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Lingua publica

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

web posted June 21, 2010

"[M]ake no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy." --Barack Obama

"[C]arbon pollution, leading to climate change, will be, over the next 20 years, the leading cause of conflict, putting our troops in harm's way." --Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

"Well, it runs out when the problems go away.... He brought us to the brink of financial crisis, he brought us to the brink of deep recession, ignoring issues related to climate change." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on whether there is a statute of limitations on blaming George W. Bush

"In a peculiar instance of synchronicity, President Obama's Oval Office speech to the nation last night resembled the very calamity it was intended to address: Like the oil spewing into the Gulf, it began as a focused and narrow stream of words -- and quickly spread out into an amorphous cloud of goo." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Many Americans are beginning to pick up the strange vibe that for Barack Obama, governing America is 'an interesting sociological experiment'. ... He's the first president to give off the pronounced whiff that he's condescending to the job -- that it's really too small for him, and he's just killing time until something more commensurate with his stature comes along." --columnist Mark Steyn

"We have become accustomed to [Barack Obama's] management style -- target a scapegoat, assign blame and go on the attack. To win health care legislation, he vilified insurance executives; to escape bankruptcy law for General Motors, he demonized senior lenders; to take the focus from the excesses of government, he castigated business meetings in Las Vegas; and to deflect responsibility for the deepening and lengthening downturn, he blames Wall Street and George W. Bush. But what may make good politics does not make good leadership. And when a crisis is upon us, America wants a leader, not a politician." --former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney

"This energy bill of goods, as dangled before us by the administration since the 2008 campaign, obscures practical and economic realities. To wit, trucks and cars don't run on sunlight or wind, and coal -- whose cost of generation the U.S. energy department priced at 44 cents per megawatt three years ago -- is our second cheapest form of energy, next to oil and gas, at 25 cents per megawatt. Nuclear power is $1.59. And how much, according to the energy department, is wind power? Oh, $23.37 per megawatt. Solar power? A whopping $24.34. Green jobs, anybody?" --columnist Bill Murchison

"Government is acting like the last drunk at the party. Government is spending at an unprecedented rate, regulating the minutest areas of our lives, and strutting around as if it's solving problems as it creates them." --investment newsletter publisher Robert Prechter

"Good intentions cause most of the world's great evils. ... In order to do good personally and in order to support social policies that do good, what humans need even more than a good heart (as beneficial as that can be) is wisdom." --columnist Dennis Prager

"[C]an this president honestly claim he has command and control when it looks like BP is the boss? ... [L]ooking down the road is BP going to be the big shot, and he's going to be, as I call him, the Vatican observer watching them do what they do? And that's all he can do." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews on the oil spill

"[Obama's] an observer. I think he's usefully and rightfully dangerous about power. I think he thought George Bush, George W. Bush overstepped in terms of executive power. And it's also, he's an observer by nature. ... If you don't use [power], you lose it. Barack Obama should overdo. He should overstep ... even at the risk of having a lawsuit filed against him." --Newsweek's Howard Fineman

"Has the president contained the political damage?" --ABC's George Stephanopoulos on what's really important about the oil spill

"The oil spill is the perfect metaphor for Obama's presidency so far. It's been cleaning up a lot of the messes left to him by his predecessors, whether it was bank bailouts, auto bailouts, Afghanistan ... preventing a depression that, you know, began to happen on George Bush's watch. ... It is a distraction from Obama's own agenda. ... And in that sense, it irritates him." --Newsweek's Jonathan Alter on the president who thinks government is the answer to everything

"Politically, Bob Etheridge ... is fairly safe. He won his district with 57 percent of the vote back in 2008. Obama actually won his district 53 percent to 47 percent in North Carolina, in the Raleigh area. So politically, he should not lose his seat from this. However, at the end of the day, everyone agrees, it's never a good idea to physically assault somebody who's trying to videotape you, especially in the YouTube age." --MSNBC's Luke Russert on the congressman who assaulted two young men who asked him a question on video

"I say seize their assets. Right now. Seize their assets today. Take over the [company]. I don't care [how]. Issue an executive order. ... Call it socialism, call it communism, call it anything you want. Let's watch Rush Limbaugh explode on TV. ... Seize the assets. Take over BP." --noted constitutional scholar Rosie O'Donnell

"The United States Defense Department is the largest procurer of oil in the world, it uses more oil than anywhere else to kill people in the Middle East to get fuel to fight wars. It's sort of a cycle of life thing. Now, I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist. But I do think there's something -- just the way the pharmaceutical companies sometimes come up with a pill before they come up with the disease -- I think maybe we need a war all the time so we can wear out equipment and buy oil." --HBO's Bill Maher, who probably has been using too many "pharmaceuticals"

"I couldn't help but grin when I read World Cup referees are studying English swear words so that they can hand out yellow cards if needed. All they need to do is YouTube the current administration for a crash course in what not to say. We've got President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who is to the swear word what Webster was to the dictionary." --columnist Elisabeth Meinecke

"I noticed recently that Barack Obama was holding out an olive branch to the Taliban. He claimed to recognize that some of them were not as radical as others. I find it odd, though, that he can somehow spot nuances in terrorists 7,000 miles away, but every member of the Tea Party looks like a thug and a racist to him." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"The president was back on the Gulf Coast again Monday, looking for a plug to stuff into that hole in the bottom of the sea (or at least the hole in his approval ratings)." --columnist Wesley Pruden

"British Prime Minister David Cameron flew to Washington over the weekend where he urged President Obama to stop bashing British Petroleum. The president needs a reality check. Polls show that if Barack Obama forces Americans to choose between him and England he could reverse the American Revolution just in time for the Fourth of July." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"President Obama announced [Tuesday] that he wants to use the oil spill to move America toward green energy. I have a crazy idea. Maybe he should use the oil spill crisis to fix the oil spill." --comedian Jay Leno

"We're not satisfied with everything we've done [in Congress]. The way to cure that is to give us more authority and more ability." --Rep. Barney Frank

web posted June 14, 2010

"Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land and it's not Germany and it's not Poland. ... They should go home. ... [To] Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else." --former White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas, who retired from Hearse Newspapers in the wake of her unbelievably idiotic comments were caught on video during a Jewish Heritage Celebration held at the White House on May 27

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon." --the now-retired Helen Thomas

"Helen Thomas has broken down many barriers for women.... She has a lifelong achievement ... in journalism. Should that count for anything?" --CNN's Don Lemon

"I think you cut her slack at 89. ... Her career shouldn't be defined at what she said at 89. I would hate for this to be the lead in her obituary 10 years from now." --MSNBC's Joe Scarborough

"[T]he truth is, that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they're supposed to be overseeing the industry. ... It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney's fault." --Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington on the oil spill

"And it is men -- not to be too gender specific here -- but there, there is a male factor here. I've we seen it in our own recent history. What is it about testosterone that gets us into war?" --NBC's Andrea Mitchell

"[Helen Thomas's] tone was nasty, and her 'questions' usually meant more as insults than as requests for information. Still, presidents and journalists alike bowed and scraped before her, as if she were the Queen of All Media. Her reign ended with an implosion." --Media Research Center president Brent Bozell

"A generous person might forgive a one-off 'slip of the tongue,' but Helen Thomas has a long history of questioning and opposing anything Israel does in its own defense. While not all criticism of Israel should be translated as anti-Semitism, Thomas' rhetoric over the years seems to betray a deep-seated hatred of Jews." --columnist Cal Thomas

"The effort to destroy the Jewish state has many fronts. One front is in Iran, where the maniacal regime that has repeatedly promised to 'wipe Israel off the map' marches inexorably toward a nuclear bomb. Another is in Gaza, from which Hamas has lobbed 10,000 missiles into Israeli cities. Yet another front, the most insidious, is comprised of the propaganda arm of the Palestinian movement. And this front thrives for only one reason -- the complicity of the world press and the so-called 'international community.' It was the propaganda arm that staged the 'Freedom Flotilla.'" --columnist Mona Charen

"In modern America, everything is so complicated that we can't get simple things done. When you look at government -- the criminal justice system, the courts, the federal budget -- engines that used to work smoothly now are sputtering. They're all cog, no machine. That's why so many Americans are angry at the system -- it's all check, no balance." --columnist Debra Saunders

"In Chicago politics, there's an old term for the publicly subsidized pay-offs and positions meted out to the corruptocrats' friends and special interests: boodle. In the age of Obama, Hope and Change is all about the boodle. So it was with the stimulus. And the massive national service expansion. And the health care bill. And the financial reform bill. And the blossoming job-trading scandals engulfing the White House. There's always been an ageless, interdependent relationship between Windy City politicos and 'goo-goos' (the cynical Chicago term for good government reformers). Chicago-style 'reform' has always entailed the redistribution of wealth and power under the guise of public service." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose a$$ to kick." --Barack Obama

"Even if we are successful in containing some or much of this oil, we are not going to get this problem completely solved until we actually have the relief well completed. And that is going to take a couple more months. We also know that there's already a lot of oil that's been released, and that there's going to be more oil released no matter how successful this containment effort is. ... [The Gulf residents are] going to need help from the entire country. They're going to need constant, vigilant attention from this administration. That's what they're going to get." --Barack Obama, with what sounds like a prelude to a new tax

"Despite progress in some places, tax and budget systems are ineffective and inefficient in much of the hemisphere. This is partly due to how taxes are structured, with the burden falling too heavily on the lower classes and often hurting productivity. But in many places, including often in my own country, the simple fact is that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. ... Acknowledging this is not class warfare; it is not even us-versus-them rhetoric. It is a matter of recognizing that this cannot be a zero-sum game. We cannot take a winner-takes-all approach to our economic future." --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

"Criminals have far more access to guns today than in the history of this country and that is frightening to America. We have to do something about it. You cannot live in America as the Wild West. ... But if you firmly believe that people should have access to guns at all times, then you have a totally different society. ... Access to guns will destroy America faster than any other war." --Chicago Demo Mayor Richard M. Daley, who missed the recent crime statistics showing that more guns equal less crime

"It's a fantastic honor for the Gershwin family to give me this incredible award and for me to be awarded it by the Library of Congress. In fact, after the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." --"Sir" Paul McCartney with a lame joke about President Bush

"I think a government that tries, systematically, to relieve what causes lasting misery and emphasize what gives lasting happiness will eventually win the support of the people." --former president of Harvard University Derek Bok

"What we really have is a choice whether we want to do the right things from an energy standpoint or the wrong thing. And if enough of us choose to do the wrong thing and we don't prepare for global warming and we don't make the changes that we know we should make, then we'll be extinct." --CNN founder Ted Turner

"BP is saying that the campaign to clean up the oil could last until fall. You know why they call it a campaign? Because it's like an election -- it's dirty, it's slimy, and it never seems to end." --comedian Jay Leno

"Spike Lee, the moviemaker, says it's time for the president to 'go off,' to start jumping up and down and show some entertaining fury and frenzy. The rage should be directed at somebody at British Petroleum. Spike knows drama. 'If there's any one time to go off,' he says, 'this is it, because this is a disaster.' Well, thanks for that, Spike. Now we know it's a disaster." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

"President Obama took responsibility for his part in the Gulf spill Thursday. He said his mistake was trusting the oil companies. He then requisitioned three jumbo jets, two limousines and one helicopter to take the family to Chicago for the weekend." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"While I'm not a golfer, I do like the idea of mulligans. For instance, who hasn't made a mistake or misspoken and immediately wished he could call for a do-over? Right about now, I'd like to take a mulligan on the 2008 election." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"This is not theater. ... I don't always have time to perform for the benefit of the cable shows." --Barack Obama complaining about what a tough job he has -- when he's not partying, jetting, or golfing

web posted June 7, 2010

"Last summer, I received a phone call from President Clinton. During the course of the conversation, he expressed concern over my prospects if I were to enter the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and the value of having me stay in the House of Representatives because of my military background. He said that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had spoken with him about my being on a Presidential Board while remaining in the House of Representatives. I said no. I told President Clinton that my only consideration in getting into the Senate race or not was whether it was the right thing to do for Pennsylvania working families and not any offer." --Pennsylvania Democrat Senate candidate Joe Sestak on the "job" the administration allegedly offered him last year in exchange for dropping his challenge to Arlen Specter

"The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [America currently does] -- whether it's individual, corporate or whatever [form of] taxation forms." --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who shelters her millions from her "fair share" of taxes

"My job right now is just to make sure that everybody in the Gulf understands this is what I wake up to in the morning and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about: the spill." --Barack Obama

"I'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis. ... Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred." -- Barack Obama on the oil spill

"Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place? Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama's tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we've had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So we go deep, ultra deep -- to such a technological frontier that no precedent exists for the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"The bottom line with every example boils down to this. Entrusting a viable banking system, or safer oil drilling, much less your healthcare, to government is taking a bigger risk at a higher cost than anyone realizes." --radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock

"While the world is focused on bloodshed aboard a Turkish ferryboat manned by sympathizers of the terrorists of Hamas, the real crisis looms like Godzilla rising from the sea. In its latest report on Iran, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, reports that Iran has now piled up enough fuel for two nuclear bombs. ... Whether in Washington, New York, Paris, Berlin, Jeddah, Cairo or beyond, anyone quietly depending on the Israelis to scotch Iran's ambitions for nuclear hegemony over the oil fields of the Arabian Gulf might want to think twice before ganging up further on the Israelis. The real crises are still ahead, and they are not going to be confined to bloody propaganda stunts staged by fake 'peace activists' cruising the Mediterranean." --columnist Claudia Rosett

"On Saturday, thousands of reconquistadors descended on Phoenix to carp about how awful America is -- and to publicly protest in ways that Mexico bars illegal aliens within its own borders from doing. Donald Douglas has an excellent, on-the-ground photo essay and report here. A few of his pics say it all." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"Our liberty is at stake and we know there are many willing to take our liberty if we let them. They have already seized a good portion, and keep in mind, every dollar they seize is a dollar's worth of our liberty. Every law that they pass causes a greater or lesser injury to our liberty. When is the last time a law was passed that increased your liberty?" --columnist Gary Aldrich

"'Deregulation' is wonderful until we discover what happens when regulations aren't issued or enforced. Everyone is a capitalist until a private company blunders. Then everyone starts talking like a socialist, presuming that the government can put things right because they see it as being just as big and powerful as its Tea Party critics claim it is. But the truth is that we have disempowered government and handed vast responsibilities over to a private sector that will never see protecting the public interest as its primary task. The sludge in the gulf is, finally, the product of our own contradictions." --Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne on who to blame for the BP oil spill

"This is more Bush's second Katrina than Obama's first. ... I mean, you know, the oil spill is a great example. The Republicans look worse on that than the Democrats do." --Time magazine's Joe Klein

"[Obama] inherited an unprecedented legacy from President George W. Bush, who strapped us with the biggest tax cut for the richest people, a humongous federal debt, a recession, two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus a laissez faire attitude toward big business with no restraints. All of which led to the financial crash, Wall Street bailouts and the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill that has no end in sight." --White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas

"Oblivious to warnings about Osama hitting the U.S. and Katrina hitting New Orleans, W. often seemed more absorbed in workouts than work. Obama, by contrast, does his homework; he conveys a rare and impressive grasp of difficult subjects when he at last deigns to talk to the news media and reassure those whose lives are overturned by disaster." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

"[I]t's been 10 years since that oddly public passionate kiss at the Democratic convention. That was followed by Gore winning the popular vote for president but losing the electoral vote. Family friend Sally Quinn says that may have done the marriage irreparable harm." --CBS's Sharyl Attkisson, blaming Bush for the Gores' separation

"[Al Gore] obviously suffered a lot and still is suffering. He'll never get over that [2000 election loss] and neither will [Tipper]." --Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn in agreement

"It's time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP's operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public know what's going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP's strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge." --Robert Reich, former Clinton secretary of labor

"This president needs to tell BP, 'I'm your daddy.'" --Clintonista and Democrat strategist James Carville, adding that BO's "response" to the oil spill has been "lackadaisical"

"I thought when we elected a black president, we were going to get a black president. You know, this [BP oil spill] is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants. That's -- we've got a 'motherf---ing problem here?' -- and shoot somebody in the foot." --HBO "comedian" Bill Maher

"I think it's fair to say if somebody was going to try, on that piece of property, to build a church or a synagogue, nobody would be yelling and screaming. And the fact of the matter is that Muslims have a right to do it, too." --New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the mosque set for construction near Ground Zero

"I admire [Venezuelan President] Hugo [Chavez]. I like him very much as a person. ... This is a positive portrayal of a man who Americans do not have access to. ... It's an introduction to an entire movement in South America that the Americans do not know anything about." --director Oliver Stone on his new flick "South of the Border" -- a paean to statist tyrants in Latin America

"As for many great 'thinkers,' for Barack Obama and his coterie words seem to exist mostly in the realm of metaphor rather than as descriptors of actual action actually occurring in anything so humdrum as reality. And so it is that, even as his bungling administration flounders in the turbulent waters of the Gulf, on the speaker's podium the president still confidently sails forth deftly steering the ship through the narrow ribbon of sludge between the Scylla of sonorous banality and the Charybdis of gaseous uplift." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Obama has never been overly modest about his own powers. Two years ago next week, he declared that history will mark his ascent to the presidency as the moment when 'our planet began to heal' and 'the rise of the oceans began to slow.' Well, when you anoint yourself King Canute, you mustn't be surprised when your subjects expect you to command the tides." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"When I was a youngster, a popular putdown was 'If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?' But when people like Michael Moore, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, say so many really dumb things, it seems a more appropriate question would be, 'If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?'" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"You know, we were promised a messiah. All we got was the mess. We're still waiting on the iah." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"[W]hy do so many Bill Clinton stories end with the words 'nothing improper happened'?" --columnist Ann Coulter

"[A] good deal of the other party's opposition to our agenda has also been rooted in their sincere and fundamental belief about government. It's a belief that government has little or no role to play in helping this nation meet our collective challenges. It's an agenda that basically offers two answers to every problem we face: more tax breaks for the wealthy and fewer rules for corporations." --Barack Obama

web posted May 31, 2010

"Memo to Republican National Committee: this is the branding opportunity of a lifetime. Mr. Calderon whacking decent Americans and being cheered by leftist Democrats is an election-year dream come true. What could be better than a thirty-second commercial showing the power center of a bankrupt political party taking the side of a shamelessly hypocritical foreigner over their fellow Americans? One could even envision a voice-over announcer asking the ultimate brand-reinforcing question: Are Democrats the political party you want representing American interests in Washington, D.C. after the November election?" --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"The fact is, Mexico has two big exports: Oil, and their second biggest export is poverty to the United States -- from which, in remittances sent back to Mexico, they get $21 billion a year. Mr. Calderon has a stake in illegal immigration to our country." --columnist George Will

"Washington keeps pushing the envelope on craven. For his part, President Obama is a virtuoso at talking out of both sides of his mouth on immigration. He calls the immigration system broken, then proposes to fix the system by paving a path to citizenship for those who broke the law. He has called SB1070 misguided in order to appeal to the lathered-up pro-illegal immigration corner. Then he appeals to 'misguided' voters by assuring them that he is gung-ho when it comes to enforcing the immigration laws." --columnist Debra Saunders

"When President Obama discussed the new Arizona immigration law with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the White House Wednesday, he was doing something he has never done with the governor of Arizona. Although Obama has repeatedly criticized the law, he has not once talked about it with Gov. Jan Brewer, nor is any such discussion in the works. ... The bottom line is that Obama, the Justice Department, and the entire executive branch are on Mexico's side in this dispute. On the other hand, the majority of the American people are with Arizona." --columnist Byron York

"Voters said: 'It's not the incumbents, stupid. It's how they voted. It's what they stand for.' No incumbent who voted against the Bush/Obama bank bailouts, the 'stimulus' package and ObamaCare lost his or her job. Voters hate the bank bailouts. They hate the government takeover of car companies. They do not believe that the $800 billion stimulus package stimulated anything but bigger government. They reject ObamaCare and think it's costly and likely to worsen health care. Incumbents who voted for these things now face the music." --columnist Larry Elder

"Why do so many Mexicans risk their lives to pick our fruit and cut our lawns? They are fleeing a country where life is cheap and honest jobs are getting harder to find. And that, without question, is partly our fault. We have a right to enforce our own laws. Every country does. But we have an obligation not to arm the gangsters who are destroying the quality of life in Mexico, scaring away tourists (and in turn taking away decent jobs) and gunning down innocents -- all in the hopes of making money from our insatiable demand for illegal drugs. ... I understand that some folks, especially in Arizona, will take offense at the criticism of a foreign leader. But before we throw too many stones, we should take a look at just what we're doing to destroy their country and foster the very migration about which we legitimately complain." --Fox News commentator Susan Estrich

"President Bill Clinton went to the Great Hall of the People and when Jiang Zemin was President of China. I heard President Clinton say, 'what you did in Tiananmen Square was wrong.' He lectured. We all said, that's terrific because it was the ox being gored on the other side. President Calderon represents Mexico. And he said what a lot of Americans are also saying, that that Arizona law is discriminatory and it ought not to have been on the books." --ABC's Sam Donaldson ("That law is actually supported by a majority of Americans, according to polling. And I can't believe that you're actually comparing it to Tiananmen Square, right? I mean, you're not?" --ABC's Jake Tapper)

"We think the [New York] Times should investigate some of its investigative reporting." --MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan chastising the Times for its report that Connecticut Attorney General and Democrat Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal has been lying about his military record

"Textbooks must now include mention of the conservative resurgence of the '80s and '90s, the National Rifle Association, the Moral Majority, and include the idea that our Founding Fathers may not have intended a separation of church and state. Even some vocabulary would change. The world 'imperialism' would be replaced with 'expansionism' in describing America's land acquisitions. ... Critics say the board is whitewashing history." --NBC's Rehema Ellis on the "new" social studies curriculum guidelines passed by the Texas State Board of Education

"I want everyone, American and Mexican, to know my administration is taking a very close look at the Arizona law. We're examining any implications, especially for civil rights because in the United States of America no law-abiding person -- be they an American citizen or a visitor or tourist from Mexico -- should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like." --Barack Obama

"I want to see the schools work... I want to see hospitals work. I don't think the Republicans share that point of view. Why would you put people in charge of government who just don't want to do it? I mean, you wouldn't expect to see al-Qa'ida members as pilots." --Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) comparing Republicans to terrorists

"The Democratic Congress and the Obama administration share a strong commitment to fiscal discipline and common sense in our budget, and we must continue to do everything in our power to boost our economic recovery, rein in the deficits we inherited, and remain responsible stewards of the public purse. After President Bush and Republicans in Congress turned record surpluses into record deficits and nearly doubled the national debt, Democrats are returning our nation to a course of fiscal responsibility." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on her own party's quadrupling of the deficit

"There is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation. And that is stopping the flow of assault weapons and other deadly arms across the border. ... I would ask Congress to help us, with respect, and to understand how important it is for us that you enforce current laws to stem the supply of these weapons to criminals and consider reinstating the assault weapons ban." --Mexican President Felipe Calderon in an address to Congress

"Please don't put your faith in market forces [emphasis in original]. It's a popular idea: that Adam Smith's invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can. I find little evidence that market forces relying on consumers choosing among an array of products, with competitors fighting it out, leads to the healthcare system you want and need. In the U.S., competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply driven, fragmented care system." --Dr. Donald Berwick, nominated by Barack Obama to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that runs Medicare

"My carbon footprint, I think I can say confidently is much bigger than most people's because I travel in a bus. ... What I try and do is try and, with the knowledge that I have, is offset my contribution to [carbon emissions]. I think people that don't move around as much as me can take a bike when it's a nice day." --rocker Dave Matthews

"Too bad if we have to pay a little extra money for gasoline, if we have to pay a little extra money for coal, or if we have to curb our appetite with what we pull out of the ocean. That's what we have to do, or else we're giving up on our children. So, that's what I would hope happens." --Dave Matthews (Matthews earns about $20 million each year and is worth roughly $250 million.)

"I mentioned last week the attorney general's peculiar insistence that 'radical Islam' was nothing to do with the Times Square bomber, the Pantybomber, the Fort Hood killer. Just a lot of moments 'capturing the world's imagination.' For now, the jihadists seem to have ceased cutting our heads off. Listening to Obama and Eric Holder, perhaps they've figured out there's nothing much up there anyway." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Attorney General Eric Holder was grilled in Congress ... about Arizona's new immigration law. He's denounced the Arizona law as unconstitutional while admitting he hasn't read it. He's read the law, it's the Constitution he's never seen." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"[Obama] came into office promising rainbows and puppies for everyone and has, like Pizza Hut during a blizzard, failed to deliver." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"By this time, I'm sure we've all seen those posters of George W. Bush captioned 'Miss Me Yet?' I, personally, think things have gotten so bad in Obama's America that I wouldn't be surprised if we begin seeing those same posters springing up with Jimmy Carter's picture." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"One of my biggest differences with the Bush administration, and even with the Clinton administration, was that they overdid that. I have always been critical of this effort to equate a decent home with homeownership. I think we should have been doing more to provide rental housing. My efforts have been to try and get affordable rental housing. I was very much in disagreement with this push into home ownership, and I think the federal government should not be artificially doing that." --Barney Frank, May 21, 2010

"We have, I think, an excessive degree of concern right now about homeownership and its role in the economy. ... Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you're not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. And so those of us on our committee in particular will continue to push for homeownership." -- Barney Frank, June 2005

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