Quotes

Quotes
Good Guys
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -- James Madison, as a United States Congressman		Beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. - Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew, 7:15)
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." - Harry S. Truman	"When you look at the life of Jesus, you find him gravitating toward those on the fringe, those who are suffering and have fallen by the wayside", ... "But somehow Jesus has been morphed from a radical pacifist to a crusading leader for war." -- Rev. Charles Strobel, director of the Nashville homeless shelter Campus for Human Development.	"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism --ownerships of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power." --Franklin D. Roosevelt
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance of the laws of our country." – Thomas Jefferson	The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man - Thomas Jefferson	In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. - Thomas Jefferson	War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses. - Thomas Jefferson
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953	"One of these days, the people are going to demand peace of the government, and the government is going to have to give it to them." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower
	"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -Teddy Roosevelt	When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. - Plato
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. --Bertrand Russell	It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. -- Epictetus
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. -- Thomas Jefferson	The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery. -- Upton Sinclair	The big trouble with dumb bastards is that they are too dumb to believe there is such a thing as being smart. -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. -- Albert Einstein	He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. -- Albert Einstein	It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. -- Albert Einstein
	... a party whose economic policies favor a narrow elite needs to focus the public's attention elsewhere. And there's no better way to do that than accusing the other party of being unpatriotic and godless. -Paul Krugman	Thus in 2004, President Bush basically ran as America's defender against gay married terrorists. He waited until after the election to reveal that what he really wanted to do was privatize Social Security. -Paul Krugman
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. -- Mahatma Gandhi	Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong. -Molly Irvins	You use your programs to get people to vote for your tax cuts on your $5 million a year, and against their own self-interest. You are making a fool out of your listeners." -- adigal@dailykos to Sean Hannity
"...the big trouble with dumb bastards is that they are too dumb to believe there is such a thing as being smart." -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.	"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. - Benjamin Franklin	"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin	"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin
News is what they don't want you to know. Everything else is publicity. -- Bill Moyers	"The same people own the media that own the White House that own the Congress that own the oil fields. They all work together to give a false view of the world to the American people." - Gore Vidal	If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. -- Noam Chomsky
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. - Voltaire		Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities - Voltaire
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw	"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." -Paulo Freire	"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
"Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana		The name is not the thing named, the map is not the territory. -- Gregory Bateson
"Truth can barely get its shoes on before a lie runs half way around the world." -Mark Twain	"In the struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess." - The 14th Dalai Lama
"Truth can barely get its shoes on before a lie runs half way around the world." -Mark Twain	"While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free." - Eugene Debs	"In time of war the loudest patriots are the greatest profiteers." ~August Bebel, Speech, Reichstag, November, 1870.
	Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. (F.B.I definition)	Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich. - Sir Peter Ustinov
“For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. Only ten years ago the ‘more with less’ technology reached the point where this could be done. All humanity now has the option to become enduringly successful.” -R. Buckminster Fuller, 1980		"What does it matter to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" --Mahatma Ghandi
"To talk about "corporate greed" is like talking about "military weapons" or something like that- there just is no other possibility. A corporation is something that is trying to maximize power and profit:. That's what it is." - Noam Chomsky, "Understanding Power", 2002	"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it." -Noam Chomsky	"We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others." -- Martin Luther King III
"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Rev. Martin Niemoeller		It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. -- Upton Sinclair
"Iraq is the greatest strategic disaster in US history." -- Retired General William Odom		"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei
	"Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire." -William Butler Yeats	History is three men in a room agreeing to a lie. -?
"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." -William James		The gods are amused when the busy river condemns the idle clouds Rabindranath Tagore
Daily Kos The 25 BEST things ever said, by anyone"The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth." - Chief Seattle, 1854	"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr“	Reality has a well-known liberal bias --Stephen Colbert
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. -- Niels Bohr	"How do you know there isn't a God who respects sincerity and the weighing of evidence so much that He will punish forever anyone who joins a certain party just to be on the winning side?" -- Bertrand Russell:	"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public." - Adam Smith
Daily Kos The 25 BEST things ever said, by anyone"George W. Bush was born on third base but keeps acting like he hit a triple." - Jim Hightower (Former Texas Agricultural Commissioner)	"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich." - Napoleon Bonaparte	Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to be worried abut our own souls, and other people's bellies Rabbi Israel Salanter
"Threats to our greatness ... come from those few among us who perceive their self-interest as separate from the interests of our society, who in their selfish pursuits abjure the values of honesty, fairness and patriotism, and threaten to damage the very trust that makes freedom work." - Senator, John McCain, July 11, 2002
War on (some) drugs
		"Punishment for using a drug should not be more harmful to an individual than the drug itself." - President Jimmy Carter, 1978
“Can any policy, however high-minded, be moral if it leads to widespread corruption, imprisons so many, has so racist an effect, destroys our inner cities, wreaks havoc on misguided and vulnerable individuals and brings death and destruction to foreign countries?” - Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize Winner (Economic Science, 1976), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1988)		“ Take it from a businessman: The War on Drugs is just money down the drain.” — Gov. Gary E. Johnson, Republican Governor of New Mexico (1995-2003)
"Punishment for using a drug should not be more harmful to an individual than the drug itself." - President Jimmy Carter, 1978	“ Eighty-five million Americans have experimented with illegal drugs. Since the object of criminal law is to detect and punish the wrongdoer, should we reason that 85 million of us should have spent time in jail?” - William F. Buckley Jr., Founder, National Review
"Marijuana is an effective medical treatment and is neither addictive nor a gateway drug." - Institute of Medicine Study, 1999		"Make the most of Hemp and sow it everywhere." - President George Washington, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson
Not-So-Good Guys hu·bris : Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier...just as long as I'm the dictator..." - GW Bush Washington, DC, Dec 18, 2000,	"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -George W. Bush, August 5, 2004	"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." - George W. Bush, discussing Kosovo, Houston Chronicle, 04-09-99
"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building." - Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 08-26-02	"Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him, assassinate him." - Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), talking about President Clinton, as reported by journalist Steve Miner of KSUB radio who overheard his conversation, 11-01-98	"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, NPR Morning Edition, 05-25-01
"NOW is saying that in order to be a woman, you've got to be a lesbian." - Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 12-03-97	"We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs." - Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95
"Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this." - Lt. General William G. Boykin, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, New York Times, 10-17-03	"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." - Ann Coulter, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, 02-26-02	"The homosexual blitzkrieg has been better planned and executed than Hitler's." - Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA), The New Republic, 08-01-94
"I don't agree that you need an enormous number of American troops. Saddam's army is down to one-third than it was before, and I think it would be a cakewalk." - Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, 12-06-01	"The fact of the matter is that this (increased American casualties) is a sign of the success of our operation, not its failure." - Ralph Reed, GOP strategist, on MSNBC's program 'Hardball,' 10-28-03	"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason." - Paul Wolfowitz, quoted by Tim Russert on 'Meet The Press, NBC, 06-01-03
"Quit looking at the symbols. Get out and get a job. Quit shooting each other. Quit having illegitimate babies." - State Rep. John Graham Altman (R-SC), addressing African-American concerns about the 'symbol' of the Confederate Flag, New York Times, 01-24-97	"Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity. The degree these two have diminished is in direct proportion to the corruption and fall of the nation. Every problem that has arisen (sic) can be directly traced back to our departure from God's Law and the disenfranchisement of White men." - State Rep. Don Davis (R-NC), emailed to every member of the North Carolina House and Senate, reported by the Fayetteville Observer, 08-22-01	"My biggest fear is going to be going to the funeral of some young Iowa man or woman who dies in this conflict and having their mother or father come up to me and ask whether or not their son or daughter died for America, or died to save Bill Clinton's presidency. I don't know what I would say to those grieving parents. For that reason I believe the President must resign immediately." - Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA), Congressional Record, H11963, 12-18-98
"When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together." - Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 01-21-93	"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period." - Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 01-08-92	I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. Dick Cheney 03/16/03
"Naturally the common people don't want war But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering		"[T]o those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends." - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, December 6, 2001
*"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation...We must take steps to insure our domestic security and protect our homeland."* - Who do you think? George W. Bush or Adolf Hitler?	"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans... unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." --Karl Rove, White House adviser	"If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products." --Lowry Mays, CEO of Clear Channel Fortune magazine (? March 2003)
"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you. This is not a message of hate; this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor." - Pat Robertson, speaking of organizers putting rainbow flags up around Orlando to support sexual diversity, Washington Post, 06-10-98. For the record, Orlando remains undestroyed by meteors.		"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths ... Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" -- Barbara Bush on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003 [Full quote: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
	"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family and that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, the right to privacy that doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution." - Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Associated Press, 04-22-03
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." PNAC report "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century". page 51, left column, paragraph two	"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years." -- Adolph Hitler; Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942),
"Environmentalists are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democrat Party. I'm proud to say that they are my enemy. They are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans." - Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Alaska Public Radio, 08-19-96		"President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." --Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, testifying before Congress
	"Probably nothing." - Jeb Bush, during his losing 1994 bid for Florida Governor, when asked what he would do for black people, quoted by Salon on 10-05-02
"And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign." - Donald Rumsfeld, 04-09-03		"I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." - Bill O'Reilly, on ABC's Good Morning America, 03-18-03
"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for." - Rush Limbaugh, Denver Post, 12-29-95	"When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks." - Rush Limbaugh, on the death of Jerry Garcia, 08-20-95.
	"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." -- Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.
	"Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist." - Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), House Majority Whip, during a debate on increasing the minimum wage, Congressional Record, H3706, 04-23-96