In Republican Race, a New Breed of Superdonor

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/us/politics/in-republican-race-a-new-breed-of-superdonor.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Subject: re: In Republican Race, a New Breed of Superdonor
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Our Supreme Court has established that political donations are "symbolic speech" and as such are constitutionally protected. The right to Free Speech itself however is not absolute. There are speech acts (e.g. "fighting words" and "incitement to riot") that have been found to not be protected. What then would we say of a donor who gave indiscriminately to all nominees in a single race? Is the message only that she/he wants the eventual winner to feel indebted to her/him? Is that a case in which the "symbolic speech" of the donation is not constitutionally protected?

   There are a few in this country who would be happy to see our public servants responsive to their donors, rather than to their constituents. If they have their way in this one, they'll have their way in everything, and government "for the People" will have perished from this earth.

Barry Haskell Levine

WikiLeaks, a Postscript

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/opinion/keller-wikileaks-a-postscript.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Subject: re: WikiLeaks, a Postscript
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  Before we accept Bill Keller's posturing as the voice of responsible journalism, we should remember that he has no standing here. It was Mr. Keller who quashed the news of illegal wiretaps in 2004. The American electorate learned that one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States was engaged in a criminal enterprise only after he had been returned to office. That's not how a Free Press operates,and that's not how a real democracy functions.

Barry Haskell Levine

Scandal May Topple Party Official in China

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/asia/scandal-may-end-rise-of-bo-xilai-party-official-in-china.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Subject: re: Scandal May Topple Party Official in China
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   It is not clear whether the authors are chronic amphetamine abusers or merely sleep-deprived. Neither can the reader tell what is the "scandal" of the article's title.  After wading through two full columns of this scattered raving, any reasonable reader would have doubts that there's any news story here at all. Certainly in its current form, it's not "fit to print".
Barry Haskell Levine

Officer Charged in Information Leak

ttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/us/ex-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-accused-in-leak.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 4:59 PM
Subject: re: Ex-C.I.A. Officer Charged in Information Leak
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Now that we've established that our DoJ is willing to prosecute an officer of our CIA to protect the CIA's secrets, who has the spine to do the same to protect our constitutional right or to enforce our treaty obligations?  We've established that men were waterboarded while in U.S. custody, that waterboarding is torture, that torture violates both our statutes and our treaty obligations and that it is in our president's job-description to "see that these Laws be faithfully executed". Is there some subtle reason that I should trust a president in his second term of office to do what he disdained to do in his first?

Flexing Muscle, Baghdad Detains U.S. Contractors

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/world/middleeast/asserting-its-sovereignty-iraq-detains-american-contractors.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 7:16 AM
Subject: re: Flexing Muscle, Baghdad Detains U.S. Contractors
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  It was inevitable when president Obama took office that there would be disappointment; too many people had heaped too many disparate expectations on his shoulders.  Many in this country are now whining ineffectually that he hasn't delivered the promised change. Indeed he has continued Dick Cheney's program of gutting our constitution and gathering all powers into the presidential fist.  President al-Maliki of Iraq however is holding president Obama to his word. He means to see that American military forces--not just our uniformed troops--are out of Iraq.  We can doubt president al-Maliki's motives and we can dread the Iraqi sectarian war that is already gathering momentum. But today we applaud someone who takes president Obama's words more seriously than he does himself.

Barry Haskell Levine

Dangerous Tension With Iran

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/opinion/dangerous-tension-with-iran.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Subject: re: Dangerous Tension With Iran
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    There is a motley assemblage of interests--some Iranian monarchists, some Iranian democrats, some Iranian Kurds, some Israeli Hawks, arms manufacturers around the world and, seemingly, president Ahmadinejad of Iran--who are eager for a U.S. military strike against Iran.  It would not however be in America's interest.  Nothing would do more to rally Iranian support to Ahmadinejad's repressive regime than an external military threat.  The U.S. learned too late in Iraq that economic sanctioned had already worked. Iraq's nuclear weapons program was dead years before we marched in looking for WMDs. As president Obama disengages us from president Bush's disastrous wars, we can expect the arms manufacturers and the legislators whom they try to buy to drum for a new market for their wares.We need to make sure that we commit our sons' blood and our standing in the community of nations only when it serves our national interest.

Barry Haskell Levine

Find more of my (largely one-sided) correspondence with the New York Times at:
htt://forgottencenter.blogspot.com/
Or write a letter of your own. Democracy only works when we engage in
the issues of our day

Judicial Ethics and the Supreme Court

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/opinion/judicial-ethics-and-the-supreme-court.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Subject: re: Judicial Ethics and the Supreme Court
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   "Ethics" lord Moulton taught us is "obedience to the unenforceable".  By binding himself only to what the law requires of him, chief Justice Roberts has defended his professional freedom, but he has renounced ethics as a guide.

Barry Haskell Levine