Op-Eds

Brooke Allen: Hey, Patriot Fascist Tax-and-Spender!
Political language's weird evolution.

Niall Ferguson: Pour Some Sugar in Your Tank
Petrol pimps and gashogs, take a sip of sweet ethanol.

Tom Campbell: Free Taxes
Did you know California will fill out your tax return for you? Let's keep it that way.

Editorials

May Day: Pass comprehensive immigration reform now.

Times Endorsements for State Assembly: Democratic primary endorsements in four crucial districts.

Wesley Strick: From Hollywood Hack to Novelist Nobody
It's a weird trip trying to be a screenwriter and an author.

Jonathan Freedland: The Power of the Pen Name
Why do writers park their egos at the door?

Andres Martinez: Cuba, Where Libre Is in Limbo
The country is waiting for Castro to die. Then what?

Dave Zirin: Beisbol Has Been Very, Very Good to Us
A boycott by Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, and other Latino stars would cripple Major League Baseball.

Gregory Rodriguez: It's not Racism, It's Frenchism
How France's egalitarian idea died.

Jack Dunphy: LAPD Needs Strong Leaders, not Wimpy Computers
Real cops want a department with guts, not a database.

David Wise: Read the News, Go to Jail
Most Americans possess classified information, whether they know it or not.

William Easterly: Why Foreign Aid Fails
Nebbish bureaucrats, corrupt dictators, and the fallacy of "ending" poverty.

Columns:

Ben Ehrenreich: Novelist Anonymous
L.A.'s literary ignorance is a gift to writers.

Meghan Daum: Plagiarism Totally Blows
Hey, MySpacers: Literary theft is so not OK.

Jonathan Williams: Big Oil Pays Big Taxes
A windfall profits tariff would stunt domestic production and cost consumers at the pump.

Bruce G. Bodaken: Healthcare for Everyone
Californians can share the burden and keep prices low, says Blue Shield's chairman.

Editorials

The Car of the Future
For better gas mileage, and lower emissions, all signs point to the hybrid plug-in.

Mileage: Worse Than We Think
The EPA is finally updating its inaccurate, distorting system for measuring fuel efficiency.

Another Reason to Worry About Nigeria
The African country's woes are helping drive up oil prices.

To reiterate what we said below, welcome to our new Opinion L.A. weblog, complete with new url -- opinion.latimes.com. Those of you looking for our immigration blog, go here.

The L.A. Times has suspended Pulitzer-winning business columnist Michael Hiltzik without pay, and discontinued both his column and his weblog, in response to the news that Hiltzik used psuedonyms on his blog and elsewhere to comment on Times-related matters, including his own work. From the editor's note:

Hiltzik did not commit any ethical violations in his newspaper column, and an internal inquiry found no inaccurate reporting in his postings in his blog or on the Web. But employing pseudonyms constitutes deception and violates a central tenet of The Times' ethics guidelines: Staff members must not misrepresent themselves and must not conceal their affiliation with The Times. This rule applies equally to the newspaper and the Web world.

Over the past few days, some analysts have used this episode to portray the Web as a new frontier for newspapers, saying that it raises fresh and compelling ethical questions. Times editors don't see it that way. The Web makes it easier to conceal one's identity, and the tone of exchanges is often harsh. But the Web doesn't change the rules for Times journalists.

Whole thing here; related material at L.A. Observed. Hiltzik will be "reassigned" after the suspension. The investigation was triggered by some tech sleuthing by serial Hiltzik/Times antagonist Patrick "Patterico" Frey, who drew an initially dismissive response from Hiltzik.

Frey is conflicted about the result:

Obviously, the decision was the editors’ to make, and they have made it. I will have to reflect on this. I may post further thoughts over the weekend.

Regardless of whether this was the right move, I take no joy in the result, and I encourage readers to show class and restraint in their comments.

L.A. Voice's Mack Reed is not shedding any tears:

The memo from Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Doug Frantz puts it pretty well, but almost misses Hiltzik's crime against authorial morality in pinpointing the one against editorial policy [...]

[H]e stumbled by manufacturing two of his greatest fans, posing as them on his own blog and others, and trying to mislead the public as to his own popularity - both the height of vanity and the depth of stupidity for a blogger. It was only a matter of time before someone exposed him. If you proclaim yourself a truth-teller and analyst of fact, you can't get away with lying for long in this venue.

Hugh Hewitt pours scorn on the whole enterprise:

Isn't it at least a little ironic that the Times releases this information on a Friday afternoon, traditional burial ground of bad news-- in an obvious effort to have the story pass with as little attention as possible? So much for transparency.

Michael Hiltzik is just one of hundreds of examples of ideologicially blinkered agenda journalists at the Times. He just got caught. [...]

The Times concludes "an internal inquiry found no inaccurate reporting."

[T]he culture at the Times that produced him quite obviously stays the same.

Lefty blogger and bankruptcy lawyer Steve Smith, on the other hand, thinks the suspension was a terrible mistake:

Perhaps demonstrating, once and for all, that the LA Times doesn't get the internet or the blogosphere [....] Being a monopoly allows you to do stuff like that.

Rosa Brooks: The Iran-Israel War Is Coming
Russia's Middle East meddling is pushing the two countries closer to the brink.

Paul Slansky and Arleen Sorkin: My Bad
A catalog of famous apologies from Bill O'Reilly, Pete Rose, Jimmy Swaggart and others.

Marc Cooper: May Day Without a Mexican
Monday's immigrant boycott may backfire.

Editorial

Gaseous Politics
Just about every proposal you'll hear this week to "fix" high gas prices will be terrible.

Knowing Thy Crime
The Supreme Court should affirm the insanity defense.

Our So-Cal Life: Extreme Makeover, Irvine Edition
Most parks offer baseball. Irvine's provides manicures and facials.

Patt Morrison: The NFL's Fake Pass at L.A.
I can't bear another bad football breakup.

Jonah Goldberg: Bin Laden's Loser Crusade
The truth about radical Islam's desperate appeal to globalization nobodies.

Robert M. Hertzberg: A Smaller, Better L.A. Unified
The mayor’s plan for the school district doesn’t fix its biggest problem: runaway bureaucracy.

Editorial

The iLobby
The joy of giving iPods as lobbying gifts.

Let the Science Begin
Stem cell ruling clears the way for California research. Almost.

Welcome to 1960, Vatican!
The Church finally endorses condoms as "lesser evil."

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Opinion Section's new daily weblog, Opinion L.A.

Every weekday at this space you will see:
* Links to the day's Opinion Dept. produce.
* Roundups of local opinion journalism from outside sources (alternative weeklies, national political magazines, business and neighborhood weeklies, online publications, city magazines, weblogs, whatever).
Sprinkled throughout the week will be:
* Random only-in-Southern-California stuff, like excerpts from, oh, Mamie Van Doren's weblog.
* A look at people who are bashing (or praising!) this here L.A. Times; and
* So forth.

There will eventually be chances for readers to interrogate various Opinion staffers, some guest-bloggers arguing about this or that, and also a daily version made available through web feed and e-mail.... Plus some other exciting developments we'll be unveiling in the coming week or three. Not least of which is the creation of another new blog -- Borderline, that focuses 100% on immigration politics.

What's the big idea of Opinion L.A.?

There isn't one, beyond wanting to be a one-stop shop for the best in opinion journalism from and about Southern California. Also, to have a bit of fun, and provide a place for readers to debate with us, and with one another.

Who are you?

The ringmaster is Matt Welch, assistant Editorial Pages editor of the L.A. Times, and a blogger in a former life; references available upon request. Many other Opinion Page staffers will be contributing regularly.

What's your policy on comments?

Please, pretty please, and pretty please with sugar on top, use your real name.

What's that all about?

We want to build a better conversation, where people can still freely screech at each other, but without leaning on the cheap courage/crutch of anonymity. Yes, yes, anonymity can be crucial in political discourse, and the most important thing is the quality of the argument, etc. etc. But that's why God invented Blogspot, and there's nothing in our version of the Constitution that says we have a legal or moral duty to host wild-eyed calls to arms from people named "Colin Oscopy." We also might want to use some comments as Letters to the Editor, in which case we'll need much more personal info than your average blog-comment requires.

So -- use a pseudonym, and the barrier to your comment's entry will be raised significantly (basically, if we arbitrarily conclude you're talking smack that you wouldn't dare under your real name). Reveal your identity (which we will never harvest or share with other people), and the only way you'll get blocked is if you advocate violence against individuals or groups, libel someone, make grave accusations against entire categories of humans, or pass yourself off as someone you aren't. Oh yeah -- and we don't work the graveyard shift.

Huh? No comments after midnight?

Unfortunately, for the time being someone here has to approve every comment before it's published. Something to do with a controversial experiment way back when.... That said, we're being as expeditious as possible between around 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. PDT, and are constantly looking to improve our system. Your suggestions welcome, your patience appreciated.

Why don't you link to my blog?

Why don't you ask? Doesn't mean we will -- we're looking for sites from or about Southern California, updated frequently, and with some consistent level of quality.

Consistent level of quality? What about that one guy who I think is terrible and offensive?

Links are not endorsements, nor are all of them 100% PG-13, to say the least. If you are not offended by at least some of these sites, then we're probably not being thorough enough in our selection.

That's all for now; feel free to ask any and all questions in the comments ... and please keep coming back!