As a service for those who stopped listening to US presidents after Clinton, the following is presented for your illumination.
50. "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." --at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002 49. "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." --Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001 48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001 47. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." -- Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001 46. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004 45. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." --at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001 44. "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." --interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006 43. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th." --Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007 42. "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." --as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War 41. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." --discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson in 2003, as quoted by Robertson 40. 3. "I think I was unprepared for war." –on the biggest regret of his presidency, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008 39. "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." --talking to key Republicans about Iraq, as quoted by Bob Woodward 38. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." --presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 37. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." -- Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000 36. "Do you have blacks, too?" --to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001 35. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." --as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002 34. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." --on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina 33. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." -- Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000 32. "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake." --on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006 31. "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000 30. "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." -- Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001 29. "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base." --at the 2000 Al Smith dinner 28. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000 27. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right." -- Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001 26. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 25. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut- in's house and say I love you." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002 24. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it...I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet...I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." --after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004 23. "You forgot Poland." --to Sen. John Kerry during the first presidential debate, after Kerry failed to mention Poland's contributions to the Iraq war coalition, Miami, Fla., Sept. 30, 2004 22. "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." --in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as those present looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008 21. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." --State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false 20. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." -- Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001 19. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." --Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002 18. "So what?" –President Bush, responding to a an ABC News correspondent who pointed out that Al Qaeda wasn't a threat in Iraq until after the U.S. invaded, Dec. 14, 2008 17. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it." --after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004 16. "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." --Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002 15. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." --to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004 14. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003 13. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories ... And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." --Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003 12. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" -- joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004 11. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008 10. "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" -- Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000 9. "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." --on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007 8. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." --Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000 7. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense." --Washington, D.C. April 18, 2006 6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 5. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB- GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 4. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 3. "You work three jobs? ... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." --to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005 2. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 1. "My answer is bring them on." --on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003 http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushquotes/a/dumbbushquotes.htm On Nov 30, 2:28 pm, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > regarding claims about global warming: are they really liars? Or > > > mere bullshitters? > > A bit of both probably. Even the most egregious departures from truth > can, and often are, rationalized. Here's my personal favorite. > > "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the--if he--if > 'is' means is and never has been, that is not--that is one thing. If > it means there is none, that was a completely true statement....Now, > if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual > relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the > present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely > true." > > Chutzpah, ladies and gentlemen, has no limits. > > -Don > > > > On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:58 AM, Alan Wostenberg <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Nov 29, 7:58 am, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > >> We can bleat forever about the nature of truth. I generally prefer a > >> limited notion of truth and honesty against lies and deception. > > > "Truth" says Aristotle, "is saying of what is that it is, and of what > > is not that it is not". A liar, according to Mortimer Adler, is one > > who willfully displaces his ontological predicates: he says of what is > > that it is not, or of what is not that it is. You say people lie and > > deceive about "global warming". The first thing to know about lying is > > that it is not the same as speaking falsehood. The liar knows he's > > lying. This means a) he knows the truth b) he speaks otherwise > > > The the liar, like the honest man, respects the truth. The liar knows > > he is lying. This is in stark contrast to the bullshitter > > (http://tr.im/GcDf). > > Now, regarding claims about global warming: are they really liars? Or > > mere bullshitters? > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > ""Minds Eye"" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
