"Chickensh*t is so called ? instead of horse- or bull- or elephant sh*t ? because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously. Chickensh*t can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war."
We've got five more years of this, and after November, all political constraints on Bush and co. will be gone. More chickensh*t, anyone?

To gain a fuller understanding, we must disabuse ourselves of our high school civics lessons where we're led to believe that when people assume political office, or receive bureaucratic appointments, they're somehow a changed person and motivated by the public interest. No such thing happens. When a person becomes a politician or bureaucrat, he's still motivated by self-interest, he's simply in a different market with different restraints. Buyers in that market seek favors and privileges from government. Politicians are suppliers of those favors and privileges - and the prices are campaign contributions and votes.

You say, "What's the grief, Williams? Five dollars won't kill you." Washington is home to thousands of business and labor union lobbyists looking for a leg up here and a handout there. After a while $5 here and $4 there adds up to real money. According to some estimates, restrictions of one kind or another cost the average American family $5,000 to $6,000 a year in higher prices.

townsend even says at one point: "I know I broke the law legally, but the law was broken when it was retrospectively changed. I wonder whether Blunkett (British Home Secretary David Blunkett) changed the law to gather up the names that had been found by the FBI on the Landslide list. It's quite possible he did."

Speaking at the Capitol Hilton before an audience of such skeptics, Kennedy held up what he said was a telegram from his "generous daddy" and read it aloud: "Jack, Don't spend one dime more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide."