In Wednesday's Letters to the editor, readers react to a smorgasbord of stories -- from coverage of private schools' efforts to raise money during the recession, to fishing restrictions off the California coast, to President Barack Obama's gesture of friendship to the Iranian people (and its rejection by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei).

Harmik Gharibi, of Glendale, reacts to this editorial about Obama's campaign promises, singling out the president's vow to acknowledge that the slaughter of Armenians by Turkey in 1915 was a genocide:

After 94 years, there seems to be a gleam of hope for the recognition of the Armenian genocide.

I sincerely ask President Obama to live up to his campaign promise by making an official presidential declaration that the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks constituted nothing less than genocide.

Let's hope that at least for once, principle will prevail over politics. Had the Armenian genocide been recognized -- and not been put on the back burner for decades -- maybe the world would not have had to witness the likes of it in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and, today, in Darfur.

Photo: Remembering the killings in Armenia, Sacramento, 2005.  Credit: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli/FILE.

On Monday's Op-Ed page Bob Barr, author of the Defense of Marriage Act, now argues for its repeal. The former Georgia congressman who became a Liberatrian candidate for president says his 12-year-old law isn't working out as planned:

Even more so now than in 1996, I believe we need to reduce federal power over the lives of the citizenry and over the prerogatives of the states. It truly is time to get the federal government out of the marriage business. In law and policy, such decisions should be left to the people themselves.

Meanwhile, in another change of heart, retired political consultants and fundraisers Pamela Finmark and William D. Chalmers come to the Op-Ed confessional with support for a plan to ban their (evil?) fundraising work and instead pay for political campaigns with "patriot dollars" -- a sort of ATM card issued to each American voter.

U.C. San Diego anthropology professor Esra Ozyurek, author of books and studies on 20th century Turkey, argues that an apology to Armenians for the 1915 massacres is an important step in the right direction even though it has been signed by (so far) only 26,000 Turks.

Critics will certainly reply that these modest activities do not compensate for the original crime nor the suffering caused by its denial for almost a century. They will complain that the current signature campaign does not use the word genocide. Yet the significance of this campaign cannot be understated.

And, free Billy. Daphne Sheldrick, who chairs the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, argues against keeping the Billy the Elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo.

On the Editorial Page, we consider the recent Times story on arsenic in California prisons. We're surprised, but not surprised.

Most residents would prefer to forget about our prisons and the 170,000-odd inmates they hold; it’s only when news emerges about riots or environmental disasters or financial crises that they rise, briefly, to the public consciousness. The trouble is, closing our eyes doesn’t make the prisons go away. So severe have their problems become after years of neglect that they’re about to give us a very painful reminder of their existence.

The page also notes that the late Samuel Huntington was not the first academic whose ideas became policy; and we warn the Screen Actors Guild and the studio chieftains that their current spat over how to share revenue may distract them from new competitors who are planning to take it all away from both sides.

Photo: Getty Images/Win McNamee

It's a tough day for John McCain in the Opinion section. The Arizona senator fairs poorly not only in the latest installment in the editorial board's series, Position Papers for the Next President, but also takes a lump for his performance in last night's debate. Today's position paper takes on health care and education and gives a lukewarm endorsement to Barack Obama's healthcare plan, saying that it's imperfect but guarantees a level of coverage for all. McCain's plan is deemed potentially dangerous. His proposal to provide tax credits of up to $5,000 for families that purchase their own health insurance, the board says, threatens to "dismantle" healthcare coverage for all.

Ultimately, there might be value in separating health insurance from employment; many a worker clings to a bad job for the healthcare benefits. The problem is that McCain's plan doesn't replace this system with anything solid. That tax credit would work for healthy young people who can buy cheaper insurance, but would leave older people struggling to find insurance they could afford.

As for schools, McCain's support for private-school vouchers is slammed. Vouchers are not only harmful for public education, the board writes, but private institutions can easily skirt the more rigorous requirements of public schools.

Private schools don't have to hire well-educated teachers; they don't have to test students; they can teach whatever they want, including creationism or Scientology. All of that is fine for parents who don't mind paying for it, but the public should not pick up the tab.

McCain needed a do-or-die performance in last night's debate, and the Times concludes that the Republican contender didn't chip away at Obama's armor but did tarnish his own image by embracing a tactic of relentless attacks.

This may have been McCain's last chance to convince the American people that they must choose between a patriot and a bureaucrat; he delivered an argument that may hearten his supporters but that offers little to the wavering voter other than evidence that he will risk what he treasures most in order to win. 

Over on the Op-Ed page, Columnist Patt Morrison shoots down three ballot propositions. According to Morrison, Proposition 9 ("Marsy's" law), which would give extraordinary legal standing to crime victims and their family members, is expensive, unnecessary and possibly unconstitutional. She finds Proposition 6, which would force taxpayers to spend $600 million more a year on prisons, equally bad, and says Proposition 5 would give a "get out of jail free" card to nonviolent criminals on drugs.

In her column, Rosa Brooks glories in the discomfort and dejection of Republicans who have abandoned the McCain/Palin ticket. Still, Brooks says, that leads to a problem: as reasonable Republicans distance themselves from the disastrous campaign, that only leaves the kooks.

But as enjoyable as it's been to watch conservatives flee from the GOP, something about all this leaves me feeling a little down. Because as the more respectable, literate conservatives distance themselves from the GOP, increasingly, the only ones left on the right are paranoid, rage-driven, xenophobic nuts. Bitter? You betcha! Twisted too!

Former Times scribe Shawn Hubler, whose politics are left of center, finds an oasis of civility in this increasingly ugly campaign, watching the presidential debates with her Republican neighbors.

Things being what they are in this country, you might argue that there's a certain patriotism in just talking and listening to one another. Plus, hard times feel a little less hard when you  can get along with your neighbors. even the ones who watch a lot of Fox News on that flat-screen TV.

Lastly, Timothy Garson Ash argues against the European penchant for legislating memory control when it comes to hot-button subjects such as the holocaust and the Armenian genocide. A directive drafted by the European Union to combat racism and xenophobia, Garton writes, only adds to the nonsense.

Cartoon: Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader

It's a big news day on the editorial page, as the Times' board responds to wrecks on train tracks, in Sacramento and on Wall Street. In response to the horrific Metrolink crash, the board calls on Congress to help rail systems cover the cost of installing electronic traffic-control systems. The board lauds Washington for not bailing out Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and American International Group, although it calls on the feds to come up with a better mechanism to guard against financial bubbles. And it blasts state lawmakers for adopting a budget that highlights rather than surmounts their dysfunction:

What Californians would get in exchange for this irresponsible worry-about-it-next-year budget is, lawmakers say, no borrowing, although that's demonstrably untrue. And no tax increases -- except for the fact that many taxpayers will have to pay earlier, which will ultimately cost them because money is more valuable today than tomorrow.

On the Op-Ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg comes up with a new criticism of Barack Obama: he's lousy at negative campaigning. He focuses on the Obama ad that mocks rival John McCain, whose war injuries make typing painful, for not knowing how to send an e-mail. As Goldberg points out, this is the same Sen. McCain who, as a member and former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has been steeped in telecom and Internet legislation.

Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University (and my former boss in the Times' Biz section), sees elements of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" repeated in today's America, even though the current economic downturn is nothing like the Great Depression that sent Tom Joad's family from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California's Central Valley:

Most notably, income inequality today is at its highest level since the late 1920s. Adjusted for inflation, median household income was actually lower last year than in 2000. Hunger is on the rise. Fueling a considerable amount of hardship is the mortgage industry crisis -- an episode that brings to mind Steinbeck's depiction of banks as rapacious monsters.

As in the 1930s, the issue is what to do about all this.

Finally, Hugh Pope, who directs the Turkey project for International Crisis Group, sees signs of rapprochement in a World Cup preliminary match between teams from Turkey and Armenia:

The 2-0 victory for the Turks was beside the point. All eyes were on the two countries' presidents, sitting together in the stadium -- albeit behind bulletproof glass -- in a brave attempt to bury one of the Caucasus' most bitter legacies.

The editorial board wrote today that a whole lot of immigration policy is hitting the enforcement side of the matter, but missing the big picture:

He may be a reluctant immigration restrictionist, but Michael Chertoff is remarkably diligent. The secretary of Homeland Security is one of the Bush administration's most enthusiastic lobbyists for immigration reform, willing to highlight the "negative economic consequences" of tougher enforcement. Yet on items from the border wall to workplace raids to heavier burdens on employers, Chertoff delivers for the enforcement-only crowd.

Here's a small something for the other crowd. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill to stop the deportation of 17-year-old Arthur Mkoyan, a high school valedictorian set to go to UC Davis unless he gets shipped to Armenia. He hasn't seen his native country since he was a toddler (and his parents have been seeking asylum since about that time).

But the fine print, as CNN reports: "Of the 21 private immigration bills introduced last year, none was enacted. None of the 117 introduced was enacted in 2006. The year prior, 98 were introduced, and four were enacted."

In other words, Mkoyan can stay, but he can't get a green card without the bill passing. As Sacramento Bee columnist Peter Schrag notes, Mkoyan and other students like him wouldn't be put in this situation if the DREAM Act had passed:

Mkoyan is one of the emblems — there are thousands of others — of a self-defeating immigration policy that prefers to deport talented young people at a time when the nation faces a desperate need of skilled workers to replace the millions of baby boomers who are about to retire....

Passage of the federal Dream Act last year, which would have put thousands of young men and women on the path to legal status, would probably have allowed him to stay here. But the act was blocked in Congress by immigration absolutists who'd rather punish children for the sins of their parents than cash in on the talent and ambition they represent.

But Ruben Navarrette Jr. says the law is the law (even if its cruel, counterproductive, myopic, unnecessary...one could go on), and even if enforcement-side folks can get a few bones from the federal government, the other side can't. But he leaves on a more stinging point, wondering why so few advocates rushed to defend another student, Jesus Apodaca, in 2002:

Why the double standard? I believe it's because, while Mkoyan may not have a leg to stand on legally, he at least has the benefit of not being Mexican. Much of the immigration debate is fueled by a fear of a changing culture, competing languages, an altered landscape, and what loopy Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist calls the "colonization" of the United States by Mexican immigrants.

Arthur Mkoyan isn't considered a party to any of that. For some people, that makes all the difference. And, in some respects, that's the saddest thing about this story.

*Photo of Dianne Feinstein from The Times.

President Bush has done it again -- commemorate the genocide of around 1.5 million Armenians nearly a century ago without offending the Turkish government by avoiding the word "genocide." Click here to read Bush's complete statement; here's an excerpt:

On this day of remembrance, we honor the memory of the victims of one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, the mass killings and forced exile of as many as 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire. I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in commemorating this tragedy and mourning the loss of so many innocent lives.

Bush later implores Turkey and Armenia to normalize relations and praises those who "support joint efforts for an open examination of the past in search of a shared understanding of these tragic events." But an overwhelming consensus of historians already has a clear understanding of what went on between 1915 and 1917: that the mass deportations, forced marches with no food or water and senseless massacres were nothing more than a genocide of Armenians by the Young Turk government of the moribund Ottoman Empire. Bush's call for an "open examination" is nothing more than a nod to Turkey's rigid (and incorrect) position that whether the events of 1915 - 1917 constitute a genocide is an open question. It isn't.

Matt Welch, a former editor at The Times' opinion pages, wrote about Bush's mealy-mouthed genocide statements last year; click here to read his Op-Ed.

Some recent web stuff:

Paul Thornton wants to score some of that $4 billion Uncle Sam is spending to keep real estate prices up.

Standard & Poor's says don't blame us for the tough times in municipal budgeting.

And three Turkey-related bits have commenters hot and bothered:

Assembly of Turkish American Associations says there was no  genocide and there is no Kurdistan.

Robert Ellis says the AKP is corrupting Turkey's secular character.

And Cüneyt M. Serdar says the United States is watching a democracy disintegrate.

Thanks for reading!

One of the more annoying aspects of living outside L.A.'s municipal boundaries is listening to the "on safari"-like descriptions of folks who visit from their hip enclaves in Silver Lake, Los Feliz and the like. Echo Park blogger Jenny Burman typifies such talk with her post about a recent visit she paid to the Volkswagen dealership in Glendale, which happens to be my hometown:

So this morning, I'm on Brand Blvd. Glendale, which as the crow flies is close to my house in Echo Park. But as the crow dreams, it's far. For one thing, it's in a valley (whereas Echo Park is hills), and even the quality of light is different. It's so much brighter, with old-fashioned palm trees, or no trees on the street, and the light, like the ground, is somewhat flat in comparison to the dappled, foggy light of the hills. Ethnically, it's majority Armenian, of course, whereas EP is Latino, Chinese-American, Filipino and white, mostly. Brand Blvd., if you've never seen it, is aptly named. It's the longest string of car dealerships I've ever seen: the Embassy Row of automakers in Los Angeles. It's sleepy looking.

Sounds like a rock-solid description of the Jewel City's Brand Boulevard — from 40 years ago (minus the observation about a majority-Armenian population). Read how Burman gets Glendale wrong after the jump.

Columnist Rosa Brooks has figured out why the Bush administration seems eager to start a new war:

Forget impeachment.

Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war.

Contributing editor Timothy Garton Ash praises European multi-party democracy. Blogger Garin K. Hovannisian says the timing may actually be right for the Armenian genocide resolution. Columnist Patt Morrison is sure people don't go to fast food joints to eat healthy, so companies shouldn't mind posting nutritional charts.

The editorial board thinks the Senate's cap and trade plan to address global warming is second rate. It's also not wild about Countrywide's attempt to ease sub-prime loan pains. And finally the board explores why the Michael Mukasey confirmation process is growing more rancorous.

Readers react to the specter of another war on the horizon. L.A.'s Anthony Shay says, "If I were an Iranian official, I can think of no greater spur to developing nuclear weapons as quickly as possible than having the world's greatest war-mongering power threaten me...."

Poor Jews. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Even on such seemingly non-Jewish issues as ... symbolic U.S. congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide. From the Jerusalem Post:

When a US Congressional committee approved a resolution recognizing the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Turkey's reaction was swift and harsh: Blame the Jews.

In an interview with the liberal Islamic Zaman newspaper on the eve of the resolution's approval October 10 by the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said he had told American Jewish leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception in Turkey that "Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks." Babacan added, "We have told them that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this."

The Turkish public seems to have absorbed that message.

An on-line survey by Zaman's English-language edition asking why Turks believed the bill succeeded showed that 22 percent of respondents chose "Jews' having legitimized the genocide claims" - second only to "Turkey's negligence."

Since a good chunk of the foreign policy commentariat appears to be 100% baffled why any Americans would want their government to call a historical horror by its accurate name -- or in The Economist's memorable phrasing, "Foreign-policy experts, too, are aghast" -- the field is open for explanations of what's really behind the resolution. Which inevitably leads to ... The Lobby. Wayne Madsen has the goods:

Experts on U.S.-Turkish relations in Washington report that the recent deterioration in relations between Washington and Ankara are primarily due to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Turkey's other erstwhile friends, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), pulling support for their former allies in Turkey because of increasingly closer Turkish relations with both Syria and Iran -- two countries that are being targeted by the neocon cells operating in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and among Kadima and Likud circles in Jerusalem.

There are some problems with this analysis. For one, Israel itself hasn't officially recognized the genocide. Another, is that a ballyhooed data point in the Lobby-is-behind-the-resolution thesis is that the Anti-Defamation League switched its longstanding position this summer and now officially recognizes the genocide. But the ADL remains steadfastly against the resolution, for the usual reasons of not wanting to irritate one of Israel's (and America's) most strategically important allies. Armenian-American groups, for example, are still twisting the screws on the ADL:

Nearly two months after the Anti-Defamation League reversed itself by acknowledging the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as "tantamount to genocide," activists in the Boston area are pushing ahead with their campaign against the organization.

On Monday night, at the urging of Armenian American activists and some Jewish allies, two Massachusetts towns -- Lexington and Arlington -- voted to sever ties with the ADL's highly touted No Place for Hate anti-bigotry program. Three other towns -- Watertown, Newton and Belmont -- already had decided to end their ties with the ADL, and several more municipalities are considering similar steps. [...] The campaign against the ADL was launched this summer after the organization refused to use the term "genocide" to describe the 1915-18 massacres out of deference to Turkey, an American and Israeli ally.

Though the ADL backtracked from that position, declaring in August that "the consequences" of the killings "were indeed tantamount to genocide," Armenian activists continue to accuse the Jewish organization of genocide denial.

Some critics claim the ADL hedged its words, while others say the organization's statement was insincere. In addition, they cite the organization's continuing opposition to a congressional measure recognizing the killings as genocide.

An ADL spokeswoman dismissed the charge that the formulation was a hedge, noting that "tantamount" means "equivalent to."

The resolution -- which looks like it won't make the House floor, due to fears that it might not pass (a vote "no" being much worse than no vote at all, from supporters' point of view) -- has indeed divided the Jewish community in interesting ways. And its main backer, local Congressman Adam Schiff, is indeed Jewish (check out Schiff being interviewed on the topic by the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot). But no matter what happens to the vote -- yeah, nay, put away -- it's clear that for a non-insignificant portion of interested parties, the outcome will be the Jews' fault.