LAT offers advice to GOP, unsolicited

The LAT advises this morning in an editorial that the GOP heed Arlen Specter's parting words. As if Republicans needed or wanted advice from a left-wing newspaper that does its best to sink the GOP whenever it gets an opportunity. The GOP has no use for a Benedict Arnold whose central focus is reelection.

People should be curious about a 79-year-old cancer victim who is so concerned about the next election that he would change political parties to avoid a certain loss. If reelected, Specter will be 80 when his new term starts. The odds are he will not survive long enough to finish that term. If he does survive, he could well reach senility during the term.

There are other things an 80-something person can do besides serve as senator. For example, such a person could become an elder statesman, speaking and writing on issues that are important to the nation and the world. Speaking and writing might be very profitable and might help build an estate that would benefit heirs.

It makes you wonder if Specter is not already senile.

Lexington's straw man

Lexington, columnist for The Economist, offers an argument concerning interrogation of terrorist prisoners, claims conservatives make it, then conveniently refutes it.

Here's the argument.

"But it is equally idiotic to argue, as a fair few conservatives seem to, that tough-minded policies are meritorious simply because they are tough-minded."

The argument is phony. Lexington doesn't identify the conservatives who make that argument because none do.

Lexington goes on to argue that Bush interrogation policies served no purpose because they were not effective. Not even the Obama administration makes that claim, though Lexington claims there are "legions" of high-ranking commanders, military lawyers and intelligence operatives who do.

Lexington names only one: Torin Nelson, who Lexington claims is a veteran interrogator. Well, perhaps. Apparently, Nelson reached the rank of sergeant in the U.S. Army. Nelson claims to be president of The Society of Professional Human Intelligence. Nelson seems to be the Society's only member.

Lexington, finally, argues that what he claims is true actually is true because Mr. Obama was cheered "to the rafters" by CIA agents when he visited Langley on April 20. Rafters? At Langley? Where Obama spoke? Probably not.

Treasury's rescue plans

The Treasury's plans to rescue General Motors and Chrysler rest on the proposition that unions need to be bailed out, whatever the consequences to taxpayers, creditors and investors.

Under the General Motors plan, the government will own 50 percent of the new GM while the UAW will own 39 percent. The new board of directors will consist of government appointees and people appointed by the UAW. The government's appointees will be union sympathetic because the Obama administration is union sympathetic. GM's plan is union sympathetic. GM's reason for being will be to provide work for UAW members and health care and retirement benefits for retired union members.

Under the Chrysler plan, the UAW will own 55 percent (a controlling interest), Fiat 35 percent and the government 10 percent. Like GM, Chrysler will serve to provide work and fringes for UAW members and retirees.

All this has been tried before, without success. Unions do not make good business managers or investors. Their goals do not include business success but better pay, benefits and working conditions for members. Union managers keep their jobs by keeping their members happy. Growing the business, offering products customers will buy at prices customers can afford, satisfying customers, making a profit, offering investors a return equivalent to the risk they accept ... these are foreign concepts to unions and union members. If that were not true, GM and Chrysler would not now be insolvent, as they clearly are.

Chapter 11 is inevitable for both GM and Chrysler, if not now then in a few months or years. Despite the roughly $20 billion that Treasury has advanced from TARP funds, the situation now is the same as it was last December -- only now taxpayers stand to lose $20 billion. GM's plan, and Chrysler's, will only postpone the inevitable and increase taxpayers' loss.

U.S. to become 50% owner of GM

The WaPo reports today that the U.S. government would take a 50 percent ownership interest in General Motors under a plan announced today. The union, UAW, would get a 39 percent interest, GM creditors would get 10 percent and shareholders would get 1 percent. That's the kind of plan that the Brits used to rescue British Leyland, manufacturer of Jaguars, Austins, Rovers, Land Rovers, Triumphs, Minis and MGs, before Margaret Thatcher came to power. The British government's plan to save British Leyland didn't work. That company doesn't exist an longer. The plan announced today will not solve General Motors' problems. Only Chapter 11 can do that.

Lexington laments "Obama hatred"

Lexington, left-wing columnist for The Economist, writes that "Obama hatred" is "not healthy for American politics." Lexington found no such unhealthiness for Bush hatred, instead taking part in and encouraging it.

"Unfortunately," Lexington writes, "the Glen Becks of this world are more than just a joke." Sadly, Lexington offered nothing similar about Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and a flock of other Bush haters.

LAT reports on Homeland Security's warning about the right wing

The LAT reported on Homeland Security's warning that "right-wing extremist groups" could become violent and threaten national security. Conservatives shouldn't be concerned, the LAT says. The Homeland Security's warning is just common sense, the LAT argues.

Perhaps it looks like common sense from the far left, where the LAT is perched. But Homeland Security offers no proof, no facts, no justification for its view that "right-wing extremist groups" endanger the rest of us.

LAT reports on "tea parties"

Well, sort of. The LAT didn't so much report on "tea parties" as try to blunt the effect of them. The LAT advised Republicans not to get too involved with "tea parties" and not to expect they'll have much effect. Besides, the LAT says, the "tea parties" "offer a fresh display of upheaval with the Republican Party" because the demonstrators in California called for the governator's recall and were opposed to the tax increases that were approved by the legislature and signed by the governator recently.

Such reporting helps to explain why each day fewer and fewer buy newspapers.

Noonan on bland affluence

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist, writes today describing a lifestyle she says will end and will be replaced by a non-affluent, down-to-earth, religious, smoking and drinking lifestyle. But the lifestyle she describes, the one she says is ending, characterized by Botox, face lifts, brow lifts, dyed hair for both women and men, thin hard bodies, gyms and personal trainers, is a lifestyle that never was except perhaps in New York, where Noonan lives and works, and among the very rich elsewhere. How many of us know people who have had Botox treatments, face lifts or brow lifts?

Noonan has a tendency to write about stuff she knows little about. Last week, she passed judgment on people who work on Wall Street, as if all were little Bernie Madoffs. She must come up with a column each week. Maybe she's running out of material.

Dealing with pirates

The Navy Seals deserve great credit for executing their assignment efficiently and effectively. In fact, everyone involved, including the Maersk Alabama's crew, the captive Captain Phillips, his family, the officers and crew of the U.S. destroyer Bainbridge and the other U.S. Naval ships on scene, behaved perfectly. What a relief.

There is much discussion now on television and in newspapers about what should come next. Everyone seems to agree that piracy must stop but there is little or no agreement on how to stop it. Some are suggesting that the Marines be sent into Somalia to clean out the mess there, but that seems unnecessary. Others are suggesting that ships plying the waters around Somalia carry armed guards to protect them against pirates, which seems obvious but insufficient.

Why not reward each act of piracy with an air attack on or shelling of the pirates' home ports? No U.S. personnel would be endangered and the message to pirates would be clear: Stop the piracy or lose your life. The bombing or shelling would need to be effective, and that would require intelligence about where the pirates are located. The U.S. likely has that intelligence now.

Surely, allowing the piracy to continue and paying ransom for return of the ships and crews should not be an option.

KNBC TV embarrasses itself over "first dog"

Hard news took a back seat last night to frivolous, gushing coverage of the Obama family's "first dog," which hasn't been chosen -- or if it has, the choice hasn't been announced. So what was newsworthy about the "first dog" story that KNBC TV aired last night? Nothing. Was airing the piece a political decision? Certainly.

LAT: Stevens guilty

The LAT today takes up the case of former Senator Ted Stevens and declares him guilty, though the Justice Department canceled the prosecution and conviction and the judge accused prosecutors of the worst mishandling and misconduct in 25 years. Stevens is guilty, the LAT suggests, even if he was railroaded. But how would they know if the trial wasn't fair?

The LAT seems to think that Stevens didn't deserve a fair trial. After all, he's a Republican from Alaska. That's two strikes against him, trial or no trial.

The LAT wasn't satisfied today with declaring Stevens guilty. They brought Sarah Palin into the mix too. She's a Republican from Alaska, which means she must be guilty of something. The LAT charges her with having an opinion and voicing it. She's guilty as charged.

Obama-Brown v Sarkosy-Merkel

Not long ago, the LAT was reporting that European countries were lined up against Bush and his policies. (Of course, the Brits' government never was. Tony Blair was called Bush's poodle.) Today, the LAT reports that Britain and the U.S. are opposed by Germany and France. It used to be Bush-Blair v Chirac-Schroder. Now it's Obama-Brown v Sarkosy-Merkel. What's changed? Only the names.

Anti-Bush protests no more

The LAT today chronicles the riots in London but no longer calls them "anti-Bush." Now they're "catchall" protests, "examples of the populist unrest sweeping Europe."

Republicans voting with Obama

Roughly half of House Republicans voted in favor of the punitive 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses. Many of them must have heard from their constituents because the number voting in favor of today's "Pay for Performance Act" totaled only 10. Michelle Malkin lists the 10 on her website but of particular importance to this old fool was the vote of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who represents parts of Orange County, California. Usually, Rohrabacher is a safe conservative vote. He has not explained either his vote in favor of the AIG 90-percent-of-bonus tax or today's vote, but needs to.