Liberals:

President Obama about some of his non-existent jobs legislation before Congress: “The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party.”

Barack Obama on more jobs legislation which does not yet exist: “These are common-sense ideas — ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The only thing holding them back is politics. The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party. That’s the problem right now. That’s what’s holding this country back. That’s what we have to change.”

Press secretary Jay Carney on the scheduling SNAFU: “Americans are sick and tired of the partisan bickering.”

Congresswoman Maxine Waters: “If [banks] don’t come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes that they’ve worked so hard for, we’re going to tax them out of business,”

Democratic Rep. Andre Carson: “Some of these folks in Congress right now would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now with this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree.”

Jason Tomcsi, Carson’s spokesman: “The Tea Party is protecting its millionaire and oil company friends while gutting critical services that they know protect the livelihood of African-Americans, as well as Latinos and other disadvantaged minorities. We are talking about child nutrition, job creation, job training, housing assistance, and Head Start, and that is just the beginning. A child without basic nutrition, secure housing, and quality education has no real chance at a meaningful and productive life.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi about Republicans: “You name it. Forget about it. They’re defunding every [clean air/clean water] initiative in that regard. You wonder do their children breathe air? Do they drink water? Why do they not care? But they don’t,”

Unnamed high WH official to FoxNews: “There’s no question the president will want to keep returning to jobs. I don’t want to downplay the speech [next week] – it’s going to be substantial. But the idea that this is the be-all and end-all is wrong.”

Official White House statement for 9/11: “As we commemorate the citizens of over 90 countries who perished in the 9/11 attacks, we honor all victims of terrorism, in every nation around the world . We honor and celebrate the resilience of individuals, families, and communities on every continent, whether in New York or Nairobi, Bali or Belfast, Mumbai or Manila, or Lahore or London.” No mention is made of Israel.

Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Statement: “With 14 million Americans still looking for work, this is not the time to tinker around the edges. We must take bold action, and that requires federal emergency jobs legislation… The country’s infrastructure needs an estimated investment of $2.2 trillion. We should not delay these crucial investments, especially while millions of Americans are out of work. Rebuilding America – without creating expensive new corporate tax loopholes – will further boost our economy and create badly needed jobs.”

David Swanson, Washington Director of Democrats.com who has worked for Dennis Kucinich and served on many progressive organizations: “We’re planning to model our behavior after the actions in Cairo, Egypt and Tahrir Square. We’re going to be at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C.. we’re going to occupy it beginning October 6th, and we’re going to remain, and we’re not to nonviolently interfere, and shut down the offices of our government until we begin to get some movement. You know the actions in Egypt are very much an ongoing struggle and they’re very much trying to get that momentum they had in Tahrir Square. So we’re going to be there until we begin to take back control of our government.”

Actor George Clooney: “As for running for president, look, there’s a guy in office right now who is smarter than almost anyone you know, who’s nicer and who has more compassion than almost anyone you know. And he’s having an almost impossible time governing. Why would anybody volunteer for that job?”

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz: “I’m offended by Marco Rubio and I think that we are seeing that he is not a true American because he runs from debate…one thing that my dad taught me—maybe your dad taught you this, but it doesn’t seem like it—don’t ever run from a debate and don’t ever be afraid to speak your peace if what you believe in your heart is that you are speaking the truth…you’re a TEA partier and you don’t give a damn about any of the Americans because, you see, it’s kind of in your makeup, Senator; unless your bio is wrong, I don’t think you’ve got any private sector experience in your background. Hell, you’ve been a government guy.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-ca), Minority Leader: “What more do they [the rich] want? They have — homes, they have their yacht. The taller the mast. The whole thing. They have museum-quality art. Then I decided if, in fact, they are advocating for this, which I’m not sure they are. I think the Republicans just like to have that position. They want immortality.”

Keith Olbermann, on Obama not being liberal enough: “When the Chamber of Congress pats you on the back, you are doing something desperately wrong. When Boehner’s spokesman compliments you with the Freudian slip, `It’s the tip of the iceberg,’ you have made a terrible mistake. What the hell is going on in the White House?”

New Black Panther Party member King Samir Shabazz teaching kids Black survival techniques: “Know and understand everything around you is a weapon.”

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

MSNBC contributor Richard Wolffe: “The interesting question is: What is it about this president that has stripped away the veneer of respect that normally accompanies the Office of the President? Why do Republicans think this president is unpresidential and should dare to request this kind of thing? It strikes me that it could be the economic times, it could be that he won so big in 2008 or it could be, let’s face it, the color of his skin. This is an extraordinary reaction to a normal sequence of events.”

Those on MSNBC who will comment of this week’s GOP debate: Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell and Al Sharpton. Plus, Eugene Robinson, Howard Fineman, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry of the far-left The Nation and Huffington Post’s Alex Wagner.

Bill Keller questions of Michele Bachmann: “You have said that watching the film series ‘How Should We Then Live?’ by the evangelist Francis Schaeffer was a life-altering event for you. That series stresses the ‘inerrancy’ — the literal truth – of the Bible. Do you believe the Bible consists of literal truths, or that it is to be taken more metaphorically?”

Liberals from the past:

About 2 months ago, President Obama put Israel on list of Countries that “have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members.” Israel was on this list.

Liberal civility:

Randi Rhodes: “Every time I look at him[Rush Limbaugh] now I see [serial killer] John Wayne Gacy! You know – because he’s got a webcam – that, you know whenever they uh show what he said on the radio, they are able to show the video. Every time I look at him now he looks like John Wayne Gacy in a polo shirt!”

Randi Rhodes: “And yes, we’ve never had a black president before! You know – I don’t think Republicans would have ever reacted to the timing of the speech like this if it weren’t for the fact that the President of the United States is black — and yes, I’m saying that partly to annoy conservatives by reminding them that the President of the United States is black! That piece of crap that only sees skin color, Rush Limbaugh, reacted to President Obama’s request yesterday by saying no genuine President would have done that – no genuine! You see, he’s got a question whether or not this President is legitimate!”

Rep. Maxine Waters (D), California: “Are you going to say to FOX News, when they try and choke us, lie on us, undermine us and destroy us, we will turn the television off on you? Are you willing to understand that you cannot get your news from the enemy?”

Guest host for the Ed Schultz show, Mike Panantonio: “Don’t believe it, it’s not true. The rage [of TEA party members] has just started. We got a glimpse of that hate, if you’ll remember, when we saw the signs they held up at their rallies. There were pictures of Obama depicted as a monkey. Or Obama hanging in effigy like the good ol’ days to this crowd, when this same group no doubt would be lynching real black people for real.”

Crazy Muslims:

Salem Abu Al-Futouh on Egyptian television: “The Jews have two holidays: Passover and another one. What is the Passover, you ask? This holiday is a kind of. . . The Jews celebrate this holiday by eating sandwiches. . . Rather, they eat matzos. What are these matzos made of, you may ask? Concentrate now. They are made of flour and, instead of water, of blood…These people are blood-sucking vampires. When a Jew wants to get married, he must fetch human blood and give it to the rabbi. The rabbi takes this blood and puts an egg in it. He cooks the egg in blood, instead of water. After the egg absorbs the human blood. . . Let me just say that when there is a wedding, they gather at the rabbi’s. The rabbi puts the egg in the man’s mouth, and he takes a bite. Then he puts it in the woman’s mouth, and she also takes a bite. The egg contains human blood. These are blood-sucking vampires, brothers.”

Liberals making sense:

Solyndra president and CEO—and big Obama supporter—Brian Harrison: “Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion. Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman: “The administration still refuses to call our enemy in this war by its proper name – violent Islamist extremism. You could find names that are comparable to that but not the ones that the administration continues to use, which are `violent extremism.’ ”

After several shootings in Florida, organizer Mikhail Muhammed: “We want to call our leadership to the table. We want to address these concerns. We believe it’s a black problem, and we believe the black leadership must step up.”

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd: “Maybe Obama was not even the person he was waiting for. Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.”

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

Toronto Hydro chief Anthony Haines: “If you connect about 10 per cent of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.”

Fred Wszolek, spokesperson for the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI): “Today, President Obama’s labor board issued another regulation on businesses that will only create additional burdens as opposed to helping employers produce jobs. The notice comes the same week the White House was seeking recognition from the business community for scaling back regulations that inhibit economic growth.”

MSNBC‘s Joe Scarborough to Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson: “Isn’t there also though a larger context that the United States citizens may have just elected a president that was not ready to run the most complex economy in the world?”

Chuck Scarborough of WNBC: “We’re in the news business. We deal in doom.”

Crosstalk:

Chris Matthews, Host: “This week we want to do something slightly different with our “Tell me Something” segment. Let me ask you all, all four of you, what has been President Obama’s biggest mistake in his two and a half years so far? Howard.”

Howard Fineman, Huffington Post: “Chris, on things under his control, not the wars so much because they were built in, his decision to spend all of his political capital in a year and a half of his time on the healthcare reform law I think was his biggest political mistake.”

Matthews: “Wow. Smart statement.”

David Ignatius, Washington Post: “I would agree with Howard. The idea of launching a major change in social legislation without having a consensus in the country and in Congress about what that should look like was a mistake. That’s just not how a president makes good policy.”

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ABC‘s Jonathan Karl: “You can’t even get the Congress to agree on a date for the speech without a political sideshow. How can the American people expect you to do something much more difficult, come up with a jobs plan, dealing with the deficit?”

Press secretary Jay Carney: “Because the sideshows don’t matter, the economy matters. The American people matter. Jobs matter.”

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Reporter: “How has the president reacted to the whole debate over, the issues over the scheduling of the speech?”

Jay Carney: “I spent a great deal of time with him [Obama] this morning, and it never came up. Honestly.”

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Question: “If Congress were to pass the package that the President’s going to announce, unemployment would be under 9%?”

Jay Carney: “Based on, when you’re talking about economic predictions, yes. Economic analysts, economists will be able to look at this series of proposals and say that `based on history, based on what we know, based on their collective expertise, that it would add to economic growth and cause an increase to job creation.”

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Christian Amanpour: “Dana, I wanted to ask you, again, alluding to some of the things that Governor Perry has said. And he is a Tea Party favorite, and yet he’s talked about Social Security, he’s talked about it as a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal. But we know and the polls show that 87 percent of Americans believe, of course, Social Security has been good for the country. Does that not put him completely out of step with the rest of the country on this major issue?”

Dana Loesch: “Not really, because I think that what he wants to do is reform Social Security and hopefully take it out of the hands of the government and allow people to be able to decide what they want to do with their own money. And that’s something that grassroots has always been supportive of. We trust ourselves more than we trust the government. And the government has done a horrible job. They said this money was supposed to be there for people who are my parents’ age, who are my aunts’ and uncles’ age. This money was supposed to be there for them when they retired. It was supposedly put in some sort of lockbox. And then when you open the box, when these people hit retirement age, it’s not there anymore. So I think that this is something that grassroots has pushed for. I think Perry is beginning to speak to that.”
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Jay Carney, before the speech day was changed: “There are a lot of factors that go into scheduling a speech before Congress, a joint-session speech. There are other issues that you have to deal with, as well as congressional scheduling and the president’s scheduling…There are many opportunities for the American people. There’s a choice they can make to watch the president, to watch the debate. A network could make a decision to alter the timing of the debate by an hour.”

Carney after the speech day was changes: “If Thursday’s the day, Thursday’s the day. It’s irrelevant. It’s small stuff. Wednesday was the soonest possible day upon Congress’s return from recess. But Thursday is fine with us.”

Conservatives:

Charles Krauthammer: “[Obama] doesn’t understand that his administration has stopped the recovery in its tracks.” [quoted from memory]

Krauthammer: “I think the Republicans have the perfect slogan: President Zero.”

Charles Krauthammer: “President Zero: zero economic expansion, zero jobs, zero ideas on how to cure the economy”

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint: “I’m so tired of his speeches it’s going to be hard for me to watch…What I’ve heard the president is going to talk about Thursday night is more of the same: extending unemployment benefits, payroll tax cuts. I just don’t think those things are going to create jobs.”

Dick Cheney on the TEA party: “I don’t think we would have gotten as far as we have without them sort of holding the feet to the fire of members of Congress.”

Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, former Dick Cheney aide: “This is a government that is not entirely comfortable with the role it has to play in some cases to keep America safe. I think it’s incredibly telling that the Obama administration would have weeks of torturous deliberations just to figure out how to talk about 9/11.”

John Bolton on Barack Obama: “I don’t think he cares about foreign policy.”

Charles Krauthammer: “When Jay Carney says ‘and I can honestly say that this was only a coincidence that the original scheduling land on the Republican debate.’ You’ve got to ask yourself ‘how much are they paying him?’ Whatever it is, it’s not enough.”

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said that “Shariah [law] is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.”

Congressman Joe Walsh: “How idiotic is this president? I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.”

Walsh may miss the Obama speech: “I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects.”

Republican Congressman Joe Walsh to MSNBC anchor Martin Ashir: “Your profession did not vet [Obama]…”

Presidential candidate and guitar playing Thaddeus McCotter on the Gibson Guitar plant raid: “It`s one more reason big government doesn’t rock.”
Chris Wallace: “How can we get a deal on jobs if we can’t even agree on the night the president speaks?” [quoted from memory]

National Review‘s Rich Lowry on MSNBC host Al Sharpton: “We know he’ll never be President of the United States because he can’t read a teleprompter”

Rush Limbaugh: “I get so ticked off at you intellectually lazy people who think that the government is God, that every dollar they get or spend is somehow sacred. There is more fraud and waste and misuse. If the federal government were held accountable to the law as corporations are held accountable, half the federal government would be in prison.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The left would love for the Tea Party to get distracted, start talking about immigration, abortion, gay marriage, all this other stuff, because right now the chief vulnerability faced by Obama and the Democrats is the economy.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Jobs, stimulus spending, federal regulations, those are the three things that are killing this country. Those are the three things that every Republican needs to focus on.”

Rush: “If you end up doing what you love, you’re really never working. It doesn’t strike you as work. There’s nothing really arduous about it.”

Conservatives not making any sense:

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul: “There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military. They’re the ones who are over there lobbing missiles and bombs on countries. . . . And of course the CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve. . . . And yet think of the harm they have done since they were established [after] World War II. They are a government unto themselves. They’re in businesses, in drug businesses, they take out dictators . . . We need to take out the CIA.”

From Conservative Review #194  (HTML)  (PDF)

I’m on vacation for the next week.  🙂