"In the most famous picture from his trip to Baghdad, President
Bush had
himself artfully photographed to look like he was serving turkey to the
troops. The image was emblazoned on front pages throughout the country -
and
now appears to be an entirely false depiction.

According to the Washington Post, Bush was actually holding "a
decoration,
not a serving plate." In other words, he was holding a prop, not
real food,
and thus only pretending for the cameras to be serving up the holiday
meal.

The Post notes that "the foray has opened new credibility questions
for a
White House that has dealt with issues" like this in the past. In
fact, the
flap marks the second such distortion in as many days about his trip to
Baghdad. Just yesterday it was revealed that the White House's tall tale
of
Air Force One crossing paths with a British Airways plane was entirely
false.

The deceptive picture also harkens back to the controversy surrounding
the
President's "Mission Accomplished" banner. On May 1, he stood
on the deck of
the U.S.S. Lincoln in front of the giant sign and declared that
"major
combat operations have ended." Since that time, more troops have
been killed
or wounded than before he made that statement, prompting more questions
about his photo-op.

When asked why he chose to stand in front of the "Mission
Accomplished"
banner at a press conference six months later, Bush "disavowed the
background banner," saying the White House staff had nothing to do
with
producing it. But then Navy and administration officials admitted the
President had been dishonest, saying that "the White House actually
made
it." White House spokesman Scott McClellan specifically said,
"We took care
of the production of it. We have people to do those things."

Of course, Bush's penchant for taking misleading and dishonest photos
has
not been confined to Iraq. In July of 2002, the President visited a
low-income housing development in Atlanta to tout his commitment to
funding
it. He then proposed a budget that eliminated its funding. Similarly, the
President visited a Boys and Girls Club in January of 2003 to tout the
organization's efforts. He said the club "has got a grand history of
helping children."
Just four days after his photo-op, he proposed to cut 15% out of funding
for the Boys and Girls Club."

-- The Daily Mislead, online.

"There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats."
-- Elton John

"A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."
-- H.L. Mencken

''Eat a lobster, eat a pound of caviar - live! If you are in love with a beautiful blonde with an empty face and no brains at all, don't be afraid. Marry her! Live!''
-- Arthur Rubenstein

"He's a good boy... I raised him good, and so I'm not too worried about other things that's happened."
-- Joe Jackson, father of Michael Jackson.

"I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere."
-- George W. Bush

"I love Thanksgiving turkey...it's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts."
-- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Consider the Americans who have rained nothing but glory on our nation. Think about the magnificent works of Walt Whitman, James Baldwin and Hart Crane. They're just a handful of writers who shaped the American vision and yet could not achieve full citizenship because they were homosexual. How many wedding parties have walked down the aisle to the music of Virgil Thompson, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman or Aaron Copland? Yes, we get to provide the music, but we are not allowed to get married ourselves. The next time you stand, hand on your heart, and sing "America the Beautiful," remind yourself that we owe those towering words to Katharine Lee Bates, a lesbian.

Remind yourself, too, of the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the fire department chaplain who was killed on September 11. There was hardly a religious leader in our city who did not glorify his name and hold him up as someone to emulate. But remind them that he was a proud and openly gay man and those same moralists will turn their backs in denial.

The unhappy tradition continues today. The Bush administration spends billions spreading freedom abroad while at home it devises legislation to deny equal rights to gays and lesbians. What is it with you people, anyway? Are you so insecure about the way you handle marriage that you're scared gay folk will show you up? Trust me, we will make as much of a mess out of matrimony as you do. Just give us a chance."
-- Harvey Fierstein in The New York Times.

“If 10 percent of men are gay, then it’s a reasonable assumption that 10 percent of priests and 10 percent of bishops are gay, but it is what you do about it. If they are living a celibate life, then God bless the men.”
-- Cardinal Keith O’Brien, archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland, on homosexuality in the Times of London, Oct. 1)

"As Matt Dillon's underwear."
-- Boy George, when asked by US Weekly what he would like to become if he were reincarnated.

''Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons."
-- Michael Jackson

"Of all the post-Sept. 11 denials of civil liberties, the enemy combatant doctrine is among the worst. It gives the president untrammeled authority to lock up Americans merely by asserting that they are part of a terrorist plot. In its argument to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit this week, the government insisted that military-style rules like the enemy combatant doctrine now apply to American citizens, even on American soil, because Al Qaeda has "made the battlefield the United States."

Governments are always tempted to detain perceived enemies without charges, hold them incommunicado and deny them counsel. But the framers of the Constitution knew that if the government was allowed to act on those impulses, the result would be tyranny. That is why they built into this nation's founding document the very rights the Bush administration is intent on taking away."
-- Editorial, 'Enemy Combatant' Sham, The New York Times

"My only hope is that we never lose sight
of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse."
-- Walt Disney, (Today is Mickey's 75th Birthday)

"I belong in the theater... I have to work off the instant reactions of the audience."
-- Dorothy Loudon, 1933-2003, as quoted in The New York Times.

"I'm proud and grateful I was Blondie... She was dumb and shrewish sometimes. But she was real and sympathetic and warm, a real woman, a human being. And that's how I tried to play her."
-- Penny Singleton, 1908-2003, quoted in a 1973 book titled Saturday Afternoon at the Bijou, and quoted by the Associated Press in their obituary for her.

"I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different."
-- Jean Jacques Rousseau

"You Simonize your car, so why not your face?"
-- Joan Rivers as quoted by the New York Post

"Hello, Ralpie Boy!!!"
-- Art Carney, 1918-2003.

"President Bush often emphasizes his commitment to veterans, saying in 2001, "My administration understands America's obligations not only go to those who wear the uniform today, but to those who wore the uniform in the past: to our veterans.

But the 200,000 veterans waiting six months or more for their first appointment at a VA facility would be denied access to VA health care under Bush's plan. Others would be charged $250 annual enrollment fees, doubled prescription costs and increased co-payments."
-- The Daily Mislead, MoveOn.org

''They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, 'big brother'-style government - toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' - than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America.''
-- Al Gore, in a speech for Moveon.org

"The Bush crowd hurtled into Baghdad on the law of Disney: Wishing can make it so. Now they're ensnared in the law of the jungle: the rules of engagement don't apply with this scary cocktail of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters and terrorists, who hold nothing sacrosanct, not human rights organizations, humanitarian groups or Iraqi civilians.

The gangsters are getting ever bolder about picking off our soldiers on land and out of the sky. With three Army helicopters hit in the last two weeks, killing 22 Americans, soldiers are reduced to flying low and fast, as they scan for the glint of sunlight coming off the rockets of the invisible guerrillas. It's an eerie flashback to the 10-year war of attrition Afghans waged against the mighty Soviets, when worn-down Soviet soldiers complained that the Afghan fighters were "ghosts" who would shoot down their helicopters with American Stinger surface-to-air missiles and fade back into the mountains."
-- Maureen Dowd, The Chicago Way, The New York Times.

"The lingering question, as it is so often with Mr. Bush, is how quickly and fully the rhetoric will translate into action. The president's "Marshall Plan" for Afghanistan never materialized; his ambitious "road map" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace didn't get past the first stop sign. A policy to promote democracy in the Middle East, even if defined as the work of decades, will require not just soaring speeches but far-reaching changes in U.S. practices and substantial costs. Though the administration has already been talking about the new strategy for many months, there has been no substantial follow-up so far -- other than a start on a new democratic political system for Iraq."
-- Editorial, The Wasington Post

"Those deaths brought to 382 the number of American soldiers who have died in Iraq or Kuwait since the United States invaded Iraq on March 19."
-- The New York Times, today.

"If he gets more explicit, or allows the flag-draped coffins of fallen heroes to be photographed coming home, it will just remind people that the administration said this would be easy, and it's teeth-grindingly hard. And that the administration vowed to get Osama and Saddam and W.M.D., and hasn't. And that the Bush team that hyped the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq has now created an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq. And that there was no decent plan for the occupation or for financing one, no plan for rotating or supporting troops stretched too thin to guard ammunition caches or police a fractious society, and no plan for getting out."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

"It's clearly a tragic day for America. In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days. But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated."
-- Donald H. Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defense, after guerrillas shot down an American helicopter in Iraq, killing 16 soldiers in The New York Times yesterday.

“If 10 percent of men are gay, then it’s a reasonable assumption that 10 percent of priests and 10 percent of bishops are gay, but it is what you do about it. If they are living a celibate life, then God bless the men.”
-- Cardinal Keith O’Brien, archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland, on homosexuality as reported by the Times of London, Oct. 1 and quoted by the New York Blade.

“Jeers to Barbara Walters. Interviewing Macaulay Culkin, who plays a gay, drug-abusing murderer and mutilator in his latest movie [‘Party Monster’], Walters asked, ‘Are you concerned that people may think you’re gay?’ No word on whether Mac is worried about the murder and mutilation part.”
-- Cheers and Jeers, column in TV Guide, Oct. 4, as quoted by the New York Blade.

"Work hard. Play hard. Stay hard."
-- Unknown

"She hasn't an extra $10 million to throw around, a fact he certainly already knows. The taxpayers don't have any extra money to throw around, a fact this entire city already knows. If the judge sitting on the case had b - - - s, he'd dismiss the case without it costing Joe Schmo as well as Liza Minnelli a fortune.

"Today, 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. Enough there are fights over maintenance and child support. Now, suddenly, the law will allow you to file a suit and say you were battered physically or emotionally? Now, suddenly, we'll have to litigate two cases? A divorce and a civil case? We mustn't let our justice system be abused by this. Such nonsense has to be dismissed before we're burdened with court costs of stenographers, bailiffs and the cast of thousands.

"Our courts are overburdened. Judges have legitimate cases backed up. Cases that have merit can't get on the docket because of nonsense like this. Somebody should tell that judge to use the b - - - s he was born with and dismiss it."

-- Judge Judy Sheindlin as quoted by Cindy Adams in the New York Post

"There is no conceivable amount of money worth telling the world that you were beaten up by Liza Minnelli."
-- Jon Stewart, The Kicker

"The plight of battered husbands is, of course, a serious issue, especially given the gender bias of modern society. But one can't help feeling Liza's ex is unlikely to be a useful role model in this regard. By his own description, his wife is an 'overweight, raging alcoholic'. An overweight, raging alcoholic with two artificial hips who's almost a decade his senior and barely over 5 ft tall. Couldn't he have run for his life? Or, come to that, strolled for his life?"
-- Mark Steyn, The Kicker

"I never hurt him! The only thing I ever did was strap a dildo on and fuck him up the ass. He squealed a little, but it was consensual!"
-- Mario Cantone, on David Gest in Michael Musto's column in the Village Voice.

"Liza never beat me."
-- Billy Stritch, at the 14th Annual Cabaret Convention at The Town Hall tonight.

"When in Rome, do the Romans."
-- Varla Jean Merman, on That's Kentertainment.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
-- Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"
-- Fred "Rerun" Berry, 1951-2003

"I've gotten really high in my life, but I've never gotten so high that I had sex with a guy."
-- Ozzy Osbourne, on the Howard Stern Show as quoted by the New York Blade.

"O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about."
-- Unknown, The Hokey Pokey, as if written by William Shakespeare.

"Gay liberation should not be a license to be a perpetual adolescent. If you deny yourself commitment, then what can you do with your life?"
-- Harvey Fierstein as quoted on Famous Figures Talk Gay

"The most gentle people in the world are macho males, people who are confident in their masculinity and have a feeling of well-being in themselves. They don't have to kick in doors, mistreat women, or make fun of gays."
-- Clint Eastwood as quoted on Famous Figures Talk Gay

"Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light."
-- Dorothy Thompson

"The beams are coming directly at you, and the side of the boat is disappearing. They're ripping up steel, glass, chairs. People were falling. At one point I was in a pile, and I just got up and kept running. It kept coming and coming. If you didn't keep running, you were dead."
-- Robert Carroll, a passenger on the Staten Island ferry yesterday, in The New York Times.

"It's like putting your dick on a chopping block with the knowledge that no one is going to chop it off... The less people expect of you as a personality, the more convincing you can be at whatever you're trying to put across. Simple, really."
-- Mel Gibson, on acting.

"To me that's the great secret of anything, whether it's performing or talking or making love: sincerity. Somehow that quality conveys to an audience and wins them over."
-- Dai Vernon, Magician in the Granddaddy of Illusion by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr.

"Never face the facts!"
-- Ruth Gordon

"This prize gives me energy to pursue my combat for a better future."
-- Shirin Ebadi, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for her human
rights work in Iran.

"If people are violating the law by doing drugs: they ought to be accused, and they ought to be convicted, and they ought to be sent up."
-- Rush Limbaugh, as quoted in 1995.

"People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you
figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you
have expressed outwardly or inwardly.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance
and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem
like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to
be.
Then, without any wrong doing on your part or an inconvenient time, this person
will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and
force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their
work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to
move on.
When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come
to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you
laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you
an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it! It is real! But...only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build
upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the
lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use
in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant."
-- Brian A. Chalker

"All of us in the Siegfried & Roy family are deeply saddened by Roy's injury at last Friday's performance. Roy remains in stable but critical condition at University Medical Center in Las Vegas... For more than four decades, I have had the great privilege of standing at the side of this remarkable man, and I will continue to do so during this very challenging time. We are grateful and overwhelmed with the tremendous support we have received from around the world, and ask for your continued prayers and reflections."
-- Siegfried Fischenbacher, on the Siegfried and Roy website.

"I am their stepfather, their guru. I am their guide through the world."
-- Roy Horn, discussing his white tigers in a 1999 Vanity Fair article.

"I have doubts. The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side; that causes me the greatest problems. So I struggle with the blood evidence."
-- Robert Kardashian, 1944- 2003, interview with ABC news in 1996 regarding his doubts about the innocence of O.J. Simpson.

"An amazing thing happens when we slow down. We start to get flashes of
inspiration. We reach a new level of understanding and even wisdom. In a
quiet moment we can get an intuitive insight that can change our entire
life and the lives of the people around us in incredibly positive ways.
And those changes can last a lifetime.
Living more simply will make it possible to create those quiet moments.
Out of those quiet moments miracles happen. Be open to them.
-- Elaine St. James

"It's a point of pride with me. You'll always see my own butt."
-- Ben Affleck, eonline.

"I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it... [I wish I could have an experience] like Hitler at Nuremberg stadium. And have all those people scream at you and just being total agreement whatever you say."
-- Arnold Schwartzenegger, 1975 interview with Pumping Iron director George Butler.

"We don't allow our dancers to use self-tanner... That stuff can rub off on you. You don't want any kind of self-tanner or glitter on your suit when you go home to your wife or girlfriend."
-- Lonnie Hanover, spokeswoman for Scores West, the soon-to-open topless establishment on 28th Street and 10th Avenue, explaining to Page Six the reason why there is a tanning booth backstage.

"It almost became a joke... Oh, Stan Burns — still working on that book?"
-- Todd Stockman, in Puppet in Lap, and Audience in His Palm by Dan Barry in today's The New York Times.

"Clutter is one of the tell tale signs that somebody is not in control of their life."
-- Kyan Douglas, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
-- Gordon Jump, 1932-2002 as Mr. Carlson on WKRP in Cincinatti as recalled by Guylaine Cadorette of Hollywood.com.

"I really want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity... [And now] I'm just going to slip away."
-- Elia Kazan, 1909-2003, on accepting his Special Oscar in 1999, as recollected by e-online.

"I'm no longer a superstar... Now I'm working on being a quasar, because stars wear out. Quasars go on forever."
-- Donald O'Connor, 1925-2003, as quoted in 1994, by The New York Times.

"Stedman and I have a great relationship that allows me to be me in the fullest sense, with no expectations of wifedom and all that would mean... People look at me and think, 'She must be unhappy, something must be missing,' but that's because they're looking at my life from their perspective."
-- Oprah Winfrey, TV Guide

"When our memories outweigh our dreams, we have grown old."
-- William Jefferson Clinton

"I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me."
-- John Lennon

"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."
-- Sir Winston Churchill

"It beats watching `Friends' or reruns on TV."
-- William Jefferson Clinton, on the California governor's recall election in The New York Times.

"I do think that this administration did a miserable job of planning in a post-Saddam Iraq."
-- Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska in the Seattle Times, September 6, 2003.

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."
-- William Faulkner

"The advantage is that you get a nice table [at a restaurant]. But the disadvantage is that it's like being out in the sun. It feels warm and you get a nice tan--but if you're out there too long, it can kill you. The real joy is in the work, the trap is in the celebrity."
-- John Ritter, 1948-2003

"I am not obsessed with death — I'm obsessed with living. The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is about."
-- Johnny Cash, 1932-2003.

"It seemed as if two great tides emanated in response to the tragedy of that Tuesday. One was a sense of generosity, a deep compassion that expressed itself in immediate acts of cooperation and support. The other was a sense of patriotism, a strong consciousness of our American identity. When those two tides overlapped, as they often did in the months after 9/11, the result was impressive and profoundly moving. But we have also seen, in the past two years, a regrettable narrowing of our idea of patriotism. It has become, for some people in some ways, a more brittle expression of national sentiment — a blind statement of faith that does more to divide Americans from one another than to join them together."
-- Editorial, The New York Times

"Two, four, six, eight. Sodomy is super great."
-- Demonstrators outside the Harvey Milk School for Gay and Lesbian Youth in New York City, on opening day, yesterday.

"In 'Grease' I weighed 165. Today, 211. That's like having a baby."
-- John Travolta, as quoted by Cindy Adams in today's Post.

"How much wood can a woodchuck chuck...?"
-- Unknown

"The life of a heterosexual is a sick and boring life."
-- Edith Massey in John Waters' Female Trouble

"They're obsessed about maintaining control and not internationalizing it because they don't want to share any kind of command... They're losing control trying to hang on to total control... They have a view and a vision about controlling and taking over the Middle East, democratizing Iraq, doing things that many people with a lot more experience and a whole lot more humility have said, 'We need to be cautious and be careful'... This is a prime example of an administration that has really become so arrogant that they will not hear competing points of view. They will not listen."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, during a speech to the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, September 2, 2003.

"Push aside those that whisper, 'Never'."
-- Boy George

"But years back the pains of existence made me realize happiness is a battle. You have to fight for happiness. You just plain simply absolutely have to get up each morning and be grateful."
-- Cindy Adams

"Well done is better than well said."
-- Ben Franklin

"What transpired in the White House? I know a little bit about how White Houses work. I know somebody picked up a phone, somebody got on a computer, somebody got an e-mail, somebody called for a meeting. Somebody in that White House, probably under instructions from somebody further up the chain, told the EPA: 'Don't tell the people of New York the truth.' And I want to know who that is..."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, as quoted by Voice of America news, on the topic of air quality reports near Ground Zero after the 9/11 attack.

"I never lived my life to be the governor of California."
-- Arnold Schwartzenegger, to KFBK's Mark Williams, regarding a Oui Magazine Interview published in August 1977 and quoted in the Sacramento Bee.

"I get laid on purpose. I can't sleep before a competition and I'm up all night, anyway, so instead of staring at the ceiling I figure I might as well find somebody and fuck." [In fact, at the 1972 Mr. Olympia contest], "we had girls backstage giving head, then all of us went out and I won. It didn't bother me at all; in fact, I went out there feeling like King Kong."
-- Arnold Schwartzenegger, (see below).

"Men shouldn't feel like fags just because they want to have nice-looking bodies...Gay people are fighting the same kind of stereotyping that bodybuilders are: People have certain misconceptions about them just as they do about us. Well, I have absolutely no hang-ups about the fag business..."
-- Arnold Schwartzenegger, (see credit below).

"Well, that depends on what you mean by disproportionate. The [penis] isn't a muscle, so it doesn't grow in relation to the shoulders, say, or the pectorals. You can't make it bigger through exercise, that's for sure... women have told me they're curious about its size--you know, outgoing chicks who're just trying to be outrageous or horny. I hear all kind of lines, including 'Oh, you're hurting me; you're so big.' But it means nothing. Bodybuilders' cocks are the same size as everyone else's."
-- Arnold Schwartzenegger, in Oui Magazine in 1977, to interviewer Peter Manso, when asked if his penis was disproportionate to the rest of his body. From TheSmokingGun.com

"And I Quote" will be offline for about a week.

As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, do it.
-- Fortune Cookie

"Any man can have the body of a 21-year-old...as long as he buys him a
few drinks first."
-- Unknown

"Morning came startlingly. Many New Yorkers woke to the happy hum of electrical appliances returning to life. Avenues were deserted and sun-baked, like boulevards in a medium-sized Southwestern city. But as the day wore on, normal life resumed, like the power. The city jerked back into the rhythms of a late-summer Friday. The weekend loomed, this time on too little sleep."
-- Janny Scott, The New York Times

"Drink em while they're still cold!"
-- Mark Potter, Bartender, at the Electric Banana Bar during the Blackout of 2003, as quoted on 1010WINS.

"Many of today's problems in Iraq can be traced to the Bush administration's tendency to credit what it wants to believe rather than more realistic accounts. It exaggerated the evidence on Iraqi unconventional weapons and links with Al Qaeda, underestimated the potential for chaos in a country that had endured years of war, sanctions and dictatorship, and misjudged the patience of the Iraqi people for putting up with postwar disruptions and an occupying army. All those delusions find uncanny echoes in the 100-day report... Future White House reports should describe that world, not wishful fantasies."
-- Editorial, White House Fantasies on Iraq, The New York Times.

"The most telling sign that the Internet is no longer the cool American frontier? Blogs, which sprang up to sass the establishment, have been overrun by the establishment... In a lame attempt to be hip, pols are posting soggy, foggy, bloggy musings on the Internet. Inspired by Howard Dean's success in fund-raising and mobilizing on the Web, candidates are crowding into the blogosphere — spewing out canned meanderings in a genre invented by unstructured exhibitionists."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

"I mentioned the feeling many have that something basic has gone
wrong. Whatever it is, I think it has a lot to do with the way we seek
the truth and try in good faith to use facts as the basis for debates
about our future -- allowing for the unavoidable tendency we all have
to get swept up in our enthusiasms.

That last point is worth highlighting. Robust debate in a democracy
will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of
faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself
on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a
systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic
ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic
honesty.

Unfortunately, I think it is no longer possible to avoid the
conclusion that what the country is dealing with in the Bush
Presidency is the latter. That is really the nub of the problem --
the common source for most of the false impressions that have been
frustrating the normal and healthy workings of our democracy."

-- Al Gore, in a speech for MoveOn.org

"I never wanted to be a star, I just wanted to get work."
-- Gregory Hines, 1946 - 2003.

"Gays are the only people left who want to get married."
-- Bill Maher

"My dentist made all the difference in my confidence. At the age where everything is falling or fading, I know that my teeth are just dazzling."
-- Kathie Lee Gifford

"Smile when you are ready."
-- Fortune Cookie

"The rat infestation is very significant, and Mayor Bloomberg is not taking it as serious as he should be."
-- Christine Quinn, Councilwoman

"Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it."
-- Joseph Conrad

"Please! Don't make me think!"
-- Carolyn Collins Stoddard, as played by Nancy Barrett, on Dark Shadows.

"Revenge is a killer. Depression, unhappiness, resentment, anger, they're robbers. We have to bar the door of our thought against them. These are evils. They will rob you of joy. Joy is aliveness. It's vitality, vigor, it's a tonic. It's a life force. It's healing. Tell yourself that this day is a gift."
-- Cindy Adams

"Boxers are hot, and by boxers I mean guys who box, not the underwear. So get rid of em!"
-- Carson Kressley, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, on Bravo.

'What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It's for the superfluous we sweat."
-- Seneca, Roman Playwrite