“We’re the targets. We’re uniting the enemy against us. And there’s terrorism all over the world that there wasn’t before we went into Iraq.”

– Ex-Marine John Murtha, now a pro-military Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, calling for immediate withdrawal of American military personnel from Iraq.

“He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: That cowards cut and run, Marines never do.’

– Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, speaking on the floor of the House about a message received by an Ohio state legislator and military veteran who is one of her constituents.

“We need to get off that plantation mentality to honor a woman who changed America like few Americans could.”

– Bob Hartley, leader of a group that wants the Clayton County Commission in Georgia to rename Tara Blvd., which now commemorates the plantation in the Civil War novel “Gone With the Wind,” after civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died last month.

“Literally, there’s no way to get across the Cascades without delays.”

– Washington Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Ettestvold, warning motorists that repair work at the site of a rock slide on Snoqualmie pass, plus the crush of traffic using Stevens or White passes as an alternative, promise significant delays for anyone planning cross-state Thanksgiving trips by motor vehicle.

“What you see is activists on each side posturing, but the American people aren’t engaged in this debate.”

– Charles Cook, editor of the independent Cook Political Report, writing that the conflict partisans are waging over the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Joseph Alito doesn’t register with the public at large.

“I’m not aware of any pig farms in the area. He might have found a niche.”

– Kootenai County Planning Director Rand Wichman, after property owner Steve Nagel threatened to start the “Makin’ Bacon Ranch” on a 12-acre parcel that the county won’t let him convert to commercial use.

“You can just feel it. It’s palpable. They really don’t want these kids to opt out.”

– Parent Renee Roehl, criticizing Spokane Public Schools officials for being slow to let students know how to keep their names off a list that schools turn over to military recruiters.