The Times' Op-Ed page introduces a new opinion writer with an impressive resume today: President Barack Obama, who lays out his vision for next week's G-20 summit in London. Obama aims to convince other countries to launch government-sponsored bailouts of their own financial systems in line with those in the United States; he also calls for boosting the International Monetary Fund, resisting protectionism and cracking down on offshore tax havens.

Columnist Jonah Goldberg, meanwhile, takes aim at the union-backed "card check" proposal being considered by congressional Democrats -- if it passes, he says, it would enable unions to shanghai workers much like British press gangs seized sailors in the 19th century. And economists Simon Johnson and James Kwak weigh in on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's proposal to manage $1 trillion in troubled bank assets.

The Times editorial board, too, has Geithner's proposal at top of mind (and the top of the page), welcoming the effort to have the prices for troubled assets set by the market, not the government. We also examine reports that the Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of an official finding that global warming endangers public health and welfare, a significant ruling that could eventually lead to widescale national regulation of greenhouse gases -- though not as wide nor as quickly implemented as alarmist critics claim. And we urge California's congressional delegation to restore a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to travel north of the border, which was killed last month. Mexican retaliation for the protectionist measure would be economically devastating to the Golden State.

All that, and Letters too.

In today's opinion pages, the Times editorial board calls on lawmakers in Sacramento to quickly accept federal unemployment aid.

The main sticking point over ABX3 23 was the possibility that the state - or rather, employers located here - might be left holding the bag for $900 million in extended unemployment benefits after the federal aid runs out in June 2010. Backers of the bill disagreed, but its sponsor, Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose), has been working with state officials to eliminate any potential ambiguity. With the state's unemployment insurance fund on the edge of insolvency, the concern about the cutoff date makes sense. But that's no excuse to stall this crucial bill, not when so many people need the help.

The ed board also notes that Buick - Buick! - has scored at the top of J.D. Power's dependability survey. Now why is that a surprise? Detroit apparently has been turning itself around, but still has some serious image retooling to do - and that may play an important role in efforts by General Motors and Chrysler to get a favorable bailout deal from Washington. Plus, the board scowls at the Final Exit Network, which is giving legitimate efforts to help the terminally ill die with dignity.

On the Op-Ed side, Denise Dresser keeps an eye on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Mexico this week, and calls for her to bring with her a "clear, unified message from the Obama administration regarding the sort of relationship it wants with Mexico."

Historian Joyce Appleby sees parallels between President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first mid-term election, in which he secured his hold on his New Deal reforms, and the 2010 mid-terms that Barack Obama will face.

The two men share a lot. As president, both face the awesome task of reviving the economy. Obama's personal popularity outstrips support for his party, as did FDR's. Of necessity, Obama's hope for matching Roosevelt's successful record of reform and recovery is going to rest on his pulling off an electoral victory in 2010 like FDR's 76 years ago.

Columnist Gregory Rodriguez examines what happened to Thomas Saenz, the former lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund who became counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Saenz was believed to be headed toward nomination to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, but someone else got the job. Was it because Saenz was an effective campaigner for immigrant rights?

The positive spin from Obama supporters is that the White House wanted to keep its powder dry for a future full-on fight over immigration reform. And perhaps that's true. But to think that anti-immigrant extremists could kill the nomination of a man most would describe as a mainstream liberal, not to mention someone who is on the record as being opposed to the idea of open borders, is bothersome.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner knows plenty about the world of finance, but not nearly enough about the world of politics, the editorial board observes today. He'll have to wise up about how traditional practices in the financial industry -- particularly eye-opening bonuses -- play to the public that's shelling out the money for bailouts.

The predictable result, in addition to the calls for Geithner's ouster, was the bill now rocketing through Congress to impose confiscatory tax rates on many of the individuals who've collected bonuses from rescued firms. To the financial industry, it's yet another switchback by Washington, which has spent the last year plunging in new directions and then quickly reversing course. The shifts have made investors wary just when the administration is trying to persuade them to be its partners in restoring credit to consumers and small businesses, disposing of illiquid bank assets and averting foreclosures. Geithner's initiatives in those areas hold promise, but they won't get far unless he hones his political skills -- fast.

The board wholeheartedly applauds the legislature of New Mexico and Gov. Bill Richardson for abolishing the death penalty, a significant move for a state that lies outside the liberal heartland. And it sees encouraging signs in federal response to the drug-related violence in Mexico -- especially conversations with Mexican leaders about border control -- but not if some border states succeed in their calls for using the National Guard to beef up patrols at the border.

Fingerprints are indeed unique -- but the science of analyzing them in crime cases is far from perfect, Jason Felch writes on the op-ed page, and it's time more judges and criminal experts recognized this:

In 2007, a Maryland judge threw out fingerprint evidence in a death penalty case, calling it "a subjective, untested, unverifiable identification procedure that purports to be infallible."

The ruling sided with the scientists, law professors and defense lawyers who for a decade had been noting the dearth of research into the reliability of fingerprinting. Their lonely crusade for sound science in the courtroom has often been ignored by the courts, but last month it was endorsed by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

Joel Stein finds childbirth class more interesting than he might have bargained on.

And in Letters, readers ponder the relationship between compassionate medicine and religion.

Photo illustration: Los Angeles Times

AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool

The Times' editorial board looks forward to the day Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (at top on the right) receives the punishment he so richly deserves for his admitted role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That's not just for justice's sake, but also for the sake of a better approach to handling all suspected terrorists:

Mohammed and his co-defendants are the poster children in arguments by the Bush administration for why Guantanamo detainees shouldn't be tried in civilian courts. Evidence ties them to terrorist activity, but some of it wouldn't be admissible because it was obtained using "alternative" interrogation methods (i.e. torture). Moreover, public access to some of the evidence might threaten national security. With them out of the way, there is a less compelling case for trying other detainees in military courts.

Columnist Tim Rutten takes on the very same topic on the Op-Ed page, calling the Guantanamo Bay detainee situation "the other mess Barack Obama will inherit from George Bush." Unlike the collapsing economy, which has ample precedent for Obama to rely on, Rutten writes that the "Gitmo debacle" is unique in terms of its departure from "basic American concepts" of justice and decency.

Why did administration officials create such an unwieldy, unconstitutional structure? Because they knew full well that trying these defendants in regular courts would present hellish problems; they've been tortured, and two of them may have been rendered incompetent to cooperate in their defense, one of them by the administration of psychotropic drugs.

The Federal Communications Commission needs a makeover--an updated look, or at least attitude, for our time, the editorial board writes. That's especially true of the time and attention it gives to enforcing decency rules:

The FCC also showed an alarming willingness to use government power to impose ineffective and discriminatory decency rules on broadcasters in the name of shielding children from profane or violent programming. More relevant to a bygone era's media environment, such rules reflect how poorly the commissioners seem to understand today's technological realities.

The Obama family hasn't even had time to pick a puppy yet, and already President-elect Barack Obama is confronted with missile threats from Russia. Missile defense threats are rattling their own sabres, but Obama "should not react to the rhetoric from either quarter, but he should reconsider missile defense on its merits -- or lack thereof. The president-elect rightly is skeptical of the defense shield, given that it doesn't yet work and it's intended to defend against nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles that don't yet exist," the board advises.  It also calls on federal immigration authorities to be open about their rules for deportation of detained illegal immigrants and to inform potential deportess of their rights.

On the other side of the fold, Los Angele Unified school board member Tamar Galatzan wants a more consistent system for approving and assessing charter schools:

Charters should not be rewarded for simply out- performing their underachieving LAUSD counterparts. The philosophy of charter schools is based on accountability, and the district must hold them to their promises. Lack of accountability is not uncommon in the school district, but we cannot let it seep into the charter movement as well.

Arguments about the genocide in Rwanda are at the heart of a court case in which the African nation seeks to shake itself free of French influence. And Joel Stein calls for a "No Gays for a Day" day, in which the gay and lesbian community would display its financial clout by staying home from work and shopping.

Illustration by Signe Wilkinson/Philadelphia Daily News

In Tuesday's Letters to the editor, one Alaskan says it's time to cut Sarah Palin some slack.  Responding to this report about the governor's hiring practices in office, Peter Schneidler writes:

I've lived in Alaska for eight years.  I didn't vote for Sarah Palin for governor, nor will I vote for the McCain/Palin ticket next week.  However, I think there were a few things you failed to consider.

I think one of the main reasons she appointed a number of friends and supporters was that she did come in as an outsider to the capital's GOP establishment.  She replaced a horrible governor and dealt with a state capital rife with corruption.  It doesn't surprise me that she felt the need to do housecleaning--and when you don't know who to trust, you bring in your own people...

Trust trumps experience.  Perhaps a bad decision, but not necessarily cronyism.

Today's page also includes letters responding to editorials about military recruiters and No Child Left Behind and Israel; and responding to this Op-Ed about the drug war in Mexico.

*Photo of Sarah Palin at an October 27 rally by Ben Fredman/AP Photo/The Free Lance-Star.

The editorial board calls for a reality check on McCain’s silly claims about ACORN undermining democracy. But we note that a similar check, and broader discussion, is in order on true questions about voter security.

We also express concern over the "religious cleansing" of Christians from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and call for pressure from Muslim-dominated regions to keep pluralism alive:

The religious cleansing of Christians in Iraq is part of a larger pattern in which a faith with its origins in the Middle East is being driven out of its native region. From Iraq to Lebanon, which once claimed a Christian majority, to Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered as the birthplace of Jesus, intra-Muslim violence and the Arab-Israeli struggle have combined to persuade (and in some cases force) Christians to relocate to Europe or North America.

And the editorial board has something to say about Chicago’s new "gay-friendly" high school. It seems to us that the good intentions could well be masking a strategy to make life easier for school administrators while leaving school a decidedly unfriendly place for kids who, in one way or another, don’t feel like they fit in:

Chicago’s concern for its gay students is commendable, but far from solving the problem, the creation of a cloistered, segregated environment represents an easy escape — not so much for the transferring students as for school leaders. Instead of asking whether gay teens need a respite from the meanness of high school, the school board should be asking why principals haven’t been creating campuses with zero tolerance for ugly behavior.

Lionel Beehner takes serious issue with the State Department’s "state sponsors of terrorism" list, which the writer sees as just a farcical excuse for punishing nations the United States doesn’t like, instead of a tool to stop terrorism. Meanwhile, South African journalist Mark Gevisser looks at his nation’s political situation in the post-Mbeki era, as well as the challenges –- and opportunities –- facing African National Congress leader (and likely president) Jacob Zuma as he comes to Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. And perhaps others:

In the unlikely event that he meets with Barack Obama, one would hope that the Democratic candidate would interrogate his visitor about something he knows only too well, from his own father’s experiences in Kenya: that patronage governs politics to an extremely unhealthy degree in Africa, and that government corruption is inevitable.

Last, but certainly not least, Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez writes about Mexicans settling down for work – in Detroit.

Acorn photo: AP

Who says bureaucrats aren't hip to Hollywood? The folks at the L.A. animal shelter wasted no time figuring out that the new movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," to be released Oct. 3, was going to make tiny bug-eyed dogs the hot new fashion accessory -- as though they weren't already. Which also has the potential to make them sort of like the Easter bunnies that are routinely dumped once they've lost the charm of newness, except the bunnies are a lot quieter.

But the point is valid. A check of petfinder.com, a searchable database of adoptable dogs by ZIP code, shows that chihuahuas already are among the most abandoned of dogs. Pounds and rescue groups have hundreds of them in need of homes right here in Southern California, and nationwide there are 7,771 needing adoption -- not that much less than the maligned pit bull, at 9,849. The good news: there are only about 1,000 Dalmatians on the website, which means the overbreeding and overbuying that swept the nation after the 1996 live-action version of "101 Dalmatians" has fallen off.

* Photo courtesy of Cleve Coote/AP

In a refreshing departure, Wednesday's letters eschew election news for fresher fare. 

Three readers respond to state Senate Republican leader David Cogdill (R-Modesto) and his Op-Ed about the ongoing budget brouhaha.  Cogdill says his party is not obstructionist.  Others aren't so sure.  Writes Werner Wassileff, of San Diego:

Cogdill's Op-Ed article is written in newspeak, but even I, an ongoing ESL student, can provide a translation that is easy to understand for the common folk.

"[Freeing] school districts from burdensome mandates" means cutting more funding from schools.  "Providing workers with flexible workweeks" means turning full-time jobs with benefits into part-time jobs without...

Perhaps obstructionism isn't the Republicans' problem, but obfuscation is.

A scholar's take on the early history of Lakewood, Calif., the tragic murder of a good Mexican cop, and paying kids to learn, too.

*Photo of Sen. David Cogdill from Robert Durell of the Los Angeles Times.

The conflict between Georgia and Russia dominates Friday's Letters to the Editor.  Robert Ronus, of Los Angeles, wonders whether it's really all Russia's fault:

If we believe in democracy, surely we should also push for a referendum under which the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia can decide whether they wish to remain part of Georgia, become part of Russia or possibly become independent nations.

Fontana's Jose Marroquin airs a beef with a Times report about voters in the Florida exurbs who now question their allegiance to the Republican party. 

I suppose it's heartening to read that The Times had to drive all the way to Florida in order to find a group of people who put four and two together and come up with zero. On my block, right here in an exurb of Los Angeles, most associate the declines we've seen in the past two years with the Democratic-controlled congress.

...So keep driving around asking people sitting in their driveways what they're talking about, and I'm sure you'll find more who can't add it up.  But with the price of gas these days, you may want to consider looking in your own backyard--unless, of course, you're afraid of what you might hear.

The Whole Foods crowd strikes back, Mexico and guns, and nuns vs. labor, too.

*Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov, AFP/Getty Images