In their words …
“What a beautiful spot to put a mine. We can go boating afterwards.”
— Executive Director Mike Peterson of The Lands Council, which joined a coalition of environmental groups, calling itself Mine All Mine Inc., to protest an 1872 federal mining law by staking claims on choice lands such as Blackwell Island on Lake Coeur d’Alene
“He will never be on your side. That’s kind of the way the system is designed.”
— Spokane County Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins, to a defendant who had pleaded guilty to a burglary charge, claiming she had no choice because the prosecutor was against her
“They want to finish school, go to work, go on to college, and they believe pregnancy will get in their way.”
— Inner-city sex-education counselor Andrea Aumaitre, saying one reason for a decline in the birthrate among teenagers is that girls are being more assertive about protecting their futures
“This guy took four lives and, unfortunately, we can kill him only once.”
— Steve Groene, during an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s television show where he said he supports the death penalty for Joseph Edward Duncan, the suspect in the killing of two of Groene’s children, his ex-wife and her boyfriend
“It appears clear he’s not waiting for anything or anyone.”
— Duke University law professor Neil Siegel, offering his assessment of whether new Chief Justice John Roberts will ease into his role rather than risk ruffling feathers of his fellow members of the U.S. Supreme Court
“I think you could play ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and the kids are going to dance how they want to dance.”
— Spokane disc jockey Daren Anderson, declining to blame the choice of music for the popularity of sexually suggestive movements at high school dances
“The hardest thing is: What do you call yourself – ‘civilized’?”
— Connecticut social worker Lidia Agramonte, after receiving a civil union license that grants her and her partner the same rights as if they were married
“The enemy has a problem out here – every time he shows up, he gets bombs dropped on his head. … What you’re seeing now is the dissolution of their network.”
— Col. Stephen W. Davis, U.S. Marine commander in Iraq’s western Anbar Province, saying a U.S. offensive in the area is taking its toll on the insurgency