Say What? February 28th, 2012 Edition [Reader Post]

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Liberals:

President Barack Obama: “We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance, algae – you’ve got a bunch of algae out here.  If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing alright. Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in America.”

President Obama: “Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. And since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas. I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. We hear the same thing every year. Well the American people aren’t stupid.”

President Obama: “A century of subsidies to the oil companies is long enough.  It’s time to end taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s never been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising…With or without this Congress, I’ll continue to do whatever I can to develop every source of American energy, so that our future isn’t controlled by events on the other side of the world”

President Barack Obama: “When Congress refuses to act, Joe and I are going to act.”

President Obama during a press event on the payroll tax cut extension: “With or without Congress every day I’m going to be continuing to fight with them. I do hope Congress joins me. Instead of spending the coming months in a lot of phony political debates, focusing on the next election, I hope that we spend some time focusing on middle-class Americans and those are struggling to get in the middle class. We have a lot more work to do. Let’s do it.”

President Obama: “If you’re willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home; not go bankrupt because you got sick, because you’ve got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times; that you can send your kids to college; that you can put some money away for retirement.  That’s all most people want.  Folks don’t have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American Dream.”  Unrealistic ambitions like lowering the sea levels?

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on whether the President should bear any responsibility for high gas prices: “If you’re suggesting that there is responsibility for a rise in the price of oil, it’s certainly not because of anything he hasn’t done to expand oil production.”

Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on the high gas prices: “If there was a magic wand you could wave, one of the presidents would have waved it…Anyone who says that they can wave a wand or plant the magic beans to lead to a reduction in oil prices is just not telling the truth.”   Crude oil and gasoline futures fell after President Bush gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to relax regional clean-fuel standards to attract more imports of gasoline to the United States and to make it easier for supplies to be moved from one state to another.   At the time that this was done, gas prices were at nearly $3/gallon and they dropped to almost $2/gallon by the end of the year.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: “And that’s the kind of balance you need. And why is that the case? Because if you don’t try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don’t ask the, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to – the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability – is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security.”  Raise the taxes on the rich and leave that 49.5% who pay no federal taxes as they are.

First lady Michelle Obama, to 300 supporters paying $300-$10,000 each to attend a fundraiser: “If a family in this country is struggling, we cannot be satisfied with our own families’ good fortune…Will we be a country where success is limited to the few at the top? This country is strongest when we are all better off.”  I say it again; Michelle will be running in 2016—possibly for president.

DNC Head Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “[Republicans] would devote all their time in office reversing all the progress that we’ve made.”  We can only hope 🙂

Wasserman Schultz: “I still get goose bumps that I felt that night [when Obama was elected].”

Washington Gov. Christine Groggier (D) defended President Obama‘s record on gay rights: “I think we probably have succeeded as much as we have because of his leadership. He’s used the bully pulpit.  He’s been the inspiration [for Washington’s gay marriage bill] that allowed the state of Washington recognize that we need to have equality.”

Ed Schultz‘s radio show producer, James “Holmy” Holm: “To me, and I’m not, I’m not calling the fine folks in the Republican Party Nazis. But what this is, this is Joseph Mengele stuff. This is medical testing. This is arcane, ridiculous, basically torture what they’re doing to these people.”  Not only is the comparison absurd, the example given is all about 1% or less of the cases where an ultrasound would be required (which is required for all abortions anyway).

Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: “Ninety-eight percent of women in childbearing age that are Catholic use contraception. So, in practice the church has not enforced this and now they want the federal government and private insurance to enforce it.”

Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett: “Even though we had a terrible economic crisis three years ago, throughout our country many people were suffering before the last three years, particularly in the black community.  And so we need to make sure that we continue to support that important safety net. It not only is good for the family, but it’s good for the economy. People who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy, so that’s healthy as well.”

Caption under White House photo: “First Lady Michelle Obama (C) welcomes 124 middle and high school students from across the country to take part in an interactive student workshop at the White House in Washington, DC, February 21, 2012.”  I didn’t catch it at first either.  Remember that this is only one thing you can tell me about former Vice President Dan Quayle, that he misspelled potatoe.  Will we see any SNL skits on this?  Of course not.

Erika Christakis in a Time Magazine article: “There was lots of excitable talk last week about birth control, with President Obama dialing back his initial plan for mandating contraceptive coverage to exempt employers who object to such coverage on religious grounds. In those cases, the health-insurance provider, rather than the employer, will be on the hook to pay for the services. Tellingly, health-insurance companies seem quite happy with this compromise, knowing, as they do, that paying for contraceptives is a lot less costly than paying for pregnancies and neonatal care…At a minimum, the Catholic bishops and employers resisting contraceptive coverage should be willing to pay for the care of all those unwanted children. Or perhaps they’d be willing to spend some time in jail in protest. At my taxpaying expense, of course.”

Rich Latta, responding in a letter the USA Today’s piece on the Occupy movement: “Your piece accuses the protesters of sitting around and doing nothing. So maybe they should take up their Second Amendment-sanctioned guns and storm Wall Street and our nation’s capitals. If our country doesn’t change, it could very well come to that one day.”

Rep. Mike Honda: “My family and I were herded like cattle into the Amache internment camp in southeast Colorado. I was less than one year old at the time…We cannot stand idly by as an entire American community is demonized as a ‘religious enemy within.’ We cannot hide our eyes when failed leaders like State Rep. Rick Womack of Tennessee declare that Muslims must be purged from our military or that Muslims pray to a false God. We must not stay silent as Rep. Peter King – during a recent hearing on the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor – uses tragic but isolated crimes and unnamed sources to proclaim that one group – Muslims- are the source of all homegrown terrorist threats to the military.”

Billionnaire investor Warren Buffet in a letter to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: “I’m delighted to be identified as a supporter of S. 2059 [the “Buffet Tax” Bill].  I have no problem endorsing any large step in the direction of greater fairness in the tax code.Thanks for what you are doing for our country.”  Buffet has received no little notoriety for claiming that his secretary has a higher tax rate than he does.  Most news stories about this rarely mention the ways in which Buffet has reduced his tax obligations and how he is presently fighting the IRS over a taxes they say he owes for 10 years.

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

Time Magazine’s Joe Klein on the Republican candidate field: “I got to say, this is Jonestown. These guys have all drunk this Kool-Aid that spews from places like the Rush Limbaugh program and certain things on Fox. And I’ve done 10 of these, God help me. And I have never seen a field go so extreme and so intemperate and caricature their opposition as the antichrist as this field has. The last time I think we saw anything even remotely resembling this was the way Democrats felt about Richard Nixon in 1972. And you saw what happened to George McGovern.”

Nina Totenberg, NPR: “Well, you know, gasoline prices do affect, they take, they are like a big tax in that they take money out of people’s pockets, particularly at the lower income levels when they have to get to work, for example. However, let us say, and I think we have seen enough of this for the last 20 years that people have some sense that that politicians don’t control this.  I mean, there was a study recently that showed if the United States actually was accountable for all, made all of its own gas, all of it was pumped in the United States, it still would only reduce the price of gas internationally and to us at about a few cents a gallon because it’s we don’t, we don’t produce all the gas in the world, all the petrol in the world.”

Washington Post headline on the Maryland gay-marriage bill: “Black pastors take heat for not viewing same-sex marriage as civil rights matter”

Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller: “Last week, the Christianity police, in the persons of Rick Santorum and Franklin Graham, came forward to discredit the president’s religious beliefs.”  She herself has written many stories, making the final determination herself of who is truly Christian and who is not.

NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams: “Birth control seems to have become, as one headline writer put it today, ‘The Third Rail of American Politics Right Now,’ and this happened really out of nowhere.”   I don’t suppose the a debate question on states right to ban birth control by George Stephanopoulos during a Republican debate, coming completely out of left field, had anything to do with it.

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The Daily Show’s John Oliver of Rick Santorum: “America likes its conservatism cut with plenty of baking powder because one hit of the pure stuff, and you’ll wake up with Eric Stoltz…having just plunged an adrenaline needle into your heart.”  As if nothing describes conservatism more accurately than the injection of illegal drugs into one’s system.

CBS Anchor Charlie Rose praised the offensive remark: “Don’t you love John Oliver?”

Erica Hill:  “Always gives us a good laugh. We like that.”

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Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller: “We can’t entirely leech the New York-ness out of The New York Times.  If we somehow achieved absolute objectivity, it would be kind of tedious to read. … Watching The New York Times try to be even-handed on some issues is like trying to watch somebody dance their kids’ dance styles. We look like we’re trying too hard. Yes, we should be even-handed, we should certainly follow the basic rule of reporting, challenging your assumptions, and we should be ruthless about having a public editor or an editors’ note to call ourselves out. … But it is possible to be fair and still radiate a cultural persona.”  If memory serves, it was under Keller that specific stories were simply ignored for months, like the TEA party movement and the demonstrations at the Ground Zero Mosque.   Insofar as the Times was concerned, these stories did not exist and apparently Keller thinks it may have been tedious to be so even-handed as to report on such questionable news.

Gene Sperling, MSNBC correspondent: “The president just put forward a plan to reduce expenditures, reduce loopholes, so that we can have a corporate tax rate of 28%., we can lower the incentive for manufacturing our country to 25%, have a basic minimum tax, uh—that is just a sound, common sense proposal, of course, you have to do it in a fiscally responsible way.  And we’re not going to support plans that some people have where they would just cut corporate rates in a way that would balloon the deficit or make it have to be paid for by cutting medicare or other entitlements on other Americans.  You need shared sacrifice, shared responsibility.  That means, if you’re going to do corporate tax reform, you’ve gotta do it in a way that is fiscally responsible, that’s to the President is proposing, that is what we stand by, that is what the public would overwhelmingly support.”  It is subtle, but if you notice, the president’s plan became “our” plan, as he explains it.

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CNN’s Piers Morgan to Canadian-born, former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, after beating down the Republican candidates: “Well, many think that you should be serving us in higher office, Jennifer Granholm, so I hope you give that some serious thought. It’s been a pleasure talking to you again.”
Jennifer Granholm: “Well, nice to talk with you, too. Thanks, Piers.”
Now, just pretend that Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity had suggested that?  There would be front page stories and lead-in news reports talking about, this is another example that they do not know what they are talking about.  With Piers, this gaff will be ignored.
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MSNBC political analyst Mark McKinnon “Republicans are literally trying to insert themselves into women’s bodies.”
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Andrea Mitchell: “I know that is a busy construction site behind you—“  Sperling is standing in front of the White House.

Gene Sperling: “Just creating jobs everywhere.”

Andrew Mitchell: “At least there, no deficit of jobs right there.”
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MSNBC “discussion”
Dorian Warren, Columbia University: “The Republican strategy is basically to be a white party, and a white Southern party. And the time is, the clock is ticking on that demographic in this country.”

Melissa Harris-Perry: “And apparently an all-male party. I mean, what I kept feeling this week is, I hear you, when I first heard the discourse of the Tea Party, you know, as much as I wasn’t in agreement with it, I kind of like populist movements that are asking for jobs and asking and worrying about, you know, about the effects of big government.”

That’s it; that is what is known as a discussion.  That this people might be saying things which are absolutely absurd?  There is no one there to make that comment.

It’s all about race:

Time magazine columnist Joe Klein: “What the Republicans have is an awful lot of scared white people in their party and one of the things they’re most scared about is people of different colors and ethnicities, and, you know, backgrounds—polluting their white picket fence sense of America.”

New York Magazine columnist John Heileman: “There is a racial – for some number of the president’s enemies who talk about it in this way. Who cast him as a – in the way that we’re talking about there is some undertone of persistent racial animosity that fuels that.”

Mike Papantonio or Sam Seder, describing Republican party strategy: “We don’t want minorities, we don’t want Jews—don’t even apply to our party…we want the NASCAR white guy, and that’s all we’re gonna go after.”

Sam Seder: “This has been the subtext of the Republican party electoral strategy, in not the text for past 35 years—40 years now.”

The rest of this silliness is found here.

Michael Moore: “[Republicans] hate anything that has to do with unions, auto workers, African Americans – there’s a racial element to this, there’s Detroit, then there’s the rest of us.”

Laura Murphy, the Washington Chapter head of the American Civil Liberties Union: “No eligible citizen should have to pay to vote.  The ACLU believes requiring voters to obtain a government-issued photo ID in order to vote is tantamount to a poll tax.”

Liberal Celebrities:

Mick Jagger about President Barack Obama‘s singing the blues: “I thought he was courageous, because there was some element of reluctance…it was a hard moment for the president to get out of.”

Sean Lennon (John Lennon’s son): “I want to thank Michelle Obama for my style. Michelle has been my inspiration. I am studying her oeuvre. Her oeuvre is fascinating.”  Oeuvre is a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, an artist, or a composer.

Sean Stone, son of director Oliver Stone, who converted to Islam in Iran last week and claims that he is already experiencing a Hollywood backlash “I’ve already experienced the reverse of anti-Semitism, having people within the film industry express a reluctance to work with me.”

Sean Stone, who goes by the name Sean Christopher Ali Stone now (after all, it is Hollywood): “I didn’t realize I would be so vilified. It is almost like I am a criminal for having accepted Islam. I didn’t realize Islamophobia was that deep.”

Sean Stone: “I mean, with Ahmadinejad, he’s a little bit misunderstood, because there are many factions in that country. And he said some sensational things. But for example, he said, you know, Israel should be dissolved in so far as he’s talking about the West Bank.”  Some people may have problems with O’Reilly bringing Stone on and letting him talk without strongly challenging him.  Stone is a private citizen who does not write our tax policy or can he demand that we include contraction in healthcare coverage.  O’Reilly simply lets him speak and trusts that we, the public, are smart enough to evaluate Stone’s remarks on our own.

B. B. King, sang at the Obama “blues festival”  “The Thrill is Gone.”  🙂
Liberals from the past:

Nancy Pelosi in 2007: “Drivers are paying a heavy price for the Bush Administration’s failure to enact a comprehensive energy policy.”

Malcolm X: “The common enemy is the white man.”

Muslims:

The wife of Martyr Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, who was assassinated by Mossad agents in Tehran in January: “Mostafa‘s ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel,”

Salafist leader Abdel Moneim al-Shahat: “We will prosecute the Bahai’s on charge of treason.”  Bahia is a faith, if memory serves, that attempts to unite several faiths as one.

Commander of Iran‘s Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a top Iranian military commander of the Koran burnings: “The US has committed such an ugly action and burnt Quran because of the heavy slap it has been given by Islam…Nothing but burning the White House can relieve the wound of us, the Muslims, caused by the burning of Quran in the US.”

Deputy Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi of Iran: “Any act by the Zionist regime against Iran will bring about its destruction…Iran’s warriors are ready and willing to wipe Israel off the map.”

After the 3-page letter of apology from President Obama to Afghan President Hamid Kharzai, a Taliban leader: “Kill them, beat them, take them as prisoners and teach them such a lesson that they never summon the courage to abuse the Holy Qur’an again.”

Liberal civility:

Former Rep. Alan Grayson: “This is part of the vilification and demonization of the President and he’s articulating it for the Tea Party fanatics. He’s playing to his paranoid audience. . . . Rick Santorum, like millions of other Americans, has been immersed in hate-radio and FOX News for years, for decades and now this is the result of it. He’s the Tea Party candidate. He’s the one that they really want and this is what you see. But there is a gaping chasm between the Tea Party and the rest of America. And they are going to generate the next Republican candidate whether we like it or not.”

Former National Security Advisor under Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski: “Oh, without a question, without a question. I mean, look at those Republican debates. I must say I literally feel embarrassed as an American when I see those people orate. One of them sounds like a medieval Savonarola. Another one is trying to explain why he has some of his wealth located in the Cayman Islands. And someone else would go back to 1780. And then there is someone who is using his credentials as a repudiated Speaker of the Congress to be president. I mean, this is just embarrassing.”

Scottie Thomaston of the Daily Kos on Rick Santorum: “…[W]hile he is authentic, he’s a f_g authentic terrorist. He’s the David Duke of anti-LGBT sentiment. He can get people to like him by seeming polite but inside he wants to hurt us.”

More sweet remarks here.

Liberals making sense:

President Barack Obama: “We’ve gone through three of the toughest years this country has gone through in my lifetime.  And there are a lot of people who are still hurting all across the country-a lot of people here in Florida, a lot of people everywhere.  There are still folks whose homes are underwater because the housing market collapsed.  There are people who are still struggling because they can’t find a job. There are folks who are just barely able to make ends meet.  And obviously those of us who are here, we’ve been incredibly blessed. But one of the great things about America and one of the great things about those who are in professional sports is we’ve all got cousins, uncles, family members who are still struggling and are a reminder that we have a lot more work to do”

Liberals being honest:

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (speaking for President Obama): ” ’I’m going to run as a populist’ and raise taxes.  It’s a masquerade.  Liberals don’t want to pay more.  It’s all a game.”

NBC Nightly News correspondent Savannah Guthrie freely acknowledges that media coverage has been boosting President Obama this campaign season: “The commander in chief in song and in tune. It’s getting to be a regular gig….spontaneous moments can give a president or candidate the kind of wall-to-wall goodwill coverage money can’t buy.”

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

Jessie Sansone, a Kitchener, Onterio father, after being arrested and strip-searched: “This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school.”  That is why he was arrested.

Daily Beast columnist and MSNBC contributor Meghan McCain: “I’m not pro-vaginal probing…I feel like I have to go on national television and delineate between the two things.  I’m horrified by this bill as a woman, as a Republican woman I’m horrified. It scares me that this can go on. It scares me that a woman could be vaginally probed without consent or doctor’s consent, and I think this is completely radioactive for Gov. McDonnell and I have no idea why he would even go on any form and say he would pass it.”

Crosstalk:

President Obama, 2012: “It’s the easiest thing in the world to make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices.  What’s harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem that may not be solved in one year or one term or even one decade.”

Candidate Obama, 2008: “For the well-off in this country, high gas prices are mostly an annoyance, but to most Americans they’re a huge problem, bordering on a crisis.”
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: “I’m so tired of talking about Warren Buffett.  What are you going to bring up next, his secretary?”

Chris Christie on billionaire investor Warren Buffett: “He should just write a check and shut up.  I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he’s got the ability to write a check – go ahead and write it.”  Warren Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, has been in a tax dispute with the government for a decade.  Buffet does not pay himself a salary as a CEO, because that saves him gobs of money on taxes.  Yet he has come out on several occasions saying that he is taxed too little.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: “I think Mr. Buffett, who is widely regarded for his success in business as well as in philanthropy, has been quite outspoken, as is his right, on what he believes is an issue of tax fairness,” Carney said during today’s press briefing. “He simply believes, as one of the wealthiest men in the world, that he should not be paying an effective tax rate lower than his secretary.”

Carney: “[T]hat’s a quip that tries to draw attention away from what is a very serious issue, which is the need to have a tax code that’s fair and that helps the American people as they recover from this recession.  So, quips aside, we think the Buffett Rule is absolutely an important principle to apply to individual tax reform.”


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Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, 2012: “Wall Street profiteering, not oil shortages, is the cause of the price spike.  Unfortunately, Republicans have chosen to protect the interests of Wall Street speculators and oil companies instead of the interests of working Americans by obstructing the agencies with the responsibility of enforcing consumer protection laws.”

Nancy Pelosi, circa 2007: “This Memorial Day, American families and businesses are yet again  paying record prices for gasoline. With high gasoline prices this year already costing consumers and our economy an extra $20 billion, families are feeling a serious drain on their pocketbooks.     Drivers are paying a heavy price for six years of the Bush administration’s failed energy policies. Instead of investing in clean, domestic alternative fuels and renewable energy, Republicans lined the pockets of Big Oil, which was already making record profits. This has resulted in unprecedented dependence on foreign oil and record prices at the pump.”
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Jake Tapper: “How can you say that you have an all the above on approach if the President turned down the Keystone pipeline? And you blame the Republicans for making it political.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: “But the President didn’t turn down the Keystone pipeline. There was a process in place, with long precedent, run out of the State Department because of the issue of the pipeline crossing an international boundary, that required an amount of time for proper for review after an alternate route was deemed necessary through Nebraska at the request of the Republican Governor of Nebraska and other stakeholders in Nebraska and the region that needed to play out, to be done appropriately. You can’t review and approve a pipeline, the route for which doesn’t even exist.”


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Ludwig Gaines, the African American leadership and engagement director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, responding to a question about abortion’s disproportionate affect on black women: “If you look at the records of the proponents of this bill [which limits abortion to 20 weeks and younger] and others who would support it, they are the very same people who will not support after-school care, or food stamps, or other programs meant to elevate communities of color.  Suddenly, they’re concerned about black children quite frankly prior to birth, but could care less once they arrive.”

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee said in a letter supporting the legislation: “Currently, in our nation’s capital, unborn children may legally be killed at any point up to birth, for any reason.  Abortions are advertised, and performed, in the sixth month and later.  This means that unborn children who are capable of experiencing excruciating pain are killed every day.”
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Scott Whitlock, of the Media Research Center:  “Earlier tonight, you were talking about Nixon and the Southern Strategy and bigotry and things like that you and you said, quote, “If you’re really anti-gay, you become a Catholic now.” [Audience laughs.] I was wondering if you were saying that bigots become Catholic now and if you wanted to expand or apologize for that?” [Audience laughs.]

Chris Matthews: “I think there are people who have chosen to convert to the Catholic faith because they don’t like the liberal positions taken by their sectarian groups. That’s a fact. So, you can write that down. No, you can write that down.”

Whitlock: “So, you’re saying Catholicism is drawing bigots? Is that what you’re saying?”

Matthews: “I’m saying that some people who are bigoted against gay people have changed religions. Yes. You got it right.”
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MSNBC contributor: “Virginia is my home state and I actually ran for Congress there in 2010. So this hits very close to home for me also being a woman. What they are saying in Virginia is not only do women have to undergo an ultrasound, they have to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound. Mandatory state probing, okay. That’s what this legislation is talking about. It actually meets the Virginia definition of rape. So, the bigger picture here is this is a bigger piece of a whole range of anti-woman extreme legislation that was pushed through the Virginia legislator and really the legislators across the country.”  The law requires that an ultrasound be done and shown to the patient.  Ultrasounds are a part of the abortion procedure.

Planned Parenthood on a telephone hotline: “Patients who have a surgical abortion generally come in for two appointments. At the first visit we do a health assessment, perform all the necessary lab work, and do an ultrasound.”
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Mohammad Hejazi, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Martin Dempsey: “We think that it’s not prudent at this point to decide to attack Iran.  I mean, that’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis, well-known, well-documented.”

Conservatives:

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich: “The idea that a President of the United States would say you can’t drill but I’ve got a jar of algae [to solve our fuel problems] will strike most people as something from a Saturday Night Live skit.”

Newt Gingrich: “You did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide…If we’re going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is President Obama who, as a state senator, voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion.”  The news media has gone nuts over this.  It is easier to find “fact check” articles on this than it is to find Gingrich’s actual quote.  Even though CNN did a 5 minute piece on this issue, I do not recall hearing this question being asked of candidate Obama at any time.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum: “We have a society. the increasing number of teens being born out of wedlock in America, teens who are sexually active.  The left gets so upset: `Oh, look at him talking about these things.’ Here is the difference between me and the left – and they don’t get this – just because I’m talking about it doesn’t mean I want a government program to fix it. That’s what they do. That’s not what we do.”

Santorum: “President Obama said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob!  There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to the test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them.”  About 30–40% of students go to and graduate from college.  This has been the case for a very long time.

Rep. Trent Franks: “The bottom line is, there are better ways to protect the health of women than by killing their children for them.”

Sarah Palin: “Obama apologizes for the inadvertent Koran burning this week; now the U.S. trained and protected Afghan Army can apologize for killing two of our soldiers yesterday.”

George Will on Christian basketball star Jeremy Lin: “It’s nice to see Harvard produce someone who is not a net subtraction from the public good.”

The Rev. Franklin Graham: “The president has said that he is a Christian and we’ll just leave it at that.  Only God knows the heart of all of these candidates as it comes down to the candidates, it’s really the issues that are the issue here.”

Rand Paul, when asked if he would consider being Romney’s VP: “I don’t know if I can answer that question, but I can say it would be an honor to be considered.”

Rick Santorum spokeswoman Alice Stewart: “There is a type of theological secularism when it comes to the global warmness in this country. That’s what he was referring to. He was referring to the president’s policies in terms of the radical Islamic policies the president has.”

Stewart soon after the interview: “[I meant] radical environmental policies [not] radical Islamic policies.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “A year ago or so, when this [Egyptian] revolution began, people said you’re not optimistic enough…We looked at it with sober eyes, and we said: It might go to the Google generation, but it might not. It might go to the Islamist direction. And by and large it has.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The Democrats don’t have one thing they can run on. There’s not one aspect of Obama’s first term that they can say, ‘If you want four more years of this, vote for us.’ They have to create fear, hatred, loathing, impugn the character, all that, of Republicans — and that’s what they do.”

Rush Limbaugh: “This country was propelled by rugged individualism, rugged self-interest. It was made possible by virtue of the freedom this country offers its citizens thanks to our Constitution, founding documents, and Founding Fathers.”

Rush Limbaugh: “All polls, as we’ve discussed on this program countless times, have bias. They are all rigged in one way or another from the percentages of each party as samples. For example, Democrats are always over sampled in every Drive-By Media poll. Independents are always over sampled. Republicans are always under sampled. I mean there’s rigging in practically every poll that’s out there.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Honestly, when I hear some of these high-ranking Republicans discuss what this campaign is, sometimes I wonder if they really have a grasp on what’s happening, at least in the minds of Republican voters.”

Rush Limbaugh: “This is the most shocking and underreported significant story I can ever remember. It’s all on the record: Obama and infanticide. And we talked about it during the 2008 campaign. Nobody wanted to hear it. The hopey-change thing was just too big of a theme. It was absorbing all the energy.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The ignorance of establishment Republicans never ceases to amaze me, and I’m not talking about stupidity. Don’t misunderstand. I’m talking about a genuine lack of understanding.”

Rush Limbaugh: “We have, it seems like every week now, at least one story of outright failure by the regime regarding ‘green energy,’ and these stories never make it into the Drive-By Media!”

Rush Limbaugh: “Reagan did not mention Satan in his 1983 speech, but you heard that he did mention Screwtape. Screwtape is not quite Satan, but nevertheless a demon holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy of hell.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Of the two men, Rick Santorum and Barack Obama, there’s only one that is a threat to religious liberty. Who do you think that is?”

Republican Infighting:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: “I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that’s kind of where we are.”

Conservatives not making any sense:

Ron Paul: “We’ve slipped away from a true republic.  Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.”

 

From Conservative Review #217  (HTML)  (PDF)

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Gary, I think you forgot a very important quote this week. NY Representative Kathy Hochul to town hall meeting questioner, “Well, basically, we’re not looking to the Constitution on that aspect of it.” That was in response to the question, “what passage in the Constitution allows government to require religious organizations or private institutions to pay for this”.

Video can be seen here; http://hotair.com/archives/2012/02/27/dem-rep-to-constituents-on-hhs-mandate-basically-were-not-looking-to-the-constitution/

Like one of the commenters stated, this woman just admitted to not upholding her oath of office.

@Gary Kukis:

Maybe a special edition of “Say what?” is in order with the theme being the left’s dismissal of the Constitution as being important? That might take some time to do, considering the sheer volume of asinine comments liberals have made, from Ginsburg’s, “would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a new constitution in 2012.”, to McDermott’s, “I’m Tired of Reading the Constitution and All the Silly Things”, to Stark’s, “The federal government can do most anything in this country”.

Gary, great collection of quotations.

In the errata department, I kind of like “Christine Groggier”–I think she *is* getting groggier as time goes on–but she’s actually Chris Gregoire. Also, only seven states, I believe, currently require ultrasounds before abortions, and I suspect the (C) after Obama’s name stands for (you thought I was going to say “Communist,” didn’t you?) “Center.”

Rep. Pelosi’s comment is fascinating in its revelation of her presuppositions:

“Ninety-eight percent of women in childbearing age that are Catholic use contraception. So, in practice the church has not enforced this and now they want the federal government and private insurance to enforce it.”

She assumes that the Catholic church, having taught something, would not leave it to a private individual and his/her God, but would instead “enforce” it. Because, of course, that’s what she does when she thinks something is right.

Ginsburg should be impeached for looking to the laws of other countries for precedent.

Pelosi is delusional in the sense of power and governance, she needs to retire to the loony bin.

It is hard to believe, we have such a cast of buffoons leading this country.

@Gary Kukis:

I might. I wouldn’t want to “hijack” your theme without permission.

And yes, I understand the time involved to learn, collect, and write a posting, and I’ve only done one. When you also have to contribute time to a real job in order to pay for the liberal “rights” we are hammered with now, it leaves very little time for anything else, lol.

@Skookum:

It’s not that hard to believe when you consider the “useful idiots” that abound in the US. Too many people clamoring to be the first ones in line to put on their new shackles.

@johngalt: Let me add this gem, jg.

Phil Hare doesn’t care

BTW, he lost in the 2010 mid-terms.

Gary K. You overlooked Santorum’s statement re Kennedy’s speech made to Baptist ministers in1960 addressing the Seperation of Church and State “MADE ME WANT TO THROW UP”. It’s 2012 Rick. This statement will define his now failed run for the Presidency. Romney didn’t win Mich. Santorum Lost It. It is no longer a question of who will win the nom., but when. It could still go till the winner take all states of N.J. and Ca. in June.
The longer Rick and Newt hold on the tougher it will be for Mitt to beat BHO in Nov. No matter what, if he picks Rubio, he’ll have a decent chance of winning.

Other than Mitt the happiest guy today is Newt. He’s blasting Rick on JFK statement and hopes to get a bump in S.T. states. Romney machine will continue to roll and stack delegates.

Gary He made the statement Sun. morn the 26th and attempted to walk it back on Laura I’s Fox show Mon. night. Fellow Cath Newt called him out on Mon. morn.
I believe his “anti-intellectual” comments re University attendance won’t play well to the independant voters that will decide the 2012 election.
In fact I don’t know the demographics for the Neanderthal Vote but to be sure Santorum’s got it LOCKED UP..

Gary Keep your eyes and ears on Rick. I expect you’ll hear a number of controversial statements over the next few weeks
I believe he’ll start calling for Newt to drop out and accelerate the refrain after Newt is crushed on Super Tuesday.Newt’s Southern Strategy can prevent any chance Santorum might have. Newt’s huge ego will prevent him providing the only chance the “anyone but Romney” faction may have.
There’s a chance Romney goes over the top in the very last primary,winner take all UTAH. Cue that Mormon Tabernacle Choir BEES.

The Obamanopoly cartoon and the chart of “The Obama Economic Record,” both show what Obama wants to do: turn us all into a European-style dependency nation.
But the UK has been there/done that.
And guess what?
It is unsustainable.
Duh!
The Welfare Reform Bill finally cleared Parliament yesterday.
It will replace a host of benefits with a single universal credit, set a benefit cap on households and ensure that being in work will always pay more than being idle.

The end result?
The Bill should help end the culture of welfare dependency that has proved such a drag anchor on the British economy, and such a malign influence on the UK’s social fabric.

No wonder Obama sent back the bust of Winston Churchill to the Brits.
They had been where he wants to go and seen that it is a BAD place.