Political Quotes of the Day

[Dardedar]

Katrina Vanden Heuvel in The Nation:

"I would suggest, too, that the defense budget needs to be looked at with fresh thinking. Do we really need a $500 billion budget -- and an additional $200 billion on Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- "nearly equal to all of the rest of the world's defense budgets combined"? A budget that represents 54 percent of all discretionary spending? The Congressional Progressive Caucus will no doubt organize around Congressman Barney Frank's call for a 25 percent cut in the defense budget -- approximately $150 billion in annual spending-- or another defense budget they collectively agree on, and reach out to friends outside of the Beltway to pursue an inside-outside strategy for substantial change.

One quick example where savings could be achieved -- the $13 billion a year missile defense program which a new Pentagon report study suggests is "plagued by mismanagement and corruption [and] has deployed weapons that don't work against threats that don't yet exist," according to Ploughshares President Joseph Cirincione and Victoria Samson, senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information. Cirincione pointed to even bigger savings, telling me: "We could save $21 billion a year by going from the 10,000 nuclear warheads we now have at the cost of $31 billion annually, to a force of 1000 total weapons... for about $9.7 billion. Still enough to destroy the world, but at one-third the cost. Cutting to $3-5 billion a year on missile defense programs would save $8-10 billion more. Total from both -- $29-31 billion a year.... And this is just from the nuclear related programs. Imagine how much we could save if we really got serious!"

CBS News

[Dardedar]

Wow, hadn't seen this one before:

"If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so."
--Alan Foley, director, CIA Weapons Intelligence, to staff, December 2002, Link

[Dardedar]

"You have to hand it to the Republicans. Seriously. You have to. If not, they'll beat and belittle you,
take whatever you have, anyway, and then insist you never had it in the first place.

The nicest thing I can say about the current crop of GOP ideologues is that they're consistent.
With America currently in the shape of an ER patient on a crash cart, Republican politicos still spew
their psychotic Bizarro World views; sort of a fragmented funhouse mirror reflection of their already
distorted priorities. Up is down. Right is wrong. And if you feel life has you by the short hairs,
you're not seeing life the way they do - so it's all your fault." Smirking Chimp

[Dardedar]

Pat Robertson in an interview with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, on President Bush:

ROBERTSON: Well, it's hard to assess blame, but I -- over the years -- I hate to be critical, I mean I am a Republican, and this is the president of the party that I'm a member of -- but I think we've had some serious goofs along the way. The Katrina matter was terrible. The rebuilding of Iraq has been terrible. The hailing (ph) of the economy right now has been terrible. It hasn't been handled in what I would consider a professional manner.

MALVEAUX: How would you grade the president in light of all of the -- the laundry list that you just listed there?

ROBERTSON: Well you know, history may accord him a higher grade than his contemporaries and I think he's hoping for that, and we are. But I believe I would look at about a C-minus right now if I were grading him.

On President-elect Obama:

MALVEAUX: Are you looking forward to an Obama administration? A change?

ROBERTSON: I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him. But so help me, he's come in forcefully, intelligently. He's picked a middle of the road cabinet. And so far, if he continues down this course, he has the makings of a great president. So, I'm very pleased so far.

Link

[Dardedar]

DAR
Works better than torture. Imagine that.

***
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

Link

[Dardedar]

DAR
Isn't this precious. Quote from Sean Hannity's forum (via crooksandliars of course):

"Obama lied. Obama cheated. Obama stole. Obama helped slaughter living, breathing, helpless babies.

Obama is nothing but a cheap moldy old Hippie Leftover pile of human **** with the same integrity and moral capacity for basic human intelligence I'd look for in a pack of rabid hyenas.

He's going DOWN as fast as I can pray him into the hell he so richly deserves because of the sheer hell he's helped dump on too many American heads.

Right along with the rest of the Greedy Moral Degenerates who helped but that immoral piece of walking human filth into power.

Boss Tweed would vomit over the crimes of the current Democratic Swine Lords of Infinite Greed and Corruption."

[Dardedar]

"His father was a great athlete, a great student, a war hero, went into the oil business
and made a lot of money and then succeeded in politics. Bush tried to emulate him and failed."
-- Jacob Weisberg



"You can still hate Bush even
if you're too young to talk." --bartcop

[L.Wood]

.

deleted by poster


.

[Dardedar]

Precious.

"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile." John Hinderaker, Balloon Juice

[tmiller51]

Precious.

"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile." John Hinderaker, Balloon Juice

Wow, before I read the article, I thought that statement was supposed to be sarcasm.

Tim

[Dardedar]

The cheerful idiot

As the Current Occupant imagines his legacy emerging golden and shining in a hundred years after all of us are deceased, you and I go on.

By Garrison Keillor

Jan. 7, 2009 | When you look at the audience numbers for TV and then add up the incarcerated felons, Alzheimer's patients and confirmed barflies in America, it dawns on you who is watching TV these days -- people unable to lead normal productive lives -- and yet they give out awards for this stuff and the hosts of shows are driven to and fro in Lincoln Town Cars and they suffer from toxic self-esteem. TV is wallpaper nowadays and those talking heads might as well be talking to the smoked trout in Murray's Deli or the No Parking signs along Broadway, as people do from time to time, but we allow them their delusions.

And we allow the Current Occupant to leave the Mansion d'Blanc with a big grin in a couple of weeks, his self-esteem apparently fully intact, imagining that his legacy will emerge golden and shining in a hundred years after all of us are deceased. He is one of the cheerfullest idiots you ever saw, a man who could burn down his own house and be happy that the patio was still standing. Had Congress impeached him, his defense would have been that he was not capable of understanding the charges.

Laura got the publishing contract, though the world is not abuzz waiting for her to tell us that he was not as dense as he looked. Sure. Right. But she will write it and then go on TV talk shows to flog it and she will be seen by thousands of people in airport waiting areas who will think, "My, she looks familiar. She reminds me of somebody."

So you shouldn't fret, dear hearts, if what you do doesn't draw a big crowd or get written up in the papers. Be proud. If you've dedicated yourself to the tango, or playing drop-thumb banjo, or digging up ancient cities, or writing sonnets, you are beautiful, and please do not yearn for the bright lights. Those wombats reading the news off teleprompters are talking to the bedridden, the delusional and the criminal. The happy StairMaster president is on his way to a mansionette in Dallas, to be the decider of where to put the sofa. His successor, Mister Mambo, has cast his lot with Harvard and Yale and old Clinton hands, and soon enough, Lord knows, they will get the first of many comeuppances, and their shining faces will be chopfallen.

Meanwhile, you and I go on. We dance our little dance and pursue the circuit of our dreams insofar as the bus schedules permit..."

Salon

[L.Wood]

.

He is one of the cheerfullest idiots you ever saw...

Cheerful Idiot to some but a very USEFUL Idiot for a few...Blackwater, Haliburtion, Betchel, Big Pharma, Oil, Coal and major broadcasters.

.
.

[Dardedar]

Chris Matthews: "I found it interesting that the president, who admitted he was wrong about WMDs as a justification for war, called it a "disappointment." If a police officer in the line of duty in the middle of the night shoots a fellow because he thinks he's got a gun, it turns out he's got a wallet, your reaction if you're a police officer is not that you're disappointed he didn't have a gun, it's shame that even if it was a technical mistake that you've made, that you've killed a guy without reason. Why does the president use the word "disappointment" when he says they didn't have the WMD to justify us going in? I think it's an odd use of the word."

Later, Salon's Joan Walsh adds:

Walsh: "And finally ... the point that you made earlier, about a cop who shoots an unarmed man, does not then regret that the guy did not have a gun. He regrets that he killed an innocent man. And he regrets that he didn't take the extra 30 seconds maybe to ascertain whether the guy was armed."

Link

[Betsy]

Jon Stewart did a nice riff on this the other night, explaining that "disappointment" is what you feel when the burger you ordered has onions on it and you ordered it without. (or something like that) I don't think GWB meant that he was disappointed there were no WMDS; he was just doing that republican trick of replacing language to make it sound better (so Chris Matthews missed the point, once again). He replaced the word "mistake" with "disappointment" and hoping we'd all just go "awwww" instead of being pissed off. It works with FOXheads, who will repeat the word-replacement over and over; doesn't work with anyone with an operating brain.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Letterman gives his final Bush roasting "Great moments in Presidential Speeches" clip. See it here. Four mins.

[Dardedar]

"There's going to be some missteps, we're going to have some false starts.
We're going to fall short sometimes and I'm going to make some mistakes..."
-- Obama, from my memory, talking about his upcoming administration

Bartcop adds:
By admitting up-front that mistakes will be made, he once again distinguishes himself from the
"I-can't-think-of-any-mistakes-I-made" Katrina-Iraq-shithead we're getting rid of tomorrow.

[Dardedar]

"For me, the most compelling moment of the speech came when he quoted the Bible. While we remain a young nation, he said, "the time has come to set aside childish things." There was something very powerful about watching this relatively young man, one of the youngest to ever hold the highest office in the land, telling the American people to grow up." --Arianna Huffington

DAR
Speaking of childish things, has anyone noticed the new "member" who hasn't posted anything? From the front page:

***
Statistics
Total posts 13050 • Total topics 2120 • Total members 95 • Our newest member Wrongthinkers
***

Is this someone trying to feebly strike back? Make a point? Really? What will it take to get an honest conservative to step forward and defend the right-wing point of view around here, a monthly check?

[Dardedar]

"So, the lesson here is clear: No longer can the American media be relied upon to bring us fact-based information. The news media has entered the ideology business much like talk radio. This will greatly harm the nation, as unbiased information is critical for an informed citizenry. The collapse of journalistic standards was a huge but largely untold story in 2008." --Bill, O, Rielly, Link

[Betsy]

HelloooOOooo Bill. Look in a mirror lately? You've done more to undermine fact-based reporting than any other talk show host on television.

[Dardedar]

"When the Great Depression sank its claws into American society, the jobless men wandering the countryside in search of work used slang to pay tribute to Herbert Hoover, the president who oversaw their slide into ruin: hobo villages along railroad tracks were dubbed Hoovervilles and jackrabbits caught for food were called Hoover Hogs. How will the venacular of the Next Great Depression pay tribute to George W. Bush? Will subdivisions full of foreclosed McMansions be known as Bushvilles? Will toxic foodstuffs prepared in unsanitary factories be known as Bush bait? The Boy Emperor may be out of power, but we’ll be feeling the effects of his reign for years to come, so it will be interesting to see if the New Hoover is commemorated as cuttingly as Hoover Classic." --Link