Say What? October 12, 2011 Edition [Reader Post]

Liberals:

President Barack Obama: “We’ve made steady progress to stabilize the economy.”

President Obama on the Solyndra loan guarantees: “It went through the regular review process and people felt that it was a good bet…If you look at the overall portfolio . overall it’s doing well.”

Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: “I don’t remember being ever disappointed in the president.”

President Obama: “I don’t think they’re [the American people] better off than they were four years ago. They’re not better off than they were before Lehman’s collapse, before the financial crisis– before this extraordinary recession we’re going through. I think that– what we’ve seen is that we’ve been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy. But the unemployment rate is still way too high. ”

President Barack Obama: “The question, then, is, will Congress do something?  If Congress does something, then I can’t run against a do-nothing Congress. If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them. I think the American people will run them out of town, because they are frustrated.”

President Obama: “I think most wealthy Americans would agree with that if it helps us grow the economy and it helps to bring down our deficits.  Now, this notion that folks are inherently selfish, that’s just not true. But you’ve got to ask them, right? (Laughter.) People don’t voluntarily pay taxes. But if you ask, most wealthy folks here in Dallas or around the country, they’ll tell you, you know what, I want to make sure that I’m doing my share for America to succeed. But somebody has got to ask.  Now, some Republicans in Congress, they’re already dusting off the old — their old records. “That’s class warfare.” Let me tell you something, 26 years ago — some of you may have seen this on television, clips have been circulating — 26 years ago, another President said that some of these tax loopholes, and I quote, “made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. It’s time we stopped it.” That was 26 years ago. You know the name of that President? Ronald Reagan. (Laughter.)  So was that class warfare? By the way, taxes are much lower now than they ever were when Ronald Reagan was President. I know a lot of folks have short memories, but I don’t remember Republicans accusing Ronald Reagan of being a socialist — (laughter) — or engaging in class warfare, because he thought that everybody should do their fair share. (Applause.)  Things have just gotten out of whack. (Laughter.) I’ll tell you what, if asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher or a bus driver makes me a warrior for the middle class, I will wear that charge with honor. (Applause.) Because the only warfare I’ve seen is the battle waged against middle-class Americans for a decade now. And they’re hurting and they need some help.”

Senator Chuck Schumer on Obama’s 5% tax on millionaires: “Drawing the line at a million dollars is the right thing to do.”

Vice President Joe Biden: “There’s a lot of people in Florida that have good reason to be upset because they’ve lost jobs, even though 50 some percent of the American people think the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant.  What’s relevant is, we’re in charge. And right now, we are the ones in charge, and it’s gotten better but it hasn’t gotten good enough. And in states like Florida it’s even been more stagnant because of the real estate market.  And so I don’t blame them for being mad. We’re in charge, so they’re angry.”

Joe Biden: “We are in charge.  We have turned it [the economy] around.”

Joe Biden, answering a question to a class of 5th graders: “Because things got really bad before we came into office and an awful lot of companies said `there’s no more jobs for you here.'”

Joe Biden: “I don’t disrespect the Tea Party.  I think the Tea Party and the Van Jones folks are different hats of the same concern. There’s an overwhelming frustration. There’s a great frustration here in America that the two parties haven’t been able to get very much moving. We have been in this period where there’s just nothing but fighting. So, you have, on the one hand, Van Jones’ guys – whoever he is – the point is, talking about the excesses of Wall Street and there’s some truth in what he says and there’s truth in what the Tea Party says.”

Obama: “I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz. He’s an English teacher in Boston[.] … In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?”  Except, the president never met this man; and, even though he got a pink slip, he is presently teaching.

Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, emailed this message to supporters: “President Obama is in Dallas today urging Americans who support the American Jobs Act to demand that Congress pass it already…But here’s something you can do: Find Republican members of Congress on Twitter, call them out, and demand they pass this bill.”  This was sent out shortly after Republican Mitch McConnell introduced the bill in the Senate and Senate leader, Harry Reid, blocked the vote.  Although the context of this email was House Republicans, a similar email will not be sent out to urge Senate Democrats to pass the bill.

Representative Keith Ellison, when asked if regulations kill jobs: “I think the answer is no, and here is why: When we talked about increasing fuel efficiency standards, the industry responded, and they need engineers and designers and manufacturers, and they need actually more people to help respond to the new requirement.”

Senator Dick Durbin on Bank of America: “Vote with your feet, get the heck out of that bank,”  Durbin specifically limited one set of fees that banks could charge, so that Bank of America is instituting a new charge.   This is amazing.  A senator telling you which businesses you ought (or ought not) patronize; and blaming Bank of America for reacting to Durbin’s amendment (if there was no Durbin amendment, there would be no additional charge by BofA).

Al Sharpton, MSNBC: “[Herman Cain] had the right not to be involved [in the civil rights movement]. What he does not have the right is to rewrite history by saying that blacks were brainwashed by becoming Democrats, because when blacks became Democrats, my parents were Republicans. As I said, Dr. King’s family was. I’m nine or ten years younger than Mr. Cain, and I joined the movement later on in the ’60s when I was still a teenager.  I don’t begrudge him for not making my choice, but I do begrudge him for acting like we’re brainwashed because we went with a Party that stood up for the Civil Rights Act of ’64 and Voting Rights Act of ’65. There’s a reason blacks did not stay with the Republican Party. So I think when he stepped in to calling people brainwashed and totally discarded the fact that it was based on public policy that people made their political choices, and, in fact, changed their choices from the Party of Lincoln.”  See By the Numbers.

Bill Maher: “And what is the Republican solution to these outrageous [racial] inequalities? There isn’t one. And that’s the point. Denying racism is the new racism…And that is the unwritten rule about being a black Republican. You’re welcome in the party as long as you never, ever, ever mention race.”

Wall Street Protesters chanting: “What do we want? We’re not really sure! When do we want it? Now!”  I think this was real.

“Burn this Bank” written on the side of bank during Wall Street protest.

Occupy Wall Street organizer Malini (?): “[We’re] trying to change the capitalist system that we have today because it’s not working for any of us…how do we really reform and bring revolutionary change to the United States”

“Wall Street” protestor in Houston: “My brother has $25,000 in student debt; why is this allowed to happen?”

White protest organizer about the Hispanics who are with him: “Some of them are volunteers. Some of them aren’t.  I can’t identify them. I’m not going to get into an identification game.”

Nancy Pelosi: “God bless [corporations] for their success, God bless the shareholders who participate in that success. But let’s not forget the workers who contributed to that success. And as long as productivity and wages continue to go like that – productivity up, wages not rising in any relation to productivity – we’re going to have an erosion of the middle class. We’re going to have people slipping down from it. Most people in the country, no matter how poor they are, believe they are in the middle class, and that’s where they want to be, and we have to honor that aspiration.  So we think they can say all they want to say about class warfare.  Am I missing something here?  Perhaps you will tell me in the Q & A as to why that is an illegitimate charge in a country that has life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in its founding documents. ”   Say what??

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Jim Wallis on the Wall Street Protesters:
Here are a few things I do know about the Occupy Wall Street protesters:

When they stand with the poor, they stand with Jesus.

When they stand with the hungry, they stand with Jesus.

When they stand for those without a job or a home, they stand with Jesus.

When they are peaceful, non-violent, and love their neighbors (even the ones they don’t agree with and who don’t agree with them), they are walking as Jesus walked.

When they talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus and the biblical prophets before him who all spoke about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.

Pray for those out on the streets.

Think of ways that you or your church can be Jesus to them.

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Dan Rather: “The real moving force behind this, what’s happening in the Wall Street protesters and the efforts to spread it around the country, is a woman operating out of her apartment in New York”

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

Jake Tapper: “You can hear them [Republican voters] make their peace with Romney.”

Liberals from the past:

Senator Barack Obama: “Sub-prime lending started out as a good idea, helping Americans buy homes that they previously could not afford to.”

Liberal civility:

NPR host Michelle Martin cued up Cain‘s remarks suggesting the Occupy Wall Street protests are “planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration.”

Then sports columnist and ESPN regular Kevin Blackistone said to Martin: “It sounds like to me what people who used to run the White Citizens Councils used to say in the South during the civil rights movement, that it was outside agitators who were coming in and stirring up black folks down there.”  Sure nuff; that Herman Cain is just like some southern racist.  Don’t forget, we, as taxpayers help to pay for this “analysis.”

What should have followed would be the opinion of almost any person who would say, “That has to be about the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”  Or words to that effect.  Not on NPR.
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MSNBC‘s Martin Bashir on Steve Jobs and Sarah Palin: “We’ve marked two important stories:  the tragic and sad passing of a true creative genius at the age of just 56 and hopefully the end of a charade that’s been going on for three years. One individual represents the very best of American exceptionalism- brilliant, determined, creative. The other represents the very worst form of American opportunism- vacuous, crass, and according to almost every biographer, vindictive, too.”

Head of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blanfein impalted on a stick

Occupy Portland protester: “Today’s TEA party…they’re a bunch of losers; they’re crazy people.”  To be fair, if I recall, he added Democrats and others into this evaluation.

Occupy New Orleans protester: “Kill the cops!”

Liberals making sense:

GE CEO and Obama Jobs Czar Jeffrey Immelt wanders off the reservation on 60 Minutes tonite: “I think we should have basically the same tax policy that Germany, Japan, the UK – everybody else has, which is a tax rate in the mid-20s and no loopholes. Zero.  The U.S. has the most antiquated tax system. And that means some people are going to pay more taxes, and some people are going to pay less…Personally, I think [lowering taxes] will create jobs.”

Michelle Williams, concerning Democrat John Lewis who was not allowed to speak at the Atlanta “Occupy Wall Street” gathering: “I am angry because this is not what democracy is all about. This is Marxist more Stalin like. Your movement, you’re just riff-raff. You’re an organized mob.”

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson telling what happend when she was trying to get some information on Operation Fast and Furious: “In between the yelling that I received from the Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman – who would not put anything in writing – I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said. She wouldn’t put anything in writing.”

Stefan on Bulls and Bears: “Walmart is not going to expand its hiring practices next year because they feel bad over these [Wall Street] protestors.”  [quoted from memory]

Barbara Walters to Herman Cain: “You are certainly not Obama.”

Mike Murphy: “On every defeated president, the political tombstone reads, ‘I screwed up the economy.’ ”

Scott Brown, after finding out that his opponent, Elizabeth Warren did not take off her clothes to get through school: “Thank God.”

Moderates from the Past:

President Richard Nixon: “In any organization, the man at the top must accept the responsibility.”

Crosstalk:

President Obama October 2011: “The reason I keep going around the country talkin’ about this jobs bill is because people really need help right now.  Our economy really needs a jolt right now.”

President Obama Feb. 2009, selling the Stimulus Bill: “At this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy into life.”
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Newsman Jake Tapper: “Can he [Obama] get reelected if the economy is not significantly improved and does he deserve to?”

WH Spokesman Jay Carney: “Yes, and here’s why: because what the election will be about is whose vision for America’s future is best, whose ideas for moving America forward are best. And what we confidently believe is that the American people will see in President Obama’s view for the future the right answers.  What we also believe is that if the Republican nominee, once he or she emerges, runs on the proposals that have been generated so far, which are essentially mirror images – not mirror images but exact replications of the policies that got us into this mess, the American people won’t think that is the right answer.”

Conservatives:

Herman Cain about the Wall Street protesters: “It’s coordinated to create a distraction so people won’t focus on the failed policies of this administration…I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want to protest the success of somebody else.”

George Will about gridlock in Washington: “What debacle?  We raised the debt ceiling, we set up the supercommittee, we avoided doing what the president wanted, which was pass the debt ceiling increase cleanly without any cuts in spending. Washington is in gridlock? Washington, in recent years, has passed TARP, the stimulus, Obamacare – big things. Now the country doesn’t like a lot of what they did, but you can’t say Washington has been gridlocked.”

George Will: “In 1916, before we entered World War I and federal spending exploded, the richest man in America, John D Rockefeller could have written a personal check and retired our national debt. Today, the richest man in America, Bill Gates, could write a personal check of his entire net worth and not pay two months interest on the national debt.”

Herman Cain: “We’ve got some alterin’ and some abolishin’ to do.”

Peggy Noonan [of Obama]: “What is it you want me to give him credit for?  I’m not being sarcastic.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner: “Nothing has disappointed me more than what’s happened over the last five weeks – to watch the president of the United States give up on governing, give up on leading and spend full-time campaigning.  We’re legislating, he’s campaigning. It’s very disappointing.”

Columnist Peggy Noonan: “A leader leads. Part of the president’s problem is that he has never, from day one, been able to really pull in bipartisan support, either make Republicans afraid of him or want to follow him. He’s never been able to do it. Part of the reason people are talking about Chris Christie is that he’s in a Democratic state, he’s a Republican governor, but he has made progress on deficits, spending, pensions, property taxes with a Democratic legislature. It’s never an excuse that washes to say, “Oh, the other team, the other party are bad guys. They wouldn’t follow me.” If you’re a leader, you make them…”

Noelle Nikpour about Obama and leader of the New Black Panthers together in a picture: “The media is pretty much left-wing this is their baby.  Barack Obama was no more than a brand.  The left-wing media made him popular, like BMW cars, Gucci.  Anyone who is negative, anyone who is in the background of a photo [with Obama], they’re going to push it out of the way, as they are doing now.”

Darrell Issa to assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch about Operation Fast and Furious, on the pages and pages of emails, each of which is about 95% blacked out: “The pages go on like this forever.  How dare you make an opening statement of cooperation.  We had to subpoena again and again.  Your representatives of the executive branch have discouraged witnesses from coming forward.”

Darrell Issa on Holder’s answers to Fast and Furious questions: “We certainly know he failed to meet the duty of candor.”

Mark Steyn: “Iran-Contra didn’t rack of that kind of body count. Watergate didn’t rack up that kind of body count. Sarah Palin’s daughter’s boyfriend’s mother, or whatever stupid story they were chasing around Wasilla for months, that didn’t rack up a body count. There were hundreds of dead Mexicans from a gun running program run by the United States.”

Newt Gingrich: “The elite media tried to pick the candidates. The elite media, they spent weeks, I mean, there were something like 115 articles that said, this is now a two-man race. And the country looked up and said, you don’t have the right to tell us who is in the race.”

Bill Bennett Suggests the Bumper Sticker: “If you voted for him the last time to prove you are not a racist, you must vote against him this time to prove you are not an idiot.”

Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaking about Obama’s political strengths: “He’s going to have a billion dollars up against the Republican candidate and he is going to have about 90% of the media in his back pocket.”

Noelle Nikpour: “This is going to be the year of endorsements: Palin’s endorsement, Christy’s, Rubio’s, DeMint’s and Trump’s.”

Tracey Byrnes, after seeing a particularly pathetic young Wall Street protestor: “If that was my child, I’d smack her 6 weeks to Sunday.”

Commentator and radio host Neil Bortz: “If you took fair share, millionaires and billionaires and pass this bill out of his [Obama’s] vocabulary, he’d be unable to deliver a speech.”

Dick Morris: “My head is for Romney, my heart is with Cain, my brain is with Gingrich and my feet have not voted yet.” (Quoted from memory).

Greg Gutfeld, about some Wall Street protestors were paid to be there: “How ironic is this, you have to pay someone to protest capitalism?”

Herman Cain: “I would make it a priority to upgrade all of our Aegis surface-to-air ballistic missile defense capabilities of all of our warships, all the way around the world.  Make that a priority, and then say to Ahmadinejad, `Make my Day.'”

Rush Limbaugh: “Liberals want to talk about corporations and profits. Well, how about rich unions that don’t pay one penny in federal income tax? And they make lots of profit. They shouldn’t be tax exempt.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Sharyl Attkisson once invited me to be her guest at the White House Correspondents Dinner, which I graciously turned down. She thought it would raise the roof off the place, which it would have. I didn’t want to sit at the CBS table.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Here you have Barack Obama who wants to raise taxes and he’s going out and he’s quoting Ronald Reagan, who everybody knows is famous for what? Cutting taxes.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Bernanke’s out there saying that the economic recovery is close to faltering.  There is no recovery.  They want to pretend that there is. How’s that recovery working for you?”

Rush Limbaugh: “The Durbin amendment was tacked onto the already stupid Dodd-Frank bill at the last minute and that’s what caused these debit card fees to increase at Bank of America in the first place.  So if you object to this new $5 fee, your real target should be to send Dick Durbin home.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Government doesn’t have any money until it goes and gets it from other people.”

Rush:  “No liberal will ever win a national election being honest about who they are.”

Rush: “If a conservative black’s ever elected president, folks, you’re gonna see genuine racism every day from the highest institutions of the media and the Democrat Party.”

Rush: “Ronald Reagan created more jobs, including in the black community, than Obama ever has or ever will.”

Rush: “We used to talk about welfare queens, now we now have welfare punks.”

Rush: “Obama’s jobs bill was never intended to be signed, the bill was never intended to be passed. It’s there for the express purpose of allowing Obama and the Democrats to say the Republicans are the obstructionists. ”

From Conservative Review #198  (HTML)  (PDF)