"The Republican convention goes on all week, but of course the highlight will be toward the end of the week, George Bush will show up for one day - you know, just like he did in the National Guard."
--David Letterman


Image from Web Zone Number Nine

"Whether we're talking about important domestic issues or critical life-and-death issues abroad, this president may be consistent, I'll give him that, but he's been consistently wrong. And he's put our country on the wrong track."
-- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday


Official Portrait from Clinton.Senate.Gov

"Gloria, you're always on the run now
Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you've got to slow down before you start to blow it
I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it"
-- Laura Branigan, 1957-2004


Photo from LauraBranigan.com

"This is New York. Of course we have naked people on Eighth Avenue. What's the question?"
-- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, laughing off the ACT-UP demonstrators who appeared naked while blocking traffic at the site of the Republican National Convention. As quoted by the Daily News.

"George W. Bush ought to call off his dogs. The one thing we ought to be able to do in this hyperpoliticized era is rally in a bipartisan way behind those who have been willing to fight our wars... The privileged classes no longer feel an obligation to put their lives - or their children's lives - on the line in defense of the nation. The very least they could do is insist that those who have put themselves in harm's way be treated with respect."
-- Bob Herbert, The New York Times

"I always say that death can be one of the greatest experiences ever. If you live each day of your life right, then you have nothing to fear."
-- Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 1926-2004.


Image from Growth House.

"Freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want."
-- Vice President Dick Cheney.


Photo from Chicago Anti-Bashing Network.

"All this crap about Kerry not being deservant of his medals... What a
bunch of thugs!!! Looks like Bob Dole overdosed on his Viagra. . . and now he's even looking to screw John Kerry!!"
-- Van Harris, Comedian


Image from Sonic.Net.

"Elvis has left the building"
-- Al Dvorin, 1923-2004

"There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago - three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969. One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other. For years, no one asked about those events. But now they are the focus of skirmishing in a presidential election with a group of swift boat veterans and others contending that Kerry didn’t deserve the Silver Star for what he did on that day, or the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for other actions."

"Many of us wanted to put it all behind us... The rivers, the ambushes, the killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews about Kerry’s service - even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune, where I work. But Kerry’s critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown. The critics have taken pains to say they’re not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It’s gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."

-- William Rood, Vietnam Veteran, and current journalist with the Chicago Tribune.

Image from VVA.

Image from CNN.

"With New York City on the highest level of alert for the past 35 months and especially with the latest warnings, our first responders are working overtime to keep all those who live in and visit our great city safe and secure. That is why I hope that after Congressional leaders and the president rely on New York's finest, they will finally do right by the city (and the state) and address the imbalanced and illogical way that homeland security funds are distributed... In the latest fiscal year, Wyoming received $38 per person while New York received less than $5.50 per person from the largest pot of federal homeland security funding. This irrational system is the result of a decision to allocate more than 75 percent of some $2.9 billion the federal government spends on homeland security without regard to threat. Instead, each state gets a guaranteed minimum portion of this money, with the rest being divided up on a per-person basis. Under this system, New York City received only 3 percent of the $2.9 billion in the three largest homeland security programs, and only 2.5 percent of 2004 homeland security-related funds... This year, New York City has received $97 million from all Department of Homeland Security programs. The annual cost of homeland security operations for the Police Department alone is more than twice that. Add in the needs of the Fire Department and other first responders, and the increased spending required due to the most recent terror warnings, which specifically mention New York and Washington, and it is abundantly clear that the current system makes no sense... Don't take it from me. The 9/11 commission has also called for changing the formula so that it is based on threat and risk, not pork-barrel politics. The report said, 'Federal homeland security assistance should not remain a program for general revenue sharing.' I could not agree more."
-- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

"You are resigning in shame because of the way you snuck around and cheated on your spouse, lied to those closest to you, dishonored your name and the Office of the Governor, and then you abused your power and position for the financial gain of your mistress (or would that be mister?)... Too bad you are such a dick, 'cause you were kind of hot, Governor... Oh yeah, and while I'm at it; what is up with supporting civil unions but not supporting real marriage? What logic, what understanding of history, what understanding of human nature would it take for you, YOU OF ALL PEOPLE, to understand the importance of marriage, or the potential for marriage, in a person's life. Marriage was good enough for you, you lying sack of shit, but not for your fellow "gay Americans"....
-- Out There blog, a rant to Governor James McGreevey on his recent coming out as a "Gay American".

(Image from Center for Bio-Ethics and Human Dignity)

"Here lies an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go."
-- Tombstone in a Thurmont, Maryland cemetery. As quoted by Karbonkountymoos.

"Q: It is the most abused and neglected part
of your body, what is it?
A: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected."

"Q: According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A: Point and laugh"

"Q: When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose
do?
A: Make him bark?"

"Q: It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps...One is politics, what is the other?
A: Tape measures."

-- Paul Lynde, responding to questions asked by host Peter Marshall on Hollywood Squares, tv program.


Photo from the Buck's County Playhouse.

"You could move."
-- Abigail Van Buren, Dear Abby, In response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood. As cited on A Life in the Day.


Photo from ABC News.

"When I watch a porn film, I just keep counting the people in it who are dead. Sometimes, and this is very eerie, I find myself wondering if, perhaps, I'm watching the very moment when they got sick."
-- Al Parker, who died from AIDS on this date in 1992 at age 40. Quoted from Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar by Roger Edmonson.


Image from HisXpress.

"I want to invite you to assess the strength of your own personal foundation, and if necessary, to construct a plan of action to restore it. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Are there areas of my life that are in need of my attention?
2. Do I engage in behaviors that repeatedly cause me stress and bad feelings?
3. Am I suffering from some kind of addiction - whether it's to food, sex, shopping, overworking, over-exercising or gossiping?
4. Is there an aspect of my life that I try to hide, like my finances or my sexuality?
5. Is there some area of my life in which I am not taking 100% responsibility for my current conditions or circumstances?

Next, look to see what it would take to rebuild your personal foundation so that it supports you in creating the things you most desire. I want to encourage you to focus on the area of your life that most needs your attention. What you will find is that the places in your life where you've suffered the most offer you the greatest potential for reward. If you dedicate the time and energy to deal with this part of your life, you will create momentum that will translate into every other area."

-- Debbie Ford

"From the day we're born till the day we die, we need teachers. In a perfect world, each of us would have at least one mentor who looked after our learning needs, constantly adding new lessons to our ever-evolving curriculum. Since you probably haven't been living in a perfect world, however, you may have only rarely been blessed with the luxury of a personal educator. You've mostly had to be your own guide, with an occasional assist from me. Here's one of those assists now: In the next six weeks, you should put a high priority on developing a long-term lesson plan. What things do you need to learn most between now and August, 2009?"
-- Robert Brezny, Free Will Astrology


Image from University of Oregon

"At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world. Not as we may want to see it, or hope to see it, but as it is... And so my truth is that I am a gay American. And I am blessed to live in the greatest nation with a tradition of civil liberties, the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world, and a country which provides so much to its people."
-- Governor James E. McGreevey, in his resignation speech last week, as quoted by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Train yourself to use your hands and fingers; they are wonderful instruments. Train yourself also to handle hot foods; this will save time. Keep your knives sharp... Above all, have a good time."
-- Julia Child, 1912-2004, The Way To Cook, published in 1989.


Photo from Web Exhibits.

"John Kerry has waded into an issue raised by Michael Moore in his film 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' namely, President Bush's sitting for seven minutes in a Florida classroom after being told 'the country is under attack.' Republicans are waxing indignant, of course. But the criticism is richly deserved. The fact that Bush wasted 27 minutes that day - not only the seven minutes reading to kids but 20 more at a photo op afterward - was, in my view, the most outrageous thing a President has done since Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court... Watergate was outrageous but it still did not carry the possibility of utter devastation, like a President's freezing at the very moment we needed his immediate focus on an attack on the United States... This is an issue about the ultimate presidential duty, acting in an emergency. If nothing else in Washington is nonpartisan, this should be... But it is not. Republicans are tying themselves in knots trying to defend Bush's actions that morning. I cannot see how someone who considers himself a conservative can defend George Bush's inaction. Conservatives pride themselves on being clear-eyed and decisive. They don't do nuance, and they respect toughness... But Bush choked at the most important moment a President could have. We're lucky Al Qaeda had done its worst by the time he pulled himself away from the photo op. Next time, it might not be that way."
-- Bill Maher, Bush blew it the morning of 9/11, in the New York Daily News, today.


Image from Acid Logic.

“I knew I couldn’t live in America and I wasn’t ready to move to Europe, so I moved to an island off the coast of America­, New York City... It was a place that tolerated differences and could incorporate them and embrace them, which was what America was supposed to be about and wasn’t. So it was the melting pot that was a purée rather than individual vegetables. I think of New York as a purée and the rest of the United States as vegetable soup.”
-- Spaulding Gray


Photo by Raku Loren

"I finally got to lunch with Larry Olivier a few years back. Wouldn't talk a bit about Shakespeare to me. Only wanted to know how we'd made Kong climb the Empire State Building."
-- Fay Wray, 1907-2004, King Kong's co-star dies in New York, an obituary in the Guardian Unlimited.


Image from Trash Fiction

"The real story was in the faces. All those faces on the Bush team. What you saw was the spiritual emptiness of those people. Bush has one of the emptiest faces in America. He looks to have no more depth than spit on a rock. It could be that the most incisive personal crime committed by George Bush is that he probably never said to himself, 'I don't deserve to be president.' You just can't trust a man who's never been embarrassed by himself. The vanity of George W. stands out with every smirk. He literally cannot control that vanity. It seeps out of every movement of his lips, it squeezes through every tight-lipped grimace. Every grin is a study in smugsmanship."
-- Norman Mailer, New York magazine, on what he thought worked best in Fahrenheit 9/11.


Image from WhyWeHateBush.com.

"Friends are the sunshine of life."
-- John Hay

"I'm so proud of all the youngsters [to whom] we old-school people passed along the torch... You guys have to pass it along to the next generation. It's like something [Motown founder] Berry Gordy told me a long time ago. He said, 'You'll come and go, [but] music will stay here forever, no matter what you do.'"
-- Rick James, 1948-2004, as quoted by MTV at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards in June.



Image from Piano Lagoon.

"We don't think [Jenna Bush] is of a high enough moral character to teach school, considering her past adventures. Her taking this [potential Charter School] job is keeping a black person from getting the job. We think she and her sister should enlist in the military."
-- John Penley, Artists and Activists United for Peace, as quoted in the Daily News.

"In whatever one does, there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart. One must come to one's subject in a pure spirit. One must be strict with oneself. There must be time for contemplation, for reflection about the world and the people about one. If one photographs people, it is their inner look that must be revealed."
--Henri Cartier-Bresson, Photographer, 1908-2004, as quoted in The New York Times.


Photo titled Truman Capote 1947, National Portrait Gallery, from the Tete a Tete Exhibition

"I'm not scared of being in New York."
-- President Bill Clinton, on Late Show with David Letterman, last night, referring to heightened security surrounding terrorist threats.

"You have to be able to look back at your life and say, 'Yeah, that was fun!' The only person I ever hurt was myself, and even that I did to the minimum. If you can do that and you're still functioning, then you're the luckiest person in the world."
-- Sammy Davis Jr., as quoted by Liz Smith.

"Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African-American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? I have raised questions. But let me answer your question... You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.
That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us..."
-- Reverend Al Sharpton

"At the convention, John Kerry showed up with all his Vietnam crew mates and, not to be outdone, next month here in New York City at the Republican convention, George W. Bush will show up with all his college drinking buddies."
-- David Letterman, Late Show With David Letterman