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Lingua publica

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

web posted May 24, 2010

"We've come to take our government back. This movement, this Tea Party movement, is a message to Washington that we're unhappy and we want things done differently." --Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul

"By socializing the consequences of Greece's misgovernment, Europe has become the world's leading producer of a toxic product -- moral hazard. The dishonesty and indiscipline of a nation with 2.6 percent of the eurozone's economic product have moved nations with the other 97.4 percent -- and the United States and the International Monetary Fund -- to say, essentially: The consequences of such vices cannot be quarantined, so we are all hostages to one another and hence no nation will be allowed to sink beneath the weight of its recklessness. Recklessness will proliferate." --columnist George Will

"You might think that Europe's economic turmoil would inject a note of urgency into America's budget debate. After all, high government deficits and debt are the roots of Europe's problems, and these same problems afflict the United States. But no. Most Americans, starting with the nation's political leaders, dismiss what's happening in Europe as a continental drama with little relevance to them." --columnist Robert Samuelson

"If you want to watch someone squirm, take a look at the two-minute videotape of Attorney General Eric Holder dodging Republican Rep. Lamar Smith's question whether 'radical Islam' motivated the Times Square bomber. Holder, who last year called America 'a nation of cowards' for refusing to talk frankly about race, plainly didn't want to say what is plain to everyone else, that Faisal Shahzad, back from five months in Waziristan, launched his terror attack because of his Islamist beliefs." --political analyst Michael Barone

"[W]hy are Manhattan officials bowing to demands by a group called the American Society for Muslim Advancement to open -- on of all days, Sept. 11, 2011 -- a 13-story shrine to Islam in the shadow of the beautiful skyscrapers terrorists turned to ashes in the name of Islam? Why aren't they suggesting they do their Islamic 'advancement' someplace else? ... Aren't officials at least curious why these supposedly 'patriotic' Muslim activists named their planned $100 million mosque after the Great Mosque of Cordoba -- a legacy of Muslim Spain representing the zenith of Islamic dominance? There may be nothing to it -- except that a radical Islamic school in Virginia, raided by the feds after 9/11, also goes by that name. Cordoba University's founder was recently named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror case. Symbolism is not lost on such jihadists." --Investor's Business Daily

"We'd be better positioned to deal with the current emergency if so much money hadn't been squandered on tax cuts for the rich and an unfunded war. But we still entered the crisis in much better shape than the Greeks. ... Bear in mind that the drive to cut taxes largely benefited a small minority of Americans: 39 percent of the benefits of making the Bush tax cuts permanent would go to the richest 1 percent of the population." --New York Times' columnist and former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, who neglects to mention that, according to The New York Times, 1 percent of the population pays more in taxes than the bottom 95 percent

"When she worked for the Clinton administration, Ms. Kagan asked the president to support a ban on all abortions of viable fetuses except when the mother's health was at risk. And some analysts have used that example to show that she may actually shift the Court to the right, compared with Justice Stevens." --CBS's Maggie Rodriguez

"Why doesn't the president go in there, nationalize an industry and get the job done for the people? ... There's a national interest in this not just a BP interest! We're letting BP fix a national problem. In China it's a more brutal society, but they execute people for this." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews on BP and the Gulf oil spill

"[Obama] just doesn't seem like a phony and the people who deal with him every day feel this way. He's got a kind of psychological health to him and even if you don't like what he's doing ... you have to respect the man. He, he brings a thoughtfulness to the process. And he does try to drill down into these decisions." --Newsweek's Jonathan Alter

"We see [health care] as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"A hundred days later from [Obama's] inauguration, we passed the budget, which was a blueprint for economic stabilization for our country. Lower taxes for the middle class, reduce the deficit, create jobs around three pillars: investments in education and innovation; investments in health care really first among equals; and investment in energy and climate change legislation, again, to create good, clean energy jobs for the future." --Nancy Pelosi

"There is no movement. The media -- and not just the conservative media, the mainstream media -- has made the Tea Party guys out to be an impactful movement, but they aren't." --Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell

"I will not tolerate more finger-pointing or irresponsibility." --the finger-pointer-in-chief, Barack Obama, on the oil spill

"After [Republicans] drove the car in the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back. No. They can't drive. We don't want to have to go back in the ditch." --Barack Obama

"We brought [Arizona's immigration law] up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session and as a troubling trend in our society, and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination." --Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor, who led the U.S. delegation in human rights talks with China, which allows little or no freedom and has murdered millions of its citizens

"It's unfortunate. We're not asking them to go lobby the governor of Arizona. We're just saying that you can make a gesture of support for the people who root for you. The Latino community gives the [Los Angeles] Lakers a tremendous amount of support. It would be nice for them to reciprocate when the community really needs it." --Lisa Navarette, a vice president at the National Council of La Raza, on the LA Lakers decision not to boycott their Western Conference Finals against the Phoenix Suns over Arizona's immigration law

"I'm not a real religious person, but I'm somewhat religious. And, ah, I'm just wondering if God is telling us He doesn't want us to drill offshore, because [the Gulf oil spill] sure is setting back offshore drilling. ... Could be He's sending us a message." --CNN founder Ted Turner, a real authority on religion

"No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am 'toxic' in terms of the Obama administration. ... When Obama threw me under the bus, he threw me under the bus literally!" --the "Rev." Jeremiah Wright on his former protégé

"[I]t would be good ... if [Obama] could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly." --director Woody Allen

"Nancy Pelosi told Catholic leaders they need to support the Democratic version of immigration reform, and to preach it from the pulpit. She would have said more but she had to leave to attend a rally for the separation of church and state." --comedian Jay Leno

"Only liberals can lump illegal and legal immigrants into one philosophical package in order to brand those who make the crucial distinction between the two xenophobic bigots." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"The Washington Post announced [recently that] it plans to sell Newsweek. Reading the weekly is therapeutic for many people. President Obama likes to read Newsweek each and every week because it doesn't clutter up his mind with opposing points of view." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"President Barack Obama promised Americans 'health care reform.' So far, 'health care form' is more like it. ObamaCare is devolving into the Paper Industry Salvation Act of 2010. This new law spans 2,562 tree-killing pages. Far worse, it will force Americans to spend countless, irritating hours completing, transmitting, and filing endless reams of federal paperwork. ... Congress should halt this growing misery and repeal ObamaCare. If not, it should launch a new program to treat paper cuts." --columnist Deroy Murdock

"Republican consultants are doing a wonderful job raising expectations sky-high for the November elections, so that now, even if Republicans do smashingly well, it will look like a defeat (and an across-the-board endorsement of Obama's agenda). Thanks, Republicans! That's what happened in the 1998 congressional elections, nearly foiling Clinton's impeachment. It's what happened to the Conservative Party in Britain a week ago. And that's what happened this week in the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, formerly represented by Rep. John Murtha. Note to Republicans: Whenever possible, victory parties should be held after the election, not before it." --columnist Ann Coulter

"I strongly disagree with the recently enacted [immigration] law in Arizona. It is a law that not only ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree but also introduces a terrible idea using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement." --Mexican President Felipe Calderon denouncing Arizona before the U.S. Congress, where Democrats cheered

web posted May 17, 2010

"True judicial restraint asks the question: 'What does the Constitution actually say?' and then limits Supreme Court decisions to an honest application of the law." --David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society and former congressman from Indiana

"It will be tempting but futile to ask [Elena] Kagan whether she thinks Congress's enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce is elastic enough to justify requiring individuals to buy health insurance. That is, does the power to regulate interstate commerce give Congress the power to punish the inactivity of not making a private purchase from a private health-care provider? If the commerce clause is sufficiently elastic, in what sense do we still have limited government -- government limited by the Constitution?" --columnist George Will

"Some of the senators -- not most, but some -- will be interested to know what [Kagan] thinks of the Constitution as the Founders wrote it. President Obama will want her to rule on the law as decent and high-minded folk like him think it ought to be, not what it is. The gay community, which rarely seems very gay, expects her to be a reliable vote for changing the definition of marriage and for remaking the military into something Barney Frank can be proud of. Since Mzz Kagan has argued that the Supreme Court's role is mainly to tend the interests of 'the despised and disadvantaged,' somebody will be disappointed." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

"What we're seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state. This isn't Greece's problem alone, and that's why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery. Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies." --columnist Robert J. Samuelson

"Anyone who thinks Greece isn't the proverbial canary in the coal mine is in a coma. See if this sounds familiar: out-of-control spending, a bloated, self-entitled public service sector, a mountain of accumulated debt, trillions of dollars in unfunded mandates -- and a corrupt political class completely out of touch with the people. With precious few exceptions, what nation couldn't be plugged into the above description?" --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"Have you ever noticed how liberals desire to be judged by open minds and met with understanding when their policies fail, while all the while they've zero tolerance for anything less than perfection in their political opponents? If so, you only have to remember they view 'big oil' as an appendage of the Republican Party to know that one major spill in forty years is no better in their eyes than one major spill every two years." --columnist AWR Hawkins

"She is expected to play a role as somewhat of a conciliator, the bridge across the conservative and liberal wings of the court. In fact, she loves opera, which Justice Scalia loves." --ABC anchor Diane Sawyer ("What more evidence of her judicial philosophy do we need?" --L. Brent Bozell)

"You hear conservatives talk about strict constructionists and that's what a conservative justice would be, someone who looks really closely at only the words of the Constitution. It's conservatives who actually refer to liberals as activists because they think they go too far in reading the Constitution. Now, Elena Kagan is a moderate liberal. And so to call her an activist, I think, would be really a stretch for ... even the Republicans. She's got a lot of conservative support." --CBS's legal correspondent Jan Crawford on Elena Kagan

"The right-wing governments in Europe seem to be the ones that are most precarious right now: Greece, Portugal, Spain." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews on the left-wing/socialist governments in Greece, Portugal and Spain

"The Tea Party has raised concerns that it may have, I guess, racism built within it. We have seen some racist signs at past events, people have said that that is not a part of the Tea Party movement, but are African-American candidates aligning themselves with the Tea Party?" --MSNBC anchor Peter Alexander to retired Lt. Col. Allen West, Florida Republican congressional candidate who is black (West responded: "The principles and values that I espouse, limited government, lower taxes, individual responsibility, and accountability, liberty, and honoring the traditions of our constitutional republic, are connecting me with those grass roots Americans that attend tea party rallies. And I've spoken at four to five of those rallies and I've not seen any racist type of signs.")

"This is a d--- outrage, to be honest. This is a guy who was a good senator and he was a ... good conservative who was trying to get things done." --New York Times faux-conservative David Brooks on Utah RINO Sen. Bob Bennett's loss at the state GOP convention

"Do you see what's happening in the oil industry and offshore drilling comparable or some kind of parallel to, like, the movie Avatar?" --FNC's Craig Rivera to "conservationist" Rick Steiner

"While we can't presume to replace Justice Stevens' wisdom or experience, I have selected a nominee who I believe embodies that same excellence, independence, integrity, and passion for the law -- and who can ultimately provide that same kind of leadership on the Court: our Solicitor General, and my friend, Elena Kagan." --Barack Obama, introducing his Supreme Court nominee

"[Y]ou're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy." --Barack Obama admitting technological ignorance to Hampton University graduates that would get a Republican some special media attention

"We will have our fundamentals in place. We will not lose the House of Representatives. ... Nobody is going to be taken by surprise. That is what happened in 1994." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the mid-term elections

"You can guarantee, even though the scare tactics will come, this bill is consumer friendly, citizen friendly. It is really a refund bill where almost any revenue that comes, nothing stays in the federal government. Nothing grows the size of government. Every penny goes back to creating jobs and protecting the American consumer." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on the cap-n-tax bill

"I think the newspapers are supposed to be printed at the sixth-grade level and I think with something as important as [global warming], we've got to figure out how to simplify the language for the public, because otherwise they're going to get a headache and bail out because they -- not because they're not concerned, but because they don't get it." --Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

"The unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 9.7 to 9.9. Given the strength of these job numbers, this may seem contradictory but this increase is largely a reflection of the fact that workers who had dropped out of the workforce entirely are now seeking jobs again, encouraged by better prospects." --Barack Obama, trying to spin the news in his favor

"Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July." --film critic Roger Ebert

"There is no safe way to drill for oil in oceans. This [Deepwater Horizon] disaster is an impetus to halt our dependence on oil completely and move to a clean energy future fast." --Michael Brune of the envirofascist Sierra Club

"In so far as all morality is fundamentally based on preservation, betterment and continuation of life, there is no higher morality than environmentalism. All religions pale in comparison." --blogger "HumeSkeptic" at the leftist Daily Kos site

"You know what I feel that 'Avatar' did was show the world how concerned people are about our planet. That we are aware of the damage we are doing to our planet. That it is time, more than time, for us to stop now and all help each other find energy efficient ways of producing energy." --"Avatar" actress Sigourney Weaver

"Tories beat Labor in Britain's elections Thursday, however the lack of a majority could result in what Britain calls a hung Parliament. It made their cousins wistful on this side of the pond. If Americans could hang congressmen, the U.S. income tax would be celebrating its two hundred twentieth anniversary of never being introduced." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"To be fair, at Emirates Airlines, being on a 'no-fly' list makes you eligible for pre-boarding." --columnist Ann Coulter

"Never forget: the same media which castigated the Bush administration for a 5% unemployment rate is now saying an increase in unemployment rate from 9.7% to 9.9% is good news, because it means more people are looking for jobs. Perhaps if the unemployment rate tops 10%, they'll be ecstatic." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"The Obama administration has revealed the size of America's nuclear arsenal. The U.S. has 5,113 warheads: approximately a thousand of them aimed at China, a thousand of them aimed at Russia, and the rest, of course, aimed at Fox News." -- comedian Jay Leno

web posted May 10, 2010

"Very few Americans ... are inherently opposed to immigration. For the most part, the controversy we face isn't about immigration at all. It's about the systematic failure of federal government to enforce the law or offer rational policy. There's a difference." --columnist Daniel Harsanyi

"Imagine you are tasked with finding the perpetrator [in the Times Square bombing attempt]. Where do you start your investigation? Do you start with: (A) a right-winger opposed to the health bill; (B) a Swedish grandmother upset at losing the ticket lottery for 'Next to Normal'; or (C) a radical Muslim trying to kill Americans?" --columnist Ben Shapiro

"We have a commander-in-chief who presumes to know when you have earned 'enough,' who believes that only those who provide what he deems 'good' products and services should 'keep on making it,' and who has determined that the role of American entrepreneurs is not to pursue their own self-interest, but to fulfill their 'core' responsibility as dutiful growers of the collective economy. That famous mock-up poster of Obama as the creepy socialist Joker never seemed more apt." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"The Dodd bill -- and the Democrats' narrative -- completely omits the role of government in the financial debacle. Neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac is mentioned in the legislation. But the incentives created by government, specifically the sustained push through law and regulation to provide mortgages to more and more uncreditworthy borrowers, created the conditions for the housing bubble and for its eventual crash. The wizards of Wall Street may have concocted exotic ways to make money by betting on the fortunes of the real estate market, but it was the politicians who first destabilized that market." --columnist Mona Charen

"The recently purchased Gore second mansion at Montecito, in Oprah country, is of some national interest. Why would Gore purchase a second energy-guzzling estate, replete with several fireplaces, fountains and bathrooms, when he was stung so badly about his hypocritically profligate energy use in his Tennessee compound, his houseboat, and his private-jet junketeering? Does he understand that his newest mansion is a sort of volcanic ash-cloud that has now overwhelmed Earth in the Balance, Inc? ... We can call this malady Gorism -- living not merely at odds with your zealotry, but living entirely against your zealotry." --historian Victor Davis Hanson

"Hundreds of thousands of [illegal immigrants] now live in Arizona but ... many no longer feel welcome." --CBS anchor Katie Couric

"Some people would contend that this law in Arizona is racist in nature. Some have equated it even with Jews having to carry identification during Nazi Germany." --CBS "Early Show" co-host Harry Smith

"What I think is really important to notice here is the hypocrisy, the intellectual hypocrisy because we have ... a lot of the same people who are very exercised right now ... about big government and pointing out the American tradition of liberty, of individual rights, are also the people who are on the side of allowing the government to intrude much more into individuals' lives on immigration." --Reuters' Chrystia Freeland

"I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country" --MSNBC host Contessa Brewer on the Times Square attempted bomber

"[W]hat is our appetite as Americans to want to help out Louisiana again? What's our appetite for all of those Southern states that are Republican? Yeah, those are all drill baby drill representatives. Those are all drill baby drill senators." --MSNBC's Ed Schultz

"Government can build the infrastructure that allows products and services to reach customers. Government can create incentives and clean energy, for example, that promote innovation and exports. These things are public goods that no business, no individual, is gonna provide on their own. But they create a favorable environment in which everybody, companies across the country, can open and expand." --Barack Obama, bringer of government

"[A]fter 9/11, even though the ball had been dropped, even though 9/11 could have been avoided if everyone had done what they should have, Democrats and Republicans came together and said 'OK, let's make it better so this doesn't happen again.'" --Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Times Square bombing attempt

"[S]omebody home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything." --New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the Times Square would-be bomber

"I will make it short and to the point: The president's proposal for offshore drilling is dead on arrival. If offshore drilling off of the coast of the continental United States is part of it, this legislation is not going anywhere." --Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) using the Deep Water Horizon disaster as political fodder

"We're treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack." --Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the Times Square bombing attempt

"I do not want this offshore drilling. I do not want it, and this thing that just happened in the Gulf should put the nail in the coffin of all those ideas." --Joy Behar of ABC's "The View"

"What effect does the Tea Party have on the Republican Party? ... They've driven another moderate out of the Republican Party. Charlie Crist is the kind of Republican we badly need in the United States Senate so we can actually get something done there ... and yet the Republicans actually pushed him out of the race. ... [T]here just apparently is no place in the Republican Party for moderate, thoughtful people anymore." --Howard Dean

"Al Sharpton promised to lead protest marches in Phoenix and Tucson Thursday to support the rights of illegal aliens to work in farm and service jobs in the United States. It's come to this. Civil rights leaders are marching in support of slave labor." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"At San Francisco's City Hall, where bottled water is banned as the drink of climate denialists, Mayor Gavin Newsom is boycotting for real: All official visits to Arizona have been canceled indefinitely. You couldn't get sanctions like these imposed at the UN Security Council, but then, unlike Arizona, Iran is not a universally reviled pariah. Will a full-scale economic embargo devastate the Copper State? Who knows? It's not clear to me what San Francisco imports from Arizona. Chaps?" --columnist Mark Steyn

"Those who shower the most praise on our public education system are those least likely to ever expose their own kids to it. I refer to the pinheads who hold public office. In fact, the only time a president or first lady ever wanders into a public school in Washington, D.C., is for an election year photo op, after having made certain that their Secret Service detail is operating at full strength that day. It's not a school system, it's a penal colony with report cards." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"The Administration is not slick enough to cover its lack of concern at the front end of the BP oil leak. With apologies to Oscar Hammerstein, 'When do you spell an oil spill like Katrina?'" --political analyst Rich Galen

"I worked in homeland security. I'm from intelligence, and I'll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security -- I mean terrorism has an Islamic face -- but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for]." --Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) on the Tea Party

web posted May 3, 2010

"President Obama called the Arizona [immigration] law misguided. What's misguided, Mr. President, is the federal government's ongoing refusal to enforce the laws that are already on the books. Read the Arizona law. Parts of it are word-for-word the same as the federal statutes which continue to be all but ignored." --CNN's Jack Cafferty

"It is passing strange for federal officials, including the president, to accuse Arizona of irresponsibility while the federal government is refusing to fulfill its responsibility to control the nation's borders. Such control is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government's refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists 'comprehensive' immigration reform." --columnist George Will

"In terms of resources and in terms of political will, it has become abundantly clear that the federal government refuses to make the right decisions in terms of enforcing the law and making the critical reforms necessary to drive down illegal immigration. Sadly, efforts in Congress have been more about gaining political votes through an unnecessary amnesty than on honest and effective reforms." --columnist Jena McNeill, Heritage Foundation

"If a state, or nation, has laws it will not enforce for political reasons, it mocks both the law and politics, to say nothing of the cultural order." --columnist Cal Thomas

"The election we need so desperately is coming. There's an intermediate need as well: namely, to balk or slow down the administration's initiatives until the debate -- if there ever is a debate -- can commence and the people, knowing what they now know, can say how they truly would like things to be. The establishment, if this happens, will prate about 'obstructionism.' Fine. We're traveling about 150 miles an hour right now as we weave down the political superhighway. Flashing red and blue lights behind us would be a sight for sore eyes." --columnist William Murchison

"Now to the growing national backlash against the state of Arizona over its tough new immigration law that says police can stop people just on the suspicion they might be there illegally." --NBC's Brian Williams

"It's now gone beyond protest to threats of a boycott, as Arizona becomes a laughing stock to some." --NBC's Andrea Mitchell

"Critics are having a field day with this, Sheriff Arpaio, as you know. Some are calling for a business boycott of the state of Arizona. The Homeland Security Secretary, used to be the governor of Arizona, says she doesn't like this, this bill. Editorial cartoons are making fun of it. Here's one where a guy goes up to a fast food counter and orders nachos and is immediately surrounded by police for probable cause. Are you worried that it affects the image of your state?" --NBC's Matt Lauer to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

"Let me talk about the politics of this. It's forcing the president to address immigration policy. It's forcing Republicans and Democrats to wrangle with it. But what really is driving voters and emotion right now are jobs and the economy. Is this a bad issue politically at this time?" --MSNBC's Contessa Brewer

"Law Makes it a Crime to be Illegal Immigrant." --MSNBC on-screen caption -- begging the question, "What part of 'illegal' doesn't MSNBC understand?"

"I think it is fair [for Bill Clinton to blame Rush Limbaugh and other talk hosts for inciting violence]. There is a climate of violence on the right. Liberals are demonized in the most personal way. I mean, you know, Rush comes out and has this wonderful op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal at the end of the week and saying, you know, 'conservatives are protesting because we love our country,' and unfortunately the rhetoric of the right has all too often been they love their country and we on the left do not. We are traitors, we are un-American, we are unpatriotic. Obama is weakening our national defense on purpose." --Salon's Joan Walsh

"Efforts in Arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe. In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country." --Barack Obama on immigration

"Indeed, our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona." --Barack Obama on the "irresponsibility" of enforcing laws

"For more than a decade, congressional Republicans failed to provide robust oversight of Wall Street, which crippled our financial system and resulted in eight million jobs lost for America's workers. ... Senate Democrats tried to begin debate on tough accountability and transparency for big banks and for Wall Street, but Republicans said no. Once again, they sided with Wall Street over Main Street." --Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"I never had a real job." --Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who speaks for most of the administration

"I think there are many good arguments that you can make for a value-added tax or consumption tax, as opposed to a tax on wages. But I think it's just one of the things that ought to be on the table that we ought to discuss. I'm not for taking anything off the table." --Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff in the Clinton White House and chair of Obama's debt commission

This is like a 'Green Tea Party' out there. People who care. People who care about clean water and fresh air for their children to breathe. Food that doesn't kill you. A better planet. A safer planet. And it is a tea party movement." --singer Sting on the Earth Day climate rally in DC

"They're being treated with a lot more respect than the anti-war movement was." --anti-war yahoo Cindy Sheehan on the Tea Party

"I think what really is the problem with the two-party system is that it's very difficult for people without power to make a difference unless they try very hard." --artist Shepard Fairey, the guy responsible for those ubiquitous red and blue Obama "Hope" posters

"So enough with all the punch-pulling about seditious, racist homophobes. It was time to go for broke and bring out Bill Clinton to explain why the tea parties are the new front in the war on terror. Don't worry about Iran's nuclear program, but if you meet a tea-party supporter waving some placard about the national debt, try not to catch his eye and back away slowly without making any sudden movements, lest he put down his placard and light up his suicide belt." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Being deeply concerned about what your government might do to you or that your representatives in Washington are exercising power in a way that's unmoored from the Constitution does not mean you're ready to resort to violence. It does, however, suggest you're more inclined to agree with George Washington than Bill Clinton." --columnist Mark Hemingway

"Whenever I see Pelosi's super-sized luxury jet, I'm reminded of those bumper-stickers one occasionally sees around town that announce My Other Car is a Motorcycle or, on a '94 Saturn, My Other Car is a Limousine. Her plane should have a large sticker on its tail that reads: My Other Plane is a Broomstick, and so, come to think of it, should she." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"To give you an idea how popular President Obama is around the world -- he's probably the most popular leader in the world -- this is amazing. They opened a nightclub in China named after President Obama. It will be an Obama-themed nightclub. Here's the amazing thing -- it hasn't even opened yet and is already $12 trillion in debt." --comedian Jay Leno

"Now, what we're doing, I want to be clear, we're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." --Barack Obama

"Now, the thing I didn't anticipate up until a few months before my election was the fact that we were gonna be in such a deep crisis that I'd be inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, $8 trillion worth of accumulated national debt that we're gonna have to deal with. And that's why I've appointed this bipartisan fiscal commission to give me recommendations in terms of how do we deal with this in a serious way moving forward." --Barack Obama, still in blame-Bush mode, still refusing to accept any responsibility for our record deficits

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