Old Fogey's Quotes for Friday

"There's an understandable tendency, with this administration, to succumb to a kind of 'outrage fatigue.' Pre-cooked intelligence on Iraq, secret CIA prisons, Abu Ghraib -- the accretion is numbing, and it's easy just to say 'there they go again' and count the months until the Decider heads home to Texas for good. "
Eugene Robinson in the WaPo
Lying About Spying

"These days the real opponents of allowing our 50 laboratories of democracy to step up are conservatives who fear the power grass-roots progressives can wield at the state level."
E. J. Dionne Jr in WaPo about a bill by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) that would sweep away state insurance regulations
States' Rights -- for the Right Ideas

"What we have here is a clandestine surveillance program of enormous size, which is being operated by members of the administration who are subject to no limits or scrutiny beyond what they deem to impose on one another. If the White House had gotten its way, the program would have run secretly until the war on terror ended — that is, forever. "
NYT Editorial
Ever-Expanding Secret

"Given that George W. Bush captured the White House by smearing two opponents ('Ozone Man' Gore and 'Swift Boat' Kerry), and concocting phantom non-issues to frighten naïve voters (same-sex marriage, gun control), it is somehow fitting that his presidency has imploded, not because his opponents stooped to Karl Rove slime tactics, but instead because Mr. Bush's own actions (ideology over reality) have done so much harm to Americans and the world.
Arlie Schardt, Al Gore's national press secretary when he ran for president in 1987-88 in letter to NYT.
The Gloom Over This Presidency (8 Letters)

"For there to be a problem here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software. I don't believe these evil elections people exist."
David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold Election Systems about a potential security risk in their touch-screen voting machines
New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems

"The (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court is virtually a rubber stamp. There's no congressional oversight of its activities. The question then becomes why would the NSA or any other spy agency be hamstrung by such a procedure? The logical conclusion is that there are some requests so flimsy even a lapdog court wouldn't approve them."
The Huntsville (Ala.) Times editorial, as cited in USAToday
Questions await CIA pick