Quotes of the Morning: A Culture of Life

"Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected..."
-President’s Statement on Terri Schiavo, March 17, 2005

“You know, when the courts made a ruling that took Terri Schiavo off of life support, George Bush flew back from his vacation (the previous one, not his most recent 5-week jaunt) that night to handle the ‘problem’. He reacted quicker to save the ‘life’ of one brain-damaged woman faster than he did to handle an entire city drowning. Some culture. And here is some of the compassion..”
-Skippy

“What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."
-Barbara Bush, September 5, 2005

“U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's visit to Reliant Park this morning offered him a glimpse of what it's like to be living in shelter.
While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots. T
he congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, ‘Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?’
They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.”
-Houston Chronicle, September 9, 2005

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
-Rep. Richard Baker, per the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire, September 8, 2005

“The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.
The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. ‘Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically,’ he says. ‘I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out.’"
-Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2005

“So if all of you poor people would be so nice as to move on, we’d like to change, ‘demographically’ the people in the region. Get rid of that ‘teeming underclass’. If they just happen to be poor and black, well, those are the breaks.”
-Skippy

“Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 2, 2005

“Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown said Monday he has resigned ‘in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president,’ three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.”
-Associated Press, September 12, 2005

“The announcement seemingly came as a surprise to President Bush, who was touring hurricane-ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi.
‘Maybe you know something I don't know. I've been working,’ Bush said when asked by reporters about the news. Bush said he planned to talk with Brown's boss, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, from Air Force One on the flight back to Washington.”
-FOX News, September 12, 2005

“President George W. Bush on Monday named David Paulison, a top official in the Homeland Security Department, to replace Michael Brown on an acting basis as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
-Reuters, September 12, 2005

“Wow, Bush was able to find out about a situation, devise a response, prepare it, implement it, and stand up to announce it before the country within hours. If he’d done that a few weeks ago maybe Brown wouldn’t have needed to ‘step down’. That being said, I’m glad he’s gone. He was incompetent. Lets’s meet his replacement..”
-Skippy

“On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison described a list of useful items, stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area reported a surge in sales of plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other emergency items.
These items, Paulison said, can be helpful after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.”
-CNN, February 11, 2003

“Oh, Duct Tape Guy. The worst part is that he is honestly better than Brown. At least Paulison thinks about what to do in case of a disaster ahead of time. He just thinks that plastic sheeting and duct tape are an appropriate response to a radiological attack. Oh, and caused a mild panic when he said so..”
-Skippy