Say What? 8/24/2011 Edition [Reader Post]

Liberals:

President Obama from Martha’s Vineyard: “That’s why it’s so important that folks in Washington put country before party. That’s why it’s so important that our elected leaders get past their differences to help grow the economy and put this nation back to work. Because here in Alpha it couldn’t be more clear: if we can come together, there’s no stopping the United States of America.”

President Barack Obama: “One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is – businesses have gotten so efficient, that, uh, when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller? Instead of using an ATM. Or, used a travel agent instead of going online. A lot of jobs out that that used to require people now have become automated.”

Press secretary Jay Carney: “In early September, we will put forward proposals for jobs-creating ideas and economic growth ideas.  We want to be aggressive with deficit reduction that helps pay for things you need to do in the near term to grow the economy.”

Nancy Pelosi: “Unemployment insurance, the economists tell us, return $2 for every $1 that is put out there for unemployment insurance.  It injects demand into the economy, it creates jobs to help reduce the deficit.”

Pelosi:  “[Tax cuts do] not create jobs.  I mention this because this is the context in which we bring up this tax cut for middle-income families in America today.”

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: “Well, obviously, it’s putting people to work. Which is why we’re going to have some interesting things in the course of the forum this morning. Later this morning, we’re going have a press conference with Secretary Mavis and Secretary Chu to announce something that’s never happened in this country — something that we think is exciting in terms of job growth. I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the foot stamp program, you have to recognize that it’s also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it.”

Democrat Senator Frank Lautenberg (who is worth $50 million): “There is that opportunity along the way, but I’ll tell you .. there’s another place to get your money and it’s to get it from people like me who made their successes because of the infrastructure, the human infrastructure that the United States has.  And we ought to pay more in our taxes for the things that we’ve gotten as the result of an extraordinary middle class that we have in this country.. Go to Warren Buffett, you heard him the other day, the richest man in America, if not second or third, he said we ought to pay more for the privileges that we wealthy have in this country.  It’s a tough fight but we’ve got to do it.  We’ve got to eliminate the rich.  We’ve got to eliminate the fraudulent practice.”

Democrat Rep. Ed Markey to Rick Perry: “Now the Texas governor Rick Perry has also said that the EPA is a job killer and called for president Obama to put a moratorium on all regulations for at least six months. This despite independent research that says environmental regulations actually create new jobs.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I): “Most importantly, we want to get immigrants from around the world to come to America…That’s the single biggest thing that the president could do with Congress, is open up the borders to those that will create jobs here.”

When you read over the past half dozen quotations, do you have any confusion as to why this administration has so mishandled the economy?  Either all of these people are stupid beyond belief, or they are just making stuff up to show their support for an inept president.

Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: “The president’s not worried about his job – he’s worried about creating jobs for millions or American who have been out of work for six months, two years or longer.”

Joe Biden in China: He called the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor’s “disturbing and bothersome to us.”  Then he explained: “We made some significant progress, but not the progress we could have made and will make.” Biden said there had been a tentative agreement that would have gone beyond the final debt deal was in place.  “But there is a group within the Republican Party that has a very strong voice now that wanted different changes. That deal fell through at the very end.”  And this deal was….?

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.): “We [the African Smerican community] are totally frustrated, and they need to know that the president feels their pain…almost every African-American person I spoke to said [President Barack Obama] needs to fight, and fight harder.  Their attitude is . . . if Republicans aren’t going to work with us, we’re just going to have to work alone.”

Democratic Rep. John Lewis: “I don’t think that people that I’ve been talking with today . . . several thousand individuals . . . they’re not frustrated with President Obama.  They’re frustrated with unemployment.”

Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel to fill-in host Laura Ingraham: “Let me say this. That Bill O’Reilly told me he had a secret weapon, I didn’t know it was just a pretty girl that he would bring in.”

ICE memo: “Because the agency is confronted with more administrative violations than its resources can address, the agency must regularly exercise ‘prosecutorial discretion’ if it is to prioritize its efforts.”  If we don’t want to prosecute you, then we won’t.

Janeane Garofalo: “[Herman Cain is] in this presidential race because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party certainly. [In] the last 30 years the Republican party has been moving more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more. Gay-baiting more. Religion-baiting more…But, Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like ‘I love that, that can’t be racist. He’s a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.’ Or ‘it’s a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It’s a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.’  And I feel like wouldn’t that suit the purposes of whomever astroturfs these things. Whether that be the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist or any anything. It could even be Karl Rove. ‘Let’s get Herman Cain involved so it deflects the obvious racism of our Republican party.’  …He’s a businessman.  Who ever pays him. And there may be a touch of Stockholm syndrome. There may be a touch of Stockholm syndrome in there because anytime I see a person of color or a female in the Republican party or the conservative movement or the Tea Party, I wonder how they could be trying to curry with the oppressors. Is it Stockholm syndrome or does somebody pay them?”

The Compliant Obama Press:

NBC’s Matt Lauer: “In your face. The Tea Party puts its confrontational style on display during a stop on President Obama’s bus tour. While the GOP’s newest candidate Rick Perry is facing some criticism from both parties. We’ll tell you why.” the bottom screen headline read: “The Politics of Anger; Tea Party Tactics Change Race for President.”   P. J. Salvatore, who posted this quote, commented: Has Lauer even been to a tea party?  The tea partiers who spoke with Obama were polite, they shook his hand, and expressed dissent. It’s dangerous for Matt Lauer to suggest that simple dissent and questioning of our elected leaders is more than it is. Every violent incident has been the result of progressive thuggery that he has failed to report as a journalist. Failed, or chose to ignore.

The Associated Press: “Texas has accounted for nearly half the U.S. jobs created since the recession officially ended two years ago, according to calculations by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  Its job-creation figures are coming under scrutiny now that Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has launched a presidential campaign.”

NPR‘s website: “[Rick Perry is a] Texas governor with a little bit of swagger and a heavy emphasis on his Christian faith, is running for president. It all feels a little familiar. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry has been called ‘George W. Bush on steroids.’ ”

Chris Matthews: “Aren’t you worried, though, that in a world where we have to compete with science, in science and technology with Chinese and Indian young geniuses, and some of them move here, and some that are still over in their countries around the world, we’re competing in a world of science and technology to be a country that might be led by someone who doesn’t believe in evolution? Who doesn’t believe in climate change? Who doesn’t believe in the scientific community of his own country, the National Academy of Science, for example, on climate change? Wouldn’t that be kind of scary to have somebody who is so anti-intellectual as president?”

After comparing Rick Perry to Bull Connor (a Democrat segregationalist from the 1950’s), Chris Matthews backed off ever so slightly the next day: “I compared him to Bull Connor with a smile yesterday. Maybe that was too far, but I’m still learning about this guy.”

The NY Times: “President Obama plans a major speech on jobs after Labor Day in which he will lay out new proposals for jump-starting the economy and specific plans for legislative efforts to cut spending, White House officials said.”

Chris Matthews: “In a world sense, the Democratic is really a centrist party, they are not a hard Socialist party, they don’t believe in government control of heavy industries.”

Liberals from the past:

President Obama from 14June 2011 on NBC, explaining the reasons for high unemployment:  “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”

President Obama from July 25, 2011, “I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books. . . I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own – that’s not how our system works”  The context just happens to be the immigration laws, which Obama is subverting by executive fiat.

Liberals being civil:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles): “I’m not afraid of anybody.  This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the `tea party’ can go straight to hell.”

Ray Pensador at Daily Kos: “A civil and modern society that operates under the rule of law, respects the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, can only exist under Liberalism and a Progressive philosophy.  We are right.  They are wrong, and must be mercilessly defeated.  The U.S. government has been corrupted to the core by a plutocratic cabal of sociopaths.  The entire U.S. media serves mainly as a propaganda machine for the criminal plutocracy.  There is an international conspiracy of bankers who are looting the entire world-wide financial system.  I don’t give a s–t about quoting Reagan, or Linbaugh [sic], or making statements like, “You see, even ‘so and so’ who is a conservative Republican, agrees with ‘this or that.'”  I only care about what we (Liberals, and Progressive) have to say about anything, because after all, we are the only ones that are sane, believe in science, and empirical evidence, and true investigative journalism, and freedom and equality, and the rule of law.  We are sane, they are crazy wack-jobs, so I don’t give two s–ts about anything they have to say.  I have no interest in talking to them, or negotiating with them, or in give-and-take with them, or in accepting any of their bulls–t corporate public relations firm-paid messaging of framing on any issue.”

Chris Matthews: “Do you think Rick Perry would be for that? Do you think he’d be cheering for Ike today if he brought the troops in to desegregate the schools in Little Rock? I don’t think so!

Rippa (liberal blogger): “President Obama Confronted By Iowa Tea Party Crazies;  Listen Barack, by now you should know that you can’t reason with these people. Nothing they say is ever rooted in reality. Yes, most of them live in some alternate universe – they don’y understand context, don’t care about context, and they’re just plain dumb…Like I said, these knuckle-draggers just won’t get it; hell, they’ve already proven just how intellectually, and ideologically bankrupt they are. I don’t give a damn what they say: anybody willing to crash the economy, force the country into default is a damn terrorist in my book. But let them tell it, they’re patriotic”

Crazy Muslims:

Al-Qaida in Iraq statement: “By God’s will, the campaign starts in the middle of the fasting month (of Ramadan) and ends by God’s will after 100 attacks exactly…[this campaign would include] varied attacks, including raids, martyrdom operations (suicide attacks), roadside bombs, silenced guns and snipers, in all cities, rural areas and provinces.”  We are about halfway through Ramadan.

HAMAS on their 2-year truce with Israel: “There is no longer any truce with the enemy.”

An unnamed person at a Jiahdist website suggested that Muslims bomb military funerals in the United States: “There is no doubt that targeting America in these times will have a significant impact in hastening its withdrawal from the countries it occupies, on top of which is Afghanistan.”  This person also points out that there is little or no security at these funerals.

Liberals making sense:

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR): “I’ve just done six town hall meetings, have seven to go but people are shaking their head and saying ‘I don’t know if I’d vote for him again.’  One guy asked me… give me 25 words what he’s about and what he’s done for me. I’m like… it could have been worse?”

Economist and Obama supporter Jeffrey Sachs: “We’re almost three years into this administration, and there’s never been a plan. And that’s what everybody feels. And the president didn’t lead. He waited. The quintessential image, sadly, of an administration that I supported and hoped for much better, is the president waiting by the phone to hear what Congress calls to tell him. It doesn’t work in this country that way. It’s not a matter that it’s August. It’s a matter that it’s August 2011. So we’ve been drifting for a very long time. And we’ve been drifting down. And we had a short-term plan that failed. A short-term stimulus that was supposed to get the economy back on track, but it failed. And now we have nothing behind it. And we have no agreements, and we have no leadership. And, frankly, I do think it’s pretty odd the president’s on vacation right now. Normally I wouldn’t care about such things, but the world markets are in deep crisis. It’s no joke. This isn’t just an up-and-down little blip. This is a very serious situation.”

Maureen Dowd: “Americans are rattled and want action. They don’t know or care what Congress’s schedule is. They just see the president not doing anything.  Cruising white Midwestern hamlets in his black bus, Obama tried to justify not calling lawmakers back to D.C. by saying they’d just continue to bicker. But what does he think they’ll do in September? The truth is, he doesn’t want them back in the capital any more than they want to be back. It would have screwed up his vacation and upset Michelle, who already feels trapped in the Washington bubble.”

Crosstalk:

From Obama’s listening tour:
TEA party leader, Ryan Rhodes: A balanced budget is reasonable.

President Obama: Where…? N-n-no. No. N-no.

Rhodes: I didn’t appreciate what he said.

Obama: No no. B-b-b-but… But… but… but…

Rhodes: I didn’t appreciate it. This started —

Obama: A-a-a-all he was saying was…

Rhodes: That started it. I didn’t appreciate you letting him.

Woman: (screeching) Stay strong, president!

Rhodes: That started it.

Woman: Stay strong!

Obama: No, no, no, no. He… he … he … he wasn’t objecting to a bal — the Balanced Budget Amendment. He was objecting to us almost defaulting.

Rhodes: Then why doesn’t somebody pass a balanced budget?

Obama: Uh… uh…

Rhodes: We could pass that and nothing else.

Obama: It doesn’t sound like you’re interested in listening.
________________________________________

Unidentified reporter at the Iowa state fair: “When you said we need a president who loves America, were you suggesting the current president does not love America?”

Governor Rick Perry:  “You need to ask him.”

Reporter: “Are you suggesting he does not love America?”

Perry:  “I’m saying you’re a good reporter, go ask him.”

John Roberts, FoxNews correspondent: “President Obama has been taking heat from the Congressional Black Caucus over the epidemic of unemployment on his watch, though the chairman admits he’s given the nation first African-American president, a bit of a break.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, (D-mo) Congressional Black Caucus Chairman: “If George Bush were the president, we’d probably be marching on the White House.”

Conservatives:

George Will: “The most historic blunder this president made was his stimulus package which discredited the idea of stimulus packages by being an amalgam of all the liberal appetites stored up over 30 years. Therefore, when he says, as he did in that sound bite, we need to do this, this, and this, all the country hears is stimulus, and they say, ‘Been there, done that.’ ”

George Will: “You referred to the Hoover Dam, great achievement of the ’30s. You couldn’t build the Hoover Dam today because they’d discover a snail darter in the Colorado River and would stop it.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner to President Obama on Twitter: “We really don’t need another speech — just a plan, like, on paper. Seriously, just drop it in the mail. Podium not required. Thanks.”

George Will: “Texas is to the Republicans as California is to the Democrats.”

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer: “The Obama administration cannot get its amnesty schemes through Congress, so now it has resorted to implementing its plans via executive fiat.  We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law.”

Republican Reps. Michael McCaul: “It’s just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way.”

Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas: “The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them.”

Rick Perry: “And if I hurt the president’s feelings, well, with all due respect, I love my country and I love future generations more than I care about his feelings.”

Rick Perry: “It’s the height of hypocrisy for this president to call anyone a marginal performer. If anyone is a marginal performer, it’s him. He has downgraded the good name and credit of this country.  Talk about someone who has marginalized America.”

Rick Perry: “I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed. But I do not buy into, that a group of scientists, who in some cases were found to be manipulating this data.”

Rush Limbaugh: “It really is amazing how a familiarity and a knowledge of the Constitution will so illustrate the follies of liberalism and the Democrat Party.”

Rush Limbaugh: “According to the regime, unemployment benefits stimulate the economy and create jobs.  Now food stamps stimulate the economy and create jobs.  Next, they will try to tell us that higher taxes stimulate the economy and create jobs. Oh, already did.”

Rush: “Obamas’s riding around with 40 vehicles. That’s not just a carbon footprint; that’s a carbon boot-print, from our first green president. This is the kind of hypocrisy that used to be able to make Algore blush.”

Rush: “Taxes are like a cancer out there.  The idea that we are not paying our fair share is so absurd.  The problem is, or the fault is the irresponsibility of the people managing all of it.”

Conservatives from the Past:

George Orwell: “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals could believe them.”

Conservatives not making any sense:

Jon Huntsman tweet: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”  Huntsman would be an outstanding Democrat; one I might even vote for, depending upon the other side.

NJ Governor Chris Christie:  “climate change is real…[and] human activity plays a role in these changes… [and climate change is] impacting our state.”

From Conservative Review #192  (HTML)  (PDF)