Kathleen Sebelius provided few specifics in her dull State of the State speech last night, talking mostly in generalities about overcoming adversity and working together, our editorial today noted. Some of those details are now coming out, as her revised 2009 budget and 2010 blueprint were released today. Sebelius proposes to freeze money to public schools, cut universities’ budgets, slash promised aid to cities and counties, suspend planned tax cuts and force administrative savings.
It’s time for the United Nations to shed its impotency and impose tough sanctions on Israel. That would be the least the U.N. could do after sitting silently for years through a “peace process” that Israel has used as a cover to grab Palestinian land. Israel’s air raids in Gaza started just before New Year’s began, when Gazans were out in the streets. It has targeted residential buildings to go after Hamas leaders, fully aware that civilians would die. It is using white phosphorus to cover the advance of ground troops, a weapon that burns skin on contact and is unlawful if used where civilians are present. But the U.S. for years has argued against sanctions, backed up by its Security Council veto. So long as it continues that stance, the U.N. will fail in its role of maintaining the international peace. – John B. Quigley, Ohio State University law professor
The cause for the current fighting – and its morality – is exceedingly clear. Since its bloody ouster of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party from the Gaza Strip 18 months ago, Hamas has established a virtual terrorist enclave there. The radical Islamist movement has used its time not to govern but to build up a formidable arsenal of weapons – arms it has used to wage a systematic campaign of asymmetric terror against Israel. For years, the Israeli government did little in response to Hamas’ provocations, hoping it could hammer out some sort of “cold peace” with the militants next door. All of that changed last month, when Hamas abrogated a six-month ceasefire with new rocket attacks against Israel. The U.S. should use its U.N. Security Council seat to ensure that Israel can fully attain its strategic objectives. – Ilan Berman, vice president for policy, American Foreign Policy Council
Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn acknowledged Sunday that the economic news keeps getting worse – which it did Monday with Cessna Aircraft’s announcement that it is laying off 2,000 workers. But Peterjohn expressed hope in our ability to overcome these problems by looking to our state’s past. In remarks at his swearing-in ceremony, Peterjohn noted our state’s motto, “To the stars through difficulties,” and how we have faced other challenges and controversies. “Our state was born in a cauldron of problems and disputes that were much worse than anything we face in Sedgwick County today,” he said. Such a historical perspective can help us avoid what Peterjohn termed “irrational pessimism.”
Kathleen Sebelius provided few specifics in her dull State of the State speech last night, talking mostly in generalities about overcoming adversity and working together, our editorial today noted. Some of those details are now coming out, as her revised 2009 budget and 2010 blueprint were released today. Sebelius proposes to freeze money to public schools, cut universities’ budgets, slash promised aid to cities and counties, suspend planned tax cuts and force administrative savings.
