Quotes of the Past Week

 

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011

Just because ... you don't like my haircut, or just because you don't like that I'm gay, it does not make what we say not true.

• RACHEL MADDOW,
• MSNBC host, responding to critics who tweeted things like "Rachel Maddow is wrong, and she's also gay" in response to her report about the battle over union rights in Wisconsin

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011

What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin, I am incensed. I am shocked.

• JON RICHARDS,
• a democrat representative for Milwaukee, responding to news that the bill to limit Union Rights passed the Wisconsin Assembly vote early Friday following days of debate and protests

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011

The airport is just a zoo. There's about 10,000 people there, all trying to get out.

• EWAN BLACK,
• a Briton that managed to flee Tripoli, amid ongoing chaos in the Libyan capital

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

I didn't feel anything unusual going on.

• JACK REED,
• Democratic Senator from Rhode Island, on the claims that an Army general ordered a "psychological operations" team in Afghanistan to use propaganda tactics to influence visiting members of Congress to support additional war funding

 

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

I don't suggest anyone test the determination of the state of Israel.

• BENJAMIN NETANYAHU,
• Israeli Prime Minister, after Israel bombed several sites in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday following a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Beersheba

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

I never experienced anything like that before.

• CARMELO ANTHONY,
• NBA All-Star, on playing his first game for the New York Knicks after being traded by the Denver Nuggets

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

Our children have been manipulated by al-Qaeda.

• MUAMMAR GADDAFI,
• Libya's embattled leader, speaking by phone on state TV, blaming the country's uprising on Osama bin Laden and the influence of drugs and alcohol on Libya's youth

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

The heavens awaitDiscovery.

• A SIGN
• outside a Florida church near Cape Canaveral, where NASA'sDiscovery will attempt to lift off for its final voyage on Thursday

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

I think I know why you're here, and let me just deflate the tension right off the bat: Apology accepted.

• JON STEWART,
• a vocal critic of the Iraq war, accepting an unspoken apology from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on The Daily Show on Wednesday

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

Muammar Gaddafi does not even have 5% of the country behind him.

• NOURI EL-MISMARI,
• the Libyan leader's former protocol chief, predicting the end of Gaddafi's 42-year rule

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

I never met a German shepherd who could open the refrigerator or food bag and pour himself another bowl.

• STEVEN BUDSBERG,
• director of clinical research at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, on the news that more than half of U.S. dogs and cats are obese

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

They were doing what they wanted to do, but that's small comfort in the face of this.

• JOE GRANDE,
• a friend of Robert Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, two of the four people who were shot to death by Somali pirates off the coast of Oman

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

Something is amiss.

• BILL WALKER,
• head of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, on the spate of infant-dolphin deaths, which may be related to the BP oil spill; 17 dead baby dolphins have been found this month

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

What comes next is a bunch of ugly.

• RALPH MARTIRE,
• executive director of the Bipartisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, referring to Chicago's financial woes, which Rahm Emanuel, who won a landslide mayoral victory on Tuesday, will face

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

It's not Putin's business. It must be decided by the nation in the elections, by those who would cast the ballots. Can't other people also run?

• MIKHAIL GORBACHEV,
• former Soviet leader, reacting to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev's remarks that they will decide who should run for President in the March 2012 elections

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011

We will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000. 

• JASON CLAY
• of the World Wildlife Fund, on the U.N. prediction that the global population will reach nine billion by 2050 and that people will be competing for ever scarcer resources

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011

I had just gotten sick of it. It was in my eyes. I didn't want it in my face. 

• JUSTIN BIEBER,
• singer, explaining why he cut his hair

ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Meet the Press: Govs. Walker, Barbour; Sen. McCain, Richard Trumka, Rep. Cleaver

Fox News Sunday: Gov. Daniels, Mike Huckabee

Face the Nation: Gov. Christie

State of the Union: Sens. Lieberman, McCain

Rick Perry takes the fifth on Scott Walker's union-busting plan

+*

byJed LewisonFollow

Posted Feb 25, 2011, 1:19 PM PT by Jed Lewison • First broadcast: Feb 25, 2011

Earlier today, Jonathan Martin of Politico asked Texas Governor Rick Perry whether he supported Scott Walker's union-busting plan. Perry's answer was revealing: as you can see in the video and transcript below, he didn't offer a single word defending Scott Walker on the substance of his union-busting plan -- he completely took the fifth.

JONATHAN MARTIN (POLITICO): Governor Perry, has Governor Walker, somebody who I think you know pretty well, is he doing the right thing in Wisconsin? And if you had any advice to offer him, what would you say?

TEXAS GOV. RICK PERRY: [pauses, then chuckles] Well, the key for us, is, is, uh, you know, we've got fifty laboratories of innovation out there. I hope all of you have bought the book Fed Up! and absorbed the...

MARTIN: Fast plug, very fast plug.

PERRY: ...messages, though you'll here it more than once. But, my point is, my point is that we're fifty different laboratories, and frankly, you know, for me to tell [Maryland Gov.] Martin [O'Malley] how to run his state, or for him to tell me how to run my state is a little bit over the line form my perspective. But they key is you believe what you believe in. We had elections. I didn't get confused about what they were saying on the second day of November from the state of Texas. They said we want you to have cleaner, more efficient government. No they may not have told Martin that, but that's sure what they told us in Texas, and I think that's what Scott Walker heard. So, my point is, he knows what he believes in and he's expressing that, and the voters in Wisconsin, they basically said, this is the person that we want running the state. And, you know, that first amendment, it's a beautiful thing. Uh, and uh, you know, they're out there, expressing their free will, and what have you.

When you've got guys like Rick Perry refusing to defend Walker's plan, you don't need a poll to know how the politics on this one are playing out. Things are bad: for Scott Walker

Will Obama Find Those Shoes?

By: Michael Monk Thursday February 24, 2011 8:17 am

In the “flashback quote of the day” at Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, he highlights words from candidate Barack Obama, made in a 2007 speech (and referenced in Slate). That quote is as follows (spoken word differs slightly from the prepared text quoted by others, what follows is transcribed from the video):

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.

Well, will we see it? Or will it end up like the closing of Guantanamo Bay, a public option, or restoring constitutional checks and balances? He has given credence lately to false framing from the right with his freezing of pay of government workers, extention of the Bush tax cuts, a “deficit commission,” more budget cutting, and lip service to looking into deregulation when deregulation led us to financial collapse. Will he find those shoes?

Just how broke are we?

Having had a chance to look at President Obama’s new budget, which he had the audacity to say will “help us live within our means.” It is clear Obama misspoke in his, I mean “Your Weekly Address.”

Obama’s budget proposes to spend $ 3.73 trillion, and includes another $ 1.1 trillion deficit. Worse, even with the Obama administration’s optimistic projections, the national debt would increase by another $ 7.2 trillion over the next 10 years.
In fairness, I must point out that President-elect Obama did promise us “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.” Who knew he meant it?
But I digress. Even without the additional $ 7 trillion plus in additional debt in Obama’s proposed budget, you won’t be able to believe how broke the federal government is.
According to Duquesne University Economics Professor Antony Davies, the debt and unfunded obligations of the federal government are greater than the “economic output of the entire planet.” That’s right, the entire planet.
Watch Professor Davies detail how much the federal government owes in the following video:
We do not  have a good frame of reference to understand the concept of a trillion. Professor Davies shared the following analogy to provide a frame of reference we can understand.
If the Federal government were scaled down to the size of the average US household, here’s what its finances would look like:

• The Federal government would earn $ 50,000 a year in tax revenue (the same as the average US household).

• It would be $ 325,000 in debt.

• It would pay almost $ 10,000 a year in interest on that debt.

• Last year, it would have spent $ 79,000.

• This year, it is hoping to spend $ 86,000.

• The $ 100 billion in spending cuts (that some politicians view as draconian) would be equivalent to the household cutting its $ 86,000 in planned spending down to a mere $ 83,700. Not a bad start, but the household has another $ 33,700 to go before it balances its budget.

Take a closer look at Professor Davies’ chart:

• Germany’s GDP – $ 3.5 Trillion

• Intergovernmental Debt – $ 4.63 Trillion

• China’s GDP – $ 4.99 Trillion

• Japan’s GDP – $ 5.07 Trillion

• U.S. Debt Held by the Public  – $ 9.46 Trillion

• U.S. GDP – $ 14.26 Trillion

• European Union GDP – $ 14.89 Trillion

• Unfunded Social Security Obligations – $ 15 Trillion

• Unfunded Medicare Obligations – $ 35 Trillion

• World GDP (excluding U.S.) – $ 43.97 Trillion

• World GDP – $ 58.23 Trillion

• Total Federal Debt and Unfunded Obligations – $ 64.09 Trillion

Professor Davies offers these notes of clarification: The numbers are approximate in that, due to data availability, individual numbers come from reports over the span 2009 through 2010. The unfunded obligations figures come from the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees report. “Unfunded obligation” is (all in present value terms), the sum of all anticipated future SS and Medicare payments minus all future SS and Medicare tax revenues minus the current balance in the SS and Medicare trust funds. In short, it’s an amount of money the government would have to have on hand, today and in addition to future SS and Medicare tax revenues, in order to meet its anticipated SS and Medicare obligations for current and future retirees.
It is way past time that we stop this spend too much, tax too much and borrow too much fiscal insanity.

WI State Senator Calls for Gov. Walker's resignation

Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 09:01 PM EST

by jorogo

On the heels of questions about Walkers' intentions from Madison's police chief and mayor, Wisconsin State Senator Tim Carpenter has released the following statement.

Dear Governor Walker,
I am informed that a tape recording has been released in which you apparently held an extensive discussion with someone you believed to be your campaign supporter, David Koch. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states that the caller was actually a reporter, pretending to be David Koch, and it has posted a transcript of the recording. It appears that you admit the call occurred, and have not contested the authenticity of transcript.
David Koch is the billionaire businessman who reportedly contributed thousands to your campaign and who the media claims is a key source of funding for shadowy political groups that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking your political adversaries in our state.
At a historic moment in our State’s history, brought on by your refusal to compromise with elected officials regarding the elimination of worker’s rights, you still refuse to talk with Democratic legislators. However, you apparently have no problem taking a phone call from “Mr. Koch” and to:
• Discuss your strategy to lay off public workers to seek partisan advantage to pass
your agenda;
• Discuss your plan to lure Democratic legislators to the Capitol on the pretext of
negotiation, but then state that you would never actually negotiate;
• Discuss your plan to use the pretext of negotiation to get a quorum for legislative
fiscal action that Republicans so far have not been able to do;
• Discuss that you considered the “planting” of paid troublemakers into the
peaceful protests at our Capitol; and to
• Give your enthusiastic acceptance to an offer from “Koch” to fly you out on a vacation to show you a “good time” once you “crush these bastards.” Your response was “That would be outstanding…” Given that Koch’s businesses could reap vast rewards with the ‘no bid’ sale of the Wisconsin’s power plants that you propose in your budget repair bill, this response is severely troubling.
Governor Walker, this tape would make Richard Nixon blush. If the recording and the items discussed by you are indeed your plans, you have no business being in public office in our State, and should resign.
Sincerely,
Tim Carpenter