Editorials : The Rocky Mountain News

A tale of two paths in the Middle East

Sixty years after the founding of Israel, Americans of good will are focusing on that democracy's remarkable achievements and challenges - which is only proper given the wildly improbable nature of such an anniversary after the Jewish genocide during World War II.

Bush went overboard in Nazi reference

George Bush is such a stickler for the niceties of the presidency that he instituted a White House dress code and will not enter the Oval Office without a suit jacket. Thus, it's mildly shocking that he would violate an unwritten nicety of the capital - partisanship stops at the water's edge - and in rather ugly fashion.

Still a bad bill

In a sad show of election-year politicking, the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday passed the 2008 Farm Bill by veto-proof margins. President Bush still says he'll veto the measure anyway.

The next president's fiscal albatross

Congress has done the next president no favors. The House and Senate have agreed on a budget resolution that postpones the tough decisions on taxes and spending until next year.

A hollow gesture

Congress has taken an ineffectual step toward curbing gasoline prices. This week it directed President Bush to suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Myanmar in an incompetent class by itself

China's response to a devastating earthquake should make the Myanmar government ashamed of its own lackadaisical response to a lethal cyclone.

Time for a truce

Denver County Court Judge Doris E. Burd's decision to dismiss a misdemeanor charge against Skinner Middle School Principal Nicole Veltze should have closed the book on this unfortunate saga.

Vacancy crisis

Frankly, we can't determine who's to blame for the Bush administration's failure to nominate candidates to fill any of the three openings in Colorado's seven-judge federal district.

Maybe they really mean 'snob'

Since when did "elite" become a pejorative word? Hillary Rodham Clinton says she won't be swayed from her idea of a summer gasoline-tax holiday by "elite opinion," meaning the opinion of every serious economist who's looked at the proposal.

Quaffing in the parks

We take you to La Alma Recreation Center in Denver, where the Denver Parks and Recreation Advisory Board last week conducted a public hearing on proposed changes in the alcohol policy for the parks.

The car-seizure ordinance

Denver police have the discretion to impound a driver's vehicle for a host of reasons. Obstructing traffic, driving without a license, parking in a tow-away zone, using stolen license plates - 19 separate offenses are spelled out in Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code.