In their words
A selection of quotations from people in recent news stories, big and small
“They came by and said, ‘Get buckets, get hoses, get people.’ So here we are.”
– Spokane Valley resident Bobbi Mazza, one of the volunteers who formed a bucket brigade after hearing from law enforcement officers during the early phases of Thursday’s Valley View fire.
“I think Senator Gramm would be in serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus, although I’m not sure the citizens of Minsk would welcome that.”
– Republican presidential candidate John McCain, joking about a role in his administration for former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a friend and campaign adviser who offended unemployed Michigan residents by saying America is experiencing a “mental recession” and has become a nation of whiners.
“Coming to Spokane is still a vacation.”
– Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau president Harry Sladich, commenting about a 7 percent increase in local hotel room tax collections during 2008, even though the 2007 figures had been boosted by the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
“We might as well live in a country where we’re told how to dress our children, when to feed our children.”
– Rob Farrell, whose wife, Melissa, was cited by police for injury to a child after nine witnesses complained about the way she spanked her 22-month-old daughter while watching a parade in Coeur d’Alene.
“No one has any faith in the Air Force. There’s just a vote of non-confidence for the Air Force, for the people who have handled this.”
– U.S. Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Wash., after the Pentagon announced the bidding process for the next generation of refueling tankers will be taken out of the Air Force’s hands and turned over to the Defense Department.
“I don’t think we can afford it as a region, as a set of taxpayers, as a planet.”
– Land-use attorney Robert Liberty, deputy president of the Metro Council in Portland, reacting to a proposed $4.2 billion bridge replacement across the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver, Wash.
“He’s got to choose between agriculturalists and environmentalists, and I’m not sure he wants to make that choice.”
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, waiting to see if Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer will let farmers withdraw from the Conservation Futures Program without having to repay the payments they have received from the government to keep land out of production.
“Almost anything that a government agency does could potentially result in a lawsuit. If that’s interpreted to mean it’s all privileged, the public could be excluded from almost everything.”
– Former Washington state Rep. Toby Nixon, now president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, speculating about the potential impact of court rulings that have taken a liberal view of what government records can be kept secret.