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