Too Many TVs

The average American home now has more television sets than people according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.

-- New York Times, November 22, 2006

Ex-KGB

There are no ex-KGB officers, just as there are no ex-German Shepherds.

-- Alexander Nikitin, a former submarine officer accused of treason

The Long War

Yesterday, the Iraq conflict marked its 1,349th day, surpassing the length of World War II and its 1,348 days.

Vacation

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

-- Elbert Hubbard

A Toast!

Enjoy the present hour,
Be thankful for the past,
And neither fear nor wish
Th' approaches of the last.

-- Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

Put That Banner Away

The neoconservatives' moment in the sun may have been cathartic for those Americans who wanted a credo that would echo their self-righteous rage. But it has left America despised and weakened globally, strengthened our enemies, and divided our country. It's time to put the crusaders' banner away.

-- Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, November, 2006

Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran

... [P]repar[ing] to bomb Iran should be a top priority for the movement in the next two years. Make no mistake, President Bush will need to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities before leaving office. We need to pave the way intellectually now and be prepared to defend the action when it comes.

-- American Enterprise Fellow Joshua Muravchik, in the latest edition of Foreign Policy Magazine


I hope this guy got the November 7th memo from the voters.

Guillermo Mota

Regarding drugs in sports, don't you wish that just one guy who got caught would accept responsibility for his actions? Maybe say something like ...

"I have no-one to blame but myself. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept MLB's suspension. I used extremely poor judgment and deserve to be held accountable. To my teammates and the entire Mets organization, I am sorry. I truly regret what I did and hope that you can forgive me. To baseball fans everywhere, I understand that you are disappointed in me, and I don't blame you."

-- NY Mets Reliever Guillermo Mota, 11/1/06, on receiving a 50-game suspension for violating MLB drug policy

Life Is Like A Box Of Congressmen

About $2.6 billion was spent on the 468 House and Senate races. (Scandalized? Don't be. Americans spend that much on chocolate every two months.)

-- George F. Will (Washington Post, November 9, 2006)

Finger Pointing 101

James Baker of the Iraq Study Group is Bush I's go-to guy when W gets in real trouble (as in Florida 2000).

I imagine he sees his mandate as preserving the Bush legacy. That being the case, we now have Rumsfeld as the absent scapegoat for the current situation. Baker & the ISG will come up with a plan (doesn't matter what the plan is); Congress will be quick to endorse it, because otherwise they'd have to come up with their own plan, which would entail responsibility for its efficacy (something they *really* don't want).

Bush then will be able to say that the ISG & Congress have shown him the only politically practical way forward, and if that plan then fails, it won't be his fault, it will be the fault of the ISG & Congress. I'm sure W and his handlers already blame the electorate for being too weak-minded to support his proper plan of staying the course.

Does that secure the Bush legacy? Does it harm the newly-Democrat controlled Congress, or are they protected in the same way as Bush (i.e., if the plan fails, it's the ISG's fault)?

Progress

I do think we'll be able to measure progress. You can measure progress in capacity of Iraqi units. You can measure progress in megawatts of electricity delivered. You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market on behalf of the Iraqi people. There's ways to determine whether or not this government's plans are succeeding.

-- President George W. Bush, June 14, 2006

Survivors

Between 1983 and 2000 there were 568 plane crashes in the United States, with 53,487 people onboard. And 51,207 survived.

-- ABC News Nightline, 11/03/06

Public Opinion

Towering over presidents and [congress] ... public opinion stands out, in the United States, as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it.

-- James Bryce, "The American Commonwealth," 1888; cited in Robert J. Samuelson, "What if We're to Blame?: Public Opinion and Muddled Policies" (Washington post, November 1, 2006)

Backing A Winner

Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.

-- Mark B. Cohen

Two Possible Outcomes

There's two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

-- Enrico Fermi, Nobel Prize winning Italian Physicist (1901-1954)

Vote

The man who can right himself by a vote will seldom resort to a musket.

-- James Fenimore Cooper

Voters Decide Nothing

Voters decide nothing; people who count votes decide everything.

-- Joseph Stalin

Great Thing About Democracy

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.

-- Art Spander

Vote For Someone

You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.

-- Whoopi Goldberg

Candidates

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

-- Jay Leno