| LIST 79 | 11 Quotes About Politics and Government |
1
“Every government is run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed.”
–investigative journalist I.F. Stone
2
“You are more secure buying a book from Amazon than you are uploading your results to a Diebold server.”
–Michael A. Wertheimer, former National Security Agency analyst, referring to electronic voting machines
3
“There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honor.”
–former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
4
“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies”
–John Arbuthnot
5
“A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.”
–H.L. Mencken
6
“[It is a] basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.”
–H.L. Mencken
7
“I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—‘That government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”
–Henry David Thoreau
8
[A]nyone who has spent any amount of time in Washington, DC can attest to this—the grant grazing conservative herd is rife with closeted gay men who sing the praises of Republican ‘family values’ by day and cruise for boy prostitutes at night.”
–Bill Kauffman, America First!
9
“Politicians love the death penalty because it makes a bunch of candy-asses look like tough guys.”
–Tony Fitzpatrick, “Idiot Whistle” (song)
10
“If one were to describe the American Revolution as a seditious conspiracy fomented by a band of extremists, misfits, malcontents, and troublemakers dedicated to the overthrow of recognized authority, one well might be right on the mark.”
–John George and Laird Wilcox
11
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face—forever…”
–George Orwell 
Bush Family Values
When President Bush's baby brother Neil—of Silverado Savings and Loan infamy—got a divorce, he was grilled by his wife's attorney, Marshall Davis Brown, in early 2003. Copies of the deposition were leaked. Here are some excerpts:
Bush: “I had sexual intercourse with perhaps three or four, I don't remember the exact number, women, at different times. In Thailand once, I have a pretty clear recollection that there was one time in Thailand and in Hong Kong.”
Brown: “And you were married to Mrs. Bush?”
Bush: “Yes.”
Brown: “Is that where you caught the venereal diseases?”
Bush: “No.”
Brown: “Where did you catch those?”
Bush: “Diseases plural? I didn't catch…”
Brown: “Well, I'm sorry. How — how many venereal diseases do you suffer from?”
Bush: “I've had one venereal disease.”
Brown: “Which was?” Bush: “Herpes.”
….
Brown: “Did you pay them for that sex?”
Bush: “No, I did not.”
Brown: “Pick them up in a sushi house?”
Bush: “No…. My recollection is, where I can recall, they came to my room.”
Brown: “Do you know the name of that hotel? I may go to Thailand sometime.”
….
Brown: “Mr. Bush, you have to admit that it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her.”
Bush: “It was very unusual.”
Brown: “Were they prostitutes?”
Bush: “I don't—I don't know.”