Oil company hatred

The letters to the LAT editors (those that are printed, at least) are usually so far out on the fringe that they are seldom worth reading. Today's letters are not different but one stood out. It was a rant about big oil following the Supreme Court's decision last week cutting back a punitive damage award.

The letter-writer calls the decision "pathetic" and argues that it proves that "the system works for the establishment and punishes the innocent." Why this is so the letter-writer doesn't explain, but he goes on to suggest that some good might come from the decision if it stops efforts to explore ANWR.

The writer calls oil companies "con artists" and says they will promise anything but will leave "the exploration area" for "residents to clean up the mess." He says evidence of this exists in the "west side of the southern San Joaquin Valley, where oil was first discovered in the late 19th century." He offers that there is enough oil "junk" there to justify a "side industry just reclaiming it." Wonder why no one has if the facts are as the letter-writer claims. The letter-writer doesn't connect the 19th century "junk" to the 21st century oil industry or Exxon Valdez.

Mugabe explained

In yesterday's Orange County Register, Karl Maier of Bloomberg News reviews a book by Heidi Holland titled "Dinner with Mugabe." Holland apparently had dinner with Mugabe many years ago and used that experience to get her book published.

According to the review, Holland explains that Mugabe is a "lonely, isolated little boy in an old man's body." In his youth, Holland says, Mugabe was shy, bookish, isolated and vindictive.

His psychological makeup isn't important. What is important is what he's doing, which is killing people and ruining Zimbabwe. If the United Nations has any function at all then it should be doing something to solve the Mugabe problem. A tyrant like Mugabe shouldn't be allowed to kill people and take down a nation.

If the U.N. is pointless, which it surely is, then the assignment should go to NATO. A few thousand troops is all it would take to send Mugabe and a few henchmen to a place like Guantanamo.

LAT paints McCain a kook

On yesterday's front page, the LAT criticized John McCain's campaign strategy, suggesting he's weird or stupid for visiting Canada and Latin America during his campaign. There are no electoral votes there, the LAT says. We'll see how the strategy works out but should a newspaper be offering advise to or criticism of a presidential candidate?

Lexington loves Obama

This week's Lexington column in The Economist speaks of hip-hop and rap (apparently this is a redundancy since rap is a kind of hip-hop according to Lexington) and the effect such "music" has on politics. The column is informative -- there is much about hip-hop that is new to this old fool -- until the penultimate paragraph, in which Lexington reverts to form. "Political change requires hard and often tedious work, as the thousands of weary volunteers working for Barack Obama can attest," says Lexington, without specifying what political change Obama volunteers think they're working for. Is it electing a half-black man? A relatively young man? A politician whose words sound good but have almost no meaning?

Lexington then quotes the chairman of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention (whatever that may be, whomever he might be) who "shrugs" that even if elected president, Obama "will be powerless to implement progressive policies because the corporate power structure will not let him." (Presumably, Lexington subscribes to that thought, otherwise he or she would not have used the quote.) Either that or the American people will. Since the American people are relatively conservative, progressive policies do not sell like hotcakes.

California clerics oppose gay marriage

The LAT reports this morning that Protestant ministers are organizing to help pass a constitutional amendment to end same-sex marriages in California. This is just what is needed. California's religious ought to band together to reverse the California Supreme Court's outrageous decision that legalized gay marriage.

McCain's "calculated gamble"

The LAT thinks John McCain took a "calculated gamble" when he decided to support offshore drilling. McCain's decision is not based on what he judges to be best for America and Americans but is instead just a vote-getting exercize. Meanwhile, Obama's decisions are principled, ethical and morally proper from the LAT's point of view.

McCain's position on offshore drilling could cost him California but it may help him in the Midwest, says the LAT, a gamble McCain was willing to take. Obama's decision to forego public financing for the general election campaign, on the other hand, allows him to "set his own terms" and "redraw the electoral map." The fact he broke a pledge is unimportant to the LAT.

Cindy new LAT target

On Sunday morning, the LAT went after Cindy McCain, saying the company she heads "has engaged in lobbying." It lobbies federal and state regulatory agencies on alchohol issues, the LAT says. And John McCain's son works for the company. He and other executives "have written at least 10 letters in recent years to the Treasury Department." Whoa. This is serious. Writing letters? John McCain needs to distance himself from his wife and son.

LAT: Stop the drilling

The LAT argued on the editorial page Saturday that whatever oil is recovered in 2008 by offshore drilling can't reach consumers' gas tanks until 2030. It then accuses George Bush of misrepresenting facts.

The LAT next argues that drilling offshore causes oil spills (because it happened in 1969), adversely affecting tourism, fishing, small businesses and coastal dwellers.

If that isn't convincing, the LAT then says California's beaches could wind up like Texas beaches, where tar balls and oil drums litter. Which Texas beaches? The LAT doesn't say. Have the editorial writers been to Texas beaches? How do the kids on spring break who flock to Texas beaches deal with the oil drums and tar balls? Where do those oil drums come from? Surely the LAT isn't suggesting that oil companies send their oil ashore using 55 gallon drums rather than through pipelines.

Finally, the LAT says that drilling releases "a host of toxic chemicals," causing high levels of mercury in fish. This editorial is chock full of well-founded facts.

The Plame affair

Like a three-headed monster in a B film, the Plame affair keeps raising its ugly head. Each time it does, the LAT and other media outlets forget the known facts and repeat the ugly rumors that flew before the facts were known. It was Richard Armitage who outed Valerie Plame (after her husband effectively did that by going public.) This is a fact but it doesn't appear in the reporting. Instead, the newspapers say the "leak" came from Scooter Libby, Karl Rove or Dick Cheney. To the extent there was a "leak," it came from Armitage. This we know.

California unemployment

The LAT reported last Friday that unemployment in California hit 6.8 percent in May, mostly because of unemployed residential and commercial construction workers. It sounds right but one point is missing. That's the aversion of California's legislators to businesses. They make it hard for successful businesses to remain in California. Many of those businesses move out of state and hire workers in Nevada, Utah or Arizona instead of Californians, contributing to unemployment in California and to reduced state tax collections, which of course increases the deficit. California's legislators ought to be kind to businesses, purely as a matter of self-interest.

LAT fawns over Obama

The LAT reports today in glowing terms on Obama's rejection of federal funding for his presidential campaign. "Obama sets his own terms," the LAT says. He'll "redraw the electoral map." Maybe, but he also broke a pledge.

Obama's "TV ad stresses values and patriotism," the LAT says concerning a new Obama commercial. Is this news that is fit to print? We'll all see the commercial sooner or later. Must the LAT alert us that it's coming? Is the LAT promoting this commercial so we'll watch it? Does this constitute an "in kind" contribution to Obama's campaign?

Rewrite history

"Nearly 30 years ago, skyrocketing energy prices and a sagging economy may have played a larger role in the defeat of President Carter than the Iranian hostage standoff, experts said." That's what the LAT wrote yesterday. But Carter was a fumbling, bumbling idiot who personally maintained the schedule for White House tennis courts. It wasn't energy prices or a sagging economy or hostages that defeated Carter. Rather it was incompetence. The people had enough of it.

Gay marriage

The LAT is aflutter today over gay marriage, saying hundreds were married in California yesterday. It devotes several full pages to gays and their marriages. The pictures, however, are enough to make you want to puke. One picture shows two normal looking women in white dresses, one shoulderless, evidently their version of bridal gowns. No court decision can make this normal. Marriage isn't what a court says it is. It is what everyone has known it to be for centuries. Fix this abomination. Support the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in California.

Wishful thinking

The LAT this morning claims that "women are lining up behind Obama." How can they know? It's early in the campaign. Voters may change their opinions several times between now and November. Is this anything more than wishful thinking?

Blame the minority

California is looking at a huge deficit for next year, $15 billion according to the LAT but $20 billion according to other sources. California's Democratic legislators say it's the Republican minority's fault. But Republicans in the California legislature are powerless. The legislature is controlled by Democrats.

The Democrats want to raise taxes, by $11 billion according to the LAT. But they need Republican votes to do so. Republicans want something in return. They want relaxed environmental restrictions and workplace rules. Democrats consider such bargaining undignified. Republicans should be more public spirited, they say, more concerned about California's financial welfare. But Democrats got themselves into the situation they're in, and got the state into the situation it's in, without Republican help. Let them solve the problem unassisted.

Blame climate change

The LAT yesterday reported an epidemic: Alaska salmon are getting white spots and spoiling. The LAT blames global warming. No science involved but what else could cause something like that? It must be global warming, according to the LAT.

Root causes for European Bush hatred

Lexington, the Economist's America column, argues that both Obama and McCain are determined to attack three of the root causes of America's poor image in European eyes "by banning torture, closing Guantanamo and embracing a cap-and-trade policy on climate change." If these are necessary to make Europeans love us then perhaps it's better they continue to hate us. Cap and trade is a lunatic idea. America doesn't torture, even if liberals and Europeans think we do. Europeans need to get over Guantanamo. Even if Guantanamo were worse than Europeans imagine, it wouldn't remotely compare to gas chambers, sterilization, guillotines and burning at the stake, all uniquely European.

Habeas corpus

John Robert's dissent in the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision yesterday in Boumediene demolishes the arguments presented by Anthony Kennedy in the majority opinion. The majority opinion is arbitrary and illogical and it ignores precedent. Clearly, the five justices in the majority arrived at a judgment and then struggled to provide a theory to support it.

Gratuitous trash

In yesterday's LAT, James Gerstenzang reported that President Bush issued Presidential Medals of Freedom to six people including Laurence H. Silberman, a former federal appeals court judge. The reporter cites Silberman's contributions on national security issues and then quotes liberal law professor (Gerstenzang's description) Herman Schwartz as saying Silberman has been "fiercely partisan, pugnacious and very political." Presumably, that means Silberman tooks some positions that Schwartz didn't like. Citing the quote was entirely gratuitous. It served no purpose except to take down Silberman a little.

LAT cheerleading for Dems

LAT reporters, including Dem propagandist Noam Levey, speculate this morning that Congressional Dems will be able to push Obama's agenda. This is news reporting, LAT style.

LAT mindset: Michelle O mistreated

According to the LAT, it's not what Michelle Obama has said publicly during the campaign that's the problem but rather that her husband's opponents will want to make sure that voters know what she has said. It takes a certain mindset to conclude that and the LAT obviously has that mindset. Inside on page A18, the LAT calls it "picking on the potential first lady."

Politics on the sports page

This morning, the LAT's Kurt Streeter writes in the sports section about ... what? Sports? No, race. Streeter writes about the old white Celtics and the old black Lakers and about Barack Obama as a presidential nominee. The present day Celtics are black and the present day Lakers are "international" and Barack Obama is a partly black presidential nominee. Connect those thoughts and what do you have? Answer: A racist, pleased that a presidential nominee is partly black. But what does that have to do with sports?

LAT puts lipstick on legislative pig

The LAT argues that the defeat Friday in the Senate of cap and trade legislation was actually a victory because fewer Senators opposed it this time than last. Your position on that legislation, assuming you are not a politician, depends on your belief in the god of global warming, for global warming is more a religion than anything else. If you believe, if you have faith, then facts don't matter. All that matters is that you propagate the faith.

To others, belief in global warming is like television evangelism. Routine fluctuations in temperature are presented as evidence of future catastrophic climate change. Fanciful assumptions are plugged into computer climate models developed by true believers. The debate is over, they argue, citing such eminent climate scientists as Al Gore, lawyer and politician.

LAT annoints Obama-Clinton

The LAT argued Saturday that neither Obama or Clinton won the contest. Instead, the LAT says, the American people won. Obama and Clinton "share a triumph with the American people," the LAT says.

But what do the American people know about Obama except that he's half black and talks a good game. He has no record of any significance. A vote for Obama is a pig in a poke. No one has any idea what he or she will get from a President Obama.

Having it both ways

The LAT and others have been arguing that we're in recession even if the statistics don't show it, at one point even suggesting we might be in a depression like the great one in the Thirties. They've been saying that the unemployment rate, which has been under 5 percent, doesn't reflect the bleak employment picture. Finally, on Friday they got what they wanted -- a half-point jump to 5.5 percent. Now the unemployment rate is important to them because it proves their point: the economy is in trouble and only a Democrat president and Congress can revive it.

The selective use of statistics to prove whatever you want to prove is fraudulent and the people who do it are frauds.