Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/washington/25detain.html?scp=1&sq=bush%20aides%20linked%20to%20talks%20on%20interrogation&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Subject: Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations
To: letters@nytimes.com

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To the Editor:
   In 1984, President Reagan signed the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. When our congress subsequently ratified it, it became the "supreme law of the land" as per our Constitution. Anyone who violated or conspired to violate this convention is liable to felony prosecution--or would be if our Department of Justice were interested in enforcing the law. Attorney General Mukasey has signaled that he is more loyal to George Bush than to the Constitution which he swore to uphold. We look forward to a next Attorney General who will take his/her responsibilities more seriously.

Barry Levine

Bush to Hold Meeting on Bailout; First Debate Up in Air: Plea for Support

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26bush.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bush%20to%20Hold%20Meeting%20on%20Bailout&st=cse&oref=slogin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Subject: Bush to Hold Meeting on Bailoutg; First Debate Up in Air: Plea for Support
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

  If taxpayers' money is to be risked in a bailout of investment banks, we must have reason to believe that the structural problems will be fixed and that we will never again face this same crisis. President Bush has now acknowledged that regulation of the investment banks is necessary. That much is good. His proposal that regulation can wait until after the bailout is an insult to our collective intelligence. Any bailoutmust be contingent upon the regulations.

Barry Levine

1142 Brown Ave

Lafayette, CA 94549

Blocking the Sky to Save the Earth

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20homerdixon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=david-keith&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 8:39 AM
Subject: Blocking the Sky to Save the Earth
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

   For two centuries, we have been pumping gigatons of carbon from fossil pools into the atmosphere. That carbon dioxide is now contributing to global climate change that threatens to make our planet uninhabitable. That same carbon dioxide is simultaneously causing an acidification of our oceans. If we were to address global warming by blocking some of the incident sunlight but fail to address the acidification of the oceans, we could end up just as extinct. Blocking incident sunlight cannot be enough. We have to actively take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration--whether as carbon dioxide or anthropogenic peat--would ameliorate global warming and the acidification of our oceans simultaneously.

Barry Levine

Pumping Hydrogen

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/businessspecial2/24hydro.html?ref=businessspecial2

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 10:55 AM
Subject: Pumping Hydrogen
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:
    Whatever form our energy economy takes after the demise of petroleum, we need to make our choices rationally. It is neither helpful nor honest to assert that "hydrogen offers a plentiful and clean form of energy". There are no fossil deposits on earth of hydrogen as there are of coal, gas and oil. Hydrogen must be made, just as electricity must be generated. It is a medium for storing and transporting energy, rather than  a source.

Barry Levine

1142 Brown Ave

Lafayette, CA 94549

Dear Iraqi Friends

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/opinion/24friedman.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=friedman&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 9:32 AM
Subject: Dear Iraqi Friends
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
 Sometimes, wisdom emerges from dialogue even when neither
participant saw it before. Witness Thomas Friedman and George W.
Bush--never mind that George is just a sock puppet here--acknowledging
that we were wrong in invading Iraq. As Mr. Friedman now has his dummy
say: " [Iraqis]are now going to have to step up and finish this job".
Of course Iraqis are going to have to finish the job. It was never our
job to chase fictitious WMDs, to distract the world from Bin Laden
still at large or to remake the Iraqi government. President George
H.W. Bush knew this. Colin Powell knew this. President Bush closed his
ears to his wisest advisers and blundered forward. Now we are
distracted by problems of our own. We have made a dreadful mess of
Iraq, but we can't afford to stay and fix it. Sorry; it's your
problem.
Barry Levine
1142 Brown Ave
Lafayette, CA 94549

McCain Laboring to Hit Right Note on the Economy

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/us/politics/17mccain.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mccain%20laboring&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 8:23 AM
Subject: McCain Laboring to Hit Right Note on the Economy
To: letters@nytimes.com

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To the Editor:

    So now senator McCain has told us that the economy is "sound" and that it is "broken". He has told us that we're better off than we were eight years ago (before the Enron scandal and 9/11), and that we're worse off than we were four years ago (when we were already mired in two wars and our government was spying on us). What has become of the straight-talking maverick whom we had come to respect? This rudderless changeling who just reads whatever Dick Cheney's boys put up on the teleprompter is neither an inspiring candidate nor a fit leader.

Barry Levine

Are We Experienced?: Flight School

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/opinion/14gray.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=stephen%20r.%20gray&st=cse&oref=slogin

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 9:27 AM
Subject: Are We Experienced?: Flight School
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

   Stephen R. Gray enumerates the skills and virtues that allow a pilot to safely fly from and land on an aircraft carrier. We should compare these to lieutenant McCain's experience.  When he was shot down over North Vietnam, lieutenant McCain did not safely bring his plane back to land on the carrier. Nor was this his first. Five times he ditched his planes in the jungle or in the sea. Is this the record from which we should draw comfort? There is no parachute to save us if he were to crash the ship of state.

Barry Levine

1142 Brown Ave

Lafayette, CA 94549