A banner day for the New York Times.

Newspapers that don't go out for blood are worthless. The Times often should be itself flayed because it so often doesn't take full advantage of its tremendous resources and usually undeserved clout and instead exudes arrogance and condescension.

This morning, however, its reporters slapped on their fedoras and got the goods, and their editors snapped out of it, rolled up their Brooks Brothers sleeves, and laid it on us.

Like Jimmy Cagney shoving a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face in The Public Enemy (1931), Ethan Bronner's "U.N. and Red Cross Add to Outcry on Gaza War" calls a war a war and shoves the details into your face during your breakfast before you have time to take your first sip of coffee:

You can see that Bronner's piece doesn't fiddle around with the paper's usual stiff, officious lede followed by some boring, pseudo-analytical claptrap about how something affects decision-makers.

Bronner's second paragraph is the kind of thing you usually see as the lede of such a story:

The paper's still not up to speed on the fact that many Jews, both here and in Israel (particularly in Israel), are angrily opposed to the war on Gaza.

The peace movement among Jews gets prominent play in the vibrant Israeli press and in other outlets around the world. But not in the U.S. media.

However, you can always go to New York's own Forward, thank G-d, where the indefatigable Nathan Guttman's "Peace Groups Lose First Major Gaza Challenge On Capitol Hill: Attempts by Activists To Shape Resolution Come Up Short" opens a window on news that most of the rest of the U.S. press routinely ignores.

Enough of the negative stuff about negative stuff: The Times does deserve another kudos or two or three: Another example of today's fired-up Times is a Paris dispatch from veteran Alan Cowell, "Gaza Children Found With Mothers' Corpses":

Years ago, Cowell did a bang-up job writing such pieces day after day for the Times from apartheid-era South Africa. Now he's filing stuff about apartheid-era Israel.

Even the paper's editorial page this morning took off its kid gloves, dismissed its manservants and maids, and unleashed a sneer or two at its fellow Establishment members. Labeling the confirmation hearing for the new Secretary of Health and Human Services a "cuddly welcome for Mr. Daschle," the editorial board climbed down from the pedestal it has built for itself and started punching at the incoming Obama regime:

A welcome dose of cynicism instead of the expected deadly dull civility and caution.

Yes, there are still some nits to pick in the Times, but this morning the paper emits a louder buzz than usual.

Tally-ho! Release the hounds! The paper usually acts more like C. Montgomery Burns hounding the beleaguered folk in Springfield. This morning, it's dogging a newspaper's proper targets.

While you're wiping the grapefruit off your face, click on these items, front-loaded this morning only with other Times pieces, most of which have surprisingly hard-hitting, newsy ledes...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

N.Y. Times: 'Latinos Recall Pattern of Attacks Before Long Island Killing'

N.Y. Times: 'Senate Allies Fault Obama on Stimulus'

N.Y. Times: 'As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff's Wallet Grew Fatter'

N.Y. Times: 'Fatal Avalanches Rattle Ski Country in the West'

N.Y. Times: 'Bill Easing Unionizing Is Under Heavy Attack'

N.Y. Times: 'Nationwide Inquiry on Bids for Municipal Bonds'

N.Y. Times: 'For BlackBerry, Obama's Devotion Is Priceless'

Bloomberg: 'Excrement, Insulation, Bike Paths Trim CO2 Emissions in Cities'

Wall Street Journal: 'A Wolfe in Regulator's Clothing: Drug Industry Critic Joins the FDA'

N.Y. Post: 'KID PERV IN AIDS SCARE'

Bloomberg: 'Brokers Disdain Toaster Salesmen in Bank America's Merrill Deal'

N.Y. Post: 'SLAY FESS: REALTOR SENT ME OVER EDGE'

Wall Street Journal: 'Business Warms to Obama, but Frictions Loom on Climate'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Gotti hit man dips his foe in acid, but loves mommy'

N.Y. Post: 'CAROLINE HAS "A MINUS": GOV'

Wall Street Journal: 'Wall Street Is Big Donor to Inauguration'

N.Y. Post: 'JUST LIKE OL' CRIMES: NYPD'S LETUP STIRS FEARS OF '80S FLASHBACK'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Brooklyn Nets Arena cutbacks? Bruce Ratner scales back plans; Star architect Frank Gehry may go'

Wall Street Journal: 'Lehman Brothers Plans Private-Equity Spinoff'

N.Y. Post: 'UPSTATE "PONZI" HITS CHURCHES'

N.Y. Post: 'FORMER GOPER MIKE WANTS TO GET BACK IN'

Wall Street Journal: 'Bailout Pact Of GM, U.S. Would Block A UAW Strike'

Bloomberg: 'London Boom Time Bill Comes Due as Bankers Buy Coffee on Credit'

N.Y. Post: 'PUSH VS. TERRORIST "CELLS"'

N.Y. Daily News: 'I snapped & whacked her: Chilling confession in Linda Stein slay aired'

N.Y. Post: 'MTA'S "GREEN" BACKS'

N.Y. Post: 'NY CIVIL WAR BONES FOUND'

Wall Street Journal: 'Hedge-Fund Middlemen Get Pinched'

N.Y. Post: 'RATTNER BLOWOUT: BOTTLENECK DEVELOPS IN POSSIBLE CAR CZAR APPOINTMENT'

N.Y. Post: 'MORTGAGE RATES DROP'

Wall Street Journal: 'Chevron Warns of Hefty Drop in Earnings'

Bloomberg: 'Billion-Dollar U.S. Verdicts Vanish After Appeals, New Rulings'

N.Y. Post: 'DTV DELAY BACKED BY OBAMA'

Bloomberg: 'Obama Must Tackle Fannie, Freddie's Federal Ties'

Wall Street Journal: 'Panel Steps Up Criticism of Treasury Over TARP'

Bloomberg: 'Al-Jazeera Said to Mull Bid for English Soccer's Mideast Rights'

Bloomberg: 'Madoff's Three-Bedroom Riviera Retreat Belied Ponzi Scheme Role'

Bloomberg: 'Merkin Intimidated Co-Op Board While Building Funds Madoff Lost'

N.Y. Post: 'FINAL MADOFF PLUNDER PLAN'

Bloomberg: 'Uma Thurman No Help to Arpad Busson in Madoff Fraud's Nightmare'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S.: Madoff Had $173 Million in Checks'

Bloomberg: 'Madoff Con Hits Boston, Home to Victim Shapiro, Ponzi'