“I don’t think you can cut state government without cutting jobs. It’s not like we purchase a lot of things. We mostly purchase services.”

– Washington state Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, anticipating the budget-balancing difficulties that will face the Legislature because of an expected $5.1 billion revenue shortfall.

“There’s a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying in to Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hands saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses.”

– Congressman Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., after members of Congress heard pleas for a share of any federal stimulus package from auto executives who traveled to the capital aboard separate, private planes.

“It’s one of the reasons I live in Portland. As far as you can see – as far in front of you and behind – it’s naked people.”

– Nude cyclist Michael “Bobby” Hammond, after a judge ruled that the Oregon city’s annual World Naked Bike Ride created a culture in which riding in the buff is a legitimate form of protest, not the crime for which police tried to cite an unclothed Hammond in June.

“I left my country because it had such a dangerous and evil past. I come to this country, and I find the same bigotry. And it horrifies me.”

– Athens, Ga., resident Brita Barry, who came to the United States from her native Germany in 1970, criticizing anti-gay acts after California voters passed Proposition 8, which amends the state constitution to forbid same-sex marriage.

“Our point of view is that it is not good for our position of winning the hearts and minds of people.”

– Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, discussing civilian deaths that result from American attacks on suspected terrorist sites in western Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.

“You are basically hanging a sign on the door that says this community is closed for expansion for future residents until further notice.”

– Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke, about the possibility of a building moratorium as a consequence of not constructing a new sewage treatment plant for the community.

“We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or, we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives.”

– Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former chief of the U.S. Central Command, predicting the consequences of geopolitical tension that could arise as the world struggles to adapt to climate change.

“It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork.”

– University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston, decrying a rash of racist incidents following this month’s election of Barack Obama.