Similarly unsparing, but for different reasons, is the op-ed on indicted Sen. Ted Stevens by Michael Carey, a former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News.

In Washington, he made himself indispensable to the 49th state, and in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, he was showered with honors and encomiums including "Alaskan of the Century," a title bestowed by one Anchorage civic group. But that was the last century.

Elsewhere on the page, columnist Joel Stein contrasts the impact of the Chino earthquake with the near-hysterical coverage thereof in the news media, which sent seemingly every single person he knows on the East Coast into a tizzy about his safety. Hmm, maybe Joel has written too many people into his will....

The editorial board weighs in on behalf of two fall guys (or rather, a fall girl and a fall guy): Monica Goodling and Exxon Mobil. Goodling, a former Justice Department liaison to the White House, may have helped impose "what amounted to a Republican Party affirmative action program" at the Justice Department, the board writes, but she wasn't its originator. And Exxon, which just posted the highest quarterly profit ever for a U.S. corporation, shouldn't become the "impetus for bad policy," to wit, a windfall profits tax on oil companies. The board also takes several U.S. allies to task for refusing to lend idle helicopters to the United Nations for its foundering peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

Although the U.N. has requested 18 helicopters, not a single member nation has agreed to contribute. That makes it tough to evacuate casualties or respond rapidly to threats, such as the July 8 attack on U.N. forces that left seven peacekeepers dead.... The hall of shame for countries failing to live up to their humanitarian obligations includes India (with 20 available), Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Spain; between them, these countries could supply more than 70 helicopters.

Meanwhile, readers register their support for a story and editorial on the successful wetlands restorations at Mono Lake and Bolsa Chica, and the op-ed warning about the city's stressed healthcare system. But they're not so charmed by John Bolton's op-ed about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin. Here's a typical sentiment, from Peter H. Merkl's letter:

Leave it to Bolton to see the world in Manichaean ideological conflicts; if he were still determining our foreign policy, we would be in the middle of World War III.

They also have harsh words for Assemblyman Hector De La Torre's proposal on racially restrictive housing covenants.

In Saturday's pages, farmworker advocates Michael I. Marsh and Dorothy A. Johnson write about the plight of those who toil in sun-drenched California fields. Columnist Tim Rutten bites into the L.A. City Council's moratorium on fast-food restaurants in selected neighborhoods, and columnist Meghan Daum returns from a brief break to remind us that online video sensation "Dancing 2008" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The Times' editorial board, meanwhile, weighs in on the all-too-familiar battle between the companies that own the rights to Scrabble and the developers of the online knock-off Scrabulous. It also looks south of the border to preview the opening of the 17th International AIDS Conference Sunday in Mexico City, and it backs Mexican President Felipe Calderon's enormously unpopular effort to allow foreign investment in Pemex, the state-owned oil company.

Sunday, look for the board's surprisingly absorbing and instructive explainer about ... municipal bonds. Yes, amazingly enough, it's a fascinating topic.