Reflections of great minds on government
1) Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of
Congress.
But I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain
2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity
is like a man standing in a bucket
and trying to lift himself up by the
handle.
-- Winston Churchill
3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of
Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw
4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes to pay off
with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy
5) Democracy must be something more
than two wolves and a
sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from
poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J. Clinton at
Georgetown
U.
(1992)
7) Giving money and power to government is
like giving whiskey and car keys to
teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
8) Government is the great fiction,
through which everybody endeavors to
live
at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up
in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)
10) I don't make jokes.
I just watch the
government and report the facts.
-- Will
Rogers
11) If you think health care is
expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs
when it's free.
-- P.J. O'Rourke
12) If you want government to intervene domestically,
you're a liberal.
If you want government to intervene
overseas,
you're a conservative.
If you want government to intervene
everywhere, you're a moderate.
If you don't want government to
intervene anywhere,
you're an extremist.
-- Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)
13) In general, the art of government
consists
in taking as much money as possible
from one party of the citizens to
give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)
14) Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an
interest in you.
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)
15) No man's life, liberty, or property are safe
while the legislature is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)
16) Talk is cheap-
except when Congress does it.
-- (Unknown)
17) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal,
with a happy appetite at one end
and no responsibility at the other.
Ronald Reagan
18) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the
blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism
is the equal sharing of misery.
-- Winston Churchill
19) The only difference between a
tax man and a taxidermist
is that the taxidermist leaves the
skin.
-- Mark Twain
20) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly
is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
21) There is no distinctly native American criminal class
save Congress.
-- Mark Twain
22) What this country needs are more
unemployed politicians.
-- Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)
______________________________________________
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Posted:
7:59 AM EDT (1159 GMT)
Galloway told CNN that while Saddam's regime shared a "lot of
responsibility" for deaths in Iraq, so too did the policies of Washington and
London.
Galloway, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, called the Senate panel's
investigation the "mother of all smokescreens" used to divert attention from
the "pack of lies" that led to the 2003 invasion.
"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons
of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had
no connection to al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that
Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11, 2001," he told Coleman.
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you
turned out to be wrong. And 100,000 people have paid with their lives -- 1,600
of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies, 15,000 of
them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies."
He added: "Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying
to divert attention from the crimes that you supported."
The Respect MP said he would continue to demand the withdrawal of U.S. and
UK forces from Iraq following his fiery appearance in Washington.
He told CNN the U.S. and British governments were no longer believed in
their statements on Iraq and that their forces could not be part of any
solution there.
Galloway's appearance before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee was the first
by a politician allegedly involved in the oil-for-food corruption scandal.
In a report last week, the subcommittee stated that deposed Iraqi dictator
Saddam granted Galloway vouchers for 20 million barrels of oil between 2000
and 2003.
Galloway strongly disputed that allegation Tuesday.
"I am not now or ever been an oil trader and neither has anyone on my
behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one,
and neither has anybody on my behalf," Galloway testified.
He also said he did not own a company that trades in oil.
"If you had any evidence of that I had ever engaged in any actual oil
transaction, if you had any evidence that anybody ever gave me any money, it
would be before the public and before this (committee today)," Galloway said.
Coleman, a former district attorney, told Galloway before his sworn
testimony that "senior Iraqi officials have confirmed that you, in fact,
received oil allocations and that the documents that identify you as an
allocation recipient are valid."
Galloway challenged that accusation in his opening statement.
"Now, I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in
Washington, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of
justice," he told Coleman.
