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The New York Times dealt with the implications of attacking lawyers who represent truly unpopular people; the importance of this year’s US Census; the Turkish constitution; and the damage of the Supreme Court’s recent decision that blew open campaign finance to corporations.

The New York Times – echoing a Washington Post editorial last week on roughly the same subject – lambasted those “demagogues on the right”, often heard on Fox News, the paper said, who are “are smearing loyal Americans as disloyal and charging that the government is being undermined from within.” The paper charges that those who are going after Department of Justice lawyers defending Guantanamo Bay detainees are trying to “distract Americans from the real issues surrounding detention policy.” More than that, it’s essentially damaging a fundamental of the American way of life: “If lawyers who take on controversial causes are demonized with impunity, it will be difficult for unpopular people to get legal representation — and constitutional rights that protect all Americans will be weakened. That is a high price to pay for scoring cheap political points.”

This March, the US Census Bureau will be sending out the shortest Census form in the entire history of census forms (longer than you might think – there have been decennial censuses since 1790). The question remains whether anyone will bother to fill it out and send it back. The New York Times urged Americans to do their part and stand up and be counted. “[T]he census is about building and rebuilding a representative democracy where divisive issues can be constructively debated. When your census form arrives, fill it out and send it back. Your country will thank you.”

Turkey needs to move away from military leadership and towards civilian control of the democracy, the paper wrote: “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan needs to curb his own autocratic tendencies and push for replacing the military-imposed constitution with one that enshrines rights for Kurds and other minorities, religious and press freedoms, a commitment to secular rule and a law-based judiciary. And Turkey’s military leaders need to continue exercising restraint.”

The “multibillion-dollar politicking industry” is about to get a big boost from the recent Supreme Court decision that “freed corporate executives and union bosses to spend whatever they want on their own commercials touting candidates who toe their lines or, more likely, attacking those who don’t.” Congress needs to act quickly, The New York Times contended, and pass the remedial Schumer-Van Hollen bill “to rein in at least some of the damage.”

The Washington Post takes on a Japanese politician who thinks that 9/11 was a “gigantic hoax” and claims that the list of Race to the Top finalists isn’t “as exclusive” as it should be.

Yukihisa Fujita is evidently a major political figure in Japan, high up in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and somebody with a lot of influence over Japanese foreign policy. And, The Washington Post wrote today, he doesn’t believe in 9/11. Specifically, Fujita told The Post, he doesn’t believe that the attacks were really the work of terrorists, but instead subscribes to a “bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus” shadowy conspiracy theory. While that’s crazy for you, The Post wrote that his deep-seated distrust of America seems to reflect a strain of anti-American sentiment plaguing the current Japanese ruling party. And that’s not good.

Race to the Top is a country-wide initiative of the US Department of Education offering billions of dollars in education funding to schools that offer bold plans and commitment to education reform. Except, The Washington Post says, the list of first-round finalists doesn’t exactly imply the “very, very high bar” that Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised. We’ll see when the finalists make their next pitches in Washington, the paper said.

The Los Angeles Times today tackled the Armenian “genocide” question and wrote that the US Postal Service needs to do more to cut costs.

Last week, the US Congress risked undermining the US’s relationship with Turkey by moving to declare the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1918 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire “genocide.” The Los Angeles Times supported the move and wrote, “The goal is Turkish and Armenian reconciliation, putting to rest the ghosts of the past. That is in the U.S. interest as well as that of both peoples. For it to happen, the onus is on Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.”

And after the US Postal Service revealed that it could stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade unless Congress allows it to cut Saturday deliveries, among other measures, The Los Angeles Times urged the Postal Service to take a “harder-headed look at the situation.” No one uses the mail anymore, at least not on the level the Postal Service needs to survive; more cuts are needed to make this dying organization viable.

And The Upshot, a quick look at editorial pages from around the country:

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Congress is finally moving forward with banking industry reform, but that the legislature needs to stand strong against banking lobbies.

The Boston Globe said that the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t done enough to avoid conflicts of interest among those who serve on its scientific advisory boards and panels.

The Chicago Tribune urged Congress to dump the controversial ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, “don’t ask, don’t tell”: “Gays have always been there and always will be. What difference would it make if they could be open about their identity? Probably not much.”

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