Justices Tell Judges Not to Rule on Major Backers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/us/politics/09scotus.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=recuse&st=cse&scp=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Subject: re: Justices Tell Judges Not to Rule on Major Backers
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   It is heartening to learn that chief Justice John Roberts would not
have joined the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore. His argument that
“the standard the majority articulates — ‘probability of bias’ — fails
to provide clear, workable guidance for future cases” leaves no room
for the 2000 decision that famously "established no precedent".
Barry Levine

Obama’s Speech in Cairo

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cairo&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Subject: re: Text: Obama’s Speech in Cairo
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   President Obama's Cairo speech is an eloquent and long over-due bid for America to rejoin the community of civilized nations; we all pray that it finds a wide resonance around the world.  There is room for worry however in his personal pledge to ban torture. Torture is illegal in the United States and it is the president's duty, not his choice, to see that that law is executed faithfully. If the law will be honored or dishonored merely at the whim of the Executive, we do not yet deserve a place in the councils of civilized nations.

Barry Levine

In Crisis, Banks Dig In for Fight Against Rules

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/business/01lobby.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=banks%20dig%20in%20for%20fight%20against%20rules&st=cse

To the Editor:

    

   The current global economic crisis has many fathers, but the "shadow banking system" that has arisen in the U.S. in the last three decades deserves a place at the head of the list. The regulations imposed on banking in the New Deal made the U.S.  banks and stocks the repository of much of the world's wealth. The "shadow banking system" exists only to dodge these regulations.  The few who profit from evading regulation will lobby mightily to stay unregulated. They do so at the expense of the our nation.

Barry Levine

Doubts on Ovarian Cancer Relapse Test

Subject: re: Doubts on Ovarian Cancer Relapse Test
To: letters@nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/health/research/01cancer.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=doubts%20on%20ovarian%20cancer&st=cse

To the Editor:

    This latest clinical result says as much about the limits of current chemotherapy in the clinic as it does about the limits of the predictive test for relapse. Chemotherapy is not  a single strategy. Although most patients are still getting agents developed decades ago, recent years have seen great strides in novel, targeted cancer therapies. The first of these are only now reaching clinical practice. It would be a grave error to stop efforts at early detection of cancers that might respond to modern therapies just because it didn't find cancers that were sensitive to an older generation of chemotherapy.

Barry Levine

Cheney Lost to Bush

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/opinion/22brooks.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=david%20brooks&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 22, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Subject: re: Cheney Lost to Bush
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   President Obama has spent his first four months in office compromising on the positions for which he was elected, in an apparent effort to buy support from Republicans.  If we were to assess the project at this point, we see that he has indeed persuaded one pundit on the Right that his policies are palatable--in as much as they are those of president Bush. The two Republican senators who voted for his major spending bill extracted $5Billion each in new monies for their state in exchange. At this rate, bipartisanship isn't worth the price tag.

Barry Levine

Later Terror Link Cited for 1 in 7 Freed Detainees

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21gitmo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=rejoin%20the%20fight%20after%20release&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, May 21, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Subject: re: Later Terror Link Cited for 1 in 7 Freed Detainees
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     The account of recidivism among those released from Guantanamo is notable more for what it lacks than for what it reveals.   Without names, no one can check the numbers. More important, it lacks a control group.  If the U.S. had detained and abused a group of certifiably innocent young men, I would expect most of them to bear the U.S. a grudge after they were released. How many of these would seek some sort of retribution? Fourteen percent seems entirely likely. That's an indictment of our behavior more than of theirs.

Barry Levine

Obama Moves to Bar Release of Detainee Abuse Photos

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/politics/14photos.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Subject: re: Obama Moves to Bar Release of Detainee Abuse Photos
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Many of the actions and policies of the Bush administration provided recruiting opportunities for Al Qaeda. The detention of innocents without charges or trial, the abuse and even killing of prisoners and the falsification of data to justify the invasion of Iraq all have been used to recruit new fighters to resist and repel the American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.  President Obama would do well to distance himself from these policies. By preferring to cover them up, he makes these sins his own and feeds our enemies.

Barry Levine