Opinion: In today’s pages: The mayor’s garbage fee, John McCain’s prospects
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The editorial board hasn’t been among Antonio Villaraigosa’s biggest fans -- it’s that whole overpromise, underdeliver thing. Today, the board almost rises to the mayor’s defense on the issue of the garbage-fee increase, noting that critics ‘should know better’ than to complain about part of the money being used to pay Police Department expenses rather than to hire more cops. But then the board comes to its senses, arguing that ‘the anger and sense of betrayal are [Villaraigosa’s] own fault.’
The board also voices some early skepticism about the sudden increase in a proposed bond issue for city schools:
Leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District have much to explain about how a $3.2-billion bond proposal, considered perfectly adequate two weeks ago, more than doubled in size, pumped up with blurry references to future, unspecified projects. And they won’t have to explain that just to voters, but possibly to the state’s lawyers.
Rounding out the page, the board laments the many ways in which Beijing isn’t ready for its Olympic moment, and letter writers weigh in on the Times’ investigative series about fighting California’s wildfires, energy policy, the increase in hate crimes and the IRS crackdown on cellphone expense deductions.
In Op-Ed land, elections blogger Nate Silver offers an explanation for why John McCain is doing so much better in the polls than the country’s current anti-Republican leanings would have suggested. It seems that registered Democrats aren’t as loyal to their presidential candidates as Republicans are, and McCain isn’t viewed as a conservative Republican.
Elsewhere on the page, Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador who heads the Institute of the Americas, sends up a warning flag about Texas’ imminent execution of Jose Medellin -- one of 51 Mexican nationals on death row who were tried without being given access to their consulate, as required by international treaty.
We now find ourselves on the brink of an irrevocable violation of the most important treaty governing consular assistance for our citizens detained in other countries. A failure to comply with this most basic of treaty commitments would significantly impair the ability of our diplomats and leaders to protect the interests -- individual and collective -- of Americans abroad.
Finally, columnist Gregory Rodriguez muses about what Shanghai’s build-it-up, tear-it-down ethos (which echoes Los Angeles’ ‘lack of historical sentimentality’) says about architecture in general.
The editorial cartoon is courtesy of Matt Davies/Journal News.