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Quote of the moment

��"If they pre-decease or die early, there's an asset base to be able to pass on to a loved one."
—George W. Bush on Social Security money stored in private accounts, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 30, 2005
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"I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place."
—George W. Bush
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"Nothing more should be paid to the U.N. system."
—U.N. Ambassador-designate John Bolton
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"Personal accounts do not permanently fix the solution."
—George W. Bush
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"They don't get hungry. They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot."
—GORDON JOHNSON, of the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command, on robot soldiers.
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"The budget is the right place to present the entirety of the president's policies, so all of his proposals are reflected in there."
—Budget Director Josh Bolten, defending inclusion of over a billion dollars from still-opposed-not-approved ANWR drilling in a document which omits costs of the Iraq war and Social Security reform
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"All which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you?"
—George W. Bush, on his Social Security plan
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"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
—Lt. Gen. James Mattis
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"I can play hardball as well as anybody. That's what I did, cut people's hearts out. On the other hand, I do it to cure them, to heal them, to make them better."
—BILL FRIST, the Senate majority leader and a transplant surgeon.
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"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it? I don't know. You tell me."
—syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, on being paid $21,500 by the Dept of Health and Human Services to promote Bush Administration policy
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"Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind. We wish him well."
—Fox News spokesperson, after Turner called the network a Bush administration propaganda tool and dissed its popularity by likening it to that of Hitler
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On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
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"Our apologies for not mentioning the names of all the candidates. But the security situation is bad and we have to keep them alive."
—United Iraqi Alliance campaign flyer
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"Hi, I'm Richard Gere and I'm speaking for the entire world."
—the actor, in a TV ad encouraging Palestinians to vote

"We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them - they elected a moron."
—Gaza soap factory worker Manar an-Najar
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"I would say that the force of people actively armed and operating against us does not exceed 5,000."
—Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, 11/13/03

"I think the resistance is bigger than the U.S. military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people."
—Gen. Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, director of Iraq's new intelligence services, 1/4/05
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"And so during these holiday seasons, we thank our blessings..."
—George W. Bush
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"Justice oughta be fair."
—George W. Bush
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"Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there."
—tour guide at Clinton Library, commenting on Arkansas River to George W. Bush

"A submarine could take this place out."
—Bush's reply
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"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House. Goss was given instructions...to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."
—former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House, quoted in Newsday
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"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."
—Attorney General John Ashcroft, announcing his resignation
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"Americans are expecting a bipartisan effort and results. I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals."
—George W. Bush
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"The future will be better tomorrow."
—George W. Bush
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"The best way to avoid the draft is to vote for me."
—George W. Bush
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"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality...we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
—Senior Bush adviser deriding "the reality-based community", quoted by Ron Suskind in NYT Magazine, 10/17/04
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"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."
—George W. Bush, 10/13/04

"I don't know where he is and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
—George W. Bush, 5/13/02
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"Every life is precious. That's what distinguishes us from the enemy."
—George W. Bush
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"The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."
—Dick Cheney, 1992
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"It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society."
—George W. Bush, supporting the assault weapons ban in 1999
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"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."
—VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY 9/7/04

"Dick Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line."
—SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS
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"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OBG/YN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."
—George W. Bush, on malpractice insurance
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"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, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
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[http://news.excite.com/politics/article/id/37060|politics|07-20-2004::16:46|reuters.html]

"To the extent that people think it's Iraq only, there's a problem...I have no doubt Bush will be re-elected if people think we're in a true war on terror."
—Bush strategist quoted in WSJ
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Bush: 'I Want to Be the Peace President'

By Adam Entous

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - After launching two wars, President Bush said on Tuesday he wanted to be a "peace president" and took swipes at his Democratic rivals for being lawyers and weak on defense.

With polls showing public support for the war in Iraq in decline, the Republican president cast himself as a reluctant warrior as he campaigned in the battleground state of Iowa against Democrat John Kerry and his running mate, former trial lawyer John Edwards. Bush lost the state in 2000 by only a few thousand votes.

"The enemy declared war on us," he told a re-election rally. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president."

Bush has called himself a "war president" in leading the United States in a battle against terrorism brought about by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind," he said in February.

Despite a surge in attacks in Iraq and U.S. warnings that al Qaeda is plotting another major strike, Bush said U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had already made America safer, and that his re-election would let him finish the job. ...
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"So that's -- what -- there's some ideas. And the -- it's -- my job is to like think beyond the immediate."
—George W. Bush, 4-21-04

"What the country needs is a leader who speaks clearly."
—George W. Bush, 5-3-04
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"The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That oughtta comfort you. We -- we're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws. And that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions out of -- from me to the government."
—George W. Bush, asked if torture is ever justified

"The war against terrorism is a new kind of war...In my judgement, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."
—White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, in a January 2002 memo to President Bush
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"I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet...I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here and maybe I'm not quick -- as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."
—George W. Bush, when asked what his biggest mistake was since 9/11
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"No, I didn't."
—George W. Bush, asked if he volunteered to go to Vietnam, 2-8-04

"He signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam."
—Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot, 2-23-04-----
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"I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America — at a time and a place, an attack."
—PRESIDENT BUSH

"David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year."
—New York Times, Jan. 24, 2004

"For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible, and no one can now doubt the word of America."
—George W. Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 20, 2004
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"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president."
—George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward
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"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
—George W. Bush, September 13, 2001

"I don't know where he is and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
—George W. Bush, May 13, 2002
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"Like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people."
—former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, on George W. Bush during cabinet meetings
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"...actions taken by the U.S. government in wartime were, tragically, too little and too late. President Bush's family had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany; in financing and managing the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S.A.; and in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with their well-known results."
—George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
Chapter - II - The Hitler Project
http://www.tarpley.net/bush2.htm

"I think the American people--I hope the American--I don't think, let me--I hope the American people trust me."
—President George W. Bush, Washington, DC, Dec. 18, 2002.
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"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe, because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty."
—George W. Bush
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—"Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he 'didn't want to see any stories' quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used."
—Philadelphia Inquirer
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—"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
—George W. Bush
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"Dead or Alive. We'll get him."
—George W. Bush on Osama bin Laden

"He can run, but he can't hide."
—George W. Bush on Saddam Hussein

"I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is."
—George W. Bush on the White House source for Robert Novak's Valerie Plume story
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—"Our country puts $1 billion a year up to help feed the hungry. And we're by far the most generous nation in the world when it comes to that...We're generous. We shouldn't be bragging about it. But we are. We're very generous."
—George W. Bush
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—"The world expects something more of an American president than to prance around on a flight deck dressed up like a pilot. He's expected to be a leader...It doesn't reflect the gravitas of the office. Furthermore, it's a little phony."
—Retired Gen. Wesley Clark when asked by Newsweek about President Bush's "use of war imagery as a political tool."
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—"God told me to strike at Al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."
—President Bush, as quoted by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, reported in Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz
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"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."
—George W. Bush
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"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order —order out of chaos. But we will."
—George W. Bush
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"But why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it —s going to happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Oh, I mean, it —s, not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
—Barbara Bush, on why she doesn —t watch war coverage on TV
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As for the protests around the world by millions of people opposed to war with Iraq, Bush said they were irrelevant to his duty to protect America.

"Size of protest, it's like deciding, 'Well I'm going to decide policy based up on a focus group.' The role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security - in this case - security of the people," he said.

"Democracy is a beautiful thing, and that people are allowed to express their opinion," he said.

"Domestic security officials said that they used focus groups to help prepare their public relations strategy, ..."

—nyt article # http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/politics/20HOME.html?pagewanted=1&th
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". . . the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

"To 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.'"

The 1st statement is a quote from Hitler's right hand man, Hermann Goering, explaining at his war crimes trial how easily he and his fellow Nazis hijacked Germany's democratic government.

The 2nd statement is a quote from Bush's right hand man, John Ashcroft, defending the Patriot Act and explaining why dissent will no longer be tolerated in the age of terrorism.
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"The law I sign today directs new funds and new focus to the task of collecting vital intelligence on terrorist threats and on weapons of mass production."
—George W. Bush, on signing the 911 Commission bill
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"I need to be able to move the right people to the right place at the right time to protect you, and I'm not going to accept a lousy bill out of the United Nations Senate."
—George W. Bush
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"Let me tell you my thoughts about tax relief. When your economy is kind of ooching along, it's important to let people have more of their own money."
—George W. Bush
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"I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose: 'You disarm, or we will.'"
—George W. Bush
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"They hate and we love. We differ from our enemy because we love."
—George W. Bush

"I hate Saddam Hussein, and I don't hate a lot of people."
—George H.W. Bush
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"There was no malfeance involved."
—George W. Bush
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"We were buying political influence. That was it. He was not much of a businessman."
—George Soros, on why Harken bought George W. Bush's failing oil company
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"There's no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide."
—George W. Bush
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"There's no bigger task than protecting the homeland of our country."
—George W. Bush
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"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says: —Fool me once, shame...[pause]...shame on you...[pause]...Fool me...[long pause]...you can't get fooled again. —"
—George W. Bush
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"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."
—George W. Bush
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"Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different -- and perhaps barren -- outcome."
—from a 1998 article by George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft
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"The U.S. has a new credibility. What we say goes."
—President George H.W. Bush,
NBC Nightly News, Feb. 2, 1991
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"The goals for this country are peace in the world. And the goals for this country are a compassionate American for every single citizen."
—George W. Bush
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"One year ago today, the time for excuse-making has come to an end."
— George W. Bush
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"This looks like a re-run of a bad movie, and I —m not interested in watching it."
—George W. Bush, on UN weapons inspection in Iraq
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"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."
—George W. Bush
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