The Times editorial board laments the departure of Guy Mehula, the man who oversaw the recent surge construction for the Los Angeles Unified School District. That program operated with an efficiency and competence rarely found at LAUSD, the board asserts, and those qualities are threatened by Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines' reported plans to supervise the unit more closely:

Elsewhere on the editorial page, the board defends Facebook's handling of a user-generated poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated. And it urges lawmakers to grow spines and stop blocking the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to maximum security federal prisons in the U.S.

On the Op-Ed side of the fold, columnist Tim Rutten runs through the list of policy challenges facing President Obama -- the jobless recovery, rising health insurance premiums, the war in Afghanistan, the Iranian leadership's nuclear ambitions -- and finds no easy choices. Nina Hachigian, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says the Chinese government is sending mixed signals about its willingness to play ball with international organizations to address global problems: And writer Kathryn Wilkens of Upland muses about the life and death of the mission fig tree that had anchored her garden for decades:

Insert your ironic comment about this article appearing in dead tree media here.

Illustration: Blair Thornley / For The Times

-- Jon Healey

The Times doesn't buy arguments that Jaycee Lee Dugard's 18-year ordeal as a kidnapping and rape victim is a reason to oppose coming reforms to California's parole system. The Assembly passed a bill Monday that would reduce the case rolls of parole officers by mandating less supervision for low-risk, non-violent ex-convicts, while increasing supervision for more dangerous criminals. That doesn't mean Dugard's alleged abductor, Phillip Garrido, and his ilk would be off the hook -- in fact, it means they would get more attention in the future, the editorial page argues.

What's the upside to the Station fire, which has killed two firefighters, burned dozens of homes, fouled L.A.'s air and destroyed thousands of acres of scrubland? It's that fire is a natural part of Southern California's ecosystem that will clear wild areas for new growth and deposit fertilizer. The real problem, The Times points out, is that the frequency of such fires is rising, and continued sprawl into wilderness areas is increasing the costs and the environmental woes.

And Japan's dramatic changeover Sunday, when the party that has ruled the country almost continuously for half a century was booted from power, gets a thumbs up from The Times. Though the Liberal Democratic Party has helped turn Japan into an economic powerhouse, a one-party state seldom makes for good governance; "competition is as important in politics as it is in business," The Times asserts.

On the Op-Ed page, global warming skeptic Jonah Goldberg wonders whether the media are giving short shrift to sunspots. Evidence is mounting not only that we're living through a period of highly unusual sunspot activity, but that such events can have a dramatic impact on Earth's climate -- meaning the current warming we're experiencing might have more to do with solar activity than the greenhouse gases Congress aims to reduce. "I don't know what [this evidence] tells you, but it tells me that maybe we should study a bit more before we spend billions to 'solve' a problem we don't understand so well," Goldberg concludes.

Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, sounds off against one of his faculty members -- Neve Gordon, who published an opinion piece in The Times last month arguing for an economic boycott of Israel. Carmi says he can't fire Gordon for his controversial views under Israeli law, but his explosive anti-Israel rhetoric could seriously harm both the nation and the university.

Finally, Leo Hindery Jr., Leo W. Gerard and Donald Riegle argue that the "buy American" provisions of Washington's economic stimulus package level the playing field with our trading partners and boost U.S. manufacturing jobs. They back legislation that would expand them to cover all national government procurement. "'Buy American' is neither un-American nor anti-globalization. It is simply good, necessary, balanced and reciprocal economic policy."

* Photo: The Station fire as seen from a hill overlooking Tujunga. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

In what seems to be part of a crackdown on civil rights lawyers in China, the Chinese government has arrested prominent civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on tax fraud charges. Zhiyong, who has not been heard from since his arrest two weeks ago, started the nonprofit Open Constitution Initiative legal clinic six years ago, which has recently represented victims of the poisoned milk powder that left three children dead and 6,000 sick in China. Zhiyong's clinic was shut down for "tax evasion." Experts say this arrest does not bode well for the already precarious rule of law in China, and human rights activists across the political spectrum are calling for President Obama to speak up on the issue.

Iraq still owes $24 billion in reparations to Kuwait for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion and attempted conquest, but now Iraq has problems of its own. Should it still pay? The Times editorial page says Kuwait should consider reducing reparations in the name of stability in that part of the world:

Plenty of bankers would give their eye teeth for 50 cents on a dollar owed, and Kuwait already has received that. Iraq's political and economic development is in the interest of its neighbors, as well as of the United States. Kuwait should consider reducing reparations, and its proposal to reinvest some of the remaining debt in Iraq would benefit both countries.

The page also gives props to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of Florida for his vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor -- and for trying to keep the high court from being just another panel for political appointments:

During the Alito hearings, Graham reminded Democrats that "elections matter." He was true to his word Tuesday in supporting Sotomayor. "I didn't feel good about the election, but we lost," Graham said. Then he offered his colleagues a lesson in political science: "What I'm trying to do with my vote is to recognize that [during the Bush administration] we came perilously close to damaging an institution, the judiciary, that has held this country together in difficult times."

And we round out the page with more props, this time for L.A. residents and their response to the drought:

Let's consider the very real possibility that Los Angeles residents saved water because they take the drought seriously. They have a high degree of environmental awareness. They want to conserve -- even if that means their lawns may turn brown.

On the Op-Ed page, we offer a collection of punditry from around the nation on the state budget. Also, author Helen Winternitz calls on the U.S. and other western nations to support Congo -- the former Zaire -- in part by accepting China as the nation's primary creditor.

And Kathy J. Sackman, president of United Nurses Assns. of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, takes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to task for undermining oversight of nurses. Sackman says more oversight of her union's members is better:

The board should implement a better tracking system so that comprehensive records of allegations against individual nurses are maintained (both in-state and out-of-state) and compared against any new claims. And finally, the board should recruit enforcement monitors to guarantee that action recommended by the board against individual nurses is completed and that any required oversight during a probationary period is fulfilled.

Photo: Gustavo Ferrari / EPA

The Uighurs, a minority Muslim group in China's westernmost province of Xinjiang, are embroiled in a violent protest. So far, 156 protesters on both sides have died  and more than 1,000 have been injured.

Coming on the heels of the recent Iran election protests, the events in Xinjiang draw a comparison between the two, particularly in the two groups' efforts to use media and their governments' subsequent technological crackdown.

This protest was provoked by the killing of two Uighurs by a mob of Chinese co-workers in a toy factory, fueled by rumors that the two men sexually harassed Han Chinese women. The fight occurred against a backdrop of heightened tensions, as the Uighurs have been pushed out of their province by a growing population of Han Chinese. Hans once made up only 5 percent of Xinjiang's population -- they now represent 40 percent of the region's populous.

In Thursday's editorial pages, the Times focuses on the continuing fallout from this week's controversial election in Iran. 

The editorial board comes down hard on the Islamic republic, dismissing its absurd allegations that the United States is behind the current unrest, and blasting the Iranian government for its efforts to squelch coverage.

While it's true that the U.S. may have urged Twitter to keep its global network functioning, or opened its Voice of America site to video and messages from Iran, those were efforts at the margin. The real Iranian fight is internal. Until now, elections in Iran have given legitimacy to the religious government, but this time the vote is widely believed to have been stolen, and that has divided the country's ruling elite along with its citizens. Today's conflict is between factions in the religious elite.

On the Op-Ed page, Judith Lewis gives a shout-out to a sometimes intriguing, often annoying medium that did allow some information to get out: Twitter.

It's important not to get carried away here. There is no revolution being Twitterized, as some have reported, only a possible desire for one. There is certainly no direct line from Twitter to democracy. But Twitter is, by its very nature and architecture, destined to at least democratize information: Google and Yahoo executives can help Chinese authorities censor and rout out opponents with only minor public relations damage. But if Twitter betrays its base of millions, it ceases to exist.

See Lewis' previous op-eds for the Times here.

Also, writing from Iran, UC San Diego professor Babak Rahimi -- who has also studied the role of new media on Iranian politics -- compares this revolution to the one in 1979, which overthrew democracy and established the Islamic republic. This one, he says, is different:

This time, the protesters seek a more democratic state, transparent in structure and accountable only to its citizens.

But we're not only about Iran; we're also thinking about the Uighurs. The editorial board looks at the resettlement of Guantanamo detainees and argues that the best way to get recalcitrant Europeans to open up their countries to Uighers and others who can't be returned to their homes is for the U.S. to set the example:

Obama seemed to make such a commitment in a speech last month in which he reminded nervous members of Congress that hundreds of convicted terrorists are already held in "supermax" prisons from which no one has escaped. The president mustn't waver from that position.

The board also calls for an increase in Community College fees, and columnist Meghan Daum tries to get Barack Obama to light up.

Photo: AP / Getty Images

Post updated at 11:41 a.m.

Well, this proves once and for all that China's got us by the, uh, short sales.

California's Legislature has devoted loads of elaborate calligraphy, high-quality paper stock and legislative floor time to praising everyone from the former head of the prison guards union (the group that keeps on giving -- to politicians), to Japanese Americans interned during World War II, to the Girl Scouts and to the Rose Bowl-winning USC Trojans.

But when it came to a resolution honoring the Dalai Lama, who's usually a slam-dunk for winning hearts and minds in the free world, the Democrats flinched.

I don't think it was because a Republican sponsored the resolution honoring Tibetans' spiritual and temporal leader, on the 50th anniversary of his escape during the Chinese crackdown on Tibet. My excellent colleague Eric Bailey, in his story about this, quoted the resolution's sponsor, San Luis Obispo Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, as saying that people from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco had worked the halls lobbying against the measure.

Blakeslee had a copy of the letter from the consul general warning that the resolution could damage U.S.-Chinese relations, that Tibet never had been an independent country anyway, and that China had in fact liberated Tibet from "feudal serfdom and theocratic rule."

The Dalai Lama is a figure who has something for both sides: He's a man of peace and he opposes Communist China in Tibet, for starters. President George W. Bush, Sen. (now Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all praised him.

So what's the Democrats' problem? Why did they cry "uncle" and knuckle under? They did, you know -- they said the matter needed further study, and sent the resolution off to the graveyard of the Rules Committee. How much further study, one wonders -- another 50 years?

Over the last decade or two, the U.S. has mired itself deeper into debt. This is partly because of the laissez-faire regulatory approach that's now got us foundering on the financial rocks, and partly because, as liberal writer Barbara Ehrenreich observed, credit cards (also financed to a big extent by China) are what working Americans were given instead of pay raises. A Harvard economist calculated that between the 1970s and 2004, the average American worker's income fell by 16%. To keep paying the bills, Americans resorted to plastic.

Along with all the other financial follies of the moment, we now see another consequence to being beholden to China: California Democrats in days of yore would have fallen all over themselves to honor so powerful a figure. Now, the richest state in supposedly the most powerful nation in the world is too afraid of the consequences of a piece of paper that could rile a rising superpower. And it punted.

What a sad state.

*Update: Here's the Democrats' explanation for what happened: Bay Area Assemblywoman Fiona Ma said the new administration should be left alone to set its course on international relations with China. A sensible point, and yet the Legislature has, in years past, had no problem passing symbolic legislation about other nations' human rights issues, countries like Ethiopia, Turkey, Laos and Thailand. And last year, the Legislature passed a resolution very similar to the one it "disappeared" into the Rules Committee now.

Credit: AP / Ashwini Bhatia

The Times endorses candidates today for the four contested seats on the Los Angeles Community College District: Angela J. Reddock, Kelly Candaele, Jozef Essavi and Kurt S. Lowry. The editorial board also offers kudos to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for projecting a "nonconfrontational foreign policy" during her Asia tour, her first official trip overseas.

Over on the Op-Ed Page, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid bemoans the concessions being made in Islamabad toward the Taliban, which is negotiating a deal that might allow the Swat Valley region to impose Islamic law -- a deal that Rashid calls "an unmistakable defeat in the country's losing battle against Islamic extremism."

Also, columnist Jonah Goldberg sees Barack Obama morphing into someone who resembles George W. Bush -- now that he has taken office, Obama is turning out to be a good deal more centrist than liberals or conservatives expected. "It's early yet, but I think we're seeing with Obama what happened with Bush," Goldberg concludes. "The chess master is really just a man who's figuring it out as he goes along. Sometimes he'll be right; other times, horribly wrong. But whether he's right or wrong, left-wing or centrist, liberalism will likely mean whatever Barack Obama says it means."

Finallly, oceanographer William Patzert and water board member Timothy F. Brick point out that higher temperatures are reducing mountain runoff even as other traditional sources of water for Southern California are in severe distress, leading to only one possible outcome: higher water prices and more rationing. That's something Californians are going to have to get used to.

Photo: Residents of Pakistan's Swat valley gathering to listen to an Islamic political party leader. Credit: EPA / Rashid Iqbal

Columnist Jonah Goldberg gangs up on the Gang of Three today, blasting the "centrist" Republicans led by Sen. Arlen Specter who are approving President Obama's stimulus plan after cutting $100 million from the package. This paragraph pretty much sums up Goldberg's feelings on the matter:

Now, to be honest, I think President Obama's stimulus bill is a monstrosity, a bloated behemoth unleashed on America with staggering dishonesty. The centrist "improvements" are like throwing a new coat of paint on a condemned building.

"The architect" Karl Rove, meanwhile, defends government secrecy and the need for presidential administrations to control media leaks, in excerpts from a speech he delivered last week at Loyola Marymount University. And Nina Hachigian, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, gives Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a checklist of things to discuss with Chinese leaders when she visits Beijing next week: the economy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemic disease.

Over on the Editorial Page, the board bemoans Israel's shift to the right, which is likely to signal a retreat from peacemaking efforts. The increasing hostility and retrenchment by both sides only make peace more elusive and decrease the chances that Israel ever will be secure.

We also take note of Friday's accidental disclosure of the names and badge numbers of hundreds of Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of racial profiling over the last year. The police union has for years been bullying politicians to prevent the release of such information, claiming it would lead to irresponsible actions by the media and put officers' lives in danger -- yet no such problems have emerged. It's time to publicly disclose police misconduct proceedings as a matter of course, not accident. And we argue that cutting back mail service to five days a week instead of six, as the U.S. Postal Service is proposing, wouldn't be such a bad thing if it saves snail mail from extinction.

* Photo of Karl Rove by Gerald Herbert / AP

The Times editorial page celebrates the opening of the latest Fisher guest house for the families of wounded American military men and women, this one next to the Veterans Administration's West Los Angeles medical center. It’s the nation’s 43rd, but the first in L.A. It’s a terrific project, started in 1990 when New York developer Zachary Fisher and his wife decided to build "comfort homes" next to military hospitals to give relatives a free place to stay when family members went in for treatment.

Backed by tens of millions of dollars in private donations and a sprinkling of government funding, the foundation has built Fisher Houses at the major Defense Department medical centers. The main task now is to do the same for VA hospitals, dozens of which have asked for at least one home. The foundation has broken ground on six additional houses and is developing plans for eight or nine more, with a total price tag of nearly $70 million.

Also on the editorial page, the Times looks at the Obama version of the "faith-based initiative" and is not cheered. The new president’s program fails to make a clear statement that faith-based services that accept federal money may not discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.

The page also calls for bilateral talks with China to reduce that nation’s burgeoning contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

On the Op-Ed side, Marjorie Miller continues her series on Mideast Talking Points, this time talking with Israelis and Palestinians about the state of the conflict and the prospects for peace. In the paper, Miller speaks with Uzi Dayan, retired Israeli major, general and member of the Likud Party; Efraim Halevy, former Israeli Mossad chief and head of the Shasha Center for Strategic Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Authority prime minister; and Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University in Jerusalem. Online, she adds Uri Dromi, former spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; Ahmed Yousef, Hamas spokesman in Gaza; and Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

And columnist Gregory Rodriguez examines the legacy of mistrust in Africa that persists in the wake of the slave trade, hundreds of years later. He cites work by economists Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon, who find that slavery still causes people in Africa to mistrust not just outsiders, but each other.

So what's the first stage in healing? The media and early childhood education, Wantchekon suggests, could help eradicate mistrustful preconceptions.

Illustration by Anthony Russo, for the Times