I come to praise the News-Press

The Santa Barbara News-Press is a liberal (in the debased, late-20th-century sense of that term--i.e., socialist) paper in a majority liberal town. It is not uncommon to find unhinged anti-Bush editorials and propaganda pieces such as Sunday's pro-illegal-immigrant articles. But every so often, someone on the editorial staff gets it right. (I presume not Wendy, as she's probably too busy working up the News-Press's 33rd editorial against feral pig genocide, but who knows?)

Today's editorial rightly criticizes the City Council for spending time on feel-good socialist policies (the recently passed "living wage" ordinace, discussion of putting a limit on local political campaign spending), while ignoring the city's real and obvious problems, such as the ever-increasing hordes of slovenly and abusive vagrants that now throng State Street, and the increasingly violent Latino gangs--the editors note the two recent stabbings downtown, in broad daylight. But such problems are difficult to solve, and would require standing up to the people that want to tear this city down. Much easier to protest against the war in Iraq.

Congratulations to the News-Press editors for pointing out what should be obvious: city council members should be addressing the city's serious problems of security and safety. But given Santa Barbara's propensity for electing lefty ideologues with little real-world experience in business or leadership, this may be hoping for too much.