Political quotes

““I didn’t feel a sense of urgency about al Qaeda. It was not my focus; it was not the focus of my team.”---President George W. Bush to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in the 2002 book, Bush at War


"Frankly," he said, "I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know."

--Richard Clarke, on 60 Minutes, March 21, 2004.

"During the transition, President-elect Bush's national security team was briefed on the Clinton administration's efforts to deal with al Qaeda. The seriousness of the threat was well understood by the president and his national security principals." -- Condoleezza Rice 9/11: For The Record , Washington Post Editorial”

“not according to Rumsfeld testimony, under oath

"First, I must say, I know of no intelligence during the roughly six plus months leading up to September 11th that indicated terrorists intended to hijack commercial airliners and fly them into the Pentagon or the World Trade Towers. If we had had such information, we could have acted on it -- as we did during the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001, when we had information that led us to move ships out of harbors in the Gulf region."

Albright, under oath

"Today, the threat to our security is not in an enemy silo, but in the briefcase or the car bomb of a terrorist. In 1996, the president helped organize the international summit on counterterrorism at Sharm-al-Sheikh, in which 29 world leaders participated, including 13 from Arab states.
Year after year, the president told the UN General Assembly that combating terrorism was at the top of the American agenda, and should be at the top of the world's agenda. He urged every nation to deny support and sanctuary to terrorist groups; to cooperate in extraditing and prosecuting terrorist suspects; to regulate more rigorously the manufacture and export of explosives; to raise international airport security standards; and to combat the conditions internationally that fuel intolerance, spread violence and multiply despair."

or Powell's testimony, under oath "In mid-June 2001, Pakistans Foreign Minister Sattar traveled to Washington and heard in no uncertain terms from me, Dr. Rice and others, that Pakistan needed to work with us to convince the Taliban to take action on bin Laden and al Qaida. Later that month, we delivered a strong message in Islamabad to the Taliban envoy there that the Taliban would be held responsible for any bin Laden-led attack anywhere in the world.
"On September 5, we met in Washington with the Director General of Pakistans ISI. We sent another tough message on Pakistans cooperation with us on the Taliban and al Qaida. We told him that Pakistan needed to take immediate, concrete, visible steps alongside the United States to choke off terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan.
On September 8 and 9, we continued to use every diplomatic channel to change the status quo in Afghanistan, including participating in a group under U.N. chairmanship in Geneva where we and Iran could discuss Afghanistan directly. On September 9, State Department officials were meeting with the Iranians when word came of the assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood.
I will quote from the message: We will need Chiefs of Mission, with the full support of the CINCs, to push as hard as possible to obtain the maximum security feasible in local circumstances. In addition to what State and DOD were doing, the FBI and the FAA were issuing their warnings in June and July as well, and on July 5, the NSC chaired a meeting with FAA, INS, Customs, FBI, and the Coast Guard to inform all of them that intelligence indicated upcoming terrorist attacks."

Threatening Pakistan really worked well, don't you think? And really, there were no threats of specific airline planes being flown into US targets, now were there. Yeah, none that they are going to tell us!”

“I'll take politician quotes in papers over quotes "under oath" any day.”

“"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Blewinsky."”

“"You mean if we help you build a nuclear reactor or two you won't use spent fuel rods to make nuclear weapons with. Great, fabulous would you like a cigar with "extra flavoring" on it?"

8)”

“"Well, gee, I'd really like to meet with Yasar Arafat but Monica is about to give me a blow job."”

“"The greatest irony of the post-911 world is that so many
Democrats hate the Bush Doctrine. Liberation, anti-proliferation,
and nation-building are activist and liberal, not defensive
and conservative. The perceived immorality of our actions may
weigh heavily on their souls. But it's nothing compared to what
we might have to face if our goal of limited war for democracy
fails. If the Middle East gets nukes before it gets freedom, it
will be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to wage a
war on liberal grounds. We'll be back where we were during the
Cold War. The only difference is that the equation of Mutually
Assured Destruction won't balance. Say what you will about the
Communists. They did not want to martyr themselves to destroy
us. If terrorists detonate a portable nuke in a Western city,
what's left of the Terror War will be nasty, brutish, and
short. The West's so-far limited response will instantly become
total and, in effect, genocidal. Any and all WMD-producing
states will be considered targets for a unilateral nuclear
counterattack, starting with capital cities. The UN will not be
consulted. Millions could die in a day." --Michael J. Totten”

“And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.

RIchard Clark describing Bush administration's terrorism policy in '02.”

“And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.

RIchard Clark describing Bush administration's terrorism policy in '02.”

“ROEMER: OK. With my 15 minutes, let's move into the Bush administration.

On January 25th, we've seen a memo that you've written to Dr. Rice urgently asking for a principals' review of al Qaeda. You include helping the Northern Alliance, covert aid, significant new '02 budget authority to help fight al Qaeda and a response to the USS Cole. You attach to this document both the Delenda Plan of 1998 and a strategy paper from December 2000.

Do you get a response to this urgent request for a principals meeting on these? And how does this affect your time frame for dealing with these important issues?

CLARKE: I did get a response, and the response was that in the Bush administration I should, and my committee, counterterrorism security group, should report to the deputies committee, which is a sub-Cabinet level committee, and not to the principals and that, therefore, it was inappropriate for me to be asking for a principals' meeting. Instead, there would be a deputies meeting.

ROEMER: So does this slow the process down to go to the deputies rather than to the principals or a small group as you had previously done?

CLARKE: It slowed it down enormously, by months. First of all, the deputies committee didn't meet urgently in January or February.

Then when the deputies committee did meet, it took the issue of al Qaeda as part of a cluster of policy issues, including nuclear proliferation in South Asia, democratization in Pakistan, how to treat the various problems, including narcotics and other problems in Afghanistan, and launched on a series of deputies meetings extending over several months to address al Qaeda in the context of all of those inter-related issues.

That process probably ended, I think in July of 2001. So we were ready for a principals meeting in July. But the principals calendar was full and then they went on vacation, many of them in August, so we couldn't meet in August, and therefore the principals met in September.”

“It looks like he was being a good soldier for the Bush admin in '02.”

“"Clarke's critique of administration decision-making and how it did not balance the imperative of finishing the job against al Qaeda versus what they wanted to do in Iraq is absolutely on the money," -- Flynt Leverett, a former CIA analyst and Middle East specialist who left Bush's National Security Council staff a year ago”

“"Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off."

— George W. Bush
Washington, D.C., Feb. 19, 2004”

“I dunno whut this means but it shore sounds like the feller sayin' it is reel smart.

"By the way, quoting a lot of their data, in other words, this is unaccounted for stockpiles that you thought he had because I don't think America can stand by and hope for the best from a madman, and I believe it is essential, I believe it is essential that when we see a threat, we deal with those threats before they become imminent. It's too late if they become imminent. It's too late in this new kind of war, and so that's why I made the decision I made." - George W. Bush”

“"I'm going to spend some time at the ranch."

---Doofy”

“"During times of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell. (particularly topical)

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.... - Plato

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." - Pericles, 430 BC”

“"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are... Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower”

“Wow! Good quote.”

“damn, did he hit the nail on the head!”

“excellent quote, of course the old General wasn't much of a President. Remember he is the one who got us involved in Vietnam”

“I posted this one in another thread before, but think it’s worth reposting.

"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."

Theodore Roosevelt, A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916”

“I like this quote

"Sex is like Candy, it is for everyone to taste"

can't remember who said it though”

“"I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." - John Kerry


"But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up." (referring to Laura Bush.) - Teresa Heinz Kerry


"The story is true. The story is true. The questions raised in the story are serious and legitimate questions." (defending the decidedly untrue "60 Minutes" piece on Bush's Guard service) - Dan Rather


"If you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as." - John Kerry


"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." - John Edwards


"Can I be the first to call you Mr. President?" (to John Kerry, after Shrum read the early exit polls) - Kerry strategist Bob Shrum

LOL”

“Stove, big difference in who said what.

Kerry was a nobody and will always be a nobody. Edwards might become something but not yet and who the crap listens to Tersea Heinz. She wouldn't know what work was to start with.
last edited: 5/12/05 2:42:31 PM”

“Ewk, you really want to laugh? Get a load of these.
Rumsfeld can sound as stupid as Bush sometimes!

I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

"We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."

"I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and, well, I assume it's what I said."


And, the granddaddy of confusing rhetoric! The kicker! The Big Kahuna!

Here goes:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."”

“Ewker, Ewker, Ewker....
there you go again.... ;-)

Get into the spirit of the thread man!

It's quotes! Not debate!”

“" I did not have sex with that woman!" - BC”

“That was one of the best quotes of the decade SS”

“..anbd by far one of the funniest!”

“"That's why I went to the Congress last September and proposed fundamental—supplemental funding, which is money for armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel." - Erie, Pa., Sept. 4, 2004

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." - Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.
"Secondly, the tactics of our—as you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's—ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions—you can't—we're out of sanctions." - Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004
"I want to thank my friend, Sen. Bill Frist, for joining us today. … He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. (Laughter.) Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me." - Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." - Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004

"This has been tough weeks in that country." - Washington, D.C., April 13, 2004
"This is historic times." - New York, N.Y., April 20, 2004

"Obviously, I pray every day there's less casualty." - Fort Hood, Texas, April 11, 2004

"Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off." - Washington, D.C., Feb. 19, 2004”

“"Saddam made it clear that Iraq was not interested in making mischief in the world," Rumsfeld told The New York Times. "

The meeting in late December 1983 paved the way for an official restoration of relations between Iraq and the US, which had been severed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
last edited: 5/12/05 3:22:42 PM”

“"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." - Al Gore”

“your all a bunch of adorible little neocons :D”

“Geo, I think Sam Ervin had a smoother style of talking that that clown!”

“Free, that is really going to pi$$ violin off. Not nice. ;-)

Stick to quotes please. ;-)”

“Which quotes carry more weight? Presidential wannabes or presidents?

My quotes trump all yours SS!”

“LOL
The BC quote trumps all!”

“Now how does a single quote of a lying sex fiend trump nine quotes of the village idiot?”

“…social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history…


That quote may have some truth because Socialist Party is still around:

Socialist Platform of 1928

Herewith the economic planks of the Socialist party platform of 1928, along with an indication in parentheses of how these planks have fared. The list that follows includes every economic plank, but not the full language of each.

1. “Nationalization of our natural resources, beginning with the coal mines and water sites, particularly at Boulder Dam and Muscle Shoals.” (Boulder Dam, renamed Hoover Dam, and Muscle Shoals are now both federal government projects.)

2. “A publicly owned giant power system under which the federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost.” (Tennessee Valley Authority.)

3. “National ownership and democratic management of railroads and other means of transportation and communication.” (Railroad passenger service is completely nationalized through Amtrak. Some freight service is nationalized through Conrail. The FCC controls communications by telephone, telegraph, radio, and television.)

4. An adequate national program for flood control, flood relief, reforestation, irrigation, and reclamation.” (Government expenditures for these purposes are currently in the many billions of dollars.)

5. “Immediate government relief of the unemployed by the extension of all public works and a program of long range planning of public works…” (In the 1930s, WPA and PWA were a direct counterpart; now, a wide variety of other programs are.) “All persons thus employed to be engaged at hours and wages fixed by bona-fide labor unions.” (The Davis-Bacon and Walsh-Healy Acts require contractors with government contracts to pay “prevailing wages,” generally interpreted as highest union wages.)

6. “Loans to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works and the taking of such other measures as will lessen widespread misery.” (Federal grants in aid to states and local municipalities currently total tens of billions of dollars a year.)

7. “A system of unemployment insurance.” (Part of Social Security system.)

8. “The nation-wide extension of public employment agencies in cooperation with city federations of labor.” (U.S. Employment Service and affiliated state employment services administer a network of about 2,500 local employment offices.)

9. “A system of health and accident insurance and of old age pensions as well as unemployment insurance.” (Part of Social Security system.)

10. “Shortening the workday” and “Securing to every worker a rest period of no less than two days in each week.” (Legislated by wages and hours laws that require overtime for more than forty hours of work per week.)

11. “Enacting of an adequate federal anti-child labor amendment.” (Not achieved as amendment, but essence incorporated in various legislative acts.)

12. “Abolition of the brutal exploitation of convicts under the contract system and substitution of a cooperative organization of industries in penitentiaries and workshops for the benefit of convicts and their dependents.” (Partly achieved, partly not.)

13. “Increase of taxation on high income levels, of corporation taxes and inheritance taxes, the proceeds to be used for old age pensions and other forms of social insurance.” (In 1928, highest personal income tax rate, 25 percent; in 1978, 70 percent; in 1928, corporate tax rate, 12 percent; in 1978, 48 percent; in 1928, top federal estate tax rate, 20 percent; in 1978, 70 percent.)

14. “Appropriation by taxation of the annual rental value of all land held for speculation.” (Not achieved in this form, but property taxes have risen drastically.)


Free to Choose
Milton & Rose Friedman
Harcourt Brace Janovich, Inc.
Copyright 1980, 1979




But as we lose more of our freedoms to government we can only hope Dwight was wrong.

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

Thomas Jefferson




Because as we all should know:

"Any doctrine that…weakens personal responsibility for judgement and for action…helps create the attitudes that welcome and support the totalitarian state."

John Dewey




But these programs remain because they are “well intentioned.”

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”

Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Olmstead v. United States
277 U.S. 479 (1928)




And some people refuse to learn from history.

“Authoritarian socialism has failed almost everywhere, but you will not find a single Marxist who will say it has failed because it was wrong or impractical. He will say that it has failed because nobody went far enough with it. So failure never proves that a myth is wrong.”

Jean-Francois Revel”

“The BC quote was a lie. But, the last Rumsfeld quote is the equivalent in effective use of the language as a man who has consumed an entire bottle of 100 proof alcohol in one sitting. Drunk ramblings from the Sec of defense trumps all!”

“Arclite, do you ever post anything under a freakin' yard in length?”

“"You stupid, stupid, stupid bastard. My God, Bill, how could you risk everything for that?" -- Hillary to Bill on his conduct with interns

"According to a new poll, 67% of men would love to have Hillary Clinton as a wife. Well, sure, look what you could get away with." -- Jay Leno

"My husband may have his faults, but he has never lied to me." -- HRC, "Living History", page 465”

““Free, that is really going to pi$$ violin off. Not nice. ;-)"

Hows that for a quote?”

“"I was a prisoner too, but for bad reasons." - To Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, on being told that all but one of the Argentine delegates to a summit meeting were imprisoned during the military dictatorship, Monterrey, Mexico, Jan. 13, 2004

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling." - Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

"Just remember it's the birds that's supposed to suffer, not the hunter." - Advising quail hunter and New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, Roswell, N.M., Jan. 22, 2004

"I want to remind you all that in order to fight and win the war, it requires an expenditure of money that is commiserate with keeping a promise to our troops to make sure that they're well-paid, well-trained, well-equipped."

"See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate - not 'commiserate' - the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief."

"[T]he best way to find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole, is to give clues and data."

"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003

"[W]hether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be called themselves." - Washington, Oct. 8, 2003

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." - Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

"[W]e've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the leakers are." - Chicago, Sept. 30, 2003

"Washington is a town where there's all kinds of allegations. You've heard much of the allegations. And if people have got solid information, please come forward with it. And that would be people inside the information who are the so-called anonymous sources, or people outside the information - outside the administration." - Chicago, Sept. 30, 2003

"[T]hat's just the nature of democracy. Sometimes pure politics enters into the rhetoric." - Crawford, Texas, Aug. 8, 2003

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." - Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003”

“"Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." - Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003



"Our country puts $1 billion a year up to help feed the hungry. And we're by far the most generous nation in the world when it comes to that, and I'm proud to report that. This isn't a contest of who's the most generous. I'm just telling you as an aside. We're generous. We shouldn't be bragging about it. But we are. We're very generous." - Washington, D.C., July 16, 2003



"It's very interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left here to go to America, because of their steadfast and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America." - Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003”

“WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- When asked what's wrong with letting local school districts decide how best to spend federal education dollars, President Clinton replied, "because it's not their money"


"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is"
- excerpts from Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony


" Every time Bush talks about trust it makes chills run up and down my spine. The way he has trampled on the truth is a travesty of the American political system."
- Presidential candidate Bill Clinton, describing his opponent (Federal News Service, 10/28/92)


"You can't say you love your country and hate your government." - Bill Clinton, 1995 (After the OKC bombing)
"A lot of wonderful people love their country and hate the military." - Bill Clinton, 1969 (Letter to the National Guard)


"The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this problem of...older men who prey on underage women...There are consequences to decisions and...one way or the other, people always wind up being held accountable." Bill Clinton, June 13, 1996


"You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say."
President William Clinton addressing the people of Philadelphia, May 28, 1993 in the Courtyard, City Hall, Philadelphia, PA.”

“I did not have sex with that woman!" - BC”
StoveStomper
3:13:31 PM
5/12/05



It would have been better if he had said "Hell yeah I had sex with her and I will again. Let me tell you what she can do to a cigar"

Now that would have been the quote of all times...lol”

“Yeah, I must admit it’s gotten bad lately, Treebeard.

I used to think orbitmanifesto made some lengthy posts. Now, I think I’d give him a run for the money.

And it certainly doesn’t help to make long posts when many folks have such short attention spans. Most folks don’t read much of the newspaper beyond headlines and maybe a few paragraphs.

I try to keep it brief, but I’ve been transposing some stuff from books lately. It’s almost sacrilege to cut off someone like Uncle Milty in mid thought.”

“"Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master."

C. Sallustius Crispust”

“Arc, reminds me a little of something Jeff Goldblum said in "The Big Chill." If you remember (assuming you saw the movie), as a writer for People Magazine, he said (to his friends) that he doesn't publish anything that people can't read in the average time it takes to take a crap!”