Quotes of the Morning: Bush on Bush Action

“Too often the temptation in Washington is to look at a major issue only in terms of whether it gives one political party an advantage over the other. Social Security is too important for politics as usual.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Press Conference, April 28, 2005

"Bush and his aides rarely reveal the political underpinnings of their policy agenda. But their ambitions were evident last month, when a memo by a senior White House strategist concerning the emerging Social Security plan was leaked to the media. The memo, written by Peter Wehner, director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, put the stakes in grand political terms, saying there would be enduring benefits for Republicans if the president's plans succeeded and Democrats came out of the debate as the `party of the past.' `For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win - and in doing so, we can help transform the political and philosophical landscape of the country,' Wehner wrote."
-Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2005

“QUESTION: Do you feel that the number of troops that you’ve kept there is limiting your options elsewhere in the world? …
BUSH: I appreciate that question.
The person I asked that to – the person I asked that to, at least, is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, my top military adviser.
I said, Do you feel that we’ve limited our capacity to deal with other problems because of our troop levels in Iraq? And the answer is no, he doesn’t feel we’re limited. He feels like we’ve got plenty of capacity.
You mentioned the Korean Peninsula. We’ve got good capacity in Korea.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Press Conference, April 28, 2005

“Joint Chief of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers told Congress that the US military ‘would have trouble responding as quickly and effectively as commanders would like if it had to go to war in Iran or North Korea.’ Myers ‘said a sudden military crisis in one of those two nations…would likely force the Pentagon to remobilize reserve and Guard components that have rotated home from Iraq to rest’.”
-USA Today, February 17, 2005

“We've also got to make sure that we continue to reduce regulation. I think an important initiative — I know an important initiative that we're going to be coming forth with here, probably in the fall, is tax reform.
You know, I was amazed by the report the other day that there's some $330 billion a year that goes unpaid by American taxpayers. It's a phenomenal amount of money.
To me, it screams for making the tax system easier to understand, more fair, so that we can — and to make sure people pay their taxes. More fair means pay what you owe.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Press Conference, April 28, 2005

“And we've heard that rhetoric, haven't we, tax the rich? The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to stick you with the tab.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Oct. 6, 2004

“Huh.. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was a liar.”
-Skippy

“What a difference a day makes, baby.”
-Bootsy Collins

Quotes of the Morning: Winning the War

“Asked during the briefing ‘are we winning’ the war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not directly respond.
‘The United States and the coalition forces, in my personal view, will not be the thing that will defeat the insurgency,’ Rumsfeld said.
‘So, therefore, winning or losing is not the issue for 'we,' in my view, in the traditional, conventional context of using the word 'winning' and 'losing' in a war. The people that are going to defeat that insurgency are going to be the Iraqis.’"
-Reuters, April 26, 2005

“That is not what I would call an amazing endorsement of the way things are going there. I am noticing a trend though. It seems that when things start going bad, the answer is to change the definitions. First ‘privatization’ of Social Security became ‘personal accounts’. Currently the ‘nuclear option’ has been transformed into the ‘Constitutional option’. In both of those cases a definition created by the Republicans has been turned around and made into a ‘Democrat’ term when it becomes unpopular and they come up with something new. I guess that ‘winning’ is the next term that will be redefined.”
-Skippy

“`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'”
-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

“After Rumsfeld finished, Myers interjected, ‘I'm going to say this: I think we are winning, OK? I think we're definitely winning. I think we've been winning for some time.’"
-Reuters, April 26, 2005

“Whew.. I was afraid that ‘winning’ was going to be re-defined too. Apparently we are still using the old definitions in Iraq.”
-Skippy

“Iraq's insurgency remains undiminished in its capabilities in the past year despite U.S.-led efforts to crush the rebels, the top American general said on Tuesday.
‘I think their capacity stays about the same,’ Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of Iraq's insurgents during a Pentagon briefing. ‘And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago.’"
-Reuters, April 26, 2005

“Myers said rebels are staging 50 or 60 attacks a day in Iraq after the number had dipped to about 40 daily. He said the number of daily attacks is about the same as a year ago.”
-Reuters, April 26, 2005

“Or maybe not.. A year later and attacks are at the same level that they were, despite all of those purple fingers on voting day. This seems to be a version of ‘winning’ that I was previously unaware of. To borrow from yesterday’s quotes..”
-Skippy

“You keep using that word -- I do not think it means what you think it means.”
-Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Quotes of the Morning: Splash Day

“President Bush drew laughs from his audience Tuesday when he asked whether the Galveston area still hosts ‘Splash Day.’
[…]
Splash Day once marked the end of school and the beginning of summertime fun. The city backed off from it many years ago when it turned a little too wild, says Christy Benson of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce. It later became a party day for gays and lesbians.”
-Associated Press, April 26, 2005

"I'm not saying whether I came or not on Splash Day. I'm just saying, 'Do you have Splash Day?'"
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 26, 2005

“You keep using that word -- I do not think it means what you think it means.”
-Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

“No, mentoring is a fabulous, fabulous part of the American society.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, January 30, 2003

“My, we have got a fabulous United States military. “
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 16, 2002

“Dr. Condoleezza Rice is an honest, fabulous person. And America is lucky to have her service. Period. “
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, July 30, 2003

“This is a fabulous country called America, and I'm proud to be your President. “
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, June 17, 2003

“I love coming to North Carolina. It's a fabulous state, full of fabulous people.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, July 25, 2002

“She's a fabulous, fabulous First Lady -- who is going to spend time reminding people that classroom teachers, people in the classroom, are incredibly important for America.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 8, 2002

“Heck, maybe Bush does know about Splash Day..”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning

“In his final word, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has ‘gone as far as feasible’ and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion.
‘After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,’ wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report he issued last fall.
‘As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.’”
-Associated Press, April 25, 2005

“My my.. Let’s go back to a few classics, shall we? First, one of the best lies (we can call them that now, right?) from the administration. I understand that they may have been wrong and truly thought that they would find WMD, but to claim that there was no doubt was certainly a lie. Thus, I think we can safely assume that your President lied to you. Blatantly.”
-Skippy

''Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.''
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, March 17, 2003

“Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.
In fact, they [the Iraqi regime] can produce enough dry biological agent in a single month to kill thousands upon thousands of people. ..Saddam Hussein has never accounted for vast amounts of chemical weaponry: 550 artillery shells with mustard, 30,000 empty munitions, and enough precursors to increase his stockpile to as much as 500 tons of chemical agents. If we consider just one category of missing weaponry, 6,500 bombs from the Iran-Iraq war. . . Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tonnes of chemical-weapons agent. Even the low end of 100 tonnes of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to cause mass casualties across more than 100 square miles of territory, an area nearly five times the size of Manhattan” -Colin Powell, address to the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003
''The Iraqi regime ... possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, October 7, 2003

“[Iraq has enough material] to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people ... more than 38,000 liters of botulism toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure ... as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.''
George ‘Dubya’ Bush, January, 2003

“(Saddam) says he doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction. He’s got ’em. He’s not only got ’em he’s used them. The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him, in the name of peace.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 3, 2002

“If we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him?.. ..It [the Iraq regime] possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons . . . we know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, and VX gas” -George ‘Dubya’ Bush, October 7, 2002

“We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, February 8, 2003

“Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.”
-Ari Fleisher, March 21, 2003

“We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
-Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003

"With respect to chemical-biological capabilities, one knows that they have advanced, and they are, in my judgment, probably more lethal and dangerous today than they would've been back in '91".
-Donald Rumsfeld, February 26, 2003

“His [Saddam Hussein’s] regime has large, unaccounted-for stockpiles of chemical and biological weapon sand he has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons” -Donald Rumsfeld, January 20, 2003

Quotes of the Morning

“Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating ‘Frankenstein foods’ and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights.”
-The Independent, April 24, 2005

“Does this mean that we’ll be able to get new stem cell lines from our breakfast cereals?”
-Skippy

“Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.”
-The Independent, April 24, 2005

“Soylent Green is made of people!”
-Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston), Soylent Green

"She did not so much cook as assassinate food."
-Maragret Jameson (1891-1986)

"Looks are so deceptive that people should be done up like food packages with the ingredients clearly labeled."
-Helen Hudson

"I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables."
-William A. Arnett

Quotes of the Morning: Rope a Pope

“Ok.. I hate doing this. I was raised Catholic and still have that instinctive notion that the Pope just can’t be an idiot sometimes, but, to be fair, I can’t give him a free pass. He’ll just have to be infallible some other day. Sorry.”
-Skippy

"I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offences among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower. In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type . . . Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion."
-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), December 2002

“Sweet Jesus.. can you imagine if a full 1% of priests are child molesters? Between 1950 and 2002 there were about 110,000 priests in the United States. A mere one percent would be about 1,100 pedophile priests (or an average of 22 in each state). Let’s hope that we can do better than that. Priests are supposed to be held to a slightly higher standard. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be what was found.”
-Skippy

“About 4 percent of Catholic priests have been accused of sexually abusing minors over the past half-century, according to a draft of the first comprehensive study of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in the United States. The percentage is higher than many people, including church officials, had anticipated.
The draft of the study, done by John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, found that 4,450 of the 110,000 priests who served between 1950 and 2002 were accused of sexual abuse of minors, according to CNN, which reported yesterday that it had reviewed the draft.
The number of alleged perpetrators given in the draft study is higher than the tallies by news media outlets, including the Associated Press and The New York Times, that have tried to count reported allegations nationwide.
The number is also higher than that projected by church officials. A top Vatican official, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said in 2002, according to the Catholic News Service: ‘In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type.’"
-Boston Globe, February 17, 2004

“The [sexual child abuse] accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the [internal church] lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren't asked a single question or asked for a statement.
He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABC News in Rome last week with questions of allegations against [Father Marcial] Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter's hand.”
-ABC News, April 26, 2002

“And.. lest we assume that the whole overarching scandal that the new Pope helped cover up is well behind us..”
-Skippy

“A jury Wednesday awarded nearly $5.8 million in damages to three men and a woman who were childhood victims of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest.
The archdiocese acknowledged at the start of the trial that although church officials knew in the 1970s that the Rev. Joseph Pritchard had been accused of molesting young parishioners in San Jose, the church did not investigate the allegations and took no steps to protect the children.”
-Associated Press, April 21, 2005

“Please take note: This is not a critique of the Catholic Church. Despite my conversion to agnosticism, I have nothing against the Roman Catholic faith, nor do I have problems with those priests who take their duties seriously. I respect both quite a bit. I do have problems with pedophiles, and I sure as Hades have trouble when the church tries to cover them up. Nuff said.”
-Skippy

We Get Letters

From a fan..

"'So you see, the rich don't pay taxes...while the aforementioned rich
folks just don't want to be troubled by paying taxes because that
might cut into weekends in the Hamptons but... Sigh....'
Rich people dont pay taxes? Can you direct me to a web location that
I may view the facts on that?
Bonus Question: Do not 'rich' people, like Donald Trump for example,
exploit (have exploited) the current Bankruptcy laws? Why are you
reducing this to a rich guy vs poor guy thing, when thats clearly not
the whole picture?"

My reply..

"I wasn't attempting to say that I believed that the rich don't pay taxes. I was actually referring to the quote above it (or the other one below it), in which BUSH said that the rich don’t pay taxes, and then comparing that with his concern about bankruptcy. He showed no concern or attempt to make sure that the rich actually paid their portion, he simply stated that they don’t, but he actually signed legislation to screw those who try to escape their ‘debt to society’ through bankruptcy.

As to statistics.. I have seen them, but don’t have time at the moment to look them up, but trust me, the vast majority of those declaring bankruptcy aren’t those people like Donald Trump. They’re people without insurance when Dad breaks his leg and can’t work for a month or two.. Bankruptcy is much more common for the poor than for the rich.

I was simply trying to point out Mr. Bush’s inconsistency. We can’t raise taxes on the rich because they simply won’t pay them, but we need to keep the poor from not paying their bills through bankruptcy.

Oh hell… I looked up some of the statistics.

http://www.uscourts.gov/Press_Releases/bankrupt_f2table_sep2004.xls

What Trump used was a ‘reorganization’ bankruptcy. Chapter 11. There were 932 Non-Business Chapter 11 filings in 2004. Most people (not the extremely wealthy) use Chapter 7 (1,133,622 in 2004) or Chapter 13 (449,613 in 2004). In other words, the Chapter 11 reorganizations were about 6% of the bankruptcies. The remaining 94% were not Donald Trump types., and THE NEW LEGISLATION ONLY AFFECTS THOSE FILING CHAPTER 7. He didn’t make it harder on Donald Trump, just the other people.

Here’s a few other statistics (not from an amazingly valid source, but sounds very much like what I heard previously from more reputable sources)

http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_medical.html

“Most people think that most of those who file bankruptcy did so because they got way over their heads in credit card debt; however, research shows the truth is much more surprising. For the years 2003 and 2004, just over 50 percent of all personal bankruptcies were the result of medical debt by those with health insurance. A significant percentage of those listing medical debt as the reason for their bankruptcy are 65 and older. Other groups disproportionately bankrupted by medical debt include single women raising children on low wages or who have been abandoned by their husbands who refuse to pay child support.

The medical debt causing these bankruptcies isn't overwhelming in many circumstances. Statistics available in 2003 are as follows: about 20% of bankruptcy filings involve a medical debt of less than $1,000; about 40% involve a medical debt of less than $5,000; and 13% of bankruptcy filings involve a medical debt of over $10,000.”

Rebuttal?"

And thanks for playing..

Quotes of the Morning: Let Them Eat Cake

“And we've heard that rhetoric, haven't we, tax the rich? The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to stick you with the tab.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Oct. 6, 2004

"Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system. If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 20, 2005

“So you see, the rich don’t pay taxes, making ‘society’ do it instead, and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of problems with that, but you can’t be bankrupt because that would hurt society. Of course most cases of bankruptcy are caused by emergencies (medical bills, fires, etc.) not people trying to welsh on their debts to society, while the aforementioned rich folks just don’t want to be troubled by paying taxes because that might cut into weekends in the Hamptons but… Sigh….”
-Skippy

“The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.“
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Annandale, Virginia, Aug. 9, 2004

“You'll hear, we're going to spend -- the government is going to spend the government money here, and the government is going to spend the government here.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Trenton, New Jersey, Sep. 23, 2002

“We got into deficit because the economy went into the recession -- is how we got into deficit.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Little Rock, Arkansas, May 5, 2003

“But this nation has got a deficit because we have been through a war.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Canton, Ohio, Apr. 24, 2003

“Last year, this company paid out more than $30 million in dividends -- and a lot of that went to Timken employees. So when you hear politicians say the tax cut is only for the rich, they're talking about you.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Canton, Ohio, Apr. 24, 2003

“So I met a guy today named Joe.... He said, by allowing businesses to expense up to $75,000, it means somebody is more likely to buy a copying machine, or in this case, an architectural fancy machine.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, St. Louis, Missouri, Jan. 22, 2003

“If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 15, 2002

Quotes of the Morning

"Society is a hospital of incurables."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
-Voltaire (1694-1778)

"Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity always. Every house is, in this sense, a hospital."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine."
-Lord Byron (1788-1824)

"Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability."
-William Osler (1849-1919)

“For those concerned, Mrs. Skippy’s little ‘outpatient’ procedure turned into 3 ½ days in the hospital due to a little invasive surgery, but she is at home now recovering and doing fine. Thank you all for your concern. She may want to kill me before this is all over, but she will be fine.”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning

“One quick follow up to yesterday’s comments on last weekend’s little anti-judicial hate fest..”
-Skippy

“Michael Schwartz must have thought I was just another attendee of the ‘Confronting the Judicial War on Faith’ conference. I approached the chief of staff of Oklahoma's GOP Senator Tom Coburn outside the conference in downtown Washington last Thursday afternoon after he spoke there. Before I could introduce myself, he turned to me and another observer with a crooked smile and exclaimed, ‘I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!’"
-Max Blumenthal, The Nation, April 11, 2005

“And I think we all agree that that is what Jesus would do..”
-Skippy

“The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them."
-Mark Twain

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."
-Martin Luther King Jr

“Somehow I don’t think that Dr. King would think of Sen. Coburn as ‘right’.”
-Skippy

"As witnesses not of our intentions but of our conduct, we can be true or false, and the hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core."
-Hannah Arendt, 1963

“And now for some happier news.”
-Skippy

“Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.
Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.
‘I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners,’ he said.
He declined further comment on the wedding, which was in December.
Some of Mr. Finkelstein's associates said they were startled to learn that this prominent American conservative had married a man, given his history with the party, especially at a time when many Republican leaders, including President Bush, have campaigned against same-sex marriage and proposed amending the Constitution to ban it. Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996.”
-New York Times, April 9, 2005

“Those of us at the Quotes of the Morning (ok.. that’s just me) would like to congratulate Mr. Finkelstein and his husband on their nuptials and wish them a long and happy life together (actually they’ve been together since he was 19, so it has already been a long life together.. which is really, really cool). Now stop helping the conservative movement discriminate against gay people a**hole.”
-Skippy

“In other matters.. Quotes of the Morning will be taking a brief hiatus until next Wednesday. Mrs. Skippy is going in for some minor (not dangerous) surgery and I will be spending some time bringing her bon bons while she recovers in her boudoir.”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning: WWJK?

“Conservative leaders meeting in Washington yesterday for a discussion of ‘remedies to Judicial Tyranny’ decided that Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, should be impeached, or worse.
Not to be outdone, lawyer-author Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, ‘upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law.’ Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his ‘bottom line’ for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. ‘He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' ‘ Vieira said.
The full Stalin quote, for those who don't recognize it, is ‘Death solves all problems: no man, no problem.’"
-Dana Milbank, Washington Post, April 8, 2005

“Wow.. Satanic principles? Quoting Stalin about executing your enemies right after complaining about ‘Leninist’ principles? Dang.. Sometimes I just can’t add anything. I would like to sat that this isn’t just the radical fringe here. This was a mainstream conservative conference for the ‘moral’ conservative branch of the Republican party (I put in the quotations around moral both for the dubious nature of some of these people and to separate them from the fiscal conservative branch of the Republicans, which I honestly have much less problem with).”
-Skippy

“The conference was organized during the height of the Schiavo controversy by a new group, the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. This was no collection of fringe characters. The two-day program listed two House members; aides to two senators; representatives from the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America; conservative activists Alan Keyes and Morton C. Blackwell; the lawyer for Terri Schiavo's parents; Alabama's ‘Ten Commandments’ judge, Roy Moore; and DeLay, who canceled to attend the pope's funeral.”
-Dana Milbank, Washington Post, April 8, 2005

“DeLay did attend by videoconference though. Just good, loving Christian folks. I’m sure that when Mr. Viera said his little speech he was simply unaware of the full quotation. I mean, to suggest that the death of your opponents would be a good way to deal with problems seems a little.. UnChristian.”
-Skippy

“As Gibbs [David Gibbs, attorney for Terri Schiavo’s parents] finished speaking, Scarborough [Rick Scarbough, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Texas] invited the audience to get on their knees. All over the room, people dropped to the floor, heads bowed. From somewhere in the audience, a preacher started up:
‘Father, we echo the words of the apostle Paul, because we know Judge Greer claims to be a Christian. So as the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 5, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.’
It sounded like a prayer for death.”
-Salon, April 11, 2005

“He's [Rick Scarbough’s] also the author of a booklet titled ‘In Defense of … Mixing Church and State.’ It argues that the belief that the Constitution provides for separation of church and state is ‘a lie introduced by Satan and fostered by the courts. Unfortunately, it is embraced by the American public to our shame and disgrace, and that lie has led us to the edge of the abyss.’"
-Salon, April 11, 2005

“Possibly Pastor Scarbough should pay heed to another old quote before he starts looking over the edge of that abyss leading down to that cloven-hoof guy again..”
-Skippy

"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
-Friedrich Nietzche

Quotes of the Morning

“Since 1998, Ohio has invested millions of dollars in the unregulated world of rare coins, buying nickels, dimes, and pennies. Controlling the money for the state? Prominent local Republican and coin dealer Tom Noe, whose firm made more than $1 million off the deal last year alone.
The agreement to invest the money in rare coins is rare itself: The Blade could find no other instance of a state government investing in a rare coin fund. Neither the state nor Mr. Noe could provide one.’I don't think I'd be excited to invest in rare coins,’ Vermont Treasurer Mike Ablowich said. ‘It's a little unusual.’The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation has continued to be the sole investor in Mr. Noe's Capital Coin funds despite strong concerns raised by an auditor with the bureau about possible conflicts of interest and whether the state's millions were adequately protected."
-Toledo Blade, April 6, 2005

“Mr. Blackwell said his position hasn't changed, but he said he would not criticize the bureau's investment in rare coin funds.’I would never have any reason to question Jim Conrad's integrity. When you run a fund size of $18 billion and you're looking at $50 million, 'Beyond what one's disposition might be, is that an irresponsible amount of risk? Most people would say no,’ he said."
-Toledo Blade, April 6, 2005

“If the state is looking for some good investments, I’ve got some really nice comic books I can sell them. Pretty much the same level of risk as collecting old coins. Good to see that our state government is being run with the same level of competence that we’ve come to expect from the Federal government. And thank you Americablog for the quotes (and to Billmon for the following).”
-Skippy

"If you're going to hang a label on Congressman DeLay to make regular folks hate him, it seems to me that you could do a lot better than 'the exterminator.' It sounds like 'The Terminator,' for one thing, and that guy is really popular — even in a blue state like California.'”
-National Review, March 23, 2005

"For the first time since Schwarzenegger swept Gray Davis out of office in the 2003 recall election, less than half of California voters say they approve of his job performance, according to a poll released last week by San Jose State University."
-Newsweek, April 9, 2005

Quotes of the Morning: Spring is Sprung

"Blossom by blossom the spring begins."
-Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909)

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant."
-Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672)

"Spring — An experience in immortality."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"Spring appears and we are once more children."
-Stendhal (1783-1842)

"A little madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King."
-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil."
-Reginald Heber

"In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove; In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
-Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

"Every year back spring comes, with nasty little birds, yapping their fool heads off."
-Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

“And now one for those of you living in scenic central Ohio..”
-Skippy

“A year passed. Winter changed into Spring. Spring changed into Summer. Summer changed back into Winter. And Winter gave Spring and Summer a miss and went straight on into Autumn. Until one day...”
-Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Quotes of the Morning

"’A lot of people in America think there is a vault -- and banks take the money you deposit then hold it for you until you want it back and then they give it back to you,’ Bush said later in a speech at the University of West Virginia at Parkersburg. ‘But that's not the way it works. There is no money in the vault, just IOUs that I saw firsthand.’”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 5, 2005

“You know, if anyone actually listened to Bush on economics we would be in a world of hurt.. Those IOUs are bonds that are backed with the statement, ‘supported by the full faith and credit of the United States’. To default on them would be defaulting on government bonds, and discrediting our entire economic reputation. The United States is only able to run a deficit because foreign banks (mainly China and Japan) are willing to buy bonds sold by the U.S.. If they, for just one moment, thought that those bonds were no more then IOUs that we were not willing to repay they would quickly quit buying bonds, and our economy would collapse over night. Thank goodness no one listens to him, eh?”
-Skippy

“We need to reform our legal systems so the people, on the one hand, can get justice. On the other hand, the justice system doesn't affect the flows of capital.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Washington, D.C., December 16, 2004

“Investment means you're purchasing something, and somebody has to make that which you purchase and sell that which you purchase. And that's how the economy works.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, August 18, 2004

“The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Annandale, Virginia, Aug. 9, 2004

“We had some CEOs that weren't honest with their shareholders and their employees. And we passed tough laws that said, we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. You're now beginning to see on your TV screens what we're talking about. People are being held to account. And that hurt our economy.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, Mar. 15, 2004

“If you're working all your life to build up your small business, and you want to leave it whoever you want to leave it to, they shouldn't -- that asset shouldn't be taxed twice, shouldn't tax your income when you're making money, and shouldn't tax it when you pass it on to your son, daughter, whoever you want to pass it on to, it doesn't make -- we're working with the Congress to get rid of it.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Oct. 3, 2003

“Worker productivity accelerated last year at the fastest rate in more than a half century. This higher productivity means our workers receive higher wages.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 30, 2003

“We could only hope.”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning

“Do you remember Randall Terry from the other week? You could hardly miss him. As the mouthpiece for the Schindler family he was practically everywhere on the news over the last few weeks as a brave defender of the life of a persecuted woman. Mr. Terry is a rabid anti-choice/pro-life (depending on the side of the argument you favor) activist with a long record of interesting statements in the media. This is the kind of man that ABCNNBCBSFox loves to interview. This is the kind of person that the news feels is worthy to take up your public airwaves. Here are a few of his more.. interesting.. statements, brought to you by David Neiwert’s fantastic blog, Orcinus.”
-Skippy

"The Declaration of Independence is an intrinsically Christian document. The four references to God there can only be the Christian God."
-Randall Terry, August 8, 1995

"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you... I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
-Randall Terry, August 16, 1993

“Preaching intolerance and hate and an overthrow of the government. Just like Jesus on the Mount, eh? Nice start, but can you be more specific about what you’d do to this country Mr. Terry?”
-Skippy

"You better believe that I want to build a Christian nation, because the only option is a pagan nation. Not that the government can make someone a Christian by decree. A Christian nation would be defined as 'We acknowledge God in our body politic, in our communities, that the God of the Bible is our God, and, we acknowledge that His law is supreme."
-Randall Terry, August 8, 1995

"When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd [abortion doctors] better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed.
"You say, 'This is extreme!' Yeah, you're right. But imagine God Almighty sending people to hell just because they didn't follow His son? That's extreme. That's intolerance. Imagine Jesus saying that all other religions are false. Christianity claims to be the only way."
-Randall Terry, August 8, 1995

“And I don’t want you to think that only non-Christians or pro-choice believers get something from Mr. Terry. No.. He’s got a little something special saved up for the ladies.”
-Skippy

"The greatest crisis we face is not child killing. It's not the sodomites, it's not land tax, it's not the intrusion of the federal government into our lives, our families, as they crush our liberties. The greatest crisis we face tonight is a crisis of leadership. We are facing a crisis of righteous, courageous, physically oriented, male leadership. Male leadership!
God established patriarchy when he established the world. God established a patriarchal world. If we're going to have true reformation in America, it is because men once again, if I may use a worn out expression, have righteous testosterone flowing through their veins. They are not afraid of the contempt of their contemporaries. They are not here to get along. They are not even here to take issue. They are here to take over!"
-Randall Terry, August 8, 1995

“’Righteous testosterone’? No, I don’t think an expression like that can be worn out. Kind of like the ‘evil chemistry and evil biology’ that Ashcroft used to be so worried about. I was unaware that science was so.. religious.”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning: Judge Not

"I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence.”
-Senator John Cornyn, April 4, 2005

“Yeah! If we want to stop violence in our courthouses we really need the judges to stop making legal decisions that contradict what the Republicans want to do! You know.. for the kids.”
-Skippy

"If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship."
-Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

“Senator Charles E. Grassley . . . who supports individual accounts and whose position makes him the most important senator on the issue, said he planned to put Social Security legislation before his committee in July but added, ‘The president may not succeed in as clear-cut a manner as I might have hoped.’"
-New York Times, April 3, 2005

"Despite the best that has been done by everyone . . . the war situation has developed not necessarily to our advantage."
-Emperor Hirohito, August 15, 1945

“Thanks to Billmon for the two previous quotes..”
-Skippy

Quotes of the Morning: Pope Quotes

"Hands are the heart's landscape."
-Pope John Paul II

"The worst prison would be a closed heart."
-Pope John Paul II

"It often happens that I wake at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the pope!"
-Pope John XXIII

"The truth is not always the same as the majority decision."
-Pope John Paul II

"Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle."
-Pope John Paul II

"The feelings of my smallness and my nothingness always kept me good company."
-Pope John XXIII

"The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone."
-Pope John Paul XXIII

"Where self-interest is suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control that dries up the wellspring of initiative and creativity."
-Pope John Paul II

"Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes."
-Pope John Paul II

"’Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's.’ One would like to add: Give unto man things which are man's; give man his freedom and personality, his rights and religion."
-Pope Pius XII

Quotes of the Morning

“Tom Delay apologized today for his actions in the Terry Schiavo case. ‘I was wrong to involve the family in what should have been a private and personal situation. Having removed my father from a ventilator years ago, I know how difficult that decision can be, and I am very sorry to have placed myself in the center of it.’”
-Washington Post, April 1, 2005

“A new Iraqi government was selected today amidst heavy debate in Baghdad, including all of the three major ethnic groups of the war-torn nation in what the French ambassador called, ‘An extremely hopeful sign for the future’. In keeping with George Bush’s earlier statements about autonomy for Iraq, the United States officially released a schedule for removal of troops from Iraq by the fall of 2006, stating that it was obvious that we were no longer needed.”
-New York Times, April 1, 2005

“Today, in a surprise announcement, Donald Rumsfeld announced that he would be stepping down. ‘I have spent a lot of years in government, and I am very proud of the work that I have accomplished, but I am not getting any younger, and it is time for me to spend some time with my family’, he said. George Bush, in a statement released one hour later, said, ‘We will miss Don and the guidance that he has shown our administration. He was a fabulous Secretary, and we will certainly miss the wit and intelligence that he brought to his post.’”
-LA Times, April 1, 2005

“We apologize for the lack of coverage today of the Michael Jackson case, but, with so much going on in the world, FOX News was unable to properly cover this celebrity story.”
-FOX News, April 1, 2005

“Ann Coulter today, speaking on CNN, said that she has ‘disagreements with liberals, but that doesn’t prevent me from having an intelligent, respectful debate with them. It is only though calm, reasoned debate that we can try to convince the other side of our point of view and convert them. Making this personal would only prolong the conflict and gain nothing. I like to think that I have made several liberals at least re-examine their stance and I am quite proud of that..”
-Salon, April 1, 2005

“The Vatican announced today that the Pope has been removed from the feeding tube that he has been connected to since returning to the hospital earlier this week. A spokesman for the Vatican stated that the pontiff stated that, ‘I will allow God to choose the hour in which I go. To allow machines to prolong life beyond its allotted span is to place man in the position of the Lord. I would no more accept a feeding tube at this point in my life than I would accept artificial birth control for the teaming millions of Africa. God bless.’”
-CNN, April 1, 2005