OLMERT'S RESIGNATION
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud "Olmert, two years after assuming office and promising to make Israel a more 'fun' place to live, leaves us a nation in shame. He went to war in Lebanon to restore our military deterrence and destroy Hezbollah's military capacity. Instead, he shattered Israeli self-confidence in our ability to defend ourselves, and empowered Hezbollah as the strongest force in Lebanese politics, with an arsenal three times larger than it possessed before Olmert's war . . . "
YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI
Blogs.tnr.com
"By making his intentions clear at this stage, he will at least earn back some respect from his coalition colleagues, and will be able to leave office on his own timetable, rather than having the police and state attorney's office decide it for him.
"It is also the smart thing personally, at least as regards being able to better contend with the several legal proceedings now moving against him . . . Finally, Olmert did the smart thing historically - and from the way he defended his entire term of office in his comments, offering up a list of achievements during his shortened tenure as prime minister, he was also clearly thinking as much of his long-term legacy as he was his immediate fate."
CALEV BEN-DAVID
www.sanfranciscosentinel.com
"During last night's resignation speech, as the cameras zoomed in for a close-up of Olmert's red-rimmed, tear-filled eyes, the soon-to-be-ex-prime minister extolled his accomplishments. He also praised Israel's democratic institutions, which did not differentiate between an ordinary citizen and the prime minister. In media follow up, Olmert's advisers tried to make him look like Tony Blair. For most Israelis, however, the prime minister seems more like another Tony - Tony Soprano."
LISA GOLDMAN
Pajamasmedic.com
COLLEGE LOANS
"The reality is simply a limit of available resources, and unlimited ideas of how we can spend those resources for the greater good. And if the voters in the poll and at elections truly agree that we need to continue our current education financing system at any cost, there will need to be more taxes - marginally pushing more homeowners and businesses to cut spending elsewhere or default and enter into foreclosure.
"All this to save a debt-based system that leaves our graduates with tens of thousands of dollars to be paid back over decades of compounding interest? Maybe the business reality is giving us a big hint about what the greater good really is."
FREE COLLEGE BLOG
Freecollegeblog.com.
"I am saddened that the financial crisis has had such extensive a reach that financial institutions are not able to fund one of our nation's most valuable investments - education. I am also saddened that otherwise qualified students, who might not be able to afford the substantial costs of tuition on their own, may be forced to accept uncompetitive loans at very high rates, or in the extreme, forced to sit out of school until the economy improves . . .
"Since many universities have amassed fantastic endowments (see Wikipedia on Endowments), now might be the time for them to tap those endowments to make loans on a temporary basis (until conditions improve) to their own students. Now there are obviously large disparities across universities in their endowments; however, I suspect that many universities are in a position to support such programs. After all, it would not represent a pure expense for the school (in the form of a nonrepayable grant), but rather, an investment with a potentially healthy return."
ROBERT SALOMON
Blog.rebertsalomon.com
