State

John Kerry, who is worth an estimated $198.65 million, will donate $9,175 because of the so-called sequestration. 

"A day after Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they'd return 5 percent of their paycheck to the Treasury, Secretary of State John Kerry followed in somewhat similar fashion," the Huffington Post reports.

A group called Gun Control = More Crime is planning anti-gun control rallies at state capitol buildings across the nation. The event, being billed "Guns Across America," is scheduled for tomorrow, January 19.

In response to North Korea successfully launching a rocket earlier today, the Iranian regime sends its congratulations.

Last week, North Korea announced that it would launch a satellite into space later this month. Today, the North Koreans are suggesting that launch might be delayed "for some reasons."

America's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, stated that today's resolution on the status of Palestine as an observer state "does not establish that Palestine is a state."

Via Maggie Haberman, the Obama campaign announces Bill Clinton will campaign in Minnesota:

A new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds that the largest federal budget item is spending on welfare programs. To support the 83 programs that CRS identified as welfare programs, the federal government spends $745.84 billion. 

That dollar amount exceeds the $725 billion spent by the federal government on Social Security, $480 billion on Medicare, and $540 billion on non-war defense.

There is much to admire in Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic convention: the admirable delivery, the praise of her husband’s virtues was sincere and moving, and the rags-to-riches tale avoided seeming stale after so many others.

One aspect of President Obama's philosophically revealing — and mock-worthy — "Julia" web ad doesn't seem to have garnered as much attention as one might have expected. Just as Julia's life of government dependency isn't likely to inspire a new set of books along the lines of the celebration of self-reliance and freedom depicted in the Little House on the Prairie series, her romantic life isn't likely to spawn any sequels to Jane Austen novels.

New York Times editor Bill Keller finally responded to Gabriel Schoenfeld's argument that his paper has a duty not to publish certain state secrets. (Schoenfeld's argument was made in his latest book, Necessary Secrets, which previously received a favorable review by Alan Dershowitz in the Times.)

The widespread condemnation Europeans have expressed toward Israel after its commandos boarded the so-called peace flotilla on May 31 - and used force only when threatened with death - signals a desire to turn every Israeli action of self-defense into absolution for the crimes of the Holocaust.