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Lingua publica

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

web posted June 25, 2012

"President Obama's claim that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule of law. ... [W]hat we have here is a president who is refusing to carry out federal law simply because he disagrees with Congress's policy choices. That is an exercise of executive power that even the most stalwart defenders of an energetic executive -- not to mention the Framers -- cannot support." --attorney John Yoo

"Make no mistake: this is classic sleight-of-hand, designed to get the country roiled up about something -- make that anything -- that will obscure the monumental failure best labeled Obamanomics. It is the proverbial boob bait for the masses, delivered by an administration that desperately needs Americans distracted away from the reality of a double-dip recession, record numbers of people on food stamps, millions of un- and under-employed workers, and no plan whatsoever for dealing with our impending fiscal Armageddon, other than blaming Republicans for their failures." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"Since Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has given its presidential nomination four times to the Bush family. Other times, to Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Where's the extremist in that lot?" --columnist George Will

"Remember when Obama declared that Americans had to pull together, because what united us was stronger than what divided us? Yeah, not so much. President Obama's re-election campaign has been an exercise in fragmentation. Where the 2008 campaign was built thematically around the notion that a polarized electorate was bad for the country and that election of a third-way, multi-racial president could symbolically overcome our divisions once and for all, the 2012 campaign is built on precisely the opposite notion: Americans united in opposition to Obama's agenda must be divided again. ... Obama now realizes that he can't win by uniting Americans. He can only win by dividing us." --columnist Ben Shapiro

"When President Barack Obama announced his 2012 launch of 'African Americans for Obama', the silence was deafening. Should the same standards be applied to Obama as would be applied to Romney? The answer turns out to be no, because Obama is not held to the same standards as Romney. ... Black people ought to be offended by the idea that we are held accountable to lower standards of conduct and achievement. White people ought to be ashamed for permitting and fostering racial double standards that have effects that are in some ways worse than the cruel racism of yesteryear." --economist Walter E. Williams

"2012 may be miserable -- but if it is, it won't be because corporations spend on politics. ... The very first amendment that the Founders chose to add to the Constitution couldn't be more clear: 'Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech ... .' Yet most people support laws against political speech -- when they don't like the speakers. ... But political (and religious) speech is exactly what the Founders were eager to protect when they wrote the First Amendment. ... Don't progressives realize that corporations (and unions, which also had their speech rights protected) are associations of individuals -- individuals who have rights? ... It is shameful that leftists let their hatred of corporations lead them to throw free speech under the bus. There is a smarter way to get corporate money out of politics: Shrink the state. If government has fewer favors to sell, citizens will spend less money trying to win them." --columnist John Stossel

"This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship; it's not a permanent fix. This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus on resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people. It is the right thing to do." --Barack Obama

"Is this is the right thing to do for the American people? I didn't ask for an argument, I'm answering your question. It is the right thing to do for the American people." --Barack Obama

"I love listening to these guys give us lectures about debt and deficits. I inherited a trillion-dollar deficit. ... This notion that somehow we caused the deficits is just wrong. It's just not true. ... If they start trying to give you a bunch of facts and figures suggesting that it's true, what they're not telling you is they baked all this stuff into the cake with those tax cuts and a prescription drug plan that they didn't pay for and the wars." --Barack Obama

"I think we are ironclad on the constitutionality of [ObamaCare]. We believe in the Constitution. We believe in judicial review. ... But I think it's also important for the public to know that obstruction is the agenda of the Republican party. If they win, that will be their agenda. They don't believe in a government role, clean air, clean water. You name it." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"The argument that the jury is still out on climate change is a false and bogus argument. The jury is not out. In fact, the jury is in, the effects are obvious, they surround us every day, and we need to take action." --Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

"Mitt Romney is running the campaign he wants to run, which is just a referendum. 'You're not happy about the economy, this guy's been there for four years, vote him out of office. You need an alternative.' What the president's got to do is say, 'Hey, don't forget about George W. Bush. Things got really, really bad under him.'" --NBC's David Gregory (As if Obama hasn't already loaded blame on Bush.)

"[Y]ou vote for [Romney] and [Romney] wouldn't even let [Latinos] in his apartment. You know, I think that there's a real feeling that, you know, there's a, that it's not about immigration or immigration reform or even border security, that there's a racial component, that there's a feeling that there's this creepy black or brown invasion from the South." --radio show host Geraldo Rivera on why Latinos will vote for Obama

"It's very, very difficult to place race outside of this context [referring to The Daily Caller's Neil Munro interrupting Obama at a White House press conference]. ... We haven't seen anything like this before. ... But you also have the promotions of the Tea Party, where they're using racially-tinged imagery, and racially-tinged sort of statements to get their point across." --Politico reporter Joe Williams

"[T]his is the first African-American president, and we've never had a white president been told by the opposing party to shut up in the middle of a major address to Congress. We've never had a president heckled so disrespectfully. We've never had this otherness afforded to any other president. And I think the right wing is going to have some explaining to do, because to me, it seems patently obvious." --MSNBC contributor Julian Epstein, who was apparently asleep during every Republican presidency

"Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there -- they oppose him not for his polices [sic] and political view but for who he is, an African American! These people and perhaps even certain news organizations (certainly the right wing talkers like Limbaugh) encourage disrespect for this president." --former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson

"Our attorneys -- the homeland security attorneys -- are absolutely confident [Obama's immigration announcement] is within our authority, to use some discretion." --Obama senior adviser David Plouffe

"We owe something to the government to grow up in this great country. I'm tired of hearing people in the private sector talk like they don't owe the government anything. We do. This is a great country because we all pay into it. It's about time we all pay into it. ... If we paid the same amount of taxes we paid when Bill Clinton was president, I would be a happy guy, and the budget would be closer to balanced. You cannot give away money, whether you give it to rich or poor people. That's what George Bush did -- excuse me, trillions of dollars. You can't do that." --Howard Dean

"[Rap] put Barack Obama in the presidency. You know, if it wasn't for rap, white people wouldn't have been so open to vote for somebody like Barack Obama,. ... You know, there's only 10 percent of black people in the United States. White people voted for Barack." --rapper Ice-T

"Republicans are behaving just like Hitler did." --"Waiting to Exhale" author Terry McMillan

"At a fundraiser in Maryland, President Obama said you could put Romney's 'campaign on a tweet and have some characters to spare.' As opposed to Obama's campaign, where there's no character left at all." --Fred Thompson

"Commerce Secretary John Bryson smashed his car into a Buick as the Buick was waiting for a train to go by. He got out and apologized, then smashed into the Buick again. President Obama called a press briefing Monday and said the Buick is doing just fine." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"The Obama administration will now stop the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and will also issue them work permits. This allows them to focus on what's really important: illegally voting for Obama in November." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"President Obama is going to let certain illegal immigrants stay in this country. But there is an age requirement. You have to be old enough to vote by November." --comedian Jay Leno

"Contempt of Congress? Contempt of Congress? To frivolously use that really important vehicle to undermine the person who's assigned to stop the voter suppression in our country -- I'm telling you, this is connected. It is no accident. It is a decision, and it is uh, uh, as clear as can be. It's not only to monopolize [Attorney General Eric Holder's] time, it's to undermine his name, to undermine his name, to undermine his name as he goes forward to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

"I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day. I'm not kidding. ... If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him. ... [T]here were some specific [grounds] for his being in contempt of Congress. But we didn't." --Nancy Pelosi

web posted June 18, 2012

"What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious [than socialism]: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. ... Thus the Obama administration can arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the children are 26 years old. Obviously, this creates favorable publicity for President Obama. But if this and other government edicts cause insurance premiums to rise, then that is something that can be blamed on the 'greed' of the insurance companies. ... What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people -- like themselves -- need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat." --economist Thomas Sowell

"Everybody is talking about how Obama had a bad week last week. Really? He didn't ever have to explain his membership in the New Party. He wasn't asked a single question about Fast and Furious or Eric Holder's corrupt Justice Department, he wasn't asked to explain his political cowardice when he refused to go to Wisconsin, stand shoulder to shoulder with his union buddies. He played golf. He was compared favorably to the Kardashians. There's not gonna be a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the national security leaks. All this talk about what a bad week Obama had? Maybe, but, then again, you could see where it maybe wasn't." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"Pity the poor Obama administration leakers. They impart their much-cherished secrets to make their man look good and then, at the first chirp of criticism, are ordered to confess their (possible) crimes by the very same president they were seeking to please. In this, they are a bit like the male praying mantis. He does as asked and then the female bites his head off. ... All administrations leak what they want when they want. Occasionally, some killjoy screams something about national security, but the republic somehow survives and the secret is usually only a secret to the American people, not to the enemy. This is undoubtedly the case with the recent disclosure regarding the use of a computer worm to wreak havoc with the Iranian nuclear program. ... The leak that troubles me concerns the killing of suspected or actual terrorists. The triumphalist tone of the leaks ... not only is in poor taste but shreds a long-standing convention that, in these matters, the president has deniability. The president of the United States is not The Godfather." --columnist Richard Cohen

"[U]nlike American states, European countries lack a common bond. There are different languages, different histories (Colorado, for example, never invaded Nebraska) and different religions, including for six decades, atheism imposed by communist dictators in Eastern Europe. ... Living within one's means was a lesson forgotten by individuals and governments, whose main preoccupation -- in Europe and America -- has been giving people what they want in hopes they'll re-elect the politicians who dispensed the goodies. That formula has contributed to an unemployment rate in Spain approaching 25 percent. Spain last weekend was approved for a bailout of up to $125 billion from the eurozone, the fourth country to ask for a loan since Europe's debt crisis began. ... [Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher warned, 'We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.' That is precisely the seductive siren call the 'conservative' British government now hears. ... Today's politicians can't pretend they were not warned." --columnist Cal Thomas

"The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. " --Barack Obama

"Listen. Uhhh, it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's the reason I had the press conference. That's why I spent yesterday -- the day before yesterday, this past week, this past month, and this past year -- talking about how we can make the economy stronger. The economy's not doing fine." --Barack Obama

"You'd have to say that the last year and a half of tea party dominance in the House has been a very unproductive period, and they've been unwilling to take and even consider some of these issues [such as the DREAM Act], so I can understand the frustration of many people on the outside and the dilemma facing the White House. ... The president needs to consider taking action by executive order when Congress will not respond to a major national challenge." --Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL)

"Republicans have made a decision that they would rather do anything they can to stop jobs from being created, hoping it will help them with the elections come November. Too often in this Congress, the Republican strategy has been to kill job-creating bills in the hopes of harming the economy and hurting President Obama." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

"Here's the thing: the American Affordable Care Act stands there with Social Security, Medicare, health care for all Americans as a right, not a privilege." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"One of the lessons learned [in Wisconsin's recall] is it's better to try make [decisions] with people as opposed to against people." --Barack Obama

"As president of the United States, I've got a lot of responsibilities." --Barack Obama on why he didn't campaign in Wisconsin before the governor recall (His responsibilities included 13 fundraisers in the two weeks prior to that election.)

"As many economists have pointed out, America is currently suffering from a classic case of debt deflation: all across the economy people are trying to pay down debt by slashing spending, but, in so doing, they are causing a depression that makes their debt problems even worse. ... The point, then, is that we'd be in much better shape if we were following Reagan-style Keynesianism. Reagan may have preached small government, but in practice he presided over a lot of spending growth -- and right now that's exactly what America needs." --New York Times "economist" Paul Krugman

"There's some disconnect here that I think Union membership in this country has to get at the war table and figure out what's the problem. Wait a minute! Wait a second. That's right -- President Obama brought this up years ago on the campaign trail when he said 'folks in rural areas cling to their guns and their religion.' And he was criticized for it -- example A, [Scott Walker]." --MSNBC's Ed Schultz

"I would ask [Mitt Romney] plenty of questions about -- is he planning to endorse the Ryan budget? And I think that would be a terrible mistake. I don't want to see people on the streets begging for food, thank you. And why does he hate Planned Parenthood? You know, he didn't used to hate Planned Parenthood. I want to ask him about all the flip-flopping he's been doing. That's why he doesn't want to come on, because he's afraid of the questions." --Joy Behar, newest employee at Al Gore's CurrentTV

"Mitt Romney's solution of how to strengthen the economy: fire more people. He believes that if we fire more teachers, more firefighters, more policemen, we're actually gonna grow this economy." --Stephanie Cutter, Obama deputy campaign manager

"I think that a lot of what the president has experienced is because he's black. ... There's an ad talking about [how] the president is too cool, [asking] is he too cool? ... And to me it was just very racially charged. [Republicans] weren't asking if Bush was too cool, but, yet, people say that that's the number one person they'd love to have a beer with. So, if that's not cool I don't know what is." --Angela Rye, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus

"First of all, we look at Wisconsin as a win. We -- which was not reported in the mainstream media -- we picked up a Senate seat which denies Scott Walker a majority in the Senate. So we put the brakes on him, at least until the next election season." --former DNC chief Howard "I Have a Scream" Dean (Democrats won back a seat to regain a majority in the Senate, but the chamber is adjourned for the summer and won't be back in session before next November's election, when Republicans have a chance to regain the majority.)

"Today, 48 million Americans rely on [Medicare]. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare is stronger than ever. Before the law passed, there were gaps in Medicare coverage. ... Today, thanks to the health care law, we're closing these longstanding gaps in care." --Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

"I've enjoyed my time as attorney general. It's been a tough job. It is one that takes a lot out of you. Some raised concerns as to whether I was tough enough for this job. I think that people will hopefully see that I've done this job in a way that is consistent with our values. I stuck by my guns." --Attorney General Eric Holder's rebuttal to possible contempt charges regarding the flawed gun-running sting "Fast & Furious"

"Watching Bill Clinton act as Barack Obama's 'No. 1 surrogate,' in the words of NPR, is as exquisitely painful as watching a runaway monkey with a paintball gun at a museum." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"President Obama said he needs a second term in order to re-write his health care reform law if the Supreme Court strikes it down. It's only right. In America we're taught that everyone deserves a second chance whose first chance was ruled unconstitutional." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"In an event celebrating her 25th anniversary of being elected to Congress, Nancy Pelosi revealed that the ghost of past feminist leaders spoke to her at her first White House meeting as speaker. In a related story, doctors now say, 'Yes, Botox can cause hallucinations.'" --comedian Jay Leno

"The Obama campaign said it's 'just beginning' to roll out attacks against Mitt Romney over his career as an executive at Bain Capital. Well, Republicans would do the same. If Obama HAD a career as an executive." --Fred Thompson

"I think people are still hurting. I think the economy has not recovered, and it's not where it needs to be." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"Now you may have heard that President Obama is on the other side of the state and he is going to be delivering a speech on the economy. He's doing that because he hasn't delivered a recovery for the economy. And he's going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans for making the economy better but don't forget, he's been president for three and a half years. And talk is cheap. Action speaks very loud. ... What he says and what he does are not always the exact same thing." --Mitt Romney

web posted June 11, 2012

"[T]he political left were trying to demonstrate that power and privileges once granted are eternal. They wanted to run Mr. Walker out of Madison as an object lesson that trying to limit collective bargaining and mandatory dues collection for government unions will end your political career. ... Public unions are never going to cede their dominance over taxpayers without a fight. And it's worth recalling how brutally they fought. They occupied the state capital for weeks. They harassed GOP lawmakers and their families, tried to recall state Senators and defeat a conservative Supreme Court judge, while Democratic lawmakers abdicated their legislative duty by fleeing the state. They lost in the end because Mr. Walker and Republicans rode out the storm, passed their reforms, and are now able to show Wisconsin voters the beneficial results. The longer-term impact of Mr. Walker's vindication will depend on the lesson other political leaders take from it." --The Wall Street Journal

"Much of the Political Punditry Class has been touting [Wisconsin] as a preview of the 2012 Presidential election, but now that the Republican won, don't expect to hear too much of that kind of talk. In fact, the ink was barely dry on the headlines when the word went forth that it was actually a good night for Obama because the exit polling showed Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 51-45. ... An exit poll showing the incumbent President just barely over 50 percent does not a victory make, seems to me. Even at that, the real issue at the national level isn't whether Obama wins Wisconsin in November, the real issue is the highly touted union-backed turnout operation fell short. ... If the Wisconsin operation was a test run, the Obama campaign might need to go back and do some re-sodding." --columnist Rich Galen

"Scott Walker never lacked courage. It took steely determination not to buckle in the face of militant unions who 'occupied' the stately Wisconsin capitol in Madison when Walker's reforms were first voted on. For two years, leftists have been howling. One of their speakers at a get out the (union) vote rally actually compared Scott Walker's reforms to the 9/11 attacks on our country. And this is the crowd that is forever lecturing us on civility." --columnist Ken Blackwell

"Government debt in Greece is 160 percent of gross domestic product. The other percentages of GDP are 120 in Italy, 104 in Ireland and 106 in Portugal. ... Here's the question for us: Is the U.S. moving in a direction toward or away from the troubled EU nations? It turns out that our national debt, which was 35 percent of GDP during the 1970s, is now 106 percent of GDP, a level not seen since World War II's 122 percent. ... I am all too afraid that Benjamin Franklin correctly saw our nation's destiny when he said, 'When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.'" --economist Walter E. Williams

"Folks out there are still anxious, they're still scared about the future. And so what the other side is counting on is fear and frustration, that that in and of itself is going to be enough because they sure aren't offering any new ideas. All they're offering is the same old ideas that didn't work then, and won't work now." --Barack Obama

"Now, here's the thing, though: We're not where we need to be. We're not there yet. We saw that in [Friday's] jobs report. Yes, a lot of that is attributable to Europe and the cloud that's coming over from the Atlantic, and the whole world economy has been weakened by it. And it's having an impact on us." --Barack Obama

"The underlying fundamentals for the economy are actually quite good, and we need to keep that in mind. We're doing in the Congress a whole series of things to actually help stimulate the economy." --Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)

"We are not going back to a set of policies that say you're on your own and that's essentially the theory of the other side. You know, George Romney." --Barack Obama, perhaps confusing his current opponent with his perpetual one, though George Romney was Mitt's father

"Republicans know that they can't win this election on the merits. Barack Obama, who has been fighting for the middle class and working families, has begun to get this economy turned around -- taken, after three years, an economy that was hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month and now we've had 27 straight months of job growth in the private sector, a resurgence in the manufacturing sector. And they know that that is thanks to [Obama's] policies." --DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

"I think the [Republicans'] next act will be dragging women out of patient rooms into the streets and screaming over their bodies as they get dragged out of getting access to women's health care. That's what I feel like is occurring today with the legislation that is on the floor. ... First of all, there is bipartisan and unilateral and unanimous support that we should not have agenda-based abortions for the sake of getting one gender over another. That's a human, humane and humanitarian issue that none of us quarrel with." --Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) opposing a law to ban gender-based abortions

"John McCain believed in climate change. John believed in campaign finance reform. He believed in immigration reform. I mean, there were some areas where you saw some overlap. In this election, the Republican Party has moved in a fundamentally different direction." --Barack Obama

"I know, literally, Barack and I talk about it. Neither one of us would have had any shot. The same with our wives. Both wives are smarter than both of us. Literally, these very accomplished women would not have any chance without some [government] help." --Joe Biden on the "war on women"

"Is purchasing two 16 oz sodas too much of an inconvenience to help reverse a national health catastrophe?" --New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on his large sugary drink ban

"What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won't notice is that that's precisely the policy we've been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. ... The fact is that we have already seen the Republican economic future -- and it doesn't work." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

"The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, far below economists' expectations. The report suggests that the GOP's deep spending cuts and other austerity measures have undermined growth." --ThinkProgress

"The bleak jobs report on Friday predictably had heads snapping toward the White House, looking to President Obama to do something. Yet his proposed remedies only underscore how much the president, just five months before he faces voters, is at the mercy of actors in Europe, China and Congress whose political interests often conflict with his own." --Jackie Calmes and Nicholas Kulish in the New York Times

"[M]aybe [Mitt Romney's] not running for the presidency of the United States, maybe he's running for the presidency of 'Caucasia-stan' or some place that doesn't have anyone of color in it." --MSNBC contributor Karen Hunter

"Scott Walker could very well be indicted in the coming days." --MSNBC's Ed Schultz

"[The Star Spangled Banner is] an abomination. ... Are we the only ones who are brave on the planet? I mean all the brave people live here. I mean it's just stupid I think. I'm embarrassed, I'm embarrassed every time I hear it." --radio talk-show host Bill Press

"If you look at this jobs report, manufacturing is up, the best record in two decades, largely because of what the president did relative to the auto industry. What was down was construction, what was down was education -- the very things the president has been trying to get Congress to act on were the things that were down." --White House adviser David Axelrod

"Anyone in politics would like to have great economic numbers. I would make the argument that we do have excellent numbers on job creation. ... We saw what the Republicans did when they controlled the government. ... It is the Democrats who get the economic engine of this economy moving forward again." --former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe

"There's nobody out there that thinks that Governor Romney is unqualified. ... This race in the end is not gonna come down to what Governor Romney did in his business career. It's not even gonna come down to what President Obama's done in the first three-and-a-half-years. I think it's gonna come down to who the American people believe have the best plan to get us out of the economic fix that we're in; to get the economy moving again." --former Penn. Gov. Ed Rendell

"I've heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens, who -- often for the first times in their lives -- now have reason to believe that ... some of the achievements that defined the civil rights movement could now hang in the balance." --Attorney General Eric Holder attacking voter ID laws

"Unemployment's still looking pretty bad. In fact, the White House has a new slogan on jobs creation -- 'Hope and Change the Subject.'" --comedian Jay Leno

"According to the latest Nielsen ratings, CNN has lost 50% of its viewership in the last 12 months. In their defense, competition's tough. The Drying Paint Channel HAS added over a dozen colors since then." --Fred Thompson

"I'm sure glad the unions spent all that money for this big public effort to reaffirm what a great governor [Scott] Walker is." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"South Dakota park police arrested a fifty-year-old Chicago man they caught trying to scale Mt Rushmore. It was a long afternoon for everyone. It took them an hour to explain to President Obama that climbing Mt. Rushmore doesn't entitle you to say that you're on it." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"I think the sad story of the night was the money because this is the beginning of the undermining of American democracy, and this is what you see tonight when you see a guy outspend somebody seven to one with money that nobody knows where it came from." --former DNC chairman Howard Dean on the Wisconsin recall, conveniently ignoring the massive spending by unions and outside Democrat organizations, and utterly misrepresenting the money gap

web posted June 4, 2012

"Barack Obama and his friends in the mainstream media, so called, can't believe that anyone could vote against someone as wonderful as he is (and they are). Only a bigot would vote against such a wonderful president. ... Sixteen states have offered Democratic voters an alternative to Barack Obama, either an actual candidate, 'Uncommitted,' or an opportunity to write in someone's name. So far 15 percent of those Democratic voters have done so. In five states where there has been an actual opponent, 27 percent voted against the president. In New Hampshire, 1 Democrat in 10 wrote in an alternative. Twenty percent of North Carolina Democrats voted for 'Uncommitted.' That's a lot of 'bigots.'" --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

"What do you get when you cross 3 pediatricians, 4 internists, 3 family doctors, 2 epidemiologists, 2 nurses, a PhD, an obstetrician, a perinatologist and an occupational medicine doctor? Unfortunately, this is not a joke. ... This would be the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), an ad hoc committee charged with making recommendations about clinical preventative services. They have just issued their findings that there is no role for routine PSA screening in men to detect prostate cancer.... You would not go to a pediatrician or obstetrician if you had this disease, so how does it make sense to aggregate 16 such people and have them opine on a subject that they know about only from a book? ... Someone in Washington has decided what the value of a human life is, and what would be the acceptable cost associated with saving it. This is called 'comparative effectiveness' and is what happens in a socialized healthcare system, like in England, where resources need to be allocated prudently, and healthcare is rationed. This is the essence of Obamacare." --columnist Hal C. Scherz, M.D.

"At Cannes, where anti-capitalist movies are always a hit, Brad Pitt's newest venture, 'Killing Them Softly,' is touted as a seething indictment of the American system. 'America isn't a country -- it's a business' is apparently the film's central insight. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis, the film was reportedly financed by Megan Ellison, daughter of billionaire businessman Larry Ellison. No wonder that when these kids grow up, some of them make documentaries about how vast conspiracies keep the electric car and, no doubt, the Everlasting Gobstopper off the market. Even more of them uncritically accept this stuff. After all, everyone knows big businessmen are evil." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"This election will be closer than the last one. People don't remember the last election was close. We're gonna have to contend with even more negative ads, even more cynicism and nastiness and just plain foolishness." --Barack Obama

"I'm running to pay down our debt in a way that's balanced and responsible. After inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts into law." --Barack Obama

"The challenge we've got is that too many folks aren't on the same page. We've got too many of my dear Republican friends in Congress that have been standing in the way of some steps that we could take that would make a difference at the moment." --Barack Obama

"Nobody wants a handout. Nobody wants to get something for nothing." --Barack Obama

"We don't need another political fight about ending a woman's right to choose, or getting rid of Planned Parenthood or taking away affordable birth control." --Barack Obama turning an argument about government's role on its head

"Finally, I do want to acknowledge a man who has played a major role in diminishing inequality in Massachusetts and other spheres, and that's Hubie Jones. ... [I]'m particularly pleased that Hubie got an honorary degree today. You know, when you get an honorary degree they give you one of these and Hubie, I think you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) with a "joke" referencing Trayvon Martin's hoodie

"I feel ... uncomfortable about the word [hero being applied to fallen American soldiers] because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism, you know, hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers, and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that." --MSNBC's Chris Hayes (Hayes did, in fact, admit that he was wrong and apologized.)

"I actually have a serious proposal which is that we have to get a bunch of scientists to tell us that we're facing a threatened alien invasion, and in order to be prepared for that alien invasion we have to do things like build high-speed rail. And the, once we've recovered, we can say, 'Look, there were no aliens.' But look, I mean, whatever it takes because right now we need somebody to spend, and that somebody has to be the U.S. government." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

"There have been rumors -- if the president is not re-elected [dramatic 'God forbid!' face], or that in the future, that you might consider running for political office. Would you ever? You would be a very popular candidate." --Barbara Walters to Michelle Obama

"Well, this is nothing to do with being anti-business. This is a criticism -- and a good criticism quite honestly -- of Mitt Romney's only thesis for being president of the United States, that he's some kind of economic savior. He's very good at making money for his partners. He's not so good at creating jobs. We've seen that time and time again and I think the American people and voters deserve to understand what Mitt Romney means when he says he has the keys to being an economic savior." --Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs

"It seems like [Republicans] act as though, some wiping out of people, some of the right-wing, is all right. It's not all right to do to any innocent people. If you had war and people that's one thing, but to wipe out innocent people just because of who they are like what was done in Hitler's Germany or what was done to Native Americans is not justifiable." --race hustler Al Sharpton saying we're not sure what

"Facebook's price stabilized at thirty-two dollars a share [last] Wednesday, giving investors a realistic stock value at last. No one had any idea what it was really worth. The only reason Facebook went public is because they couldn't figure out the privacy settings either." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"A Washington, DC, elementary school declared last Friday to be Trayvon Martin Day. And in honor of Trayvon Martin, the school reclassified all the Latino students as White." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"First lady Michelle Obama said that if she could trade places with anyone in the world, it would be Beyonc??. Of course it got awkward when Barack was like, 'I'm game!'" --Jimmy Fallon

"Border Patrol agents in California discovered 13 illegal immigrants being smuggled in a phony UPS van. Eric Holder is furious, saying they should've been overnighted by FedEx." --Fred Thompson

"The months before I took the oath of office were a chaotic time. We knew our economy was in trouble, our fellow Americans were in pain, but we wouldn't know until later just how breathtaking the financial crisis had been. Still, over those two-and-a-half months, in the midst of that crisis, President Bush, his cabinet, his staff, many of you who are here today, went out of your ways -- George, you went out of your way -- to make sure that the transition to a new administration was as seamless as possible." --Barack Obama at the unveiling of the White House portraits of George W. and Laura Bush

web posted May 28, 2012

"Who killed the 20-30 million Soviet citizens in the Gulag Archipelago -- big government or big business? ... Who deliberately caused 75 million Chinese to starve to death -- big government or big business? ... Would there have been a Holocaust without the huge Nazi state? Whatever bad big corporations have done is dwarfed by the monstrous crimes ... committed by big governments." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager

"In a typical year, up to 50 million Americans change jobs, often happily. They get hired away, promoted, etc. This process partly explains why America's capitalism has been so much more dynamic than Europe's. In the social market, once you have a job, you cling to it because you may never get another. European governments make it much easier to cling to that job by punishing businesses that fire people. The unhappy byproduct of such 'compassion' is that businesses are also far more reluctant to hire people because each new hire is a potential long-term liability. Yes, Romney created jobs while he was creating value and wealth at Bain; he also destroyed jobs. Both are necessary in a dynamic market that improves the prospects for most Americans through economic growth. Some suffer from the process. But I would argue more people suffer under the social market." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Now that Romney is the nominee, it's perfectly understandable -- and rational -- that conservatives would want to get behind him to defeat the far worse Obama. ... However, there's a difference between supporting somebody for pragmatic reasons and deluding oneself into believing that he's somebody he isn't. It's one thing to vote for Romney, but it's another thing to let people convince you that you have to refrain from criticizing him when he does violence to conservative principles, because of the idea that it will help Obama. Conservatives shouldn't confuse being the leader of the Republican Party with being the head of the conservative movement." --columnist Philip Klein

"The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy them, and only in the short run. The current outbreaks of riots in Europe show what happens when the truth catches up with both the politicians and the people in the long run. Among the biggest lies of the welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic is the notion that the government can supply the people with things they want but cannot afford. Since the government gets its resources from the people, if the people as a whole cannot afford something, neither can the government." --economist Thomas Sowell

"If your main argument for how to grow the economy is 'I knew how to make a lot of money for investors', then you're missing what this job is about. That doesn't mean you weren't good at private equity. But that's not what my job is as president. ... This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign's going to be about: Is what is a strategy for us to move this country forward in a way where everybody can succeed?" --Barack Obama renewing attacks on Mitt Romney for his tenure at Bain Capital

"This is not an attack on free enterprise. ... There's something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans -- I have a real serious problem with that." --Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC)

"Obviously, Chicago residents who had difficulties getting home or getting to work or what have you, you know, that's -- what can I tell you? That's part of the price of being a world city. But this [NATO summit] was a great showcase. And if it makes those folks feel any better, despite being 15 minutes away from my house, nobody would let me go home. I was thinking I would be able to sleep in my own bed tonight. They said I would cause even worse traffic so I ended up staying at a hotel, which contributes to the Chicago economy." --Barack Obama

"Imagine where we'd be if the Tea Party hadn't taken control of the House of Representatives. ... They have one overwhelming goal: prevent President Obama from a second term, with no -- apparently no care of the consequences to the economy." --Joe Biden

"We all know we have to reduce the deficit. We have to do it in a balanced way. The speaker wants to go over the edge. We have cut over a trillion dollars in the Budget Control Act -- since the Budget Control Act of last year. There has to be more reductions, but we have to have revenue and we have to have growth." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

"I trust that [John Roberts] will be a Chief Justice for all of us and that he has a strong institutional sense of the proper role of the judicial branch. The conservative activism of recent years has not been good for the Court. Given the ideological challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the extensive, supportive precedent, it would be extraordinary for the Supreme Court not to defer to Congress in this matter that so clearly affects interstate commerce." --Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT), seeking to intimidate the Supreme Court in its ObamaCare ruling

"I have a beautiful home and you pay me a lot of money." --Joe Biden

"[R]omney's known as a job destroyer, not a creator. ... I think the idea that you bring in Bain -- which is what happened in the '80s -- they fire a lot of people and that's how they get prosperity for the rich. And that is a more resonant theme, I think, than anything that Romney's come up with." --CNBC's Jim Cramer

"Well, look, it's a free country and I think [opinion news] has its place. It's not my kind of journalism, it's not what I've dedicated myself to.... When I was in the anchor chair and a field reporter before that, my goal was to be an honest broker of information." --ousted CBS anchor Dan "Fake but Accurate" Rather

"[Obama's] learned a lot. And, you know, his heart's always been in the right place, and I believe his head is now in the right place. And you certainly -- of course, I can't do endorsements, right? It's a Times' rule. So you have no idea who I prefer in this election. But he certainly is talking sense about the economy, and Mitt Romney is talking utter nonsense. ... [T]he Republican platform is, let's put that doctrine that has just caused collapse in Europe -- let's put that doctrine into effect right here in America." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

"Is GOP Trying to Sabotage Economy to Hurt Obama?" --AP Headline

"[S]o now Osama Bin Laden finally is gunned down by Barack Obama, displaying great courage and great intelligence. What more do you want to lead your country than that kind of courage and that kind of intelligence? ... It makes me angry that we can't give this president anything. ... What more do we want this man to do for us, honest to God?" --late-night comedian David Letterman

"These laws [banning abortions after 20 weeks] put providers in a position where they have to turn away patients who have great need. I also think they create this impression that abortion providers are callous and allow people to conflate murder and abortion. People feel morally justified to say 'this is wrong' because they're led to think it's close to murder. I think that jeopardizes us, by conflating abortion with an issue that would cause moral outrage." --obstetrician Willie Parker

"This November's election will determine whether we get to keep moving forward, or if we're forced to go back to policies that ask people like my middle-class family in Ohio to carry the burden -- while people like me, who don't need tax breaks, get extra help." --actress Sarah Jessica Parker in an email promoting her fundraiser for Obama

"Obama has not been vetted -- this drove me crazy this week. Apparently he just skated in 2008 just because he was running for president, and that does not draw a lot [of] media scrutiny, especially when you have the first black one. Is there any truth to this, that Obama has not been vetted?" --HBO's Bill Maher

"Robert Downey Jr. got a fifty million dollar payout for The Avengers Friday. Like President Obama, he has evolved. Early in his career he was a liberal, after Iron Man he became a moderate, and as soon as his check for the Avengers cleared, he came out for states' rights and the flat tax." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"On the first day of trading, Facebook shares rose less than expected. We were promised that Facebook would take off like a rocket. Apparently it's a North Korean rocket." --comedian Jay Leno

"A biography of President Obama used by his literary agent for years says Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii. When reached for comment, the administration explained that the president's birthplace is 'evolving.' It's weird, Obama said he was born in Hawaii, his literary agent says he was born in Kenya, and yet the liberal media still claim he was born in a manger." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"Obama's budget went down in flames in the Senate 99-0. I just wanted to congratulate the President on uniting us all in a spirit of bipartisanship." --Fred Thompson

"I don't know how [Republicans have] been bamboozling folks into thinking that they are the responsible, fiscally disciplined party. They run up these wild debts and then when we take over we've gotta clean it up." --Barack Obama

"Since I've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years." --Barack Obama

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