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Lingua publica

The good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal

web posted March 26, 2012

"As of 5:25 am, AP has fully called 16 of the 18 congressional districts [in Illinois], and Santorum carried only three of them, for a total of 10 delegates. ...So the current total is Romney 41, Santorum 10, with 3 too close to call. If the current numbers hold up ... Santorum gets 2 of the remaining 3, leaving a final score of 42-12 Romney. ... The non-Romneys now would have to win about 56% of remaining delegates in order to control a majority of delegates among them. So far, they've won about 42 percent of delegates. That means, by my quick math, that they would need to improve by more than 33 percent over past performance. I don't see any reason to suspect this might happen." --columnist Timothy P. Carney

"There is no reasonable expectation that Santorum can get the delegates necessary to win the nomination. ... Santorum had a good run; an extraordinary run. ... In the run-up to the Iowa Caucuses on January 3, Rick Santorum was a bit player in the back of the chorus line. In the early debates Rick Santorum was at one end showing his lack of support in the polls. ... He will do well in Louisiana on Saturday but there are no election activities after that until April 3; then nothing until the Northeast primary on April 24. It is time. Over the next 30 days this will become blindingly clear. Santorum and Gingrich should bow out and get in behind the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney." --columnist Rich Galen

"[W]hat we see is that Romney won big in metro Chicago, carried the counties with small cities (Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign-Urbana) Downstate and ran even in the two counties just east of St. Louis, for a solid victory. Romney essentially carried the areas that Barack Obama carried against John McCain in November 2008." --political analyst Michael Barone

"In the general election, President Obama will have all the advantages against Romney that Romney currently has against his Republican rivals. ... And the mainstream media will give Obama more publicity than Romney can buy. How does anyone ever defeat a sitting president then? They do it because they have a message that rings and resonates. ... The question is not which Republican looks better against Barack Obama in the polls today, before the general election campaign begins. The question is which Republican can take the fight to Barack Obama, as Reagan took the fight to Carter, and win the poll that ultimately matters, the vote on Election Day." --economist Thomas Sowell

"[D]o not tell me that we're not drilling. We're drilling all over this country. I mean, I guess there's some -- there are a few spots where we're not drilling. We're not drilling in the national mall. We're not drilling at your house. I guess we could try to have like, you know, 200 oil rigs in the middle of Chesapeake Bay." --Barack Obama, the great orator

"Change is the decisions we made to stop waiting for a Congress to do something about our oil addiction and finally raised fuel efficiency standards on our cars and on our trucks so that by next decade we will be driving American-made cars that get 55 miles per gallon." --Barack Obama

"Actually we're not hearing a lot about gas prices right now from constituents. And I think that reflects a growing understanding on the part of the public, that there really is very little that the government and politicians can do." --Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)

"If some of these [Republican] folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the 'flat earth society.' They would not believe that the world was round." --Barack Obama

"[It's] not as trendy to be an Obama supporter, because it's not as fresh. Those [HOPE] posters are kind of rolled up in some closet somewhere. But my determination, my determination is unwavering. My passion to bring about change is undiminished. The need is still great." --Barack Obama

"Jesus did not help just the sick who could afford to pay for it." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on why Christians should support the top-down government takeover of health care known as ObamaCare

"You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan." --Joe Biden on Obama's decision to take out bin Laden

"Encouraging news on gas prices. New indications this morning that they may have peaked. ... So far high gas prices haven't hurt consumers but a fear if they continue to go up they will." --ABC's George Stephanopoulos

"This is Christmas in March if you're a Democrat because this is sort of silly season, this is not going anywhere fast." --MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner on Paul Ryan's budget proposal

"[A]s poor as the economy is in Mississippi and in Alabama, for them to vote for the richest guy who endorses the policies that reinforces their economic problems is absolutely throwing reason out the window. But if you're driven by hate and bias, and that is peppered by these talk-radio, hate-radio guys, then you don't even think about the fact that you're suffering under these policies. You vote for the policies that caused your suffering." --MSNBC's Al Sharpton, who routinely supports the policies that reinforce economic problems

"[The Republicans have] got three RCs, or two RCs -- two Roman Catholics -- running and a Mormon, so three cultists running, and they gotta pick one of the three cultists, as they see them." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

"I think [Republicans] should test the alleged laws of gravity by jumping out of a plane without a parachute." --Stephanie Miller show sidekick Jim Ward

"[Barack Obama] is the most Jewish president we've ever had (except for Rutherford B. Hayes). No president, not even Bill Clinton, has traveled so widely in Jewish circles, been taught by so many Jewish law professors, and had so many Jewish mentors, colleagues, and friends, and advisers as Barack Obama." --The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg

"[I] think the president's quite comfortable being the underdog. I think he's happy to run this race from -- as if he were behind the whole time." --former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

"Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?" --actor Robert DeNiro

"My remarks, although spoken with satirical jest, were not meant to offend or embarrass anyone -- especially the First Lady." --DeNiro, apologizing to Michelle Obama for offensive remarks about the Republican candidates' wives

"How can you have in our country that is based upon liberality and liberation, be so anti-liberal. That's toxic waste to our consciousness. It's hard to be an American conservative because that's a contradiction in terms. Now if you take away freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of protest, and lock people out based upon their race, their language and their religion, that's conservative and fascist. America is a liberal idea." --"The Reverend" Jesse Jackson

"There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority, and wisdom. ... [H]e has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world." --British PM David Cameron

"I love abortion. I don't accept it. I don't view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. ... I love abortion. ... No woman benefits from even the vaguest insinuation that abortion is an immoral or objectionable option. That's the weak argument made by misogynistic, forced-birth advocates, and it has no place in a dialogue about reproductive freedom. ... Rather than trying to cozy up to the forced-birth camp, women who value their freedom should be proud to say that they like abortion. In fact, they should venerate it whole-heartedly. ... What's not to love?" --abortion activist Jessica DelBalzo

"The First Amendment was specifically designed for citizens to insult politicians. Libel laws were written to protect law students speaking out on political issues from getting called whores by Oxycontin addicts." --HBO's Bill Maher on why it's ok for him to personally attack Sarah Palin but condemn Rush Limbaugh on Sandra Fluke

"Congratulations to Obama! He's now increased the debt more in three years than George W. Bush did his entire eight year presidency. But all that spending was worth it because just look at the great results! So what exactly is the argument that Obama isn't a hugely incompetent failure? So far it's 'Look! Over there! A war on women!'" --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Washington last week and, as expected, President Obama apologized to Cameron for the Revolutionary War." --Jodi Miller

"President Obama hosted a state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. The president and the British are getting along a lot better lately. They love to compare notes on ways the Tea Party's always trying to overthrow their rule in America." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the reporters at his morning briefing that he hoped they would watch the new movie about Obama's first term 'many times.' They might. Look how well 'Titanic' did at the box office." --Fred Thompson

"After 100 years of trying, finally we passed health care for all Americans as a right for all -- not just a privilege for a few. It honored the vows of our Founders: Of life, a healthier life; liberty; the freedom to pursue our own happinesses. ... We knew that ... this bill was ironclad constitutionally." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on ObamaCare

web posted March 19, 2012

"If this was match play golf, Rick Santorum would be seven shots down with six holes to play. He has indeed played the last three holes wonderfully well, winning in Kansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, but Romney's sweeps in the far flung islands of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, his wins in Hawaii and American Samoa, plus the former Massachusetts governor's relatively strong showing in the southern brace of states means that over the past week the delegate math didn't change and neither did the inevitable result of the GOP nominating contest. Indeed, when all the sums are added, Romney won more delegates in the days since Super Tuesday than did Santorum. ... President Obama can be beaten. The next few weeks can be part of a very deliberate and useful turning of attention to his woeful tenure and the awful prospect of another four years under his ruinous fecklessness. No towels have to be thrown in, but each candidate has to consider the party as a whole and not just his own standing within it." --columnist Hugh Hewitt

"To be clear, Romney is still the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination given his lead in delegates, but [Tuesday] he lost another chance to put the final nail in the coffin of his opponents by proving he could win on unfriendly turf. Santorum's twin victories in the deep south, which was supposed to be Newt Gingrich's territory, strengthens his argument that it's a two man race between himself and Romney, with him playing the role of the first choice of conservatives. ... The bottom line is that [Tuesday's] results reinforce the fact that it's going to be a long slog toward the nomination for Romney and this race isn't going to be over anytime soon." --columnist Philip Klein

"When it was being debated, Democrats told you [Obamacare] would cost $940 billion over ten years, because they think you're stupid. But now, with more years of fully-bloomed Obamacare inside the ten-year budget window, the CBO is out with new cost estimates. They ain't pretty: ... '[T]he ten-year cost of the law's core provisions to expand health insurance coverage has now ballooned to $1.76 trillion. That's because we now have estimates for Obamacare's first nine years of full implementation, rather than the mere six when it was signed into law.' ... [T]he true ten-year cost is going to be still higher. To me, the question has never been whether Obamacare will fail (by failing to bend the cost curve, by incurring massive per-person costs for its coverage expansion, and by foisting things like IPAB on the public). Rather, the question has been whether it will fail quickly and spectacularly enough that the political will is toward repeal, and not expansion. If it fails slowly, we're likely to see more of it, not less." --columnist Daniel Foster

"The latest mass killing by an American soldier follows a three-year downward spiral.... After ten years, we have forgotten why we went into Afghanistan in the first place.... Now, even before the latest disaster, there is no public support for staying in Afghanistan. And yet to leave is to envision choppers on the embassy roof, Vietnam-style, as the Taliban lets loose on women, liberals, and the American supporters in the larger cities. ... The president should either put Afghanistan on the front burner, quit apologizing, seek diplomatic and military continuity, spell out to the people exactly what our aims and methods are, assume the role of commander-in-chief, cease all talk of withdrawal, and define, as it could be defined, 'victory' -- or simply get out, declare a teleprompted hope-and-change-style victory, and not put Americans in harm's way in a war that was more a 2008 campaign trope than a serious conflict to be won." --historian Victor Davis Hanson

"Feminists are declaring a sex strike for Obamacare-subsidized birth control. The group Liberal Ladies Who Lunch is organizing 'Access Denied,' a week-long exercise in self-denial starting April 28. The strike is supposed to motivate men to stand up for government-funded birth control 'because when we lose our reproductive choices, so do they.' This is akin to protesting welfare cuts by getting a job. ... In this case, activists are abandoning the activity that causes their supposed need for the birth-control handout. ... Conservatives should applaud the strike. Abstention is well-regarded on the right, and not simply because it is 100 percent effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Taking a week off from promiscuity may give young women an opportunity to think about their life choices. Perhaps there is more to being a woman than ensuring the government supplies the means to engage in limitless hookups. Nursing chastity for a week puts necessary perspective on the type of subsidized sexuality that's at the center of the debate." --The Washington Times

"When we start using religion as a bludgeon in politics, when we start questioning other people's faith, we start using religion to divide, instead of bring the country together, then I think we've got a problem." --Barack Obama

"I'm going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future. I hope politicians from both sides of the aisle join me." --Barack Obama

"If you are willing to work as hard in this election as you did in the last one, change will come!" --Barack Obama

"[The Keystone XL pipeline] won't lower the price of oil. Construction won't be complete for a long, long time,. And under the way it's constructed now, all the oil would be sold elsewhere. We can't have that. When I say elsewhere, I mean to some other country." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

"These [Republicans] don't have a sense of the average folks out there. They don't know what it means to be middle class." --Joe Biden addressing 87 wealthy Democrats at a $10,000-per-plate fundraiser

"So what happens in Crackerland [read: the South] this week, as we like to say? We have, what, Alabama and Mississippi coming up [Tuesday]." --progressive radio talk-show host Stephanie Miller

"You know, these [conservative] women, somebody really needs to go repossess their ovaries. Really, truly, they have no right to them. They are fabulous, little organs and they have absolutely no right to be estrogen-bearing beings. Okay? Just cut 'em off, let 'em go through the hot flashes, let 'em just sit there and complain about hormone therapy, okay? Just take the ovaries and get it over with. Because they don't deserve to have estrogen. They really don't. It's a privilege." --radio talk-show host Randi Rhodes

"Republican politicians have pursued their assault on Mr. Obama, the left and any American who disagrees with them for years now. There are finally signs that they may pay a price for the casual cruelty with which they attack whole segments of society. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, said on Tuesday that the Republicans have left people thinking they are at war with women. Women are right to think that." --New York Times editorial

"The Rush Limbaugh Show is being broadcast to troops on bases all over the world. However, America has too much at stake, to allow this seedy, ugly-spirited man to roll around in the minds of vulnerable young men. These soldiers are thousands of miles from home, getting shot at by an enemy indistinguishable from our Afghan allies, for a war whose rationale nobody even remembers any more. They need something better than an education in anti-Muslim hatred." --professor Constance Hilliard of the University of North Texas in an article titled, "Did Soldier Who Killed 16 in Afghanistan Receive His Diploma from the Rush Limbaugh Show?"

"[W]e certainly ... hope that the Congress will act in an appropriate fashion and not waste its time with ineffectual, sham legislation [on Keystone XL] that has no impact on the price of gas and is irresponsible because it, as we've said before, tries to legislate the approval of a pipeline for which there is not even a route." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"Since I walked in the door as secretary of energy, I've been doing everything in our powers to do what we can to reduce these gas prices. ... So, of course we don't want the price of gasoline to go up; we want it to go down." --Energy Secretary Steven Chu

"'Let's Move!' is not about having government tell people what to do, because government doesn't have all the answers." --Michelle Obama

"Andrew Breitbart, self-described media mogul, had several screws loose or missing and was the grinning bomb-thrower of the radical right. He was the attack dog kept on a tight leash and brought out on special occasions to hiss and to menace." --Bill Ayers, radical leftist Obama mentor and a literal bomb-thrower, not just a metaphorical one

"The negative for me was there were too many accomplishments. I had 17 minutes to put them all in there. ... I don't [find fault in him], frankly. I'm really quite in awe of him as a leader and the choices he's made." --Davis Guggenheim, director of the new documentary on Barack Obama

"If the left really cared about women, they have lots of misogyny on their own side to police without ever having to worry about conservatives. Plus, their own side might actually listen to them. But they tolerated a Senator who left a woman to drown in a car. And enthusiastically supported a president who sexually harassed women and dismissed accusations of rape against him. And just look at how they treat Sarah Palin. So if a liberal says he cares about women, tell him, 'You care about women the same way I care about your face.' Then punch him really hard in the face." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"President Obama compared himself to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the struggle to bring about change. The comparison is flawed. They spent years in jail before taking political power, while politicians from Chicago do it the other way around." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"One of Warren Buffet's companies owes the government $300 million in unpaid taxes. So that's why Buffet doesn't mind higher taxes on the rich: He's not gonna pay 'em anyway." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"The Air Force is pulling nine cargo aircraft from military operations to support President Obama's stepped-up visits to campaign events. Good. Now he can carry his entire ego with him on the trail." --Fred Thompson

"They say gasoline could be $6 a gallon. But the good news is the White House says President Obama is aware of the problem, and will continue to talk about it between fundraisers." --comedian Jay Leno

web posted March 12, 2012

"Each candidate won where he should have. ... Romney won in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Virginia -- where neither Santorum nor Gingrich were even on the ballot. Santorum can only wonder what his night might have been like had he had the campaign infrastructure to get his name on the ballot in [Virginia]. Santorum won in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota - which I thought might be a Ron Paul win. ... Mitt Romney's campaign will claim that the real contest is for winning delegates, not winning the popular vote in these states and he's right. But, the story of last night was supposed to be that the race was now all but over because Romney demonstrated such strength in so many places. ... [I]t was far more of a struggle than it was supposed to have been. ... Rick Santorum is not going anywhere. He will have the political support and the money to continue at least through the rest of the Spring and perhaps all the way to June. Or, all the way to August." --political analyst Rich Galen

"It was an 'eh' night for Romney, although he avoided catastrophe by pulling out a razor-thin win in Ohio where he was trailing most of the night. Otherwise, he won one state where he used to be governor (Massachusetts), a small Northeastern state (Vermont), an essentially uncontested Southern state (Virginia), a heavily Mormon state out West (Idaho) and Alaska. In Virginia, he couldn't get to 60 percent against just Ron Paul. Rarely has a candidate seemed so inevitable and so weak at the same time. ... A clear demographic split was evident in Ohio. Santorum won non-college graduates and Romney college graduates. Santorum won voters making less than $100,000, Romney voters making more than $100,000. This speaks to a weakness with the working class that could hurt Romney in the fall if he's the nominee." --National Review editor Rich Lowry

"So why are the Left and the media still pushing and publicizing a campaign for advertisers to dump the [Rush] Limbaugh show and end his career? ... Liberals want this government-mandate controversy to be not about religious liberty, which is devastating, but about contraceptives, which works in their favor. That is intellectually dishonest. They want to position conservatives as 'anti-women.' ... The Left honors their own pundits as 'brilliant' for verbally assaulting women, then circulates petitions calling for advertisers to drop the Limbaugh show because his 'anti-woman tirades are appalling.' To the Left, this is simply an opportunity to put their attacks on religious liberty in a feminist frame, and an opportunity to try and shut down Limbaugh." --columnist L. Brent Bozell

"It was just a few days ago that General Motors announced it was [temporarily] killing the Chevy Volt. ... [Monday], the Geneva Auto Show named the Volt its 2012 Car of the Year. ... You can even drive 'an EPA-estimated 35 miles' without gas! Which means you can hit the 7-11, Whole Foods, and pot dispensary in one trip before having to recharge for three hours. ... It turns out that after crash tests done by federal safety regulators, the batteries burst into flame. No wonder there are over 6,000 unsold Volts in stock. Perhaps we can ship them to Europe. In five years, President Obama can buy one ... from abroad. Your stimulus dollars at work!" --columnist Ben Shapiro

"Well, if there's one thing I know about New Hampshire, it's that your political bull detector is pretty sharp. You know we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices. You know there aren't any quick fixes or silver bullets." --Barack Obama

"[J]ust from a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? ... Look, here's the bottom line with respect to gas prices: I want gas prices lower because they hurt families." --Barack Obama

"So if during this political season you hear some question my administration's support for Israel, remember that it's not backed up by the facts. And remember that the U.S.-Israel relationship is simply too important to be distorted by partisan politics. ... So there should not be any doubt of it by now: when the chips are down, I have Israel's back." --Barack Obama

"Around the world, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It takes more than a single president. It takes more than a single individual." --Barack Obama

"I am very proud of the fact I do not cheat when I'm playing golf." --Barack Obama

"It's time ... the Republican Party end the war on women they started. Whether it's the Blunt-Rubio amendment, personhood or attempts to repeal Roe v. Wade, we aren't going to let extremist politicians dictate to women what we can or cannot do with our bodies." --DNC bobble head Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

"What is it about this ideological dream of the right to bear arms that overrides any other rights, I mean the rights to not have your children killed at school?" --CNN's Piers Morgan

"The U.S. military should distribute copies of the Quran in Arabic and other local languages to any and all Afghan civilians who want them. ... The American-distributed Qurans would be gratefully received. Americans, who come from a country awash in books, simply don't realize how important books (especially 'the book' for Afghanistan's Muslims) are to a people that has very few of them." --Daily Beast contributor Richard Miniter

"Now does President Obama understand what contraception is and how it works? I don't know. I kind of assume that he does. But the point is that there is a difference between the two parties on this issue right now. And it maybe doesn't matter if he gets it. Because he's not and the Democrats aren't playing doctor on this issue. They're not saying that the government should be the ones who make the decisions about contraception and how your lady parts work." --MSNBC's Rachel Maddow

"[Andrew Breitbart] was a piece of s---. Period. Just because he is now dead does not change that fact. ... [N]ot only did he despise anything progressive or liberal, not only did he deliberately obfuscate and outright lie with both his words and postings of edited videos about us and groups that help our cause, he willingly attempted and successfully destroyed lives and reputations in the process. And the smug bastard smiled while doing it. He deserves no respect, not while he's living and certainly not in his afterlife." --Daily Kos blogger MisterOpus1

"[Obama] wanted to offer his support to [birth control activist Sandra Fluke]. He wanted to express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks and thank her for exercising her rights as a citizen to speak out on an issue of public policy." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"Obama's call to Sandra Fluke is analogous to JFK's call to Coretta King in 1960. Obama will reap women's votes as JFK did black votes." --Barbara A. Perry, Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center

"The reduction in a number of pregnancies is -- compensates for the cost of contraception. ... Providing contraception as a critical preventive health benefit for women and for their children reduces health care." --Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

"It is common sense that when women are able to plan their pregnancies, populations grow more slowly and as a result so do greenhouse gas emissions. Providing access to contraception and preventative health should be one of the many effective strategies used to fight climate change." --Stanford University executive and climate activist Kavita Ramdas

"Seizing the opportunity to show his respect for women's rights, President Obama has decided to give the commencement address at the all-female Barnard College this May. The school had already hired a speaker -- the New York Times' first female executive editor, Jill Abramson -- but it dropped her after a phone call from the White House. A college spokesman said students are eager to hear from a president who works tirelessly to provide equal opportunity for women. The school apologized to the female editor it bumped, explaining that they simply found someone better qualified to give the speech." --humorist Scott Ott

"The University of North Carolina-Greensboro has ordered a Christian club to allow non-Christians as leaders. While we're at it, let's put high school dropouts in charge of the University." --Fred Thompson

"In a speech on Wall Street the other day, President Obama compared himself to Gandhi. Well, that makes sense. He's created a lot of jobs in India." --comedian Jay Leno

"A U.S. Marine rescued a boy who fell into the lion cage at the National Zoo. He jumped over the fence, punched the lion, and snatched away the boy. The next day the Washington Post reported that a Marine attacked an African immigrant and stole his lunch." --comedian Argus Hamilton

web posted March 5, 2012

"Romney came back to edge Rick Santorum in his home state that he won handily in 2008. ... [I]n the end, he won (and out in Arizona, won overwhelmingly). ... Although [Santorum's] message has been pitched to working-class voters, it's not clear whether it has hit home. ... He and Romney are a study in contrasts. Santorum the widely dismissed underdog versus Romney the frontrunner; Santorum's shoestring operation against Romney's proficient organization; Santorum's passionate and sometimes blustery stump performances and interviews in contrast Romney's buttoned-up-to-a-fault presentations. Santorum's gaffes are a product of speaking his mind, Romney's of straining too much to connect. Ohio on Super Tuesday next week will be a fairer test between the two candidates, since Romney won't have a home-field advantage." --National Review's Rich Lowry

"According to the Institute for Energy Research, there is enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand, enough to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years and more gas in the U.S. than there is in Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and some place called Turkmenistan combined. Oil? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil producer. ... Yet in the end, high gas prices are part of the plan. This is what the administration wants." --columnist David Harsanyi

"We'd almost feel sorry for Mr. Obama's gas-price predicament if it weren't a case of rough justice. The President has deliberately sought to raise the price of energy throughout the economy via his cap-and-trade agenda. He is now getting his wish, albeit a little too overtly for political comfort. Mr. Obama has also spent three years blaming George W. Bush for every economic ill. If Mr. Obama now feels frustrated by economic events beyond his control, perhaps he should call Mr. Bush for consolation." --The Wall Street Journal

"Courts have consistently concluded that 'gross' disparities are probative of a pattern and practice of discrimination. So what to do? One remedy that Congress might consider is to require females, who are overrepresented in fields such as preschool and kindergarten teaching, to become boilermakers and brickmasons and mandate that male boilermakers and brickmasons become preschool and kindergarten teachers until both of their percentages are equal to their percentages in the population. You say, 'Williams, that would be totalitarianism!' But if Americans accept that Congress can make us buy health insurance whether we want to or not, how much more totalitarian would it be for Congress to allocate jobs in the name of social equality and the good of our nation?" --economist Walter E. Williams

"America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value." --Barack Obama

"I'm here to tell [Republicans] they are wrong about America. Because in America we understand -- yes, we're rugged individuals. Yes, we don't expect a handout. But we also understand we are greater together than we are on our own." --Barack Obama

"Just like they did last year, gas prices are starting to climb. ... Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. ... Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. ... Well the American people aren't stupid. You know that's not a plan -- especially since we're already drilling. It's a bumper sticker. It's not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. It's a strategy to get politicians through an election." --Barack Obama

"[M]y presidency is not over. I've got another five years coming up." --Barack Obama

"[N]inety-eight percent of women in childbearing age who are Catholic use contraception. Ok, so in practice the church has not enforced this and now they want the federal government and private insurance to enforce it. It just isn't consistent to me."-- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"Well, basically, we're not looking to the Constitution on that aspect of [government being allowed to require organizations to provide free services]. What I'm trying to say is basically the decision has been made by this congress that American citizens are entitled to health care." --Rep. Kathy Hochul (D-NY)

"Republicans, you vile, repulsive, scum. You're not leading this country. You're not contributing to this country. You're not even part of this country. You are the maggot-ridden rot that arises in this country's damaged flesh; you are the vultures constantly picking at us to see if we're weak enough yet to become your next meal; you create problems where none would otherwise exist, just to further weaken America and quicken your own insatiable appetites; you are garbage, and you are traitors. And you are not welcome in this country anymore." --Daily Kos blogger Troubadour

"[W]hat a waste of an education Rick Santorum is! ... Let's just pray that none of his home-schooled kids grow up to be an airline pilot, okay? That's all I'm asking. Please dear God, do not let any of these home-schooled kids grow up to be a surgeon, an airline pilot, or a nurse. Or somebody that's in charge of my trans-vaginal mandatory ultrasound. Seriously, no science-y things for them, you know, just religion, let them be all preachers or something." --talk radio-host Randi Rhodes

"Remember earlier in the campaign when Newt Gingrich was worrying everyone about Sharia law: the Muslims were going to impose Sharia law in America? Sometimes Santorum sounds like he's creeping up on a Christian version of Sharia law." --Time columnist Bill Keller

"Boy, the thing is, you play to what you've got. And what the Republicans have is an awful lot of scared white people in their party. And one of the things they're most scared about is people of different colors and ethnicities and, you know, backgrounds polluting their white picket fence sense of America." --Time magazine's Joe Klein

"While President Obama may not be Wall Street's ideal candidate, stock prices are rising on growing expectations he will be re-elected this November." --CNBC's John Melloy

"The president made clear when he was a candidate for this office and when he took this office, that unfortunately prior to his taking office, because of the focus on Iraq, and the U.S. efforts there, that the original war, if you will, in Afghanistan had been neglected, the strategy there was unclear, and that it was not properly resourced." --Jay Carney, desperate for an excuse for this administration

"[W]hat you don't hear from these [GOP] candidates is that they really can't go after this president on domestic production of oil and gas. He's actually done quite a lot. In fact, I would suspect they're environmentalists who are worried that we're doing too much drilling and fracking, in fact. I know that for a fact." --Jared Bernstein, former economic policy adviser to Joe Biden

"People who cry moral indignation about government-mandated contraception coverage appear unwilling to concede that the exercise of their deeply held convictions might infringe on the rights of millions of people who are burdened by unplanned pregnancy or want to reduce abortion or would like to see their tax dollars committed to a different purpose. ... At a minimum, the Catholic bishops and employers resisting contraceptive coverage should be willing to pay for the care of all those unwanted children. Or perhaps they'd be willing to spend some time in jail in protest." --Harvard administrator Erika Christakis, arguing that because a woman didn't buy or use contraceptives (or they failed) before having un-wed sexual intercourse and ending up pregnant, Catholic bishops should go to jail

"[I]f you don't try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don't ask, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to -- the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security." --Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

"[I]t's an honor to be a food stamp president. Food stamps feed the hungry. Food stamps save the children. Food stamps help the farmer. Food stamps help the truck driver. Food stamps help the warehouse. Food stamps help the store. Food stamps hire people and feed people. Food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition. ... Give President Barack Obama a big hand. Show your love. Show your appreciation." --Jesse Jackson

"Richard Dawkins says he can't be sure God doesn't exist. Well, you know what I do when I'm not sure about something? I go on a big crusade about it and write a bunch of books on the subject. No, wait, that sounds more like what someone with a mental disorder would do. That's one of the crazy things about lots of atheists: They're whole movement is supposed to be about being logical and reasonable, yet they tend to rail against religion is a very mindless way that doesn't seem to serve any more purpose than a tantrum. Perhaps I just don't understand their strong faith in not having faith." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"Iran cut off oil exports to its six biggest European customers in retaliation for the EU's vow to stop buying oil from Iran. Oil prices soared. Gasoline is so expensive in L.A. that police pulled over a van on the freeway yesterday with fifty legal Americans in it." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Due to the rising price of oil and gas, the Obama administration announced today they are considering dipping into our national strategic re-election reserves. I mean, I'm sorry -- strategic oil reserves." --comedian Jay Leno

"In Florida, a man was arrested after he dropped his gun during an attempted robbery and returned to the scene to try buying it back from the victims. Now THERE'S an 'Obama 2012' metaphor." --Fred Thompson

"The Republicans want to take us forward to the dark ages again ... when women were property that you could easily control, even trade if you wanted to. It's appalling we are having this debate in the 21st century." --Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

web posted February 27, 2012

"The politicians are spending us into oblivion. But I can't blame only them. The American people are complacent. We like the goodies. We think we're getting something for nothing. We are like alcoholics who know we have a problem but just can't resist one last fix. One more infrastructure bill or jobs plan will jumpstart the economy. Then we'll kick our spending addiction once and for all. But we don't stop spending. Almost all budget categories grow, even when adjusted for inflation. ... So what do we do? We must cut. But I fear Americans aren't up for that. People on the street told me that the budget is out of control. But when I then asked them, 'What would you cut?' most just stared ahead. ... We're on the way to becoming Greece -- while our 'leaders' stand and watch." --columnist John Stossel

"High tax rates in the upper income brackets allow politicians to win votes with class warfare rhetoric, painting their opponents as defenders of the rich. Meanwhile, the same politicians can win donations from the rich by creating tax loopholes that can keep the rich from actually paying those higher tax rates -- or perhaps any taxes at all. What is worse than class warfare is phony class warfare. Slippery talk about 'fairness' is at the heart of this fraud by politicians seeking to squander more of the nation's resources." --economist Thomas Sowell

"[I]n Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has introduced a bill seeking to partially privatize the National Health Service (NHS). Why? Because the British government is 'hoping to avoid a Greek-style financial meltdown.' ... UK healthcare costs are currently $194 billion per year and consume 18 percent of the UK's budget. The projected 'cuts' in spending for 2013 that have people up in arms? As of now, a $6 billion increase in spending to $200 billion. Much of the animus likely stems from the fact that Britain has grown used to massive amounts of healthcare spending that can no longer be sustained: between 2000 and 2010, the NHS budget doubled in real terms. Furthermore, British debt as a percentage of GDP was almost 80 percent in 2010. Which brings us across the pond, so to speak, where America's debt level reached 102 percent of GDP last year, long before the full effects -- and true costs -- of our own stab at government-run healthcare have yet to be realized." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"Now, whenever Congress refuses to act, Joe and I, we're going to act. In the months to come, wherever we have an opportunity, we're going to take steps on our own to keep this economy moving. ... I do hope Congress joins me. Instead of spending the coming months in a lot of phony political debates focusing on the next election, I hope that we spend some time focusing on middle-class Americans and those who are struggling to get into the middle class." --Barack Obama

"If you're willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home, not go bankrupt because you got sick, 'cause you've got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times; that you can send your kids to college; that you can put some money away for retirement. That's all most people want. Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard, they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American dream." --Barack Obama

"Let me let you in on a secret. I am the senior-most person serving on the Financial Services Committee. Barney Frank is about to retire and guess who's shaking in their boots? The too-big-to-fail banks and financial institutions and all of Wall Street, because Maxine Waters is going to be the next chair of the Financial Services Committee!" --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

"On Immigration policy and reform [Republicans] are on the wrong side of the track. ... They would have you believe that if they get into office, they are going to make sure that they are going to get rid of everyone in our society who was not born in America." --Maxine Waters

"Isn't any Republican nominee going to have a problem, and that is, by all indications, the economy is getting stronger. So if you're the Republican nominee, how do you run against a recovering economy? How do you say, 'I'm not up with that'?" --NBC's Matt Lauer

"When I first heard the discourse of the Tea Party, as much as I wasn't in agreement with it, I kind of like populist movements that are asking for jobs and worrying about the effects of big government. But the shift now has moved towards this so-called moral, ethical, racially problematic and now this contraception language. You know, jobs are simply not located in my uterus. Like, wherever they are, wherever they might be created, that's just not where they are. So, why is so much policy language around that?" --MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry

"Despite the fact that Obama hasn't made the slightest feint toward regulating guns, firearms enthusiasts have whipped themselves into a paranoid frenzy, convinced that this is all just part of some elaborate conspiracy. ... Note the twist: It's no longer Obama's election that poses a mortal danger to the liberty of Americans who want to assemble arsenals -- it's Obama's re-election. I'm no financial analyst, but you'd have to imagine that that line of reasoning isn't going to do anything to depress gun sales." --BusinessWeek blogger Joshua Green

"By saying ... that the president of the United States is running over the Constitution ... you seem to be saying that the president is not patriotic. You seem to be questioning [his] patriotism." --CBS's Charlie Rose to Newt Gingrich

"If you're really anti-gay, you become a Catholic now." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

"[George Washington] began the political tradition that produced a Union victory in the Civil War, the Federal Reserve Board, Social Security, Medicare and, more recently, Obamacare." --historian Joseph Ellis in Time magazine

"While we believe that capitalism is fundamentally superior to any other system for organizing economic activity, it is also clear that some of the ways in which it is now practiced do not incorporate sufficient regard for its impact on people, society and the planet." --Global Warming spokesperson Algore

"[Occupiers] can be as filthy and they can rape people -- if you want to make stuff up -- but the fact is nobody really cares about it because that message isn't about the messengers, it's not about who's delivering the message, but the message itself which really resonates at a very core emotional level with people who are suffering in this economy." --Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas

"And the fact is, is that because Republicans decided to play politics with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a timeframe within which it was impossible to appropriately approve the pipeline. ... So the fact that the process ended the way it did in terms of that permit request is wholly the responsibility of the Republicans who insisted on playing politics with the payroll tax cut extension back at the end of last year." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"And people in America are very practical people across the political spectrum. Very conservative women want their kids, their daughters taking birth control." --former DNC head Howard Dean

"We conservatives, we want to make jobs as readily available as condoms in this country." --radio talk-show host Mark Levin

"President Obama reversed himself on forcing churches to give women contraceptive coverage. He also reversed his opposition to campaign PACs and started one for himself. Back when he lived in Hawaii flip-flops were shoes, now they are career extenders." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Harry Reid took a cheap shot at Marco Rubio, saying he 'supposedly represents Hispanics.' No, he represents his constituents. You should try it some time, Harry." --Fred Thompson

"Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am said president Obama is not a magic man. But Obama is magic -- he makes businesses, homes and jobs all disappear." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"Italian authorities seized $6 trillion worth of fake, worthless U.S. Treasury bonds. Pretty good counterfeit job, too. They look just like the genuine, worthless Treasury bonds." --comedian Jay Leno

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