“But how worthless are all these poor people who are engaged in matters political…” Marcus Aurelius
“The American people may have voted for a divided government. But they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government.” President Obama
“We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear.” New Hampshire Union Leader, front page editorial endorsing Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney
“I think there’s an 85% chance [Herman Cain's] going to be on Dancing with the Stars next season.” Steve Schmidt
“Rather than workable solutions, my party is offering low taxes for the currently rich, high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who knows what and who the hell cares. This isn’t conservatism; it’s a going-out-of-business sale for the baby boom generation.” David Frum
“Washington is a very cozy place to be if you’re a has-been.” Karen Tumulty
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing– after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill
“There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.” Goethe
By the Numbers
33 Seats in the U.S. Senate open in the 2012 election.
40 Percent of all water used in France last year which was used to cool nuclear reactors and waste. (Jeremy Rifkin; NPR)
107 Avoidable injuries to hospital patients due to medical errors in Indiana in 2010. 33 of these were due to foreign objects being left behind in patients after surgery. 14 of these were surgeries on the wrong body part. (Indiana Department of Health; WFYI)
249 Number of terrorist attacks in the EU in 2010. Only three of these were attributable to Islamic extremists. (Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN, 20 November 2011)
3,000 Lobbyists in Washington D.C. fighting Dodd-Frank reforms. 1.3 billion dollars were spent in 2009 and early 2010 alone to fight financial reform and tighter regulations. (Newsweek)
12 Billion Dollars which would be added to the U.S. Treasury by 2014 if the capital gains tax rate was raised to 20% for those earning $250k or more. (Gary Rivlin, Newsweek)
