Who's behind the NYT's McCain story?

Answer: Dean Baquet, former LAT editor. At some point, he ought to be made to pay for the damage he has done to the newspapers he has worked for. According to the New Republic, Baquet persuaded NYT editor Bill Keller to publish the McCain piece. The two have combined to produce substandard journalism before, and then tried unsucessfully to justify it by jointly publishing a 2006 op-ed in the NYT and LAT. 

Analyst: one that analyzes

California's state legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill has adopted a new role, that of policy advisor. The formerly non-partisan budget analyst now critiques the governator and legislator and offers policy recommendations, including tax increases. Thus she is no longer an analyst.

LAT's Paul Richter favors Castro

On the LAT's front page today, reporter Paul Richter praises Fidel Castro and laments his resignation, or seems to. "One U.S. president after another tried to rid himself of Castro through invasion, assassination and economic blockade," Richter says. According to Richter, "... turning over power to Raul was part of a long-laid script for a gradual shift to minimize the chances of political upheaval. Castro, who had one of the longest tenures as head of state, took greater care than many other authoritarian leaders [otherwise know as dictators] to perpetuate what he had created." Castro's Cuba, Richter says, "symbolized the threatening proximity of revolution."

Richter's piece was one element of a very large spread in the LAT concerning Castro that covered roughly two-thirds of the front page and three whole inside pages. Generally, the coverage was favorable to Castro and even incorporated references to Castro's fellow revolutionary Che Guevara, another LAT favorite.

On the LAT website's home page at this hour, Castro is hardly mentioned. Does this reflect a difference in editorial judgment between online editors and those who publish the newpaper?

LAT criticizes McCain vote

In an editorial today, the LAT takes John McCain to task for voting against a Dem bill that would have outlawed waterboarding, arguing that waterboarding is torture. The waterboarding argument is old and tiresome, because it never gets to the central issue: Is waterboarding torture? To the LAT, that isn't even a legitimate question. Everyone knows waterboarding is torture, end of story, the LAT seems to think.

But why? Waterboarding actually is a mild form of persuasion, doing no actual harm. Instead, it scares the person being waterboarded to the point of spilling the beans. Apparently, it's very effective, and, again, it does no damage to mind or body.

So, why are liberals apoplectic over waterboarding? It's political, and besides, no one has challenged them on their definition of torture.

LAT acknowledges Iraq progress

In an editorial today, the LAT finally acknowledges the recent political progress in Iraq, but not before examining the souls of military and civilian leaders like Gates and Petraeus and concluding those leaders will do the wrong thing, which in LAT parlance means staying in Iraq too long. To the LAT, of course, 5 minutes is too long.

Accomplishment

In a column today, Peggy Noonan offers Hillary Clinton some advice, among which is to tell potential voters the truth. One "truth" that Noonan says Clinton should tell is: "I'm up against an opponent who's classy and accomplished ...".

Obama classy and accomplished? Classy to some, maybe, but accomplished? What has he accomplished? He was a state legislator and then was elected to the U. S. Senate. That's accomplishment but it hardly qualifies a junior senator for the presidency. Perhaps Noonan thinks reading speeches well is an accomplishment. Or being thin? Well, OK, leading Clinton is an accomplishment, but Clinton is a flawed candidate. But Obama lead the other Democratic candidates, too. That's an accomplishment.

But shouldn't "accomplishment" mean something like finding a cure for cancer, or discovering a new way to explain how markets work, or negotiating an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Shouldn't an accomplish person be someone like the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a truly thoughtful and dignified writer, thinker, administrator and legislator.

O. C. Register on waterboarding

The O. C. Register editorializes this morning on waterboarding, calling it torture. It makes no distinction between mild, non-injurious methods of persuasion like waterboarding and damaging acts of torture like putting out eyes, pulling off fingernails, drilling through bones, pulling limbs out of sockets, etc. To the O. C. Register they're all the same. It makes you wonder whether they've thought through their knee-jerk opposition to waterboarding.