* “Ronald Reagan never wanted to be a war president, and there were no wars on Reagan’s watch. None. The Gipper was no neocon.”–Patrick J. Buchanan, Creators Syndicate.
* “Despite rampant rumors that the C.I.A. is getting out of the counterterrorism business, nothing could be further from the truth.”–C.I.A. Director John O. Brennan.
* “There’s a level of care in designing systems and sweating the details of their operations that’s missing in the culture of software development. We don’t have the kind of safety culture that is common in fields such as aviation.”–Edward Felten, computer security expert at Princeton University.
* “The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago.”–President Barack Obama.
* “Jeb Bush is not angry; he just wants to change things. … Maybe that is not going to cut it in today’s GOP. But consider whether a demeanor devoid of anger and victimization is more likely to attract an electoral majority. … Maybe in 2016 it will be the candidate without rancor, not the candidate carrying around the grievances of the preceding eight years, who will find favor with voters.”–Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.
* “If Senate Republicans are ideologically opposed to ensuring equal pay for equal work, they are free to vote against passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act.”–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
* “The Senate is up for grabs. Women account for a majority of voters. They tend to favor Democrats. To the extent that women–and in particular, single women–can be motivated to turn out in a midterm election, waving the bloody shirt of unequal pay is smart politics.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.
* “The fear of being soft on drugs, soft on marijuana, soft on crime is woven into the DNA of American politicians, especially Democrats.”–Ethan Nadelman, the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that favors decriminalization of marijuana.
* “The public appears to accept what its elected officials do not: Marijuana is medicine, even the kind that gets you high. The science is indisputable. … Propaganda-based marijuana laws need to be held to the measure of 21st-century evidence-based cannabis science.”–Gregory L. Gerdeman, assistant professor of biology at Eckerd College.
* “Information is what you need to make money short term. Knowledge is the deeper understanding of how things work.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “The recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans and it also looks that way in some economic statistics.”–Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen.
* “If we offer the needy nothing but slogans and reprimands–‘Strengthen your family! Get a job! Get an education!’–then our antipoverty programs are a cruel joke, as bankrupt as Marie Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake.'”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.
* “In Europe, Turkey is going to be an important player in the long run. (Turkey) is geographically located in a key area for international commerce between Europe and the Middle East.”–Frank Sanchez, Tampa native and former undersecretary of commerce in the Obama Administration.
* “We do see a draining of resources of traditional public schools in what seems to be a move to privatize education. We can’t keep robbing our children in public schools in the quest to provide other options.”–Linda Kearschner, Florida PTA legislative commission.
* “To allow people to go into a riot while concealing a gun without a permit is the definition of insanity.”–Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
* “How is it I can recruit a nonstop flight between Tampa and Zurich, Switzerland, and I can’t get a nonstop bus between downtown Tampa and the airport?”–TIA CEO Joe Lopano.
* “In the ranking of disinformation, there are lies, there are darned lies, and there are statistics, and I would add to that statistics in the hand of No Tax for Tracks.”–Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch.