaves? In 2012, the average voter doesn't read a daily newspaper; "Freedom of the Press" as our Forefathers knew it doesn't reach the electorate. In 2012 the average voter doesn't walk in the public square; "Freedom of Speech" as our forefathers knew it doesn't reach the electorate. In a world in which only the electronic media can reach 300million Americans, only the corporate media have meaningful freedom to speak to us. That freedom--only for the few--shouldn't be acceptable to the many.
Barry Haskell Levine

The Severability Doctrine

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/the-severability-doctrine.html


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:45 PM
Subject: re: The Severability Doctrine
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   Professors Gluck and Graetz are wrong in a narrow sense. The
individual mandate to purchase health insurance is inseverable from
the mandate that insurers must cover people with pre-existing medical
conditions. If these two were severed, insurers would rapidly be
bankrupt as the young and healthy demurred to buy insurance until they
had an expense.  In a larger sense, the individual mandate is
unnecessary. If president Obama had had enough political capital to
buck the Insurers and the politicians they had bought to give us a
SinglePayer system, we could dispense with the individual mandate--and
with the insurance companies.
Barry Haskell Levine

Santorum Writings Voice Strikingly Consistent Views

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/us/politics/in-santorums-writings-a-consistently-conservative-voice.html?_r=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: Santorum Writings Voice Strikingly Consistent Views
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

        Senator Santorum has spent years of his life and pages of ink expounding what he believes. He has not however explained why we should care.  Since--as he has said--"being a senator means voting for bills you don't believe in"--his beliefs are a private matter and don't determine his actions in the public sphere.  There are real political issues facing Americans today.  One man's personal convictions don't make the list.

Barry Haskell Levine

At Home, Asking How ‘Our Bobby’ Became War Crime Suspect

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/us/sgt-robert-bales-from-small-town-ohio-to-afghanistan.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 8:49 AM
Subject: re: At Home, Asking How ‘Our Bobby’ Became War Crime Suspect
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   There is much we don't know about the killing of civilians in Afghanistan and much that we will never know. But questions about sergeant Bales come down to a binary; could we have predicted this from sgt. Bales, or not? If we could--i.e. if he was what we used to call "an ox that is known to gore"--then his commanding officers are guilty of putting all around him in peril.  If this was nothing we could have seen from Bales--if this was just what the war experience does to some people--then none of our servicemen and servicewomen should be trusted with weapons. For their own safety, for the safety of our Afghan and NATO allies, for the safety of our sons and daughters who serve along side them, all should stand down until we understand this.

Barry Haskell Levine

An Officer Had Backup: Secret Tapes

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/nyregion/whistle-blower-police-officer-had-backup-secret-recordings.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 8:31 AM
Subject: re: An Officer Had Backup: Secret Tapes
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If officer Schoolcraft's allegations are proven, mayor Bloomberg has tolerated a Stalinist horror in our own midst.  In order to live in society, we as individuals have surrendered a monopoly on violence to the state and her police. If those police behave lawlessly, society itself breaks down.  This case deserves all the city's resources in the full light of day, for the credibility of the police, for the sake of all citizens and for civilization itself.

Barry Haskell Levine

Is MF Global Getting a Free Pass?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/opinion/nocera-is-mf-global-getting-a-free-pass.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re: Is MF Global Getting a Free Pass?
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The powers and duties of the president of the United States are many and contentious. But our constitution is clear explicit that "he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed". The president has many hands; the Department of Justice is his to direct, through his Attorney General.  Executives of any party who haven't prosecuted torturers or malefactors in the Financial Sector haven't fulfilled their job descriptions. This has given the appearance that our CIA or our investment banks are above the law. That is corrosive to our faith in our president, and to our society.

Barry Haskell Levine

As Candidates Speak in France, the Meter Is Running

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/world/europe/as-french-candidates-speak-the-meter-is-running.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 9:16 AM
Subject: re: As Candidates Speak in France, the Meter Is Running
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Despite this newspaper's sneering condescension, the French have much to teach us about running a democracy. Too many Americans have been taught that our participation in our government--outside one day of voting each cycle--is a limited to giving or soliciting money. Proper democracy however requires that all of us engage in discussing the issues of our day. The moment in the voting booth is only the culmination of that long process. In 2012, political discussion in the U.S. has been usurped by the corporate noise machine. Real issues (campaign finance reform, prosecuting torture, America's role as cop-of-the world...) can't even get into the media.  This is not the America our Founding Fathers staked their lives on. If the French have a better idea of how to embody our shared revolutionary dreams, we should sneer less and attend more.

Barry Haskell Levine

Pay Only for Drugs That Help You

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/opinion/pay-only-for-drugs-that-help-you.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: Pay Only for Drugs That Help You
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Dr. Waksal's vision may revolutionize drug discovery and healthcare in some remote future, but the cases he cites point to a more modest change.  Our FDA still defines cancers by tissue of origin ("breast cancer", "colon cancer"...) while the drugs being developed to treat cancers target the genetic/biochemical derangement that drives them.  It is this mismatch that gives us findings of non-efficacy for a potential drug, even when it works well in those patients it was designed for. When the FDA allows Clinical Trials in populations chosen for what drives the cancers, rather than by the locations of those cancers, we will have more and better drugs for the fight.

Barry Haskell Levine

U.S. Law May Allow Killings, Holder Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/us/politics/holder-explains-threat-that-would-call-for-killing-without-trial.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 8:44 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Law May Allow Killings, Holder Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The Constitution of the United States is a published document for all to read and debate. It's meanings are not always transparent.  Attorney General Holder is right in pointing out that "The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process".  But the law turns less on what the Constitution says than on what the Constitution means. It was established in 1803 that the power to interpret the Constitution belongs uniquely to the Supreme Court. And ever since the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, "due process of law" has been held to mean "judicial process".   If president Obama is asserting a new power to deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property, he should tell it to the judge.  Attorney General Holder's only proper role here is in delegating an officer of the Department of Justice to argue his boss' point. He has no authority to tell us what the Constitution means, or doesn't mean.

Barry Haskell Levine

Russia: Putin Warns of Dirty Tricks

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/world/europe/russia-putin-warns-of-dirty-tricks.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 8:02 AM
Subject: re: Russia: Putin Warns of Dirty Tricks
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  In the hall of mirrors that is Putin's Kremlin, government thugs no longer need even the cover of darkness to intimidate, beat or kill dissenters. Their boss has preemptively established the narrative. Any violence that befalls a government critic will be treated as theater meant only to embarrass the government. That's potentially a death warrant for anyone speaking for good governance, and a get-out-of-jail free card for the perpetrators.

Barry Haskell Levine

Santorum, Defender of Free Market, Pushed in Congress to Protect Big Steel

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/us/politics/santorum-free-market-defender-used-to-aid-steel-industry.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Subject: re: Santorum, Defender of Free Market, Pushed in Congress to Protect Big Steel
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Senator Santorum has explained that "being a senator means voting for bills you do not believe in". It follows logically that we as voters can't judge him on his record--he doesn't believe in everything he voted for. Neither can we judge him on his beliefs--he concedes that he doesn't consistently vote with his beliefs. A vote for senator Santorum is a vote for sweatervests--or a refusal to vote for a Mormon or a Black.

Barry Haskell Levine

After Many Tough Choices, the Choice to Quit

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/us/after-many-tough-choices-the-choice-to-quit.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Subject: re: After Many Tough Choices, the Choice to Quit
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If senator Brown is feeling isolated for his opposition to HealthCare, surely it is because he has set himself against the will of his constituents, and not because of anything that senator Snowe has done.

Barry Haskell Levine