Quote of the Day for 2016-06-28

"Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power."

— Josh Marshall (1969-    ) "I Was Finally Able," Talking Points Memo (January 17, 2006)

Interior of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, after housing refugees of Hurricane Katrina "in lawless squalor" (September 2, 2005) Photograph by James Nielsen

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-16

"You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose."

— Mario Cuomo (1932-2015) Quoted by Fred Barnes in "Meet Mario the Moderate," The New Republic (April 8, 1985)

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton walking away from his airplane as they head to a campaign rally at Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida (October 20, 2008) Photograph by Joe Raedle

Quote of the Day for 2016-05-11

"We are dealing with [veterans], not procedures; with their problems, not ours."

— Omar Bradley (1893-1981) "General Bradley Speaks of Personnel Affairs," Veterans Administration Personnel Bulletin IB-5, Volume 11 (May 31, 1947)

Original caption: "At the Bronx VA Hospital veteran Frank Stoppiello, wounded in the Ashau Valley in Vietnam, gives a cigarette to quadriplegic Andrew Kmetz, an Army veteran, as they wait for treatment. Because of overcrowding, they must share a corner with trash cans." (May 22, 1970) Photo by Co Rentmeester for Life magazine

Quote of the Day for 2016-04-23

"To the end, it may be a government of laws and not of men."

— John Adams (1735-1826) Constitution of Massachusetts, part 1, article 30 (1780)

Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney during a farewell ceremony for Rumsfeld at the Pentagon (December 15, 2006) Photograph by Stefan Zaklin

Quote of the Day for 2015-09-20

"But what experience and historians teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on the principles deduced from it."

— Georg Hegel (1770-1831) Lectures on the Philosophy of History, "Introduction"

George W. Bush and his inner circle, photographed in the Cabinet Room of the White House in December 2001. From left: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, the president, National-Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, C.I.A. director George Tenet (seated), and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld., Photograph by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair.