Academy Award-winning actor Julie Andrews pens a spirited defense of the Los Angeles Public Library's funding, and Patt Morrison pickets in front of the June 3 ballot for better voting conditions. Cartoonist Ed Rall slips some snide commentary by the airline industry, and Rosa Brooks tells overbearing parents to give their kids a little independence. Pollster Douglas E. Schoen figures the recent controversies surrounding Obama's campaign may be "the best things that could have happened to his candidacy":

The last six weeks have been a great benefit to Obama -- and may emerge as the most important period of his quest for the presidency.

The poll evidence is unambiguous: He's suffered no short-term damage. A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll shows Obama leading McCain in a hypothetical matchup by six points; in February, he was trailing by two. The Rasmussen Reports' estimate of electoral college strength has him leading McCain, 260 to 240. And a recent CBS/New York Times poll reveals that over the last few weeks, Obama's favorability rating actually increased by five points.

The editorial board wonders if the governor's revised budget plan is too clever by half, and calls the House-approved farm bill a lost opportunity for reform. The board also gives a chilly nod to the federal government's half-hearted move to list the polar bear as an endangered species:

Under legal pressure, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne officially -- and historically -- added the polar bear to the threatened-species list, the first time a species has made the list because of global warming. His action Wednesday was extraordinary. Even more remarkable was Kempthorne's blatant undercutting of his own decision with regulatory shenanigans that will almost certainly mean no new restrictions on carbon emissions and no need to scale back on drilling for Alaskan oil....

What we have here is a newly protected polar bear with virtually no new protections.

Readers react to Hillary Clinton's primary win in West Virginia. Anna Shaff asks:

If the next few weeks afford Clinton a single moment of introspection, she should ask herself the following question: Has the fighter become a piranha?

Columnist Tim Rutten puts bluntly his opinion of the Los Angeles Unified School District:

Every day, the Los Angeles Unified School District fails its tens of thousands of ambitious students, dedicated teachers and hardworking principals in so many ways that it's difficult to imagine how its elephantine bureaucracy could shamble into some new outrage.

Difficult, but not impossible, because the LAUSD runs this city's schools about like the generals run Myanmar.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has a proposal for reviving King-Harbor Hospital. Dickinson College's Crispin Sartwell discusses the demographic tricks behind political polling. And 27-year-old Erica Sackin says tax rebates won't help her in-the-red generation.

The editorial board encourages Bush to veto a bill that would stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and wonders why Congress is allowing the banning of all flavored cigarettes except the most popular kind, menthols. The board also says environmentalists have more work to do to prevent sprawl on Tejon Ranch.

On the letters page, readers question Nick Turse's Op-Ed linking the purchase of consumer products like Krispy Kreme and Pepsi to supporting Iraq war profits. Thomas J. Weiss of Ft. Hood, Texas, says, "Nick Turse's Op-Ed article has to be one of the most ridiculously alarmist articles I've ever read."

Columnist Jonah Goldberg explains what Yucca Mountain and Guantanamo Bay have in common:

Well, there's the obvious stuff. Both have Spanish names. Neither is a great spot for a family vacation. And each is under the control of the federal government.

Oh, and both are essential tools in wars a lot of people claim they want to win.

Boston University's Andrew J. Bacevich argues that Iraq has illustrated the limits of U.S. power and new Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) wants an independent review of the state's revenue. And freelance writer Mary Kolesnikova says KMN (that's "kill me now") in response to a Pew report finding that teens let Internet chat speak into their homework.

The editorial board notes a new study finding that many Iraq veterans suffer from untreated brain injuries, and supports a state bill that would create CalPERS-managed portable retirement plans for private employees. The board also laments the sad state of the Southern California bookstore and the latest one to fall into financial dire straits, Libreria Martinez:

...Libreria Martinez, Santa Ana's nationally honored Latino-themed bookstore, is now threatened. After all, how many booksellers win a MacArthur Foundation genius grant? (Though Rueben Martinez was forced to use some of that $500,000 to pay his store's bills.) For that matter, how odd is it that the landlord forcing the store to move is a charter school for the arts with a well-regarded creative writing program?

On the letters page, readers react to the notion that Barack Obama's biggest problem is his elitism, not his race. Long Beach's Charles Q. Clay III says, "Hogwash! Obama has exactly half as many Ivy League degrees as our current president, who, you might recall, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and was not raised by a single mother on food stamps."

Columnist Jonah Goldberg says issues that may seem irrelevant actually give us clues about the candidates:

Whatever the true import of Obama's relationship with Wright may be, or whatever the proper weight voters should give to his view that poor whites "cling" to guns and religion because they've suffered under bad economic policies, or, for that matter, what Clinton's "sniper fire" story says about her, it strikes me as absurd to argue that these data are meaningless but their stance on a gas-tax holiday is of enduring importance.

Pacific Council on International Policy adjunct fellow Joshua Kurlantzick profiles China's educated, wealthy next-generation nationalists who aren't afraid to be aggressive toward the West. And USC's Sara Catania has an idea for the Silver Lake Reservoir: a new kind of urban park.

The editorial board thinks a tax on services might work for California if done right and explains why Yahoo and Google's teaming up on advertising would be bad for consumers. The board also responds to the death of racehorse Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby last weekend:

As we explore the limits of physical performance, sports trend toward the more extreme, even if it harms rather than enhances the athlete's health. Steroids in baseball, eating disorders in prepubescent gymnasts, whatever it takes to win, until there's a public pushback that threatens the sport. Without industry reform in the near future, it's easy to imagine such a pushback against the biggest athlete of all -- the racehorse.

On the letters page, readers discuss May Day. Chino's Raul Perez asks, "How is it that I have to have a passport to enter the country in which I was born, raised and served in the armed forces while others come and go as they please?"

Tim Rutten marvels at the questionable artistic value of "Grand Theft Auto IV," and writer Gary Ferguson laments the senseless violence that hunters are unleashing on the gray wolf, just released from the endangered species list. New York University professor Stephen F. Cohen says hold the baloney: It's the U.S., not Russia, that's responsible for the heightened tensions of late:

During the last eight years, Putin's foreign policies have been largely a reaction to Washington's winner-take-all approach to Moscow since the early 1990s, which resulted from a revised U.S. view of how the Cold War ended. In that new, triumphalist narrative, the U.S. won the 40-year conflict and post-Soviet Russia was a defeated nation analogous to post-World War II Germany and Japan -- a nation without full sovereignty at home or autonomous national interests abroad.

The editorial board also worries about the gray wolf, and calls on Mexico's politicians not to fuel the debate over the future of the nation's oil industry with hot air. The board also gives Obama a thumbs-up for not falling victim to easy political gimmicks as gas prices rise:

High gas prices can prompt political hysteria in the best of times, but when they soar during an election year, the fumes rising from candidate stump speeches can make a person sick. Of the three candidates and the president they're out to replace, only one is telling the truth about oil -- and he may suffer for his political courage.

Readers rip into an editorial commending McCain for not indulging in political pandering. Fred Sokolow asks:

In your editorial, you characterize McCain as boldly preaching an unpopular message, but it's the same old, tired, free-market deregulation dogma.

There's nothing contrarian about it -- it's the Bush line, which has put America in the terrible spot we're in today.

Won't you begin to assess this guy for what he really is? He's no maverick; he's a throwback, and more of the same poison that's been killing America (and Americans, and Iraqis) for seven years.

UC Santa Barbara professor Brian Fagan warns that our future survival in a drier world depends on our ability to adapt to our environment, and writer Francis Fukuyama blames the Chinese government's weakness, not strength, for domestic human rights violations. Economist Korinna Horta and attorney Delphine Djiraibe argue that Darfur cannot be saved without fixing Chad first, and Jonah Goldberg thanks the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for revealing how radical he really is:

Asked whether he stood by his assertion that the U.S. government created HIV as part of a genocidal program to wipe out the black race, Wright mostly dodged but ultimately offered this nondenial denial: "I believe our government is capable of doing anything." He also offered a zesty defense of Louis Farrakhan -- "one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century" -- and dismissed criticism of Farrakhan as an anti-Semite.

To cap it off, Wright threw Obama under the bus. First, the pastor explained, Obama himself had taken Wright out of context. Moreover, Obama neither denounced nor distanced himself from Wright. And, besides, anything that Obama says on such matters is just stuff "politicians say." They "do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls." So much for Obama's new politics.

The editorial board warns parents that avoiding vaccinations for fear of autism could result in a future epidemic, and gives a reluctant green light to MTA's decision to turn some carpool lanes into toll lanes. The board also condemns the Supreme Court for upholding Indiana's voter ID law:

Indiana has a right to safeguard the integrity of its elections, but its identification requirement imposes sufficiently burdensome rules that it raises the question of whether the state is actually trying to discourage certain types of people -- the poor, the elderly, the infirm -- from exercising their right to vote. It's one thing to deter fraud; it's another to deter voting, particularly by certain classes of voters.

Readers react to the Dodger Stadium makeover. Ken Chane writes:

The Dodgers' new stadium plan sounds and looks wonderful. But before it attracts larger crowds, the current chaotic parking situation should be corrected. Management keeps touting the "wonderful fan experience." No matter how great it may be, it dissipates quickly when it's time to go home.

Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore explains why China sees Tibet quite differently than the West:

Chinese history records dominion over Tibet as far back as the 13th century. China's control has ebbed and flowed -- but this is equally true in many other parts of China. Central control by the capital has never been consistent, shifting with the strength of the central government. But this much is certain: China has been in control of most of its territories longer than some Western nations have existed.

More important, the Chinese recall that the latest efforts to separate Tibet from China came as recently as the 1940s and 1950s, when British and U.S. agents were seen to be encouraging Tibetan independence while the new People's Republic was still weak.... Virtually no Chinese believe that Western governments have a strictly moral interest in Tibet. They are convinced that their efforts are only the latest efforts to dismember or derail China.

Author Carolyn See navigates Santa Monica sans car, and columnist Joel Stein finds a place for thoughts that aren't even well-formed enough to be blogposts: the tumble and the twitter.

The editorial board encourages Congress to extend unemployment benefits, urges California to fight proposed federal fuel emissions rules, and says there are small signs of a thaw in Turkey-Armenia relations.

Readers discuss McCain's disability pension and whether it raises questions about his ability to serve as president. L.A.'s Anthony Filosa says, "I'd like to remind The Times that Franklin D. Roosevelt's significant disabilities did not affect his ability to successfully lead this country through some of our most tumultuous times and be remembered as one of our greatest presidents."

And Long Beach's Barbara Hubbs hopes that "McCain is donating that money to the disabled veterans who were not able to put their lives back together."

Tomas Maynas, an elder of the Achuar tribe in the Peruvian Amazon cut a powerful figure on his recent visit to Los Angeles. As the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit he and other members of his tribe filed against Occidental Petroleum, Maynas was in town to urge a federal court judge not to send the case to Peru. Peru's court system is so biased against indigenous people and riddled with corruption, he said, that it would give short shrift to the tribe's allegations that Oxy polluted the Achuar's lands and sickened the people. Though he didn't get the chance to address Judge Philip Gutierrez, Maynas made his case to the public, saying in a news conference that the indigenous peoples of Peru could only get a fair trial in L.A.

If that's true, then Occidental has just won Round 1 (and maybe Rounds 2 through 15) in the case: Gutierrez has ruled it belongs in Peru.

Still, developments in a similar suit, this one against Chevron Corp., may make both sides in the Oxy case reassess the portent of Gutierrez' decision.  Indigenous people and peasants suing Chevron over pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon originally filed their case in New York, arguing they could not get a fair hearing in Ecuador. Just like Gutierrez, the judge in the Chevron case sent the case to South America. It is now being tried in Ecuador and and in a stunning reversal of almost everyone's expectations, the oil giant seems to stand a good chance of losing the trial. A court-appointed expert recently determined that Chevron should pay $7 billion to $16 billion if it does lose, and now Chevron is bemoaning the incompetence, unfairness and bias of Ecuador's court system while the plaintiffs are affirming its expertise, fairness and strict impartiality.

So whether the judge's ruling is good for either side remains to be seen. It's a blow, however, for U.S. enviros, for whom the case is an important cause. They would have staked out that trial like papparazzi stalking Paris. And acutally, the trial's relocation to Peru is a loss for L.A. This was our chance for front row seats to see how the Westwood-based company has behaved far away in the Amazonian jungle. We'll still be watching, just with binoculars.

Author David K. Shipler explores how candidates' words can strike a nerve:

Whether by calculation or coincidence, Hillary Clinton and Republicans who have attacked Barack Obama for elitism have struck a chord in a long-standing symphony of racial codes. It is a rebuke that gets magnified by historic beliefs about what blacks are and what they have no right to be.

Clinton is no racist, and Obama has made some real missteps.... But when his opponents branded him an elitist and an outsider, his race made it easier to drive a wedge between him and the white, rural voters he has courted. As an African American, he was supposedly looking down from a place he didn't belong and looking in from a distance he could not cross.

Columnist Tim Rutten analyzes Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's State of the City address. Internist Albert Fuchs says the only way for a doctor to do a good job and make a living is to reject insurers. And contributing editor Gustavo Arellano notes that Fullerton's efforts to paint over murals is par for the Orange County course.

The editorial board maintains its anti-execution stance as the Supreme Court considers whether to allow the death penalty for rapists, and comments on the start of SAG negotiations. Editorial writer Lisa Richardson writes in from San Francisco, where Chevron Corp. faced off against a couple Ecuadorean environmentalists.

Readers discuss Irvine's Great Park. L.A.'s Danila Oder says, "The American 20th century experience was an anomaly and should be treated by governments and builders as such. The environmental factors that are assumed to underpin bonds for the Great Park project are no longer operative."

Columnist Rosa Brooks reminds everyone that despite the attention on the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton mudslinging, it's the GOP that's losing ground:

Although Democratic Party infighting makes good copy, the intense media focus on the Obama-Clinton battle obscures the fact that it's the Republican Party that's in deep doo-doo. The very factors that make us wish we could forget about the war in Iraq are driving a seismic shift in the American political landscape: the likely reversal of years of GOP electoral dominance.

Speaking of the GOP's losing ground on war issues, former NATO commander Wesley K. Clark and Iraq vet Jon Soltz wonder why John McCain isn't stepping up to support a new GI bill. Columnist Patt Morrison remembers when ethnic campaigning was as simple as eating a knish and spinning pizza dough. And author Daniel Imhoff says the farm bill is too porky. 

The editorial board hopes for stronger rule of law in Pakistan, takes a look at shocking inmate conditions in Orange County jails, and says the Senate's housing relief plan is a mixed fix:

The tax breaks in the Senate bill would help home builders that profited handsomely during the boom. They would also prop up the price of foreclosed properties with $7,000 subsidies for the purchase of those homes. But the goal isn't to stop the boom-and-bust cycle from running its course or causing losses. It's to prevent the bust from being so sudden and severe that it chokes off credit, stifles consumer spending and wrecks the economy.

Readers react to Gen. David H. Petraeus' and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's testimony before Congress. Bob Constantine of Placentia has a suggesetion: "Next time Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress, skip the personal appearances and merely play the tape of the previous testimonies."

Author Pico Iyer finds "globalism-lite" in the airport lounge:

All the cultures of the world are here, but they're all translated into placeless ciphers of a kind; we sit before screens, drift off, plug into our machines and feel as if we've entered the global space of a Haruki Murakami novel, a food court, a minimalist white-on-white Nowhere Hotel.

This globalism-lite is what we find around us often, especially in places like L.A.; it's cooler, sleeker, more diverse than the world we grew up in, but it's not clear that it sustains us deep down. We can access Beijing in a millisecond, fly to Bangalore tomorrow -- and yet we find, when we get to either place, that they don't look so different from Ventura Boulevard or Monterey Park.

Columnist Gregory Rodriguez explains the border fence as a shrine to American insecurity. Authoer Maureen Ogle remembers the happy day 70 75* years ago when beer returned to the U.S.

The editorial board wants Ramon C. Cortines to return to LAUSD, this time in the No. 2 management position. The board also continutes its editorial series on water, and says it's time Californians let development follow water, not the other way around:

Even as our state continues to grow, sprawl can no longer be our birthright. Hydrologically remote regions cannot depend on new sources of imported water for human needs, much less for verdant lawns.

Readers respond to an article about the ties between Mormons and Muslims. Palm Desert's Sunny Kreis Collins writes, "it can only be a good thing that any two philosophies, however disparate, can come together peacefully and find commonality and mutual respect."

*Thanks to reader M. Bouffant for the correction.

Georgetown's John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed of Gallup's Center for Muslim Studies says what you don't know about Muslims can hurt you:

How much do Americans know about the views and beliefs of Muslims around the world? According to polls, not much. Perhaps not surprising, the majority of Americans (66%) admit to having at least some prejudice against Muslims; one in five say they have "a great deal" of prejudice. Almost half do not believe American Muslims are "loyal" to this country, and one in four do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.

Why should such anti-Muslim bias concern us? First, it undermines the war on terrorism: Situations are misdiagnosed, root causes are misidentified and bad prescriptions do more harm than good....

The University of Chicago's Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein apply the "choice architecture" of grocery stores and cafeterias to public institutions. Columnist Tim Rutten says functioning anti-gang programs are held hostage in the L.A. City Council's ongoing turf war.

The editorial board reacts to the Zimbabwean election, and finds itself in an unusual position -- agreeing with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two editorial writers, Eryn Brown and Karin Klein, reflect on human efforts to mimic Mother Nature.

Readers don't agree with Joseph S. Nye Jr's claim that President Bush could be our Woodrow Wilson. See why Sierra Madre's Howard W. Hays says, "I can't think of two figures more dissimilar."

The editorial board today says no to nuclear power no matter what Gov. Schwarzenegger thinks, laments the long backlog that legal residents face when applying for citizenship, and explores what to do after the heparin fiasco:

After various scandals involving Chinese products -- pet food, toys, seafood -- many Americans already avoid products labeled "Made in China." But hospital patients have no way of knowing where a widely used pharmaceutical was manufactured or where its ingredients came from. They don't put such information on IV bags, as though stroke victims are in a position to check anyway.

It took a long line of regulatory failures and legal loopholes for a contaminated drug to reach U.S. hospitals.... Legislation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee would help, though it would not solve all the shortcomings.

Modern Art Notes editor Tyler Green reminds Angelenos not to forget about MOCA as they embrace the Grand Avenue project. Columnist Jonah Goldberg says America was talking about race long before Barack Obama's speech. Memoirist Peter Godwin says that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has led his country to ruin:

I was one of those who gladly dismissed Rhodesia and became Zimbabwean. Upon the firm economic infrastructure he had inherited, Robert Mugabe, our first black leader, built a health and educational system that was the envy of Africa. Zimbabwe became the continent's most literate country, with its highest per capita income. Zimbabwe easily fed itself and had plenty left over to export to its famine-prone neighbors.... Fast forward to today, and the country is unrecognizable.

Readers react to Gov. Schwarzenegger's dismissal of Clint Eastwood and Bobby Shriver from a state commission. Laguna Niguel's Kurt Page says, "At least the governor defends his action with insight and wisdom when he says that the toll road 'has to go through somewhere'.... Brilliant stuff."

*Photo of Robert Mugabe courtesy Bishop Asare EPA

Columnist Gregory Rodriguez says Barack Obama's speech on race may have been brilliant, but it was the wrong move:

Throughout the campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton's surrogates repeatedly tried to bait Obama into talking about race; they worked to pigeonhole him (and marginalize him) as the "black candidate." But in the end, it was Obama's own alliances that tripped him up and obliged him to directly address a subject (one that he now says we "cannot afford to ignore") that he had so deftly avoided -- or as the Obamaphiles had it, transcended. For all the kudos the Illinois senator has received for his candor, the very act of delivering Tuesday's address was a defeat. Obama was a much more powerful force for racial progress when he so effortlessly symbolized it, rather than when he called on us to address "old wounds."

Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) argues that SAT subject tests should stay, in part because they give recent immigrants a chance to show their strengths. Loyola Law Schools' Karl Manheim and Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court say health insurance mandates of the Clinton and Obama kind may not pass constitutional muster. And writer Joe Queenan wonders why Garth Brooks gets a spot in his kid's academic calendar.

The editorial board notes new Census numbers showing that California sprawl is slowing down, and looks at why double amputee Oscar Pistorius was barred from the Olympics for being too fast. The board also explores why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed fellow film icon Clint Eastwood and brother-in-law Bobby Shriver from a state commission.

Readers react to the violence in Tibet. Sherman Oaks' Elke Heitmyer says, "Tibet has been 'another Burma' for a long time already."

On this anniversary of the Iraq war, columnist Rosa Brooks is getting a five-year itch:

But I don't want to dwell on the bad times, because we did have some good times, didn't we? Remember those peaceful days between "Mission Accomplished" -- I think that was May 1, 2003 -- and ... and ... well, July 2003 or so, when we could still stroll around Baghdad at dusk, interrupted only by occasional small-arms fire? Those were the days, before the car bombs and IEDs.

We were happy then, weren't we, War?... But you can't go back again, can you?

Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch notice that all those voters moving to the center and calling themselves independent have a lot in common with Libertarians. University of Missouri-St. Louis professor Richard Rosenfeld says that when it comes to the uptick in homicides, the buck actually doesn't stop with Police Chief Bratton. And columnist Patt Morrison thinks Councilman Tom LaBonge may be ready for mayorship... of the honorary kind, in Hollywood.

Professors John G. Geer and Ken Goldstein give a stirring defense of negative campaigning, and documentary maker Manchan Magan chronicles his attempt to speak only Irish as he traveled through the Emerald Isle. Writer Barry Gottlieb wonders why the Vatican tacked pollution onto an already long list of sins, and in Geraldine Ferraro's race-tinged comments on Obama's success, Gregory Rodriguez discovers that white suspicion toward successful minorities is alive and kicking:

If Ferraro had clarified her remarks (and she had oh so many television minutes last week to do so) -- perhaps explaining that what she meant was that Obama's blackness has played a role in his appeal -- she might have saved her role in the Clinton campaign, but she still would have been only partly right.

Because what's impressive about Obama is not so much his African American identity as the way he wields it. He uses both the language of group pride and national unity. Unlike so many -- often media-created -- black leaders, Obama doesn't use a parochial message of victimhood or the zero-sum logic of "us versus them." Rather than spend a lot of time talking about racism, historical or otherwise, he preaches a form of collective can-doism. He sells himself as a symbol of reconciliation and knows that at this point in history, cries of racism are the quickest way to turn off white voters who are tired of being made to feel guilty for racial injustice.

The editorial board glances over its shoulder at encroaching electronic surveillance, and burns a hole in President Bush's overrulling of the EPA's ozone standards. The board also flunks L.A. Unified School District for its "textbook incompetence" involving a principal accused of molesting a 13-year-old student:

The alleged molestation of a 13-year-old girl who attends Markham Middle School is a gut-wrenching example of the weaknesses in management of the Los Angeles Unified School District. An egregious gaffe by top administrators on the 24th floor of the central office who are too distant from the kids on the ground to put their needs first. An initial attempt to downplay the significance of what happened, followed by an apology and an action plan to prevent such problems. The plan usually involves adding more layers to an already giant bureaucracy.

This story even has a familiar subplot, the "dance of the lemons," in which the district shuffles problem personnel around -- usually to a troubled school in a poor area -- to avoid the task of booting them out the door.

Readers react to Rosa Brooks' column on Hillary Clinton's stance on prostitution -- and support of Eliot Spitzer. Margaret Daugherty writes:

Clinton's inclusion of both Eliot Spitzer and his family in her expression of goodwill seems to me like empathy and good manners -- not evidence of some festering character defect. Wouldn't it have been better just to print a statement saying, "Rosa Brooks stills hates Hillary Clinton; check this space periodically for updates"?

Dr. Seuss must be turning in his grave. Pro-lifers are claiming there's an anti-abortion message in Horton Hears a Who, a movie based on his second book featuring the lovably loyal elephant. From NPR:

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. And an elephant's faithful, 100 percent."

That's one of Horton the elephant's best-known mottoes. But with a movie version of Dr. Seuss' much-loved children's book opening Friday, another Horton saying has drawn attention from activists who see a message in the movie — a message that suits their purpose.

That message: "A person's a person, no matter how small."

"Exactly," say abortion foes.

Using Horton's innocent words to support the personhood-at-conception argument? It's a world gone mad. Frankly, I like it better when they protest popular lit (à la witchcraft in Harry Potter), because an angry social conservative is a lot less irritating than a self-satisfied one. Observe:

In Horton Hears a Who, Horton discovers that there's a whole town (Whoville) full of tiny people (the Whos) on a tiny speck of dust that's come floating his way. His neighbors think he's lost his mind. But Horton decides it's his calling to protect the life on the speck: "A person's a person no matter how small," he insists.

When Jim Carrey, the film's Horton, said those words during the Los Angeles premiere of the film last week, demonstrators who'd slipped into the theater started to yell. It was a surprise, to say the least, for the premiere audience.

"I thought maybe there was a nut loose in the theater or something," says Karl ZoBell.

Just the one? Just checking.

Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss' widow, has objected to the demonstrations because the Geisels didn't want to see Seuss characters used to advance any political purpose.

But that argument is a little misleading, because Dr. Seuss has always been about politics. Seuss, né Theodor Geisel, previously tapped his illustrative genius as a left-leaning editorial cartoonist with a razor-sharp pen. And many of his most enduring children's books slip in very liberal political messages. The Butter Battle Book gave grim commentary on mutual deterrence during the Cold War, and The Lorax was a rallying cry for tree-huggers everywhere. Yertle the Turtle, meanwhile, provided a rather proletarian critique of monarchy, or capitalism, or something.

Given the history, you could just as easily argue that Horton Hears a Who is about valuing people who are less economically well-off, who are of a different race, who live in a different part of the world — or who may just be vertically challenged. In short, pun intended, people who are easier to ignore, neglect or even persecute.

The problem isn't that pro-lifers are politicizing children's literature. That happens all the time. It's that they really need to do their homework. Out of ignorance, they're disregarding Seuss' rich liberal legacy  — and in the case of Horton, what could be a very different political message.

Columnist Joel Stein asks the question on everyone's mind -- what exactly do you get for $1,000 an hour?

I called a high-end escort in Las Vegas who charges $500 an hour -- but gives, according to her website, a discount to educators and political activists. The escort , it turns out, is a huge fan of Spitzer, particularly his prosecution of Wall Street crimes when he was New York's attorney general. "I liked him. And I don't like many politicians. I have nothing but respect for him," she said. "It's a shame politicians can't have sex like everyone else."

The roughly $1,000 an hour that Spitzer paid for time with "Kristen," she told me, was not, as I assumed, to guarantee secrecy.... And the exorbitant rate wasn't a premium for weird or talented sex.

Former soldier and military historian Ed Ruggero notes near the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre that war is never simple. And the Center for American Progress' Lawrence J. Korb and Sean E. Duggan argue that if Gen. David H. Petraeus testifies alone, we'll never get the full picture of Iraq.

The editorial board examines new mortgage regulations proposed by the Bush administration, and says that after 136 years, it's really about time for a new mining law. Finally, the board urges the state to do away with another historical relic -- loyalty oaths.

On the letters page, readers react to Max Boot's take on Adm. William Fallon. Escondido's Blaise Jackson cracks, "So armchair-admiral Boot crawls out from under his ideologue rock to toss dirt at the departing Fallon; what a surprise."

OK, now it' s getting silly. We were willing to consider that, despite a couple of years of study, the Interior Department might need a few more weeks to decide whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened. It's not a simple case. As the first such decision made on the basis of global warming, it's fraught with all the "how bad will it get?" uncertainty the subject brings up. But the timing — rushing through oil-lease sales in polar-bear habitat before the species decision could be made — sure was convenient.

The "few weeks" has turned into two months with no sign of an impending decision. Some environmental groups predictably have sued — in fact, should the nation get a more environmentally oriented president next time, a few environmental lawyers who have been very busy the past seven years might find themselves job-hunting — and now the department's own inspector general is doing a "preliminary investigation."

Listing the bear would require this country to do something about global warming, and the thought of all those sacrifices we'll have to make (beyond reusing our plastic water bottles a couple of times) can get a little scary. Listing the bear is really just a ruse, to force us to save ourselves.

Evolutionary biologist David P. Barash says Eliot Spitzer can blame biology for his urge to stray:

One of the most startling discoveries of the last 15 years has been the extent of sexual infidelity (scientists call it "extra-pair copulations" or EPCs) among animals long thought to be monogamous. It's clear that social monogamy -- physical association and child rearing between a male and a female -- and sexual monogamy are very different things. The former is common; the latter is rare....

Power-as-pheromone is pretty much the default among mammals. Elk, elephant seal, baboon or chimpanzee, in a wide array of species, females eagerly mate with dominant males while disdaining subordinates. And they do so, more or less, in harems.

Contributing editor Max Boot argues that Navy Adm. William "Fox" Fallon's departure as head of CENTCOM is good news. Columnist Tim Rutten tells the City Council to quit its turf war and work to stop gang violence. USC's Sara Catania wants a stop to the springtime rite of "tree topping."

The editorial board asks if there is a constitutional right to home school your kids, and points out that daylight saving time really doesn't save anything....

The editorial board examines global insurgency after a violent few weeks around the world:

Last week's news underscored the problem. In Afghanistan, Taliban fighters, who enjoy sanctuary in Pakistan, blew up a fourth telecommunications tower as part of a campaign to silence cellphone service at night. In Pakistan, missiles of unknown origin smashed into a Taliban compound in what appeared to be the second unacknowledged U.S. Predator strike into that country this year. Turkey struck at Kurdish rebel enclaves over the border in northern Iraq. From Gaza, Hamas pelted Israeli towns with increasingly longer-ranged missiles. And Colombia, fed up with attacks by guerrillas from jungle camps in Ecuador, staged a cross-border raid and was denounced across Latin America for violating Ecuadorean sovereignty.

Wiping out terrorist sanctuaries after 9/11 wasn't supposed to be so difficult -- except that it always has been. The Bush administration assumed that swift and massive U.S. military might, followed by democracy and massive infusions of money for development, would sweep the terrorists into the dustbin of history. It hasn't happened anywhere.

The board also looks at California's electricity deregulation ten years later, and says a new cap-and-trade plan could be just as disastrous.

As if global insurgency weren't bad enough, author Philip Jenkins thinks conditions are ripe for home-grown terrorism. And East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice director Angelo Logan says that a firm that wans to expand port service isn't as green as it claims. Craving more bad news? The University of Vermont's Robert Costanza says the latest recession is small fry compared to the three-decade decline in the American quality of life. Finally, some levity: Columnist Gregory Rodriguez wonders if appearing on "The Colbert Report" to hawk his book makes him a sell out. (If you missed it, watch it here.)

On the letters page, readers react to the latest false memoir scam, this one by a white Sherman Oaks woman writing as an African American surviving foster care and gangs in South L.A. San Diego's Michael Bolger gives her some comeuppance: "I was in three foster homes, a continuation of the hell I lived with my mother in the San Fernando Valley. Having survived to become a high-functioning member of society, I have thought often of writing a memoir. But morally bankrupt individuals like [Margaret] Seltzer make it harder for others to tell their stories of survival."

Heather Mac Donald's lightning-rod piece on campus rape takes the top spot this week, with Dallas Weaver's Blowback on copyright a very close second. Readers didn't make this another mostly-Obama week, opting instead for conscience-stricken paparazzi and stubborn sadness. Here they are:

1. What campus rape crisis? by Heather Mac Donald
2. Copyright this, by Dallas Weaver
3. Surge doesn't equal success, by Michael Kinsley
4. The snapper snapped, by Nick Stern
5. Too good to win, by Joel Stein
6. White like us, by Gregory Rodriguez
7. What a little bird told us, by Jonathan Rosen
8. The miracle of melancholia, by Eric G. Wilson
9. Stonehenges all around us, by Craig Childs
10. Food or fuel? by the editorial board

Gregory Rodriguez advises Barack Obama to start wearing his patriotism on his sleeve -- or on his lapel -- and American University law professor Nancy D. Polikoff calls for laws to recognize the whole spectrum of family structures, whether gay or straight, married or unmarried. Civil rights lawyer Peggy Garrity assesses the damage that tort reform has caused the justice system:

A second woman is likely to face the same fate in the same court, in a suit alleging that she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by co-workers in Iraq and then held incommunicado, without food or water, in a shipping container by the same employer.... Adding insult to injury, the rape kit used by a military doctor in examining the victim was reportedly handed over to Halliburton/KBR, and doctor's notes and photos of her bruises are missing.

There was no criminal prosecution of the alleged perpetrators because they worked for a defense contractor, which is exempt from criminal sanctions under an order enacted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq during L. Paul Bremer III's tenure as its administrator.

That decision was outrageous enough. But now the Texas court ruling appears to say that because of the arbitration clause, these women have no standing in a U.S. civil court either.

In the next installment of its series "The Great Thirst," the editorial board predicts plans for a peripheral canal will be a win-win in the water wars between Northern and Southern California. The board also kicks off the one-year countdown to round one of Los Angeles' city elections, and calls out John McCain and Barack Obama for inching away from their commitment to public funds:

[W]ith his new front-runner status -- and facing the prospect of raising more private money than McCain in a general election -- Obama has begun to waver. Asked in the last Democratic debate if he was waffling on a promise to accept public financing, he dodged, saying that, if nominated, he wants to "sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that is fair for both sides." That sounds like the "old politics" that Obama inveighs against.

Both candidates should get over their buyer's remorse. What they gain by abandoning public financing, they may lose in credibility.

Readers write requiems for Dutton's books, set to close at the end of April. "With the imminent passing of Dutton's books," mourns Burt Prelutsky, "I feel as if I am on the verge of losing a relative. That is, a relative I actually like."

Contributing editor Erin Aubry Kaplan says Barack Obama isn't the post-racial panacea that everyone thinks he is:

The core of the resistance to seeing Obama as what he is -- a black man -- even among his supporters (or perhaps especially among his supporters) is an assumption that he is capable and successful because he is "other." Beneath the post-racial talk and the how-black-is-he speculation lies an antebellum belief that blackness is inherently limiting, while whiteness is inherently transcendent. (Blackness is, however, inherently good for style and "soaring" oratory, qualities the media have been quick to attribute to Obama.)

Columnist Joel Stein says female running mates could save men the wrath of women mad about missing the chance for a female president. Author and former prison detainee in Tehran Zarah Ghahramani objects to Americans' radicalized image of Iran.

The editorial board praises newly-appointed Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. It also looks at two cases that will test the Supreme Court's commitment to protecting Americans from searches, and notes that ships can keep polluting California's ports unless lawmakers take action.

Readers react to The Times' poll on the presidency. See why Pasadena's Siddarth Dasgupta says, "The Democrats have not yet chosen their nominee, and you are already lining up to mislead the voting public."

National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn examines the late William F. Buckley's legacy:

A year after graduating from college, Buckley pioneered the depiction of American liberals as a smug, self-satisfied elite in his famous 1951 book, "God and Man at Yale." At National Review, he brought on a passel of former Trotskyites turned conservatives, such as Willi Schlamm and James Burnham, who churned out essays attacking the news media and universities as being filled with doctrinaire liberals. Sound familiar?

Ever since, conservatives -- whether it's Ann Coulter or Dinesh D'Souza -- have continuously denounced traitorous liberal elites. But they are bargain-basement Buckleys.

The editorial board has its take:

It was an irony of Buckley's career that after he boosted so many Republican presidents, they invariably disappointed him. Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act and imposed wage and price controls; Ronald Reagan left office with the Department of Education intact; George W. Bush vastly increased Medicare benefits and plunged the country into a war that Buckley turned against long before that became an acceptable conservative position.

Elsewhere on the editorial page, the board says the Democratic candidates are wrong to vilify NAFTA, and asks U.N. member states, especially Russia and China, to pledge more money to fight drug resistant tuberculosis.

On the Op-Ed page, columnist Rosa Brooks looks at the new revision of the Army Field Manual. U.C. San Diego's James H. Fowler says the "Colbert bump" is real. And columnist Patt Morrison explains how lawmakers, activists, and backfiring corporate gluttony saved the California redwoods.

Readers discuss the editorial board's claim that Congress should ignore the issue of telecom immunity. Laguna Niguel's Richard Brock says, "The Times misses the crucial issue animating the retroactive-immunity-for-telecoms debate: whether we are a nation of laws in times of peace and equally a nation of laws in times of war."

The editorial board reacts to the Ralph Nader candidacy:

Hey, America, want to hear some secrets the mainstream media and political parties have been keeping from you? There's a war going on in Iraq; President Bush passed some tax cuts a while back that, combined with undisciplined spending, have contributed to a ballooning national debt; and apparently the price of oil has really started to degrade the nation's energy situation.

These are some of the obscure issues that Ralph Nader, announcing his presidential candidacy on Sunday, promised to drag out of the shadows. It's an interesting demonstration of why he'll have a tough time mounting even a message-sending campaign this year, but also of why he's a welcome addition to the race.

The board asks downtown loft-dwellers to be a bit more generous toward a new tenant -- mental health services for the homeless. And the board wonders why it hasn't occurred to Congress, the president, or any of the candidates that turning corn into ethanol during while global starvation increases isn't a good idea.

Yale University's Jacob S. Hacker says "mandates" aren't the most important universal healthcare issue, contrary to what the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama camps would have us believe. Columnist Jonah Goldberg explores Obama's ties to 1960s-era radicals, and what it says about the left. New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert explains the power of lost objects, and contributing editor Bill Stall reminds that Ronald Reagan raised taxes and Gov. Schwarzenegger should too.

Readers react to skeptic Michael Shermer's take on Scientology. L.A.'s Kendra Wiseman says, "Why is it that journalists repeatedly and insistently focus on the sensationalist aspect of the Xenu story when reporting about Scientology, ignoring child labor, physical assault, psychological abuse and other travesties that go on every day behind those walls?"

Columnist Gregory Rodriguez finds out who's behind the hit blog, Stuff White People Like:

Six weeks ago, 29-year-old Culver City Internet copy writer Christian Lander started a blog, stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, on a whim, thinking he'd poke fun at himself and fellow white people....

Lander, who arrived in L.A. from Toronto 2 1/2 years ago, came up with the idea for the blog after talking to a Filipino friend about how much they both liked the HBO police drama "The Wire." For some reason he's already forgotten, they both wished that more white people watched the show. Which got him thinking: What exactly do white people like?

Author Christopher D. Cook says mass recalls show we're all playing meat roulette. Writer Jim Henley argues that an $8 million program isn't enough to get Americans reading again. Yale Law School student Ronan Farrow explores a growing conflict in Ethiopia, where the army is attacking its people.

The editorial board launches a series on water in Los Angeles and around the world:

The early history of Los Angeles was defined by its struggle to get water wherever, and whenever, it could. William Mulholland and his colleagues did such a good job of securing water supplies...that those of us living here today take for granted our lush gardens and year-round blooms. They appear a native bounty when they are, in fact, a work of man. We offer pious lip service to the notion that water is scarce when the weather is dry, only to forget our concerns at the fall of the first raindrop. Implicitly, we behave as if water will always be available and unlimited.

This must change.

Readers react to the city's plan to require homeowners to pay more for sidewalk repairs. Sherman Oaks' Gerry Swider says, "Is the city also going to grant homeowners the right to control usage of their sidewalks as a way to limit possible damage?"

Here at The Times editorial board, we take seriously the matter of precedent. We build our positions upon those of our predecessors, and though we do depart from them when we feel they have outlived their value, we try to honor consistency along with intellectual honesty as we weigh the issues that come before us.

Today, we begin a series of editorials that explore some of the most ancient and deeply held views of our ancestors – the sturdy, rapacious men who built this newspaper and the city of Los Angeles. As many readers know, the early years of this city and its paper were forged by two desperate campaigns, one to lure visitors and new residents to the area, the other to find water. The Times took the lead in touting the region to the east, and William Mulholland, the chief engineer of the city’s Department of Water and Power, struck out in search of water. He found it in the Owens Valley and, again with the help of The Times, persuaded Los Angeles residents to approve a bond measure that would pay to bring that water down the eastern slope of the Sierra Mountains and into the San Fernando Valley. The city annexed the valley and got its water, and modern Los Angeles was born (and, not incidentally, the Chandler family, patriarchs of this newspaper, made a killing on their valley land).

“Glorious Mountain River Now Flows to Los Angeles,” the headline on November 6, 1913 read, followed by this subhead: “Silver Torrent Crowns The City’s Mighty Achievement.” Say what you will about their ethics, our predecessors undeniably could write.

Much has been made over the generations regarding the stealth that Mulholland and the DWP used to acquire water rights from the Owens Valley farmers, of the land deals behind their campaign, of the desiccated valley that the great water heist left behind. Yes, it’s true that our forbears did not do that valley any good, but any honest appraisal must also acknowledge that without their hard work, this city would not be here today.

So, it’s with due cognizance of the past that we today embark on an editorial series about water and its place in the life of this city and the world. This time, we’re doing it not as land barons (it’s safe to say that Harry Chandler would have been crushed to wake up one morning and find himself in possession of the combined real estate holdings of today’s editorial board), but as heirs to a newspaper built on water – and as residents of a region whose history has been formed by its pursuit.

Our first entry in the series, which appears today, looks at the potential for conservation and small-scale innovation in the drive to preserve what water we have before we go looking for more. That’s not an idea that particularly weighed on The Times in 1913, when it was more interested in getting than in saving. But it’s one with enormous potential to alter this city’s water future, as the editorial demonstrates.

Yes, that means we’re breaking some precedent here, but we’re doing it with full consciousness. That paper from Nov. 6, 1913, the one that hails Los Angeles’ water future? It hangs in our board room.

Health care and budget troubles behind him (well, sort of) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to resurrect efforts in the Legislature to craft a multibillion dollar water bond for the November ballot.

It would be interesting to see what details, exactly, are on the table. Even though the governor likes to refer to the bond as a "comprehensive" solution for California's water supply problems, last year's version did not get to the bottom of the biggest problem the state faces: figuring out whether or how to build a peripheral canal to carry water around the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta. Gov. Schwarzenegger euphemistically refers to this as "conveyance." Californians have been deadlocked over a peripheral canal for decades.

And it looks like the biggest bone of contention from 2007 negotiations--massive levels of state funding for three dams in the Central Valley and Northern California--is still in play. The California Chamber of Commerce may begin collecting signatures on its own $11.6 billion bond initiative, which would provide money for the dams, in the coming weeks.

At a forum on water sponsored by the Valley Industry & Commerce Association on Friday one panelist joked that negotiations over this bond reminded him of the movie Groundhog Day, when Bill Murray relives the same day over and over and over again until he breaks the cycle by becoming a better person and falling in love.

Are the parties to this conversation becoming better people, too? Falling in love? Nothing much about the discussion appears new--at least, not yet. Other than that $16 billion budget deficit lurking in the corner.

Tim Rutten writes up Mayor Villaraigosa for pandering to the media at slain LAPD SWAT officer Randal Simmons' funeral, and New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson shares a personal account of living in Fidel Castro's Cuba:

Inevitably, during the three years we lived in Cuba, Fidel became both a familiar figure and a totemic one to my children -- half grandfather, half God. With his deeds and aphorisms the stuff of daily fare, and his face and voice omnipresent on nightly television, they came to understand that El Jefe Maximo was the ultimate guiding hand that controlled their lives and those of everyone around them. He represented the past and the present, and the future too. Fidel, somehow, was Cuba.

The editorial board breaks down Blu-ray's trouncing of HD DVD, and worries that the surge in foreclosures could turn California exurbs into "sunnier and warmer, but in other ways equally bleak, slums." The board also watched with satisfaction as Pakstanis threw the bums out in Monday's parlimentary elections:

Pakistan's previous civilian governments have proved corrupt and incompetent; this one will need help in improving the country's dreadful health and education systems, generating more than a few hours of electricity a day, boosting living standards for the poor and instituting anti-corruption programs.... Halfway decent governance is an indispensable element in quelling the rage that feeds extremism.

Readers rethink agriculture in the wake of the largest beef recall in U.S. history. James Montgomery writes:

Old McDonald had a farm, but he was put out of business by large factory farming operations and a complicit USDA that put profit above all else. There is a more sustainable, humane way to farm, and many of us are choosing with our dollars to support organic foods locally grown by small family farms.

Sen. Obama, what would we do without you?

We'd certainly be doing it with fewer readers, as Obama/Clinton material continues to draw our biggest numbers. Readers came for Obama last week, stayed for poor Jeb Bush and some local political color, and finished off with a palate cleanser of celebrity Hindenburgs and supine scribblers. The winners:

1. He's got Obamaphilia, by Joel Stein
2. Chelsea's rant control, by Meghan Daum
3. Obama's rhetoric, American realities, by Jonah Goldberg
4. Californy power, by Joe Mathews
5. NATO at twilight, by Andrew J. Bacevich 
6. Oh, brother!, by Jacob Weisberg
7. Can the world afford a middle class? by  Moisés Naím
8. Between 'crazy' and 'committed', by Patt Morrison 
9. Go with the tough guy, by Max Boot 3,118
10.  What I did during the strike, by Frank Pierson, Tim Long, Larry Gelbart, Wesley Strick, Ken Levine, Linda Teverbaugh, Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller, Chris Provenzano