Quotes of the Morning: Papers Please

“Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
‘This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there,’ Fernandez said.
The operations will keep terrorists off guard, Fernandez said. He said al-Qaida and other terrorist groups plot attacks by putting places under surveillance and watching for flaws and patterns in security.”
-Associated Press, November 28, 2005

“Federal prosecutors are reviewing whether to pursue charges against an Arvada [Colorado] woman who refused to show identification to federal police while riding an RTD bus through the Federal Center in Lakewood.
Deborah Davis, 50, was ticketed for two petty offenses Sept. 26 by officers who commonly board the RTD bus as it passes through the Federal Center and ask passengers for identification.”
-Rocky Mountain News, November 29, 2005

“Remember when you had to be actually accused of something before you needed to present identification? Remember when we used to laugh at the Soviet Union making citizens ‘present papers’ to travel? Remember when we were called the ‘Land of the Free’? It’s amazing how fast things can change. For instance, take a look at our relationship with Mexico and our policies towards illegal immigration.”
-Skippy

“We share values with Mexico. They’re common values — values that unite people, whether they live in the United States or whether they live in Mexico. And what are those values? … The willingness to work hard. America is known for our ability to work hard. Think about the Mexican worker who walks 500 miles across a desert to find work. Those are hard-working citizens. We share that very important value of people willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 6, 2001

“A few short years later..”
-Skippy

“To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers, and criminals find it easier to sneak into America. My administration has a clear strategy for dealing with this problem: We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, October 22, 2005

“Or, for something a little more in the news, how about just who the enemy is in Iraq? Seems like something that we’d know by now..”
-Skippy

"’This is a group of people who don't merit the word `insurgency,' I think,’ Rumsfeld said Tuesday at a Pentagon news conference. He said the thought had come to him suddenly over the Thanksgiving weekend.
[…]
‘I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe,’ he said. ‘These people don't have a legitimate gripe.’ Still, he acknowledged that his point may not be supported by the standard definition of ‘insurgent.’ He promised to look it up.
Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the term ‘insurgent’ as ‘rising up against established authority.’
Even Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who stood beside Rumsfeld at the news conference, found it impossible to describe the fighting in Iraq without twice using the term `insurgent.'
After the word slipped out the first time, Pace looked sheepishly at Rumsfeld and quipped apologetically, ‘I have to use the word `insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now.’"
-Associated Press, November 29, 2005

“Or even where the war is taking place. I’d have thought for sure that there could be no misunderstanding on that one..”
-Skippy

“Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, flubbed Monday and referred to Iraq as Vietnam while commenting on Fox News against an immediate troop withdrawal.
‘The Democratic Party seems to be taken over by the Michael Moore contingent in their attitude toward Vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job,’ Hatch said on the network's morning show. Hatch's spokesman acknowledged the error, which was first reported on the American Prospect Web log.”
-Salt Lake Tribune, November 29, 2005

“Apparently the more thing change, the more they stay the same. Good Morning Vietnam.”
-Skippy