The POGO Watercooler » quotes http://pogowatercooler.org Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:01:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 10/28/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/28/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-102809/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/28/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-102809/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:05:37 +0000 bryan http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=455 “But I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure. In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure…There’s still more waste we need to cut. There is still more fights that we need to win. Changing the culture in Washington will take time and sustained effort.”

— President Barack Obama, upon signing the National Defense Authorization Act

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/28/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-102809/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 10/8/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/08/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-10809/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/08/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-10809/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:32:56 +0000 bryan http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=434 “Yet the C-17′s excellence is one of those facts that is indisputably true but irrelevant to the issue at hand, like the assertion that Roman Polanski makes great movies.”

— Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik on the Senate approving a new military budget that includes $2.5 billion  for additional C-17 airlifter planes

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/10/08/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-10809/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 9/17/2009 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/09/17/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-9172009/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/09/17/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-9172009/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:30:01 +0000 bryan http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=412 “Usually, of course, you don’t need to dance around the fact that your policy change will save taxpayers giant sacks of cash. But you do on national security. Saving money there, after all, is pretty much like sending Osama bin Laden a great big check.”

— Ezra Klein at The Washington Post, on the difficulties of curtailing defense spending

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/09/17/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-9172009/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quotes of the Day: 6/8/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/08/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-6809/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/08/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-6809/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:49:51 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=349 “A good IG allows an administrator to sleep at night, and I don’t want to diminish that role in any way.”

– GSA Administrator-designate Martha Johnson, on the relationship she hopes to build with IG Brian Miller

“In an effort to improve the system, we have made it almost unintelligibly complex.”

– Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, recommending simplification of the Pentagon’s contracting rules and processes.

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/08/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-6809/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 6/3/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/03/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-6309/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/03/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-6309/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:29:06 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=344 “When budgets go up like they did, we lose our ability to prioritize. We lose our budget discipline. We lose our analytical capability. We don’t have to do the analysis. And those things are things we should be doing whether budgets are going up or coming down.”

– Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in response to the idea that budget concerns are driving planning decisions

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/06/03/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-6309/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 3/25/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/03/25/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-32509/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/03/25/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-32509/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:31:12 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=311 “When I explained the game of “paper, rock, scissors” to my oldest son many years ago, he argued strenuously that paper can’t beat rock. When I learned the game as a kid, the explanation was that the “paper” is sandpaper and it wears down the rock. Anyone who has paged through reams of conflicting interpretations of the F[ederal] A[cquisition] R[egulation]s knows that paper can wear down anything or anyone.”

– Kent S. Jackson at Aviation Week

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/03/25/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-32509/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 2/11/09 http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/02/11/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-21109/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/02/11/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-21109/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:19:14 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=277 “The word stupid doesn’t adequately describe the situation.”

– An anonymous source referring to DHS security advising an employee to bring a suspicious package containing a dead fish and white powder into department offices

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2009/02/11/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-21109/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quotes of the Day: 12/10/08 http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/10/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-121008/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/10/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-121008/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:11:59 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=188 “On November 5, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with Deputy Governor A regarding positions that ROD BLAGOJEVICH might be able to obtain in exchange for the soon-to-be-vacated seat.  Among the potential positions discussed were Secretary of Health and Human Services and various ambassadorships.  Deputy Governor A noted that the cabinet position of Secretary of Energy is ‘the one that makes the most money.’”

– Criminal complaint filed against Gov. Rod Blagojevich and chief of staff John Harris
“I look at percentage of GDP when I’m trying to determine affordability.”

– Lt. General (Ret.) Michael Dunn, Air Force Association President and CEO, overheard at the Center for American Progress

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/10/watercooler-quotes-of-the-day-121008/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 12/4/08 http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/04/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-12408/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/04/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-12408/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:34:37 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=166 “We need a czar.  And we need czars on top of czars.  Then you need a super czar.  And a czarina.”

– Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, on the impulse in Washington to constantly expand bureacuracies

]]> http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/12/04/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-12408/feed/ 0 Watercooler Quote of the Day: 11/21/08 http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/11/21/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-112108/ http://pogowatercooler.org/2008/11/21/watercooler-quote-of-the-day-112108/#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:08:15 +0000 michael http://blog.pogowatercooler.org/?p=146 “Here in America we are descended in spirit from revolutionaries and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine.”

– President Dwight Eisenhower, 1954

(Hat tip to Sam Smith at the Progressive Review for sending this our way).

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