"No matter. At times such as the present, when politicians and well-connected interest groups are attempting to stampede the public into acquiescing quietly as it is being plundered mercilessly, everybody with any political clout is a potential looter. Come one, come all."

"...the emergency policies the government is currently concocting will certainly have extensive ramifications, many of them unanticipated, for years to come. The encouragement to moral hazard now being given to financial institutions promises to make them more reckless than the biggest plunger in Las Vegas. After all, any profit will go into their pockets, but any big losses, they will reasonably expect, will be sloughed off onto the taxpayers. Yes, indeed, that image shimmering on the horizon is Casino Capitalism. Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and the rest of these statist saviors are making a mighty contribution to this country’s economic ruin."

"To deflate the Taliban ascendancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the vast majority of U.S. and allied forces should be withdrawn from Afghanistan, leaving only a small contingent of clandestine Special Forces and Predators to take advantage of any window of opportunity, should bin Laden or any other leadership targets be located. However, most of the U.S. effort should be reoriented to the same policy that has reduced violence in Iraq: paying off your enemies not to fight you."

"The economy will not magically improve and the violence will not suddenly subside. To the contrary, the economy will get worse before it gets better, millions of bitter people made even more hateful by the disgusting and violence-inciting campaign conducted by the McCain-Rovian gang of political cutthroats will blame the new president for their plight."

"Human worth as maximized by dollars: too big to fail. Human worth as affirmed by humanistic values: too small to matter."

"It’s enough that Israel is now the Fourth Reich, a term aptly selected after Israeli deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai warned Palestinians in Gaza of a holocaust. Humanitarian goods and medical supplies are not allowed in; Palestinian university students cannot get visas to pursue their education abroad; Jewish settlers regularly stone Palestinian children on their way to school; and on and on."

“All Muslims are considered terrorists until proven innocent,” said Haroon Saley wryly. His comment rings true when one considers the numerous wrongful arrests and harassment of South African Muslims abroad. We can expect more Islamophobic incidents such as these unless the issue is taken seriously by the government and Muslim leaders of this country."

"...Arab Americans' deep dissatisfaction with the domestic and foreign policy performance of the Bush Administration is resulting in a shift in identification away from the GOP and toward the Democratic Party. For Arab Americans this trend began earlier, starting in 2002, spurred by the discomfort with the Administration's behavior in the post post-9/11 era. The combination of profiling, negative references toward Islam, and abuses of civil liberties took a toll."