The horror of contaminated baby formula in China, like earlier instances of poisoned dog food and unsafe construction in earthquake-crumpled schools, is what happens when free markets meet an unfree political system. If brand China has been devalued, China's ruling Communist Party has nobody to blame but itself.

It is the human dimension of the milk powder scandal – the suffering inflicted on Chinese infants and their families – that ought to be the first concern of party officials. More than 50,000 babies have been sickened, often with kidney disease or kidney stones, and at least three have died. The milk is tainted with the industrial additive melamine, a chemical used in plastics and glue. Dairy farmers used melamine to raise the protein count in their milk, and personnel at milk collection centers ignored it.

The primary cause of this failure to protect the health of infants in China is a corrupting symbiosis of capitalists and communists – the intertwining of corporate managers and highly placed party officials. The chairwoman of the dairy corporation at the center of the tragedy was appointed to the post by the Communist Party bosses of Hebei province, and she herself was a prominent party official.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: NO JOKE: BREAST MILK ICE CREAM

“. . . [W]e all screamed” when we heard that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had asked Ben & Jerry's to start making Cherry Garcia and Chubby Hubby with human breast milk.

“If Ben & Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers – and cows – would reap the benefits,” a PETA spokeswoman said in a letter to co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

PETA says it came up with the idea after reading about a Swiss restaurant owner's plan to buy breast milk from nursing mothers and substitute it for the cow's milk in its menu items.

We know what you're thinking. This is not for real. This is from The Onion. We thought so, too. But no. It's a real letter, and it generated a real response from a Ben & Jerry's spokeswoman, who passed on the opportunity to make crass jokes – ask your sixth-grader, if you must, or try Google – and instead politely declined the suggestion.

“We believe a mother's milk is best used for her child,” the company said.

That's precisely the point, PETA crowed: “Cow's milk is for baby cows.” When fed to baby humans, dairy products can lead to “juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity and prostate and ovarian cancer.”

THE ECONOMIST (LONDON): BLAMING AMERICA

One by one, European leaders have lined up to hail the triumph of welfare over Wall Street. “The idea that markets are always right was a mad idea,” declared the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

America's laissez-faire ideology, as practiced during the subprime crisis, “was as simplistic as it was dangerous,” chipped in Peer Steinbruck, the German finance minister. He added that America would lose its role as “financial superpower.” The Italian finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, claimed vindication for a best-selling book that he wrote earlier this year about the dangers of globalization.

It would be wrong to exaggerate Europe's sense of self-righteousness over Wall Street's fall. Last week governments in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands all scrambled to bail out their troubled banks, confirming how exposed Europe's economies are to knock-on effects from America.

Even left-wing editorialists in France, quick to sneer at degenerate American capitalism, have tempered their glee.

THE SACRAMENTO BEE: PROTECTING THE RULE OF LAW?

The attorney general of the United States and the Justice Department are supposed to protect the rule of law. Unfortunately, under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the department failed to meet that obligation. Instead, Justice became politicized, basing decisions on partisan pressure rather than on evidence and the law.

That summarizes the conclusion of a 392-page report by the Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, “An Investigation into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006.” The report offers a depressing catalog of the destruction of this key department under Gonzales.

Normally, U.S. attorneys are removed only for misconduct or gross incompetence – or during a change of presidential administration. Never before have U.S. attorneys been removed en masse midterm. The most egregious example was in New Mexico, where Republican Party activists and members of Congress complained to the White House that the U.S. attorney had declined to pursue voter fraud and corruption cases before key elections.

– COMPILED BY ROBERT A. KITTLE; EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR