LAT: Chavez needs to learn that democracy is never the work of one man.

Chavez is Hugo Chavez, Venezuela strongman, obviously. Democracy is not on his agenda. Dictatorship is.

Lexington says McCain lies

Sadly, Lexington, of The Economist, misrepresents. Lexington  faults McCain for chastising Obama for not visiting injured troops in Germany, arguing McCain was disingenuous because Obama visited injured troops in Iraq. What does one thing have to do with the other? It's Obama's place to make the argument if he thinks the one thing offsets the other.

Military tribunals OK now

Now that Hamdan (the "Yemini" as the LAT described him in a headline on today's front page) has received a sentence of only 5 1/2 years, military tribunals are good, only Bush is bad. Before, military tribunals were show trials dispensing fantom justice, according to the liberal press, but that's all changed, temporarily.

The LAT editorials wrong on two counts

Today's LAT includes an editorial lamenting the trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Bin Laden's driver, by a military tribunal in Gitmo. The LAT argues that Hamdan should have been tried in civilian criminal courts, where he likely would have been found not guilty because he received no Miranda warning. The LAT says the military tribunal system is unfair, notwithstanding that Hamdan was found not guilty on one of two charges. The LAT editorial was doubtless written before Hamdan's sentence was decided. Given that Hamdan got only 5 1/2 years, will tommorrow's editorial say the trial was fair?

In the second editorial, the LAT argues that nuclear power is too dangerous to use. Besides, the LAT says, nuclear power plants take so long to build that John McCain's time table for building 45 new plants in 22 years can't be met. There are too many hoops to jump through, the LAT says. Well yes, because enviromaniacs put them there. Those hoops need to be lowered or eliminated.

LAT presents Mao

The front page of today's LAT features a large picture (24 column inches) of Mao, with a small image of Yao Ming carrying the Olympic torch near the bottom. This is equivalent to featuring a similar sized picture of Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin.

LAT reporter says Hamdan trial unfair

You wouldn't necessarily call it reporting the news but LAT reporter Carol Williams writes today that Hamdan is being railroaded by a bunch of military guys who mostly agree with Bush. Those are not her words but they're sustantially what she's arguing.

The governator's new health plan

According to the LAT, California's governator has a new health plan that includes putting a cap on insurers' profits, requiring a minimum set of benefits and restricting the right of insurers to cancel plans retroactively. Will insurers choose to do business in California if the plan becomes law? If not, who will provide the insurance?