Quotes of the Morning: Catching Up

“Well, the delightful and resilient Mrs. Skippy’s surgery went splendidly and she is recovering nicely at home. Thanks to all of you that were concerned. Seems like the world kept spinning busily away in my absence.”
-Skippy

“Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, January 31, 2006

“Diplomatically, Mr. Bush's ambitious call for the replacement of 75 percent of the United States' Mideast oil imports with ethanol and other energy sources by 2025 upset Saudi Arabia, the main American oil supplier in the Persian Gulf. In an interview on Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said he would have to ‘seek an explanation’ from Mr. Bush.”
-New York Times, February 2, 2006

“One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.”
-Knight-Ridder News Service, February 1, 2006

“Exactly which parts of the State of the Union address were ‘literal’ and which weren’t? Inquiring minds want to know..”
-Skippy

“President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.”
-Attorney General Alberto ‘Thumbscrews’ Gonzales, February 6, 2006

“Yes, there were many times that President Washington told the NSA to use roving wiretaps of cell phone lines without court order in order to stop the terrorists.. um, I mean British. Honestly, do they even try to make a convincing lie anymore?”
-Skippy

“BIDEN: Thank you very much.
General, how has this revelation damaged the program?
I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.
I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?
GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.
And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.
But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.”
-Questioning of Alberto ‘Thumbscrews’ Gonzales, February 6, 2006

“Yes, revealing the secret illegal spying hurt our national defense because we are relying on the terrorists being idiots. Honestly, that’s what he’s saying. Thankfully our government is looking into other ways of dealing with terrorists”
-Skippy

“In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances.”
-Newsweek, February 13, 2006 Issue

“Hey, why would that bother anyone? I mean we’re only talking about terrorists.. ok, I mean terrorist suspects. I’m sure that our government would never abuse their power, and we all know that they don’t make mistakes, so good, honest citizens shouldn’t worry. I’m sure that they only want to act as judge, jury and executioner of the truly evil.”
-Skippy

“A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.
A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a ‘threat’ and one of more than 1,500 ‘suspicious incidents’ across the country over a recent 10-month period.”
-NBC, December 14, 2005