LAT applauds Brits drawdown

The LAT argues today in an editorial that the U.K. decision to withdraw 2,500 of its troops from southern Iraq is proof that the U.S. should withdraw all of its. It makes a lot of sense if you think like LAT editors. According to the LAT, Bush's coalition of the willing, which once totaled 34 countries, has collapsed. They once said it wasn't a real coalition because it didn't include France and Germany. The facts change or the LAT reinterprets them. That way, they prove whatever the LAT wants them to prove.

LAT promotes Hillary, trashes Blackwater, again

The theme of today's newspaper seems to be: elect Hill, convict Blackwater. A story by Janet Hook and Mark Barabak seems to suggest that Hill's election is inevitable. Stories by Tina Susman offer testimony by Iraqis that Blackwater SUVs force other vehicles off roads and Blackwater troops fire indiscriminately into crowds, killing innocent Iraqis. The question is whether this testimony is reliable. For five or six years, U.S. military reports of terrorists killed or captured in Iraq have differed from Iraqi reporting on the same incidents. U.S. military reporting has generally been good in other parts of the world -- at home, in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kosovo, etc. That suggests that Iraqi reporting may be substandard.

The FBI has been sent to Iraq to investigate the September 16th incident in which 11 (Iraqis now say 17) were killed by Blackwater security guards in a shootout following explosion of a roadside bomb. People should wait until the FBI has finished that investigation before drawing conclusions about whether Blackwater was at fault.

And tries to rehabiltate Che

A front page piece by Patrick McDonnell in the LAT tells of the legend of Che and his rehabilitation in Bolivia and Cuba and other parts of the world. Why a piece on Che? Leftist still love him, irrationally so.

LAT trashes Blackwater again

LAT reporter Paul Richter writes this morning that everybody always knew Blackwater was bad but they took the easy way out and ignored the problem. The story is based partly on anonymous or fictitious sources and partly on the testimony of a woman named Janessa Gans who Richter describes as an official in Iraq for two years. What that means is any one's guess. However, a little Googling indicates that she was a political officer in the U. S. embassy in Baghdad from 2003 to 2005, apparently a relatively low-level position. It also indicates that she is an activist, an opponent of U.S. policy in Iraq, an opponent of Israel and a proponent of Jimmy Carter's views on Israel, Palestine and perhaps everything else. A news article based on testimony of a partisan like Janessa Gans ought to include testimony of equal weight from a partisan on the opposite side of the issue. Otherwise, the article must be considered opinion instead of news and should appear in the opinion pages of the newspaper.

Peggy Noonan on presidential candidates

In this week's column, Peggy Noonan says she likes the look on Barack Obama's face when he's thinking, which is unlike the look on Hillary Clinton and President Bush when they're speaking lines written for them by staff. She likes Joe Biden because he's been ahead of his peers recently on Iraq, she says, specifically mentioning his tripartite thinking (which set off demonstrations against the concept in Iraq by Iraqis, who believe Iraq is theirs to screw up if anybody does.) She likes Chris Dodd because he's sophisticated. Her main point though, is she's tired of Bushes and Clintons and wants a change.

Of her points, the last is the only one that makes much sense. Offering ideas extemporaneously is good in classroom debates and Toastmasters meetings. In presidential campaigns, offering ideas that have been debated and considered and tested is better. Joe Biden has offered the same tripartite idea nobody has been buying for five years or more. But his principal failing is that he can't just stop talking. Silence is golden sometimes in debates and negotiations. Chris Dodd is an empty suit but he looks good.

WaPo's lack of class

It's one thing for a left-wing blogger or a communist street demonstrator to charge the president with lying without supporting evidence or facts. It's another for a major newspaper, supposedly respectable, or a columnist of such a newspaper, to do the same. WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson did that in a column yesterday about SCHIP. WaPo not only published it but promoted it.

WaPo, NYT and LAT could be helping to raise the level of discourse. Instead, they're wallowing in the trough with the rest of the swine.

LAT tells Apple how to do business

In an editorial today, the LAT offers Apple some unsolicited advise. Apple ought to be like Nokia, says the LAT. Next thing you know, the LAT will be urging Henry Waxman to investigate Apple.