This Week In Quotes: Aug 9 – Aug 15

16 Aug, 2013 by John Hawkins

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I’m reminded of the observation recently quoted by, I think, Kevin Williamson: “Totalitarianism does not consist of iron law; it consists of capricious law, because those in power get to decide when it will not apply.” — Ace

If white liberals are so concerned about black votes counting, why don’t they ever vote for black representatives in their own congressional districts? Black Republicans are always elected from majority white districts: Gary Franks, J.C. Watts, Tim Scott and Allen West. — Ann Coulter

Last fall when I was on the Romney campaign, we weren’t really allowed to tweet. Well, we could but we couldn’t. Sometimes except certain times. Only if it was a good tweet, but not too good. Never on Tuesdays or after dark. Unless there was a debate. In other words, the tweeting policy was clear as mud.

Because nothing says Voter Engagement like reclusiveness.

I finally gave up trying after I was chastised for tweeting, “Lady smarts > lady parts.” Yes, I cried, because I’m a TOTAL PROFESSIONAL. Seriously though, if I couldn’t win with that tweet, then the whole thing just seemed hopeless. I should’ve known right then that we were going to lose. — Jenny Erikson

Yet this president is not only untroubled by what he’s doing, but open and rather proud. As he tells cheering crowds on his never-ending campaign-style tours: I am going to do X – and I’m not going to wait for Congress. That’s caudillo talk. That’s banana republic stuff. In this country, the president is required to win the consent of Congress first. — Charles Krauthammer

People know what Obamacare is. It’s European, socialist-style type health care and people don’t want it. I mean the real story here is the Democrats in the House and the Senate, the ones who are vulnerable and who want to get reelected, have turned their back on the president. The cynical part of me says, ‘Keep it in place,’ so that we can run on it even more in 2014. — Rence Priebus

My counterpart, Mitch McConnell, said at the the beginning of the presidency of Barack Obama that he had one goal – and that is to defeat Obama and make sure he wasn’t re-elected. And that’s how they legislate in the Senate. It was really bad. And we’re now seven months into this second term of the president’s and they haven’t changed much. It’s been obvious that they’re doing everything they can to make him fail,” Reid said. “And I hope, I hope – and I say this seriously – I hope that’s based on substance and not the fact that he’s African-American. — Harry Reid

Newsrooms have become job graveyards. Employment, which peaked near 60,000, has dropped below 40,000 and is falling, reports the Pew Research Center. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oregonian and Chicago Sun-Times recently announced layoffs. Our audiences and advertisers have fled to the Web or simply left. Newspapers’ revenues from print advertising have declined from $44.9 billion in 2003 to $18.9 billion in 2012, says Pew. Online revenues haven’t filled the gap. In 2012, they were $3.4 billion, about triple their 2003 level. — Robert Samuelson

On its surveys, Pew asks respondents where they got their news the day before. In 2012, 39 percent answered the Web, including social media, up sharply from 2004’s 24 percent, the earliest data. Meanwhile, only 29 percent answered newspapers in 2012, down from 47 percent in 2000. — Robert Samuelson

Strap some conservative-thinking people to a tailpipe for an hour and then they will agree it’s a pollutant! — Arnold Schwarzenegger

Blacks represent 13% of the population yet 55% of all federal prisoners; a startling 54% of all murders committed with guns are murders of blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control. From 1980 to 2008, The Justice Department found blacks were six times more likely than whites to be killed by a gun and seven times more likely to kill with a gun. A Children’s Defense Fund report found over 44,000 blacks have been killed by guns since 1979 more than the total number of blacks lynched from 1882-1968. — Crystal Wright