"Which one's Cheney?"
-- Jack Edwards, four-year-old son of Senator John Edwards, as exclaimed to his father immediately following the Vice Presidential Debates last week, and quoted on Face the Nation on Sunday.


Image from TimesReporter.com

"I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery."
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004, as quoted in The New York Times obituary.


Image from AllPosters.com

"When a questioner named Linda asked the president to give three bum decisions he had made in office, Mr. Bush took a pass. Lincoln could admit mistakes. J.F.K. could admit mistakes. But W. thinks admitting mistakes is for powder puffs. Of his decision to invade Iraq, he said: "Sometimes in this world you make unpopular decisions because you think they're right." Or you stick to them even after you know they're wrong."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, today.


Image from Amherst College.

"Dear Friends,

By the time you read this, I will have reported to a minimum-security prison in Alderson, West Virginia, to begin serving my five-month sentence.

As I announced in September, although my lawyers remain very confident in the strength of my appeal and will continue to pursue it on my behalf, I have decided to serve my sentence now because I want to put this nightmare behind me as quickly as possible for the good of my family and my company.

While I am away, my updates here will be less frequent, if not altogether impossible. But please know this change is only an unfortunate reflection of my current circumstances, and in no way diminishes my commitment to my life’s work or to the friends, colleagues, customers and supporters who make it possible.

I am overwhelmed that this website has received more than 40 million hits since its creation, and even more so that almost 200,000 supporters have taken the time to write and share their thoughts. As always, I extend my deepest appreciation for the continuing encouragement I have received throughout this ordeal from so many wonderful people.

With your good wishes in my heart, I am looking forward to being back at work in March, and to many brighter days ahead.

Sincerely,
Martha Stewart"

-- Martha Stewart, on her website yesterday.

"President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have an unparalleled ability to insulate themselves from inconvenient facts. They lead a party that controls all three branches of government, and face news media that in some cases are partisan supporters, and in other cases are reluctant to state plainly that officials aren't telling the truth. They also still enjoy the residue of the faith placed in them after 9/11.

"This has allowed them to engage in what Orwell called 'reality control.' In the world according to the Bush administration, our leaders are infallible, and their policies always succeed. If the facts don't fit that assumption, they just deny the facts.

"As a political strategy, reality control has worked very well. But as a strategy for governing, it has led to predictable disaster. When leaders live in an invented reality, they do a bad job of dealing with real reality.

"... The point is that in the real world, as opposed to the political world, ignorance isn't strength. A leader who has the political power to pretend that he's infallible, and uses that power to avoid ever admitting mistakes, eventually makes mistakes so large that they can't be covered up. And that's what's happening to Mr. Bush."

-- Paul Krugman, The New York Times, today.

"The Democrat was more effective, and more on point, in challenging Mr Cheney on rationales for the Iraq war that have proven false...

Mr Cheney parried by attacking, with justification, inconsistencies in the Kerry-Edwards position on Iraq shaped more by politics than conviction... He was right to chide the Kerry-Edwards team for appearing insufficiently appreciative of the allies and Iraqis who have fought alongside US troops...

Debates are partly about momentum, and if Democratic nominee John F Kerry was on the upswing after last week's debate, nothing that happened last night is likely to stop that. If they are also partly about highlighting differences, this debate would have to be judged a success: In style and substance, the vice presidential candidates were about as distinct as two contenders could be."

Editorial, Washington Post, yesterday.

"I get no respect. I bought a cemetery plot. The guy said, 'There goes the neighborhood.'"
-- Rodney Dangerfield, 1921-2004, as the joke of the day on Rodney.com, on the day of his death, yesterday.


Image from Jim Britt Photography.

"I don't have the same view of the world as Dick Cheney and that's a good thing, that's not a bad thing."
-- Senator John Edwards, to a Cleveland area audience of supporters, prior to the Vice Presidential Debate, as quoted by Reuters.


Image from eVote.com

"I've been blessed with a remarkable career, and I have so many favorite roles, but I've resigned myself to the fact that 'Psycho' will be in the headlines of my obituary."
-- Janet Leigh, 1927-2004, to Zap2It.com in a 2001 interview.


Image from Zap2It.com

"We have substantially abandoned the war against terrorism. There was an unprecedented outpouring of support after 9/11, and we have wasted away all that support. We are the most unpopular country in the world. Even friends have turned away."
-- President Jimmy Carter, as quoted by Virus Head.


Image from Japan Today.

"I've worked out of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narratives. And those no's force me to a yes. I have white background. I have the person I am interested in and the thing that happens between us."
Richard Avedon, photographer, 1923-2004.


Image from SergeCohen.com

"What pleased me about the debate last night was that we had an opportunity finally to be able to stand up in front of Americans as two people -- no 30-second advertisements, no distortions -- and talk about the truth to the American people... I do have a better plan to defend America. I will fight and hunt down and kill the terrorists wherever they are and I'm going to provide America with the ability to do it."
-- Senator John Kerry


Image from AP

"I dont lie, because I'm not scared of anybody; the only time people lie is when they're scared; Therefore, I dont lie."
-- John Gotti

"Let’s start with 'Heinz.' By retaining her dead husband’s name ­there is no genteel way to put this­ she is publicly, subliminally cuckolding Kerry with the power of another man, ­a dead Republican man, at that. Add to that the fact that her first husband was (as she is herself now) vastly more wealthy than her second husband. Throw into all of this her penchant for black, a color that no woman wears in the heartland, and you have a recipe for just what Kerry is struggling with now: charges of elitism, unstable family relationships, and an unmanned candidate.

"Hillary Rodham Clinton merely insisted on using 'Rodham' as part of her married name; Heinz Kerry is insisting on the primacy of another man. She could, though, have spoken about what she admires in her husband; she could have spoken about her own work in terms of service, family, and community. All those are ways of being oneself while still showing deference to women voters who are not wealthy and multilingual. I am a feminist, but I still believe that a candidate’s spouse, male or female, needs to understand something that Republicans get now but Democrats still don’t: It is not about them. If you are a president’s wife ­or husband ­your life and imagery do not belong just to you. For the duration, you belong to us, and you need to reflect and respect our own aspirations and dreams."
-- Naomi Wolf, Female Trouble, New York Magazine.


Image from ZDF.de

"After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

"The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair

"The Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections, all of them held under contentious, troubled or dangerous conditions. When I describe these activities, either in the United States or in foreign forums, the almost inevitable questions are: 'Why don't you observe the election in Florida?' and 'How do you explain the serious problems with elections there?'

"The answer to the first question is that we can monitor only about five elections each year, and meeting crucial needs in other nations is our top priority. (Our most recent ones were in Venezuela and Indonesia, and the next will be in Mozambique.) A partial answer to the other question is that some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida.

"The most significant of these requirements are:

• A nonpartisan electoral commission or a trusted and nonpartisan official who will be responsible for organizing and conducting the electoral process before, during and after the actual voting takes place. Although rarely perfect in their objectivity, such top administrators are at least subject to public scrutiny and responsible for the integrity of their decisions. Florida voting officials have proved to be highly partisan, brazenly violating a basic need for an unbiased and universally trusted authority to manage all elements of the electoral process.

• Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy. Modern technology is already in use that makes electronic voting possible, with accurate and almost immediate tabulation and with paper ballot printouts so all voters can have confidence in the integrity of the process. There is no reason these proven techniques, used overseas and in some U.S. states, could not be used in Florida.

"It was obvious that in 2000 these basic standards were not met in Florida, and there are disturbing signs that once again, as we prepare for a presidential election, some of the state's leading officials hold strong political biases that prevent necessary reforms.

"Four years ago, the top election official, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee. The same strong bias has become evident in her successor, Glenda Hood, who was a highly partisan elector for George W. Bush in 2000. Several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000, and a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.

"The top election official has also played a leading role in qualifying Ralph Nader as a candidate, knowing that two-thirds of his votes in the previous election came at the expense of Al Gore. She ordered Nader's name be included on absentee ballots even before the state Supreme Court ruled on the controversial issue.

"Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future.

"It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy. With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida."

-- President Jimmy Carter, Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote, Washington Post, yesterday.


Image from JohnWorldPeace.com

"Gay people run for members of Congress. Gay people served beside me in Vietnam... Gay people have served in the military for years. For years, they've served in the military. I know this...

This is what's important: I want an America in which people are loved and respected and not an America which has outcasts and discrimination and different layers of being an American or a human being. People are who they are, and America's greatness is that we honor that and can respect it.

I think, you know, and I've said this before, I think marriage raises a different issue in the minds of a lot of people because of its deep religious foundations and institutional structure as the oldest institution in the world.

It is the oldest institution in the world ­ older than country, older than our form of government, older than most forms of government. And people view it differently.

What's important to me is not the terminology or the status; what's important to me are the rights. The rights. That you shouldn't be discriminated against in your right to visit a partner in the hospital. You shouldn't be discriminated against in your right to leave property to somebody, if that's what you want. You shouldn't be discriminated against if you have a civil union relationship that affords you the same rights.

Now I think that's a huge step. There's never been a candidate for president who has stood up and said I think we should fight for those things. And you've got to progress. Even that, I take huge hits for.

And you know, I stood up on the floor of the Senate and voted against DOMA because I thought it was gay bashing on the floor of the United States Senate. I was one of 14 votes. The only person running for reelection who did that.

So I'm not going to take a second seat to anybody in my willingness to fight for what I think is right. But I do think you have to take things step by step, in a reasonable way, so you can achieve some progress and not go backwards."

-- Senator John Kerry, as quoted in the New York Blade.


Image from First Coast News.

"We would be much safer today if President Bush had kept his focus on al-Qaida, rather than diverting crucial resources from the war on terror in Afghanistan to a war of choice in Iraq... This war has been a grotesque mistake that has diminished our reputation in the world and has not made America safer."
-- Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, (D-California) Democratic Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, in a radio address yesterday.


Image from House Democrats.

"I'm trying to find the correct name for it... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain, if one ever looks at me like that I'm going to kill him and tell God he died."
-- Jimmy Swaggart


Image from Love Prong

"Mr. Bush claims that Mr. Kerry's plan to secure and rebuild Iraq is 'exactly what we're currently doing.' No, it isn't. It's only what Mr. Bush is currently saying. And we have 18 months of his administration's deeds to contrast with his words."
-- Paul Krugman, in an op-ed piece titled Let's Get Real, The New York Times.


Image from the Harvard Book Store.

"Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
--President George W. Bush, as quoted by Reuters.


Image from PBS.

"When internationally respected Islamic personalities like Yusuf Islam [Cat Stevens]and Professor Tariq Ramadan are denied entry to the United States, it sends the disturbing message that even moderate and mainstream Muslims will now be treated like terrorists."
-- Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.


Image from Encore Music.

"Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell. But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."
-- Senator John Kerry at New York University, yesterday.

Image from the BBC.

"Mr. Kerry has suffered recently in the polls primarily because of his reluctance to put his authentic self on display. He's run a cautious, soulless campaign so far, saying only the things he thinks he should, and shadow boxing instead of really mixing it up, as if he were afraid, as Bonnie Raitt once memorably sang, 'to throw a punch that might land.'... Mr. Kerry has only a few weeks to turn things around. Nearly everyone who thinks the Bush administration has been a disaster for the United States is rooting for him. Sort of. More precisely, they are rooting for Mr. Bush to lose. And this, I think, is Mr. Kerry's fundamental problem... He was selected by Democratic voters because they thought he could beat the president. But he has yet to exhibit the warmth or political savvy necessary to fully energize potential supporters and achieve that victory. An overly cerebral campaign fronted by a candidate too inhibited to blow the whistle on the insanity surrounding us is a big-time recipe for defeat... John Kerry needs to make a stronger emotional connection with voters, and he won't be able to do that without revealing more of what he truly feels and believes - in other words, more of himself... Voters may want change, but they don't want to step into the unknown. The race is still close enough for Mr. Kerry to prevail, and there are debates coming up. But time is short."
-- Bob Herbert in an op-ed piece titled Waiting for the Candidate to Emerge in The New York Times.

"I wouldn't trade any of my experiences for anything in the world. I'm very happy with who I am, and where I've ended up and I wouldn't change one thing. Because if you change one thing in the past, everything else is different."
-- Macaulay Culkin, on the subject of his teen years, as quoted on AllMoviePortal.com.


Image from Now Toronto.

"See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time."
-- Robin Williams

"I'd like to address this to the Undecideds: I'm on to you. You may be fooling everyone else with your little "undecided" act, but you're not fooling me. You know perfectly well whom you're voting for. The only reason you say you're undecided is that it's a cheap ploy to get attention...
The truth is, Undecideds, you're getting on our nerves. We Decideds hate all the attention you're getting and that you're jerking us around. Anyone who can't make up his or her mind at this point in the campaign should forget about the election entirely, buy a pint of ice cream and get into bed... We'd love to tell you to take a hike, but we're afraid to alienate you. If we really had any brains, we wouldn't spend another second on you, but on the people who can truly make a difference: the "unlikely" voters. And there are millions more of them than there are of you."
-- Larry David, in an Op Ed piece titled Are You Undecided? Or Not? in The New York Times.

"And I will miss all of my pets - my two beloved, fun-loving dogs, my seven lively cats, my canaries, my horses and even my chickens. It's odd what becomes of immense importance when one realizes one's freedom is about to be curtailed."
-- Martha Stewart


Image from Digital Journal.

"President Bush's paramount problem with his National Guard years is not that he took shortcuts in 1972. The problem is that he still refuses to come clean about it... What worries me... is the lack of honesty today about that past - and the way Mr. Bush is hurling stones without the self-awareness to realize that he's living in a glass house."
-- Nicholas D. Kristof, in an op-ed piece titled Mr. Bush's Glass House, The New York Times

"Osama Bin Laden is saying exactly what the enemies of the western empires said through the 20th century: The price of your occupation, the price of your empire in our world, is terror. The Islamic terrorists of 9/11 were over here because we were over there. We took sides in a religious civil war, their war, and they want us out of that war. The 15 hijackers from Saudi Arabia did not fly into the World Trade Center to protest the Bill of Rights. They want us off sacred Saudi soil and out of the Middle East."
-- Patrick J. Buchanan, Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency.


Photo by Hugh Scott Photography.

"I think he is a bully, and like all bullies, he’s a coward when confronted with a force that he’s fearful of. His reactions to the extravagant and unbelievably selfish wish list of the wealthy interest groups that put him in the White House are obsequious. The degree of obsequiousness that is involved in saying ‘yes, yes, yes, yes,’ to whatever these people want, no matter the damage and harm done to the nation as a whole ­ that can come only from genuine moral cowardice.”
-- Vice President Al Gore, regarding President George W. Bush, in his interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker.

"What good is sitting alone in your room? Come, hear the music play. Life is a cabaret old chum. Come to the cabaret..."
--Fred Ebb, lyricist, circa 1928-2004.


Image from WNET.

"Three years after an unthinkable Tuesday morning of a sunny New York September, it is today plain that we are living through an extraordinarily epochal moment in the world's history, one that scholars of the future will view as having marked a great eruption in tide and time..."
-- Editorial, Facing the truth three years later, New York Daily News.


Image from Raft.org

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
-- Benjamin Franklin


Photo from Columbia University

"Use what you got to get what you want..."
--Anonymous, submitted by Lady Donothing

"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


"Dick Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line."
-- Senator John Edwards

"Never try to teach a pig to sing....it wastes
your time and annoys the pig."
-- Anonymous

"... On Labor Day, summer seems preposterously short, just a daydream, really. It's a day when we can almost admit that autumn will feel welcome, bringing a resurgence in the normal rhythms of life. Labor Day isn't a holiday that most Americans take very seriously, unless they come from union families. It's a day off just as the children start school - a quiet echo of the Fourth of July - and that's about it. But even a holiday as transitional and as muted as this one still creates in many Americans a feeling of having the whole country in view at once... In a way, that is what these civic holidays are meant to do - to create a moment of self-awareness, not as individuals but as a nation, to get a glimpse of who we are and where we are at this moment. The political campaigns encourage us to look up from the America in which we actually live to the Americas the candidates want us to imagine and believe in. Judging which version is closer to reality is very much what elections are all about..."
--Editorial, From Now Until Then, The New York Times.


Image from Class Brain.

"Regrets?... When everything is said and done I would not swap anything I have either said or done. If you look back, you only fall down the stairs."
-- Rudolf Nureyev.


Photo from Lukart.

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting: 'Holy shit! What a ride!'"
--Anonymous

"We've had insults, we've had anger from Republicans. And I'll tell you why. Because they can't come to you and talk to you about having created jobs since they've lost them. They can't come to you and talk to you about creating health care since 5 million Americans have lost it... Their own labor secretary talks about exporting jobs overseas. They can't talk about their record because it is a record of failure. And so all they do is attack."
-- Senator John Kerry


Image from UC Berkely Graduate School of Journalism

"You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform, then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time."
-- Patrick Guerriero, Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans.

"Maybe he'll change his mind about gay marriage... He's certainly not going to leave feeling more right-wing. Making people laugh is the first step to getting them to listen."
-- John Waters, when Page Six told him that George and Laura Bush were slated to catch a performance of Hairspray.

Are you kidding? We've got two men singing a love song to each other. The Republicans don't want to see that."
-- John Waters, discussing his hit show Hairspray on Broadway, and it's projected business during the Republican National Convention.


Image from USA Today.

"With the Republican convention in New York this week, a lot of the delegates have been going to Broadway shows. When asked about it, a spokesperson for the Republicans said, 'A lot of us are curious to see what gay people look like."
--Conan O'Brien


Image from The Producers on SDBuzz.

"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