: re: George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. ‘Fix’ After Hospital Room Showdown

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Sep 20, 2015 at 8:33 PM
Subject: re: George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. ‘Fix’ After Hospital Room Showdown
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Unless we are to accept Richard Nixon's radical formulation "that when the president does it, that means it's not illegal", violations of the FISA Statute of '78 that happened before the 2008 were crimes, and still await prosecution.  It is the Executive's job to see that "these laws be faithfully executed". It is not the presidents job and it is not within the president's power to do or to authorize that which our statutes forbid.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/us/politics/george-w-bush-made-retroactive-nsa-fix-after-hospital-room-showdown.html?_r=0

: re:Carried-Interest Tax Break Divides Again, After Trump Revives the Issue

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 6:30 AM
Subject: re:Carried-Interest Tax Break Divides Again, After Trump Revives the Issue
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>

To the Editor:

   As mr. Maloney says, on the matter of taxation in general, and on carried interest in particular, "there is a lot of misinformation out there,”.   The scandal of carried interest is not that the investment manager is rewarded for the investment's good performance. It is that for many on Wall Street, their contractual remuneration (what for anyone else is "salary" and therefore subject to ordinary income tax) is misdefined as "carried interest" and accorded the lower tax rate.

   As important as keeping track of our money is keeping track of our information, of our misinformation, and of who is pumping out that misinformation. Mr. Maloney is among the pumpers-out.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/business/carried-interest-tax-break-divides-again-after-trump-revives-the-issue.html

: re: Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 12:07 PM
Subject: re: Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    While leaving lesser crimes (like murder) to the States, our nation's founders wrote the fugitive slave clause right into our constitution.  Harboring another man's slave is thus a high crime on the order of treason. No logical argument can get from here to prof. Wilenz' conclusion that we "did not sanction slavery in national law".

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/opinion/constitutionally-slavery-is-no-national-institution.html

: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
  

a DNC beholden to the few

wants someone who's more pliant to their will

who'll do what WallStreet bankers tell him to

they'd brush Bernie aside, and cling to Bill

but he's served twice, and cannot run again

and has to hide behind his smiling wife

as if high birth could make her president

or unify a party prone to strife

the media snub Sanders and his wing

who dream that votes should matter more than bucks

but they know billionaires control the king

directing whom he loves, and whom he fucks

we've read "How Nations Fail", but haven't learned

in stifling Bernie, our best hope is burned

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/democrats-seek-to-expand-use-of-super-pacs.html

: re: The Elusive Truth About War on ISIS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:32 AM
Subject: re: The Elusive Truth About War on ISIS
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Half a billion dollars to train "four or five" Syrians to combat ISIS is a bit of math that even most Republican candidates for president might get right. No one can afford to wage war or proxy war at that rate. If we mean to stop ISIS, it will mean either arming Kurdistan or putting American lives on the line. The latter is unpopular; the former is decades over-due.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/opinion/the-elusive-truth-about-war-on-isis.html

: re: The Lobbyist With a Six-Figure Government Job

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: The Lobbyist With a Six-Figure Government Job
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    The Webster's dictionary defines "farrow" as a litter of pigs. So what do you expect when you turn a Farrow loose in the corridors of power?

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/jeffrey-farrow-lobbying-government-contractor.html

: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:22 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   As the RedWing of the Bankers' party and the BlueWing of the Bankers' party maneuver for advantage in their battle of the superPACS, the majority of Americans--who believe money has too much influence in our politics--face a stark choice. That is not a choice between whomever the RNC and whomever the DNC puts forward wrapped in gold and fettered by debts. Rather, it is the choice between a government of donors and a politics of the People.

  So let's make sure that our candidates say they favor campaign finance reform. But let's judge them on their campaign actions, not on their glib words.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/democrats-seek-to-expand-use-of-super-pacs.html

: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 2:43 PM
Subject: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   It is fascinating and repugnant to glimpse the DNC's dark machinations.  Garnet Coleman assures us--while Americans align on issue by issue with sen. Bernie Sanders--that the DNC will pick for us someone whom the donors like.

   That's exactly the pre-selection that the people of HongKong so bravely rejected when Beijing offered them a sham democracy.  I hope Democrats here show as much spine.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/politics/big-name-plan-bs-for-democrats-concerned-about-hillary-clinton.html

: re: 3,000 Miles From Denali, Ohio Fumes Over Renaming of Mount McKinley

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:21 AM
Subject: re: 3,000 Miles From Denali, Ohio Fumes Over Renaming of Mount McKinley
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   In restoring Denali's good name, president Obama prompts us to consider what is president McKinley's legacy. William McKinley was the original president of the One Percent. Had he--and our first millionaires' congress--implemented his whole program, Organized Labor in America would have been crushed. The few who owned the rail, oil, banking and telegraph trusts in this country would have owned us all.  Had the presidency not been handed to Teddy Roosevelt by McKinley's assassin, we might have had a Workers' Revolution here in the U.S. before the Russians had theirs.

    So let's not forget McKinley has we rename Denali. Let us take this opportunity to remember that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/3000-miles-away-ohio-fumes-over-renaming-of-mount-mckinley.html

: re: The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 7:19 AM
Subject: re: The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     Before discussing how best to destroy Anwar al-Awlaki, we must remember that he was never convicted of a crime. He was never charged with a crime. In American jurisprudence, that makes him an innocent citizen. Neither the president of the United States nor anyone else had any legitimate power to destroy him, whether by Hellfire missile or by attacks on his character.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/the-lessons-of-anwar-al-awlaki.html?_r=0