January 23rd. 2006
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

I hope that Professor Laurence Tribe invented the anecdote reported in today's column by Bob Herbert in the New York Times (Page A23):
Laurence Tribe said: "I recently got a series of e-mails from someone, quite without invitation, that got rather scary in the sense that they started saying positive things about Osama Ben Laden. I asked the person in reply to stop e-mailing me, and I got an e-mail today saying 'Your request is permanently granted.'  But in the meantime, granted or not granted, that could easily put me on some kind of targeting list."
If the anecdote is true then I am appalled that someone of Professor Tribe's stature, University Professor of Law at Harvard, would be cowed by the fear of being on an Administration watch list. The correct response surely is: "Bring 'em on!"
Surely an Administration that is so inept as to target Professor Tribe has completely lost touch with reality. But we really must resist, not succumb to the Administration's unconstitutional activities. We must remember Martin Niemöller's lament (in my updated form):

• First they came for the enemy combatants, and I did not speak out -- because I was neither an enemy nor a combatant; 
• Then they came for those seeking or providing abortions, and I did not speak out -- because I neither sought nor provided abortions; 
• Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Muslim; 
• Then they came for the gays and lesbians, and I did not speak out -- because I was neither a gay nor a lesbian; 
• Then they came for the buyers and borrowers of books, and I did not speak out - because I neither bought nor borrowed a book; 
• Then they came for the e-mailers and bloggers, and I did not speak out -- because I was neither an e-mailer nor a blogger
• Then they came for the remaining non-Christians; and I did not speak out because I was not a non-Christian; 
• Then they came for the non-Evangelicals, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a non-Evangelical; 
• Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I hope this e-mail letter does not increase the New York Times' risk of being on a watch list.
Full Disclosure: In fact, I am a borrower and buyer of books, I am a blogger and an e-mailer, and I am a non-Evangelical Christian

Questions for Judge Alito

January 11th. 2006
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

Judge Alito, you said that your comment that the "constitution does not protect the right to an abortion" was made in the context of seeking a political job in the Reagan administration. With the implication that you were saying what your potential employer wanted to hear. You are now applying for a different job. Are you saying what you think we want to hear rather than what you believe?

Machete Budget

January 2nd. 2006
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

In his Jackson Square speech of September 115th 2005, President Bush said: "there's also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality."
Just exactly how do the Budget proposals of the House and Senate (Bob Herbert, The Machete Budget, January 2nd 2006, A17) help us to rise above that legacy of inequality? The Budget goes in the opposite direction with its cuts in Medicare, Student Assistance, Support for Families, and delays in Social Security Assistance.
The President, if he is a man of his word rather than a man who merely says fine words, will veto any Budget that does not lead in the direction of poverty reduction.