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Lingua publica

The good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal

web posted March 25, 2013

"All of this vindicates those who have fought for missile defenses since Ronald Reagan first aroused liberal ire with his Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Among his more vociferous critics was a Senator named Joe Biden. U.S. defenses have continued to advance despite Democratic hostility, though much of the technology dates to the 1980s. ... Even as Mr. Obama claims that stopping nuclear proliferation is a priority, the world is on the edge of a new and dangerous nuclear breakout. North Korea continues to expand its nuclear arsenal while Iran is ever-closer to having its own. Nations from South Korea to Saudi Arabia are now debating whether they need their own nuclear deterrent. If Mr. Obama won't prevent this proliferation, others should continue to press him to at least protect America from attack." --The Wall Street Journal

"We are, objectively speaking, supporting Islamic fundamentalists, and yes, even terrorists with the one hand, while opposing them with the other. We have transformed ourselves, in the span of a decade, from a nation that declares, 'You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists,' to a nation that is credibly accused of arming terrorists. And as in Pakistan, there is perhaps some room for debate over whether this schizophrenic policy is due largely to an increasingly incompetent bureaucracy ... or if it is by Machiavellian design. But there's no question over what gave rise to the increasing belief that the United States is backing the Muslim Brotherhood over religious minorities in Egypt, providing aid and comfort to the Taliban, or supporting violent jihad in Syria and Libya. What gave them that idea? We did." --columnist Kyle Shideler

"As we mark the ten-year anniversary of the Iraq War's launch, it's worth reflecting on the mixed history of that war. Mistakes were made in the conduct of the war, but that doesn't mean every aspect of the war was a mistake. Those of us who fought the war -- losing great men and women in the process -- understand the scope of the task and the meaning of the mission. ... It's worth remembering that the bipartisan view before the war ... was that Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and must be stopped. ... While critics of the war have long preferred to gloss over Saddam's record as if pre-invasion Iraq had been tranquil and misunderstood, surely no one wishes Saddam were still in power. ... More than 1.5 million Americans served in Iraq, over 4,400 lost their lives, and nearly 33,000 were wounded. Over a thousand U.S. civilian contracts also gave their lives. This sacrifice, and that of our Iraqi allies, was not in vain, but instead is an example of valor, service, and sacrifice. ... Ultimately, the core lesson of our war was resolve -- we fought like hell over there, and then demanded political courage from our leaders at home. We never quit, even if some of our leaders did. We have neither illusions of utopia in Iraq, nor visions of future foreign endeavors. But we do understand the nature of the enemy we face, and the need to stand resolute. The threat is real, it's still there, and we'll need to fight it again someday." --Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America

"[W]e recognize there are some things we do together as a country because individually we can't do it -- and by the way, the private sector on its own will not invest in this ['green'] research because it's too expensive, it's too risky. They can't afford it in terms of their bottom lines. So we've [government] got to support it, and we'll all benefit from it and our kids will benefit from it and our grandkids will benefit from it. That's who we are. That's been the American story." --Barack Obama

"It's not about 2014. I actually wanna govern, at least for a couple of years." --Barack Obama to campaign-turned advocacy group Organizing for Action

"Well, I believe that we're on a path to reduce the deficit. And I would say that -- count me as one who would say I want us to be on a path to balance the budget in a number of decades." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"[T]he debt is not endangering us a bit -- not at all. Our economists say we're in debt but it's not endangering everything. So all those ideas about the ceiling falling, the walls caving in because of that, you can sleep more comfortably in your bed at night when you realize that we don't think there's a problem." --Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

"We do not have an immediate debt crisis. ... It could be a year or two years, three years, four years. It's not an immediate problem." --House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who, when asked if he trusted Obama, replied, "Absolutely, absolutely."

"[T]he approach the Republicans take is that they are there to shrink the role of government to the point where it really recalls to mind a statement of President Washington who cautioned about a political party at war with its own government." --Nancy Pelosi

"It's very important we continue training our military, so important. But one of the things in sequester is we cut back in training and maintenance. That's the way sequester was written." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), shamelessly politicizing the death of seven Marines in a Nevada training exercise, and tying the deaths to the sequester

"[Banning assault weapons] is very important to me and I'm not going to lay down and play dead. I think the American people have said in every single public poll that they support this kind of legislation. It's aimed to protect children, to protect schools and malls. It's aimed to dry up the supply of these over time. And it came out on a 10-8 vote of the Judiciary Committee. Not to give me a vote on this would be a major betrayal of trust." --Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

"What is so special about a balanced budget? ... While economists generally agree that narrowing the government's deficit and limiting the size of the debt are necessary in the long run, most argue that balancing the budget would not restore the nation's still-weak economy to health in the near term. Indeed, rushing to do so with unemployment still elevated and the economy growing at only a sluggish pace could even set back the effort to reduce the deficit." --New York Times economics reporter Annie Lowrey

"I'm not saying I'm the liberal media. I don't park myself in liberal or right-wing at all. I can't even vote. I don't have a horse in the race." --CNN's Piers Morgan

"[T]he last Democratic president who had significant ties to Israel, President Clinton, was really a rock star in Israel. What are the chances that Barack Obama becomes similarly a rock star in Israel?" --NBC's David Gregory

"This is the face of the new Republican right. They basically are for everyone having a gun whenever they want it. In fact, they encourage you have to a gun." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

"Republicans in the House and Senate are standing firmly in the way of Mr. Obama's second-term agenda, with a message that is striking when set against the results of an election just four months ago: Mr. President, you have to come to us. ... Which raises the question: What are elections for?" --New York Times columnist Jonathan Weisman

"We're going to work on this. We're going to find the votes [to pass an assault weapons ban]. And it deserves a vote and let's see if we can get it done." --White House chief of staff Denis McDonough

"I believe someone in Newtown, Connecticut -- a grieving parent, an upset law enforcement officer, a citizen who has seen enough of this carnage in our country -- somebody, someday soon, is going to leak the crime scene photos of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. And when the American people see what bullets from an assault rifle fired at close range do to a little child's body, that's the day the jig will be up for the NRA. It will be the day the debate on gun control will come to an end. There will be nothing left to argue over. It will just be over. And every sane American will demand action." --filmmaker Michael Moore

"With respect to those meanings of 'human' that are relevant to the morality of abortion, any fetus is less human than an adult pig." --biologist Richard Dawkins

"A few years ago, Bill and I celebrated as our own daughter married the love of her life, and I wish every parent that same joy. To deny the opportunity to any of our daughters and sons solely on the basis of who they are and who they love is to deny them the chance to live up to their own God given potential." --Hillary Clinton, who staunchly opposed same-sex marriage in her 2008 presidential bid

"You can't imagine how many attachments, links and videos, well-meaning, but seriously misguided, people send me every day. Al Gore always claimed he invented the Internet, but I have to believe that God invented the Delete key, and God knows I've been thanking Him ever since." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Any charm offensive that is labeled a charm offensive thereby loses some of its charm because it looks tactical." --columnist George Will

"We're learning more about the dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. It seems he amassed about $2 billion in personal fortune while president -- and he was a socialist. Imagine how rich he could have been if he didn't believe in redistribution of wealth." --comedian Jay Leno

"President Obama enjoyed steak and potatoes with twelve GOP senators at a highly-publicized dinner at the Jefferson Hotel's four-star restaurant. Sometimes you feel for the guy. President Obama has to pretend that he's a fair-minded leader who's willing to seek bi-partisan solutions just to escape Michelle's healthy menus for one night." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"What is the downside of saying you can have clips with only 10 rounds in it? What does that violate? Hunting? Sportsmanship? ... You can't get the deer in three shots? You shouldn't be hunting. You're an embarrassment. ... What am I doing to infringe upon your constitutional right? ... When you go to [gun] registration, it raises all the black helicopter crowd notion that what this is all about is identifying who has a gun so that one day the government can get up and go the house and arrest everyone who has a gun, and they'll cite Nazi Germany and all that." --Joe Biden

"As I indicated, it was quite a big explosion [at the Hawthorne, Nevada military ammunition facility]. ... [I]t's very important we continue training our military, so important. But one of the things in sequester is we cut back in training and maintenance. That's the way sequester was written. ... It's just not appropriate ... that our military can't train and do the maintenance necessary." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blaming the sequester for the deaths of seven Marines when a mortar round exploded during training

web posted March 18, 2013

"[Paul Ryan] would reform the tax code, he wouldn't cut the overall tax burden below where Obama has set it. Ryan also assumes Medicare spending under ObamaCare remains in place, as well as the sequester cuts. What Ryan does do, however, is cancel ObamaCare's massive Medicaid expansion and its huge insurance exchange subsidies, which save an eye-popping $1.8 trillion over the next decade. And he converts the hopelessly flawed Medicaid program ... into a block grant to states, letting them design health programs for the poor as they see fit. Those two changes alone get him more than halfway towards balance, with the rest coming from reforms of other mandatory programs, some more discretionary spending trims, and $700 billion in interest savings. More important than the details, however, is the fact that Ryan's budget shows that getting rid of deficits just requires tapping the breaks on federal spending." --Investor's Business Daily

"Considering the situation we are in today, the size of government, the level of our debt, and the continuous violations of our economic and personal freedoms, free-market advocates should be on the war path every day and fighting for truly smaller government. To be sure, Chairman Ryan deserves some credit for proposing a plan. ... However, even if the plan beats the president's budget ... it still falls short of what we need. This is especially true considering the level of compromises and the amount of watering down that Congress will do once they put their hands on this or any budget. That means that the original document should have been much stronger." --Mercatus Center's Veronique de Rugy

"[O]ne thing remains completely un-mysterious: our current fiscal course is unsustainable, and despite all contentions to the contrary, entitlement programs must be overhauled. Democrats may call that reality 'draconian.' Yet absent draconian changes, nothing less than bankruptcy awaits. Denying reality may be politically advantageous for Democrats -- but only until reality itself can no longer be denied." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"Were the unemployment rate today measured against the same workforce participation as when President Obama took office four years ago, the unemployment rate today would be 10.7 percent. When Obama took office, it was 7.8 percent. Four years later, more are unemployed." --columnist Peter Kirsanow

"While 236,000 Americans found jobs in February, 296,000 stopped looking. Once an unemployed person has run through 99 weeks of unemployment compensation, moreover, he no longer exists in the eyes of the Labor Department's statisticians, and is thus no longer counted as unemployed." --columnist Howard Portnoy

"Other than the relative notoriety of the culprits, bringing [Osama bin Laden's son-in-law Sulaiman] Abu Ghayth to New York is no different from bringing KSM to New York for a civilian trial. The Obama administration's intention is to try the same case against Abu Ghayth that it planned to present against KSM. This is a bold presidential decision to undermine military commissions and to proclaim that the civilian courts are the government's venue of choice for all terrorism cases -- even those against wartime enemy combatants." --columnist Andrew McCarthy

"I'm always amused when people on the one hand say, 'the sequester doesn't mean anything and the administration's exaggerating its effects'; and then whatever the specific effects are, they yell and scream and say, 'Why are you doing that?' Well, there are consequences to Congress not having come up with a more sensible way to reduce the deficit. And what I'm proposing is if we do it smart, if we do it sensibly, if we do it in a balanced way that the American support, including, by the way, a majority of Republicans, then we don't have to do arbitrary stuff. We can do it in an intelligent way that's going to improve our economy." --Barack Obama

"[W]e don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next 10 years, it's gonna be in a sustainable place." --BO

"Tax cuts are spending. Tax expenditures, they are called. Subsidies for big oil, subsidies to send jobs overseas, breaks to send jobs overseas, breaks for corporate jets. They are called tax expenditures. Spending money on tax breaks." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"Our economy has come a long way over the last four years -- and we have more work to do." --@BarackObama on Twitter

"What is shrinking is not the private sector -- it's hard for them to grow because the public sector, both the state sector and the federal government is shrinking and they are having to grow it all by themselves and that is why we don't have much growth." --Del. Eleanor Norton (D-District of Columbia)

"The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons. The other very important part of this bill is to ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices -- those that hold more than 10 rounds. We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it's legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines. Limiting magazine capacity is critical, because it is when a criminal, a drug dealer, a deranged individual has to pause to change magazines and reload that, the police or brave bystanders have the opportunity to take that individual down." --Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who thinks criminals will obey her law while breaking others

"I'm against handguns. We have, in Illinois, the Council Against Handgun -- something. Yeah, I'm a member of that. So, absolutely [the assault weapons ban is just the beginning]." --Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

"When's [Obama] going to get some credit for this amazing economy that's coming back? It definitely is coming back.... When's this guy going to get some respect? Republicans, when are they going to set a standard, 'OK, if he gets to this number, we'll love him.' ... Will they ever admit he's doing a good job?" --MSNBC's chief Obama sycophant, Chris Matthews (Memo to Chris: Any thanks for improvement to the U.S. economy should be directed at private sector business, who are making it DESPITE Obama's socialist constraints on the economy.)

"I think this president works very hard, doesn't take many vacations." --CNN's Howard Kurtz

"There are, in increasingly frightening numbers, cells of angry men in the United States preparing for combat with the U.S. government. They are usually heavily armed, blinded by an intractable hatred, often motivated by religious zeal. They're not jihadists. They are white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists." --Los Angeles Times editorial

"[Sen. Rand Paul] said, 'If I'm a Tea Party person, the government is going to come after me.' Now, there are Tea Party people out there who believe that. That is fueling the notion of 'us against them, it's them against this government.' I didn't hear any of this when President Bush was in the White House, who created the drone program, only when Obama's doing it." --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

"[T]here's nothing partisan about deficit reduction. In fact, you might even say it's more of a priority for Republicans than Democrats. ... The whole purpose of deficit reduction should be part of an overall policy objective of strengthening the economy, having it grow faster, having it create more and better jobs for the middle class. And that's the president's objective. And that's why he has always, throughout these budget debates and going back to when he first took office, made sure that the proposals he's put forward keep the number-one objective in mind, which is economic growth and job creation, not deficit reduction solely for the purpose of reducing the deficit." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"[Obama reaching out to Republicans] is a joke. We're wasting the president's time and ours. I hope you all [in the media] are happy because we're doing it for you." --anonymous "senior White House official"

"In 1996, I signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Although that was only 17 years ago, it was a very different time. ... I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned." --Bill Clinton

"I don't think that we should be telling women anything. I think we should be telling men not to rape women and start the conversation there. ??? We can prevent rape by telling men not to commit it." --Democrat strategist Zerlina Maxwell

"It's too easy to buy an assault weapon and it really shouldn't be." --Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who just bought his very own AR-15

"In the wake of Obama's ongoing campaign to disarm Americans, a reader sent me a 20-word message that sums up the case for making the Second Amendment tamper-proof: 'Guns are a lot like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.'" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Joe Biden said that President Obama 'is not bluffing' when he said he was willing to use military force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. That's true. Technically it's not a 'bluff' if no one believes you." --Fred Thompson

"President Obama signed the sequestration cuts into law which cut the rate of future spending by two percent but didn't cut any current spending at all. It's an interesting approach to cutting the budget deficit. It's like trying to lose weight by eating slightly more." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"In care you were thinking there was any actual balance to Obama's 'balanced approach,' he wants to dispel you of that notion as Obama has said he has no intentions of balancing the budget. Then why does he even want to raise taxes if he doesn't seem to care how much debt we get? I guess it's that the more money in people's pockets, the more freedom they have, and thinking of people having lots of freedom make Obama break out in hives." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"[Paul Ryan's] solution to the Medicare problem is the My Lai solution. In order to save that program he's going to destroy it. ... He wants Americans to work until they die, he wants poor people who get sick not to be able to see a doctor, not to get the care they need, not to be able to get better, he wants them to die." --Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)

"There are, in increasingly frightening numbers, cells of angry men in the United States preparing for combat with the U.S. government. They are usually heavily armed, blinded by an intractable hatred, often motivated by religious zeal. They're not jihadists. They are white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists. ... What can be done to reverse this tide of belligerent ignorance? Not much. The typical patriot acts within his free-speech and 2nd Amendment rights, and in fact most patriot activity consists of venting steam by meeting with like-minded Neanderthals and firing off blog posts threatening civil war." --Los Angeles Times editorial

web posted March 11, 2013

"Chavez's lieutenants have been insisting for months that the Venezuelan president would be making a full recovery from his cancer-related operations and that Venezuelans had no cause for alarm -- but they've been getting notably less vociferous about the whole thing recently, and that charade is officially over. ... So, what's next for Venezuela now that their corrupt, destructive, America-hating, socialist leader is no more? Either Vice President Nicolas Maduro or National Assembly leader Diosdado Cabello will become interim president for thirty days while the country engineers a special election -- and without Chavez to figurehead his 'Chavismo' movement, the outcome isn't necessarily a sure thing." --HotAir's Erika Johnsen

"[Chavez] was also in the end an awful manager, who has left Venezuela in ruins. Mind you, Venezuela had long-since been enfeebled and besotted by the curse of nationalized oil and corrupt governments, so it was already in terrible shape when Chavez took over. But he pushed his nation far deeper into indolence and dependency. He never grasped that wealth emerges from labor productivity, not from the ground, and after blowing a trillion dollars in oil windfalls like a personal charity/slush fund, he has left Venezuela much poorer. ... For the destitute and deeply uneducated Venezuelans who live on hunger wages and handouts, Chavez must have seemed like some sort of angel elevated from among their own -- and he practically was. That was the best thing about him. The worst was that in the long run, he has left Venezuela's poor, and their progeny, most ruined of all." --Mario Loyola, Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment Studies

"During his 14 years in power, Chavez made a career out of trashing capitalism and the United States and fomenting unrest and chaos throughout South America. He polarized Venezuela through divisiveness and fear mongering and ascended to power using a brew of boorishness, thuggery, racism and class envy cloaked in nationalistic and socialist rhetoric. ... Throughout his reign, 'El Comandante' pursued his dream of a socialist United States of South America, to be ruled, presumably, by him. He idolized Fidel Castro and sought to emulate every leftist dictator since Lenin by casting himself as the noble David in opposition to the United States as the world's capitalist Goliath. While his sycophants hyperbolized him as the most gifted in a long line of Latin American revolutionaries, he cloaked himself in the typical trappings of a grandiose dictator. His image and slogans are plastered all over Venezuela and he carefully and ruthlessly placed himself at the center of a Hitlerian personality cult, often declaring, 'I am Venezuela,' and delighting when his followers chanted 'I am Chavez.' ... Chavez was a master at promoting deadly sins such as greed, anger and jealousy as badges of honor to be worn proudly by 'the people' in their struggle against the specter of capitalism." --columnist John A. Huettner

"Hugo Chavez was a leader that understood the needs of the poor. He was committed to empowering the powerless. R.I.P. Mr. President." --Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY)

"Sequestration will impact everyone, but it will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color who were hit first and worst by the great recession, and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African-Americans." --Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

"Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours." --The White House

"The one thing about being president is after four years you get pretty humble. You'd think maybe you wouldn't, but actually you become more humble. You realize what you don't know. You realize all the mistakes you make. But you also realize you can't do things by yourself. That's not how our system works. You've gotta have the help and the goodwill of Congress." --Barack Obama

"I am not a dictator, I'm the president." --Barack Obama

"We don't need this dirty oil. To stop climate change and the destructive storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires that we are already experiencing, we should be investing in clean energy, not building a pipeline that will speed the exploitation of Canada's highly polluting tar sands." --Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) on the Keystone XL pipeline

"Any constructive criticism you have, I am anxious to hear. I mean that sincerely, and ask any of your predecessors. They will tell you, I mean what I say. No one's ever doubted that I mean what I say. The problem is that I tend to say what I mean, and that gets me in trouble -- except in Mississippi." --Joe Biden at a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General on gun violence

"President Hugo Chavez dies at 58; hero to Venezuela's poor" --Los Angeles Times

"Hugo Chavez was a man of many talents: he played ball, sang songs, pulled out pistols, and got down and groovy -- and that is precisely how we'll remember the Venezuelan leader." --The Huffington Post

"We're all socialists from the day we're born. You know, you don't have to be poor or unemployed to be on welfare. We're all at the trough. We're all welfare queens." --Time magazine executive editor Michael Duffy (Yes, and some of us grow out of that!)

"Why do [Republicans] want to cut anything? ... The debt is actually starting to go down. We can't have a long run problem." --Democrat strategist James Carville on the national debt, which is $16 trillion and always growing

"The dumbness of [Republicans] and the lack of strategy and ideas from them have the potential to do to us once again what they have already done before and that is, tank our economy." --leftist talk-show host Randi Rhodes

"Do you all feel that your party is somehow being held hostage? ... Are people on the extreme ends of your party holding the rest of you hostage here?" --CBS's Bob Schieffer to Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham

"Rosalynn and I extend our condolences to the family of Hugo Ch??vez Fr??as. ... We came to know a man who expressed a vision to bring profound changes to his country to benefit especially those people who had felt neglected and marginalized. Although we have not agreed with all of the methods followed by his government, we have never doubted Hugo Ch??vez's commitment to improving the lives of millions of his fellow countrymen. ... We hope that as Venezuelans mourn the passing of President Ch??vez and recall his positive legacies -- especially the gains made for the poor and vulnerable -- the political leaders will move the country forward by building a new consensus that ensures equal opportunities for all Venezuelans to participate in every aspect of national life." --Jimmy Carter, who didn't have nearly as much to say about the death of Ronald Reagan

"I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place. Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history. My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned." --filmmaker Oliver Stone

"Today, the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion. I lost a friend I was blessed to have." --actor Sean Penn

"Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the [people]. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all. That made him dangerous. US approved of a coup to overthrow him even though he was a democratically-elected President. You won't hear much nice about him in the US media in the next few days. So, I thought I'd say a couple things to provide some balance." --filmmaker Michael Moore

"We are currently not accepting any new requests for tour reservations due to the pending effects of the Federal sequestration beginning on or about March 1. In the event of sequestration all tours beginning in April will be cancelled due to staff furloughs." --U.S. Naval Observatory

"What is so astonishing about liberals is that they aren't just wrong occasionally or even wrong more often than not. What is truly amazing is that they are always wrong about everything." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Say what you like about those Mayan guys, but they only schedule an apocalypse once every 5,126 years. Only Washington would try to pull it off every six weeks." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Congress did not reach an agreement and Congresswoman Maxine Waters said 170 million jobs could be lost. There are only 155 million workers in America. Are you beginning to understand why we're in this situation in the first place?" --comedian Jay Leno

"The White House said that President Obama's salary would not be affected by the looming sequestration cuts. Congress quickly added that their pay is also unaffected. Their salaries are all protected under the Americans with No Abilities Act." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Secretary of State John Kerry hasn't said anything on Hugo Chavez's death, but he has a long face." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

web posted March 4, 2013

"Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives -- the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying 'Wolf!' about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying 'Hamster!' As in: Batten down the hatches -- the sequester will cut $85???billion from this year's $3.6???trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar -- spending will be cut 2.3???percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre -- we must scrape by on 97.7???percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25???billion larger than was just shoveled out the door ... for victims of Hurricane Sandy! ... Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46???trillion all the way down to $44.8???trillion!" --columnist George Will

"[I]f the Senate had followed the law and produced normal-order budgets, we wouldn't have the sequestration at all. The budget resolutions of both chambers would have gone to conference committee, which would have hashed out the differences. Obama would have signed the budgets, and we would have avoided nearly four years of crisis funding for the federal government. Reid and Obama haven't used normal order because they want to keep using continuing resolutions as a means to keep the inflated FY2010 spending levels as the baseline going forward, and especially because they want to keep House Republicans from having a real voice on spending and budgeting." --blogger Ed Morrissey

"We have moved the bill [to replace the sequester] in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something." --House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

"Obama can not enact his second-term agenda without significant help from outside groups. Those outside groups can channel resources through Obama's old presidential re-election apparatus, which has now been rechristened 'Organizing for America,' an IRS 501(c)4 tax-exempt 'social welfare' organization. The sole purpose of OFA will be to advance Obama's policy agenda, and to that end, Obama will meet personally with OFA's national advisory board in the White House at least four times a year. And, here is the money part: You too can become a member of the national advisory board for the bargain basement price of just $500,000. ... If that isn't selling access, then we don't know what is. And it's also a clear case of hypocrisy -- of Obama doing precisely the thing for which he harshly criticized others, and with which he formed the very core of his political identity as a candidate of 'change.'" --The Washington Examiner

"Think about the First World War, from which nations on both sides ended up worse off than before.... Think about the Holocaust, and about other government slaughters of even more millions of innocent men, women and children under Communist governments in the Soviet Union and China. ... The Great Depression of the 1930s, in which millions of people were plunged into poverty in even the most prosperous nations, was needlessly prolonged by government policies now recognized in retrospect as foolish and irresponsible. One of the key differences between mistakes that we make in our own lives and mistakes made by governments is that bad consequences force us to correct our own mistakes. But government officials cannot admit to making a mistake without jeopardizing their whole careers." --economist Thomas Sowell

"I don't know why it is in this town, folks leave stuff until the last minute. ... There's no other profession, no other industry where people wait until the 11th hour to solve these big problems. ... This is a problem that Congress can solve. You know, these automatic spending cuts that were put into place back in 2011, were designed to get Congress to actually avoid them, by coming together with more sensible approaches to deficit reduction." --Barack Obama

"I know that some people in Congress reflexively oppose any idea that I put forward, even if it's an idea that they once supported, but rebuilding infrastructure is not my idea. It's everybody's idea. ... And folks who think spending really is our biggest problem should be more concerned than anybody about improving our infrastructure right now. ... And with that, what I want to do is clear out the press so we can take some questions." --Barack Obama at the National Governors Association

"I was for the Clinton rates. I'm for the Clinton rates, today. Now, I wouldn't phase in the Clinton rates immediately, because the economy is still trying to get back, so I would perhaps go at least another year until you get the full Clinton rates." --House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

"They say [the assault weapons ban] will violate their rights under the Second Amendment. Not true! They say assault weapons like the AR-15 are needed for self-protection and recreation. They are not. There's plenty of ways you can protect yourself and recreate without an AR-15. They say it isn't about guns. They're wrong -- it is about guns!" --Joe "Buy a Shotgun" Biden

"Common sense facts are these assault weapons are unnecessary and dangerous weapons that put our law enforcement personnel at risk. ... I've been working with the police agencies for 35 years. I am going to say something outrageous: You've had no better friend over the last 35 years than me." --Joe Biden

"I think we will make the case that these weapons do not belong on the streets of our cities, that many of the parts of these weapons make them into weapons that are specifically designed to kill large numbers of people in close conflict. ... America has to step up. The mothers, the women, the men of America have to make a decision as to whether their personal pleasure is more important than the general welfare." --Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

"[W]ith the clock ticking down, no signs of progress, but plenty of dire warnings from the administration about the potential impact of the so-called sequester. Fewer FBI agents on the job. Kids kicked out of child care programs. Even meat shortages that could jack up prices, with fewer inspectors working. ... Air travel could be crippled, fewer TSA agents would mean longer security lines. Fewer air traffic controllers, meaning more time on the tarmac." --NBC correspondent Peter Alexander

"[L]et's be very clear about what's happening in Washington today, and why it's undermining the city of Chicago -- because there's a mindset now in our government, in Washington, from the Republican members of Congress, that sequestration is an acceptable way of doing business, that we can in fact engage in these massive irresponsible cuts that no one thinks is a logical approach to budgeting. And that undermines law enforcement in our cities; it undermines so many education opportunities for our younger people and it does in fact create an impoverished class of our society that leads to abuse, leads to violence and leads to more Chicagos." --Democrat strategist and CNN contributor Robert Zimmerman

"The Supreme Court has ruled that whatever the human costs involved, the Second Amendment 'necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table.' The justices are right. But the human cost is intolerable. Repeal the Second Amendment." --American Magazine editorial

"I don't have my own set of facts. And I don't make stuff up. ... Because I have a boss that won't accept that. You have to operate in the arena of facts." --MSNBC's Ed Schultz

"The volume outlines the complex pressures exerted by the effects of climate change on the convulsions which swept through the Middle East in 2010 and 2011, exploring the long-term trends in precipitation, agriculture, food prices, and migration which contributed to the social instability and violence which has transformed the region, and offering solutions for progress." --The Center for American Progress detailing an upcoming panel on why global warming led to the Arab Spring

"[Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton] was caught in the line of fire because some kids had some automatic weapons they didn't need. I just don't want to keep disappointing our kids in this country. I want them to know that we put them first." --Michelle Obama (Apparently, handguns are now considered automatic weapons.)

"People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it's the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another. ... In America you have a right to be stupid -- if you want to be. And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be." --John Kerry, an expert at being stupid ???Stupid is as stupid does: "[American diplomats] fight corruption in Nigeria. They support the rule of law in Burma. They support democratic institutions in Kyrzakhstan and Georgia." --John Kerry concerned about his favorite made-up country

"When I went through the process of becoming press secretary, one of the first things they told me was you're not even to acknowledge the drone program. You're not even to discuss that it exists." --former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

"There's always confusion when you have a tragedy of that sort [in Benghazi] and Americans are killed. The bigger tragedy ... is we've spent all of these months trying to figure out the origin of some talking points which were cleared at the highest levels of the intelligence community and, in my opinion, not enough time doing the service that we owe to our fallen colleagues." --United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice (That's right -- according to Rice, the debate post-Benghazi is a "bigger tragedy" than the murder of four Americans.)

"Al-Qa'ida has issued a list of 22 ways that al-Qa'ida members can avoid being killed by U.S. drones. Here's a good one: Don't join al-Qa'ida." --comedian Jay Leno

"Joe Biden spoke against assault weapons and advised women to go outside and fire two shots from a double barreled shotgun to scare off intruders. He's so wise. Once an intruder knows your gun is empty he'll gladly go home and leave you alone, ladies." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Here are some things that will result from the sequestration cuts: All prisons will be shut down and prisoners released. Even the most violent of criminals. ... Medicare will be replaced with a hammer given to old people to kill themselves with. ... Our military will be armed with nothing but bayonets. All traffic lights will be turned off. No more money for cowboy poetry festivals, the only thing keeping cowboys from violence and thus the only thing keeping the wild west from breaking out again. ... No more postage for strongly-worded letters sent to Iran and North Korea telling them to stop having nuclear weapons. Obama will only get five golf outings a month." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from being pessimistic is knowing that the when the country collapses, the people most responsible will die out in the first winter." --Frank Fleming

"Just got off the phone with my health care [sic] provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up. No good answer." --Donna Brazile, Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager...forgetting about Obamacare

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