{"quotes":[{"text":"The absence of even rough agreement on the facts puts every opinion on equal footing and therefore eliminates the basis for thoughtful compromise. It rewards not those who are right, but those - like the White House press office - who can make their arguments most loudly, most frequently, most obstinately, and with the best backdrop.","author":"Barack Obama","tags":["argument","barack-obama","compromise","media","news","opinion","opinions","politics","press","united-states","white-house"],"id":15416,"author_id":"Barack+Obama"},{"text":"The president has listened to some people, the so-called Vulcans in the White House, the ideologues. But you know, unlike the Vulcans of Star Trek who made the decisions based on logic and fact, these guys make it on ideology. These aren't Vulcans. There are Klingons in the White House. But unlike the real Klingons of Star Trek, these Klingons have never fought a battle of their own. Don't let faux Klingons send real Americans to war.","author":"David Wu","tags":["ideology","klingons","star-trek","vulcans","war","white-house"],"id":68315,"author_id":"David+Wu"},{"text":"When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.","author":"H.L. Mencken","tags":["comprehension","democracy","emotion","government","mob","moron","politics","president","public-office","sense","vote","white-house"],"id":73246,"author_id":"H.L.+Mencken"},{"text":"One might come up with other and kinder distinctions (I shall not be doing so) but the plain fact about the senator from New York is surely that she is a known quantity who has already been in the White House purely as the result of a relationship with a man, and not at all a quixotic outsider who represents the aspirations of an 'out' group, let alone a whole sex or gender.","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["2008","21st-century","bill-clinton","feminism","first-lady-of-the-united-states","hillary-clinton","new-york","politics","united-states","united-states-elections-2008","white-house"],"id":97199,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"Commenting on print journalism at the Commenting on print journalism at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: “Thanks to Obamacare, millions of Americans can visit a doctor’s office and see what a print magazine actually looks like.","author":"Joel McHale","tags":["humor","journalism","president-obama","white-house"],"id":124579,"author_id":"Joel+McHale"},{"text":"VISIONS OF GRANDEURI'm walking through a sheet of glass instead of the door,Flying over a giant candlestick lighting up Central Park,Repeating two courses at Hard Knock's College,And swimming through the Red Sea with silky jelly fish.I'm hopping over an empty row house in Philadelphia,Getting a seventy dollar manicure on a gondola in Venice,Wearing a white pearl necklace stolen from Goodwill,And running my first New York City marathon.I'm discussing the meaning of life with my late cat Charlie.Dating John Doe- the thirty-third chef at the White House,Running non-stop on a broken leg through a bomb-blasted city,And keeping a multi-lingual monkey named Alfredo as my pet.I'm spying on two hundred and twenty-two homegrown terrorists from Iowa,Worshiped by a red-headed gorilla named Salamander,Sleeping with a giant teddy bear dressed in black leather,And wearing hot pink lipstick over a shade of midnight blue.","author":"Giorge Leedy","tags":["blue","bomb","bomb-blast","central-park","gondola","goodwill","gorillas","leather","manicure","midnight","monkey","multilingual","new-york-city","new-york-city-marathon","pearl-necklaces","philadelphia","poetry","terrorists","venice","white-house"],"id":143688,"author_id":"Giorge+Leedy"},{"text":"Inevitably came the time when he angrily repudiated his former paladin Yasser Arafat. In fact, he described him to me as 'the Palestinian blend of Marshal Petaín and Papa Doc.' But the main problem, alas, remained the same. In Edward's moral universe, Arafat could at last be named as a thug and a practitioner of corruption and extortion. But he could only be identified as such to the extent that he was now and at last aligned with an American design. Thus the only truly unpardonable thing about 'The Chairman' was his readiness to appear on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1993. I have real knowledge and memory of this, because George Stephanopoulos—whose father's Orthodox church in Ohio and New York had kept him in touch with what was still a predominantly Christian Arab-American opinion—called me more than once from the White House to help beseech Edward to show up at the event. 'The feedback we get from Arab-American voters is this: If it's such a great idea, why isn't Said signing off on it?' When I called him, Edward was grudging and crabby. 'The old man [Arafat] has no right to sign away land.' Really? Then what had the Algiers deal been all about? How could two states come into being without mutual concessions on territory?","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["1993","arabs","arafat","bill-clinton","christians","corruption","edward-said","extortion","francois-duvalier","george-stephanopoulos","israeli-palestinian-conflict","new-york","ohio","philippe-petain","territory","united-states","vox-populi","white-house","yitzhak-rabin"],"id":170748,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"What led to September 11 is that most decision makers in the White House thought like you. They supported despotic regimes in the Middle East to multiply the profits of oil and arms companies, and armed violence escalated and reached our shores.","author":"Alaa Al Aswany","tags":["9-11","middle-east","united-states","white-house"],"id":190296,"author_id":"Alaa+Al+Aswany"},{"text":"In history, the bleeding from arbitrary beatings, forced breedings, and choked-heatbreathing could almost be withstood by soul-feeding songs sung, or listlessly hummed just to go on.","author":"Kristen Henderson","tags":["barack-obama","jim-crowe","michelle","slavery","songs","south","us-history","white-house"],"id":190829,"author_id":"Kristen+Henderson"},{"text":"I want an avowed atheist in the White House. When time comes to push that button, I want whoever's making the decision to understand that once it's pushed, it's over. Finito. They're not gonna have lunch with Jesus. Won't be deflowering 72 virgins on the great shag carpet of eternity, or reincarnated as a cow. I want someone making that decision who believes life on this Earth isn't just a dress rehearsal for something better -- but the only shot we get.","author":"Quentin R. Bufogle","tags":["72-virgins","atheism","jesus","nuclear-holocaust","reincarnation","religious-dogma","white-house"],"id":256132,"author_id":"Quentin+R.+Bufogle"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":14,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}