Quotes about illegal
page 2

Richard Stallman photo

“Dubya has nominated another caveman for a federal appeals court. Refreshingly, the Democratic Party is organizing opposition.
The nominee is quoted as saying that if the choice of a sexual partner were protected by the Constitution, "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia" also would be. He is probably mistaken, legally — but that is unfortunate. All of these acts should be legal as long as no one is coerced. They are illegal only because of prejudice and narrowmindedness.
Some rules might be called for when these acts directly affect other people's interests. For incest, contraception could be mandatory to avoid risk of inbreeding. For prostitution, a license should be required to ensure prostitutes get regular medical check-ups, and they should have training and support in insisting on use of condoms. This will be an advance in public health, compared with the situation today.
For necrophilia, it might be necessary to ask the next of kin for permission if the decedent's will did not authorize it. Necrophilia would be my second choice for what should be done with my corpse, the first being scientific or medical use. Once my dead body is no longer of any use to me, it may as well be of some use to someone. Besides, I often enjoy rhinophytonecrophilia”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

nasal sex with dead plants
Stallman archives (28 June 2003) https://stallman.org/archives/2003-may-aug.html
2000s

Gaurav Sharma (author) photo
Muhammad photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Murray Leinster photo

“It isn’t illegal to buy an artist’s work for peanuts and sell it again at any price one can get. But it is an outrage!”

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Time Tunnel (1964), Chapter 2 (p. 21).

George W. Bush photo
Steve King photo

“If we continue down this path, I assure you it will not take long for our country to crumble. Illegal immigrants utterly disregard our Rule of Law and way of life here in America. They already break our laws by coming illegally so what will stop them from continuing to do so?”

Steve King (1949) US Representative for Iowa

Steve King: Remembering Iowa’s Sarah Root, 21-Year-Old Killed By Illegal Alien http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/24/exclusive-steve-king-remembering-iowas-sarah-root-21-year-old-killed-illegal-alien/ (May 24, 2016)

Hassan Nasrallah photo

“As we see, this is an illegal state; it is a cancerous entity and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be a factor in bringing about a true and just peace in this region. Therefore, we cannot acknowledge the existence of a state called Israel, not even far in the future, as some people have tried to suggest. Time does not cancel the legitimacy of the Palestinian claim.”

Hassan Nasrallah (1960) Secretary General of Hezbollah

On Egyptian television, February 6, 2000
Quote, 2000
Source: Britain Israel Communication & Research Centre http://www.bicom.org.uk/publications/terrorism/s/1870/sheikh-hassan-nasrallah-quotes-from-the-leader-of-hezbollah/

Sharron Angle photo

“Q: Why is it that in all of your commercials you have the image of Latinos? What do you see when you hear, and I quote, "illegal aliens?"
Sharron Angle: I think that you're misinterpreting those commercials. I'm not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence. What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That's the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists; we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don’t know why they're coming. So we have to secure all of our borders and that's what that was about, is border security. Not just our southern border, but our coastal border and our northern border.”

Sharron Angle (1949) Former member of the Nevada Assembly from 1999 to 2007

speaking to Rancho High School's Hispanic Student Union
Jon
Ralston
Video: Angle tells Hispanic kids “I’m not sure those are Latinos” in her ad (!), says really about northern border (!!)
2010-10-17
Las Vegas Sun
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/ralstons-flash/2010/oct/17/video-angle-tells-hispanic-kids-im-not-sure-those-/
2010-10-20
Quinn
Bowman
Terence
Burlij
Angle Caught on Tape Again, Tells Latino Students They 'Look a Little More Asian'
2010-10-19
The Rundown
PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/10/the-morning-line-angle-caught-on-tape-again.html
2010-10-20

Gary Johnson photo

“The root of all evil, if you want to point at it, is politicians that are going to save you and I from terrorists, from illegal immigrants, from drugs. "Elect me, and I'll save you."”

Gary Johnson (1953) American politician, businessman, and 29th Governor of New Mexico

Statement to an Occupy Wall Street protester
YouTube
2011-10-20
http://youtu.be/CmW4uBYyFns
2012-02-24
2011

Albert Hofmann photo
William F. Buckley Jr. photo
Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley photo

“There is nothing illegal in keeping up a tomb; on the contrary, it is a very laudable thing to do.”

Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley (1828–1921) English judge

In re Tyler, Tyler v. Tyler (1891), L. R. 3 C. D. [1891], p. 258.

Muhammad photo
Jeffrey Tucker photo

“Everyone who lives in border areas of the country knows that illegal immigration is a major source of crime and assorted social mayhem.”

Jeffrey Tucker (1963) American writer

Source: "Jack Kemp, American Socialist" by Jeffrey Tucker, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, September 1996, UNZ.org, 2016-05-22 http://www.unz.org/Pub/RothbardRockwellReport-1996sep-00001,

Harry E. Soyster photo

“Experienced military and intelligence professionals know that torture, in addition to being illegal and immoral, is an unreliable means of extracting information from prisoners. Much is being made of former CIA official John Kiriakou's statement that waterboarding "broke" a high-value terrorist involved in the 9/11 plot. There are always those who, whether out of fear or inexperience, rush to push the panic button instead of relying on what we know works best and most reliably in these situations. I would caution those who would rely on this example. It is far from clear that the information obtained from this prisoner through illegal means could not have been obtained through lawful methods. The FBI was getting good intelligence from this prisoner before the CIA took over. And there are numerous examples of cases where relying on information obtained through torture has disastrous consequences. The reality is that use of torture produces inconsistent results that are an unreliable basis for action and policy. The overwhelming consensus of intelligence professionals is that torture produces unreliable information. And the overwhelming consensus of senior military leaders is that resort to torture is dishonorable. Use of such primitive methods actually puts our own troops and our nation at risk.”

Harry E. Soyster (1935) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

"Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency: Torture Produces Unreliable Information" http://web.archive.org/web/20070629145037/http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/torture/2007/12/former-director-of-defense-intelligence.html, Human Rights First (2007-12-11)

Dylan Moran photo
Robert Silverberg photo

“All true enlightenment is illegal at first, within its context.”

Source: A Time of Changes (1971), Chapter 31 (p. 110)

Mick Mulvaney photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Kelli Ward photo
David Cameron photo
Charles Krauthammer photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Bono photo

“To be on foot in the United States is only immoral, not illegal.”

Kyril Bonfiglioli (1928–1985) British art dealer

Source: The Mortdecai Trilogy, Don't Point That Thing At Me (1972), Ch. 14.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
Phil Brooks photo

“I tried. I tried so hard to empathize with all of your weaknesses. I implored every single one of you to just say "no," and all my empathy got was for you to love Jeff Hardy that much more than you already did. But this will not deter me. I will stay the course; I still believe in teaching you people the difference between right and wrong. (Audience chants "Hardy!") Oh, obviously it's gonna be challenging, listening to you people, and by the looks of some of you, it's gonna be a big challenge. But just like any other challenge that's come down the pipe in my lifetime, I'm gonna meet that challenge head on like a man, just like I did last week. Let's take a look. (Recap of Punk's assault on Hardy) See, now I know why you people love Jeff Hardy so much. It's because you are all just like him; and, in turn, Jeff Hardy is just like all of you. The reality is, none of you have the strength to be straight-edge. (Audience resumes chant) You gravitate towards Jeff because it's the easy way out: it's easier to weak like Jeff, because you sure can't be strong like me. Oh, you can boo all you want. I know why you boo, you know why you boo. It's because I tell the truth. And the truth sometimes hurts, doesn't it? For instance, what does it say on your prescription bottle of pills? "Take one every four hours"? Well, don't tell me you people don't gobble four, six, eight at a time like they were Pez. That is drug abuse—I don't do that. I also don't smoke, and those who do are stupid. You gotta be stupid to not listen to the Surgeon General, especially when he prints the warning label on the package of smokes. You gotta be a fool. And we can talk about those funny cigarettes, and you obviously know what I'm talking about because you cheer, and that's utterly sad. That's pathetic. I…I can't even wrap my head around you people cheering, 'cause when you smoke those funny cigarettes, not only is that hazardous to your health, it's also illegal. So those who have taken a puff, not only are you poisoning yourself, you're also breaking the law, so the vast majority of everybody here in this arena is a criminal. I am not a criminal—I never have been, and I never will be. Now let's talk about alcohol. I've saved the best poison for last, see because this is a gateway drug. Don't tell me not a single one of you here has ever said, "I'm gonna go out for one drink," and one leads to two, and two drinks leads to three, and then it's a double of this, and a shot of that, and then your head winds up in the toilet, night in and night out. Congratulations, that is alcoholism. And in my book, if you even take one drink, you're an alcoholic. So I understand why you people love Jeff Hardy so much, I understand why Jeff loves you—it's because you're all weak. Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you deserve better. This entire world deserves better. What you need is a leader. You need a strong leader who's gonna stand up in the face of adversity and just say "no."”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

You need a strong leader that's gonna carry the banner of the World Heavyweight Championship with honor, with pride, respect, dignity, integrity, and class. What you people need is a straight-edge World Heavyweight Champion. You need CM Punk.
August 7, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Donald J. Trump photo
Phillip Abbott Luce photo
Roberto Saviano photo
Vivek Wadhwa photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Our opinion here is that that place has been so deeply concerned in smuggling, that if it wants it is because it has illegally sent away what it ought to have retained for its own consumption.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Lieutenant Governor Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts (November 13, 1808) concerning a petition from the island of Nantucket for food during the American embargo.
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)

Madeleine K. Albright photo
Jesse Ventura photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Donald Trump: Oh, well, if you look at the statistics, of people coming— I didn't say about Mexic— I say the illegal immigrants— if you look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything, coming in illegally into this country, they're mind-boggling. If you go to Fusion, you will see a story about 80% of the women coming in– I mean, you have to take a look at these stories. And you know who owns Fusion? Univision. It was in The Huffington Post. I said, let me get some of these articles because I've heard some horrible things. I deal a lot of talking with people on the border patrol. They're incredible people. They help our country.
Don Lemon: But I want some clarification–
Trump: No, but Don, all you have to do is go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape, and it's unbelievable when you look at what's going on. So all I'm doing is telling the truth.
Lemon: I've read The Washington Post, I read the Fusion, I read The Huffington Post. And that's about women being raped, it's not about criminals coming across the border entering the country.
Trump: Somebody's doing the raping, Don, I mean, you know– I mean, somebody's doing it. You think it's women being raped, well who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping? I mean how can you say such a thing. So, the problem is you have to stop illegal immigration coming across the border. You have to create a strong border. If you don't, we don't have a country.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2015-07-01 The Situation Room TV CNN http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/donald-trump-immigrants-raping-comments/
2010s, 2015

Donald J. Trump photo

“I have a saying: the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal.”

Michael Kinsley (1951) American political journalist, commentator television host

As quoted on Crossfire, CNN, Nov. 15, 1990.

Tom DeLay photo

“If we had those 40 million children that were [aborted] over the last 30 years, we wouldn't need the illegal immigrants to fill the jobs that they are doing today.”

Tom DeLay (1947) American Republican politician

From a speech at the 2007 College Republican National Convention http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFGit_tZDqs in Washington, DC.
2000s

Donald J. Trump photo

“You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely and you're going to bring the country -- and, frankly, the people, because you have some excellent, wonderful people, some fantastic people hat have been here for a long period of time. Don't forget, Mika, that you have millions of people that are waiting in line to come into this country and they're waiting to come in legally. And I always say the wall, we're going to build the wall. It's going to be a real deal. It's going to be a real wall. There was a picture in one of the magazines where they had a wall this tall and they were taking drugs over the wall. They built a ramp over the wall and the truck was going up and down. They were using it like a highway; the wall is like a highway. It's not going to happen. It's going to be a Trump wall. It's going to be a real wall. And it's going to stop people and it's going to be good. But your friend Thomas Friedman called me and said, hah, there should be a big door. I said going to be a big door. I love the expression. There's going to be a big beautiful nice door. People are going to come in and they're going to come in legally. But we have no choice. Otherwise, we don't have a country. We don't even know how many people. We don't know if it's 8 million or if it's 20 million. We have no idea how many people are in our country. And then you see what happened with Kate in San Francisco. You see what happens with all of the things going on, all of the tremendous crime going on. It costs us $200 billion a year for illegal immigration right now. $200 billion a year, maybe $250, maybe $300. They don't even know. We're going to stop it. We're going to run it properly and we're going to stop it.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

On his immigration plan (2015 November 11)
2010s, 2015

Tom Kean, Jr. photo

“I do not support a blanket amnesty policy for our country. I believe it would dishonor legal immigrants who came here the right way, and it would only encourage more illegal migration”

Tom Kean, Jr. (1968) Member of the New Jersey General Assembly and State Senate

Speech at Liberty State Park (May 17, 2006); "Amnesty Statement", Tom's Blog" (May 17, 2006) http://tomkean.com/today/index.cfm?e=user.about.blog&messageID=139.

Bill Hicks photo
Michael Bloomberg photo

“Even though New York is the safest big city in the nation, there are still far too many illegal guns on our streets. Nearly all of them arrive from out of state – and most are sold by a small group of rogue gun dealers who refuse to obey federal laws.”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

http://www.mikebloomberg.com/en/issues/illegal_guns/mayor_michael_bloomberg_discusses_citys_efforts_to_stop_the_flow_of_illegal_guns_into_new_york
Gun Control

George Carlin photo

“I wonder why prostitution is illegal. Why should it be illegal to sell something that's perfectly legal to give away?”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson (1989)
Interviews, Television Appearances

Ingrid Newkirk photo

“I know it's illegal [trespassing], but I don't think it's wrong.”

Ingrid Newkirk (1949) British-American activist

Montgomery County, MD, Journal 1988 February 16.
On animal research and activism against it

Tony Abbott photo

“Where hate preaching is not illegal it should at least be thoroughly answered point-by-point with a very robust defence of human rights and responsibilities.”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

2015, The religion of Islam must reform (December 9, 2015)

Larry Wall photo

“It should be illegal to yell 'Y2K' in a crowded economy.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199811242326.PAA28495@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

Earl Warren photo
Bethany Kennedy Scanlon photo
Pat Condell photo
William Luther Pierce photo
Martin Scorsese photo

“Mean Streets dealt with the American Dream, according to which everybody thinks they can get rich quick, and if they can't do it by legal means then they'll do it by illegal ones.”

Martin Scorsese (1942) American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor

Scorsese on Scorsese, "Mean Streets—Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore—Taxi Driver".

Ann Coulter photo

“I'd build a wall. In fact, I'd hire illegal immigrants to build the wall. And throw out the illegals who are here. … It's cheap labor.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

Statement on illegal immigration on * The O'Reilly Factor
2006-04-13
Television
Fox News, as quoted in * Echoing Saturday Night Live skit, Coulter said U.S. should "throw out" illegal immigrants, but not before "hir<nowiki>[ing]</nowiki>" them to build Mexican border wall
Media Matters for America
2006-04-14
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604140003
2006

Donald J. Trump photo
Richard Stallman photo

“No person, no idea, and no religion deserves to be illegal to insult, not even the Church of Emacs — and certainly not Islam.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

On report of Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil who was sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Hosni Mubarak, in [http://www.stallman.org/archives/2007-jan-apr.html "Illegal to insult" (1 March 2007) http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1593050,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
2000s

Dhani Harrison photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people. The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. For those who control the levers of power in Washington and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don't have your good in mind. The political establishment that is trying to stop us is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration and economic and foreign policies that have bled our country dry. The political establishment has brought about the destruction of our factories and our jobs as they flee to Mexico, China and other countries all around the world. It's a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities. The only thing that can stop this corrupt machine is you. The only force strong enough to save our country is us. The only people brave enough to vote out this corrupt establishment is you, the American people. I'm doing this for the people and the movement and we will take back this country for you and we will make America great again. I'm Donald Trump and I approve this message.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Closing argument for America (4 November 2016)
Source: 2010s, 2016, November, Lines recycled from Trump's campaign rally in West Palm Beach, FL (10/13/2016)

Alan Keyes photo
Pete Stark photo
Nicole Krauss photo

“Franz Kafka is dead.He died in a tree from which he wouldn't come down. "Come down!" they cried to him. "Come down! Come down!" Silence filled the night, and the night filled the silence, while they waited for Kafka to speak. "I can't," he finally said, with a note of wistfulness. "Why?" they cried. Stars spilled across the black sky. "Because then you'll stop asking for me." The people whispered and nodded among themselves. […] They turned and started for home under the canopy of leaves. Children were carried on their fathers' shoulders, sleepy from having been taken to see who wrote his books on pieces of bark he tore off the tree from which he refused to come down. In his delicate, beautiful, illegible handwriting. And they admired those books, and they admired his will and stamina. After all: who doesn't wish to make a spectacle of his loneliness? One by one families broke off with a good night and a squeeze of the hands, suddenly grateful for the company of neighbors. Doors closed to warm houses. Candles were lit in windows. Far off, in his perch in the trees, Kafka listened to it all: the rustle of the clothes being dropped to the floor, or lips fluttering along naked shoulders, beds creaking along the weight of tenderness. That night a freezing wind blew in. When the children woke up, they went to the window and found the world encased in ice.”

Source: The History of Love (2005), P. 187

Evo Morales photo

“I learned that the political is above the legal, that’s why when my advisors tell me, Evo, what you are doing is illegal, I say, if it is illegal, then do it legal, you have studied for that”

Evo Morales (1959) Bolivian politician

Press conference Digital Journals in Spanish such as La Razón citing the article "Cuando la ley se convierte en una piedra en el zapato" or Libertad Digital "Evo Morales confiesa que da "pasos ilegales" en Bolivia para aplicar sus reformas."

Hunter S. Thompson photo
Mitt Romney photo
Michelle Obama photo
Jay Leiderman photo
Don Soderquist photo
Larry the Cable Guy photo
Thomas Aquinas photo
Ron Paul photo

“Question: …you believe the Fed shouldn't exist… make the case.
Ron Paul: First reason is, it's not authorized in the Constitution, it's an illegal institution. The second reason, it's an immoral institution, because we have delivered to a secretive body the privilege of creating money out of thin air; if you or I did it, we'd be called counterfeiters, so why have we legalized counterfeiting? But the economic reasons are overwhelming: the Federal Reserve is the creature that destroys value. This station talks about free market capitalism, and you can't have free market capitalism if you have a secret bank creating money and credit out of thin air. They become the central planners, they decide what interest rates should be, what the supply of money should be…
Question: How does the gold standard solves that?
Ron Paul: It maintains a stable currency and a stable value. If the Fed concentrated more on stable money rather than stable prices… They push up new money in stocks and in commodities and in houses, and then they have to come in to rescue the situation. They create the bubbles, then they come in and rescue it, and they do nothing more than try to do price fixing. Capitalism depends, and capital comes from savings, but there's no savings in this country, so this is all artificial. It creates the misdirection and the malinvestment and all the excessive debt, and it always has to have a correction. Since the Fed has been in existence, the dollar has lost about 97% of its value. You're supposed to encourage savings, but if something loses its value, why save dollars? There's no encouragement whatsoever. […] Gold is 6000 years old, and it still maintains its purchasing power. Oil prices really are very stable in terms of Gold. […] Both conservatives and liberals want to enhance big government, and this is a seductive way to tax the middle class.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

CNBC debate with Faiz Shakir, March 20, 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k94VWPjUQSM
2000s, 2006-2009

“The choice is not between drugs and no drugs, but between illegal drugs and legal drugs. Until the 1920s drugs were legal, why not now? Lots of people are on drugs anyway — it is called medication.”

David Hockney (1937) British artist

Interview with Jasper Gerard, "Taking the fight to the dreary people," The Sunday Times (London) (2 October 2005)
2000s

Enrique Peña Nieto photo
Hassan Nasrallah photo

“Even if [an agreement] is signed we will continue to view [Israel] as an illegitimate and illegal entity”

Hassan Nasrallah (1960) Secretary General of Hezbollah

Al-Hayat, January 2, 2000
Quote, 2000
Source: Britain Israel Communication & Research Centre http://www.bicom.org.uk/publications/

Donald J. Trump photo

“The first thing I'd do in my first day as president is close up our borders so that illegal immigrants cannot come into our country.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Twitter question and answer session from Twitter's New York office — as quoted in * 2015-09-21
Trump: I'll close US borders 'in my first day'
Jesse Byrnes
The Hill
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/254391-trump-ill-close-us-borders-in-my-first-day
2010s, 2015

Christopher Hitchens photo

“Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for "freedom." (The word is "svoboda"; it's quite well attested in Russian literature)… said that intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn't his fault) could be recalled once launched… said that he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U. S. S. R… professed to be annoyed when people called it "Star Wars," even though he had ended his speech on the subject with the lame quip, "May the force be with you"… used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars… used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times" foreshadowed in the Bible. In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.There was more to Ronald Reagan than that. Reagan announced that apartheid South Africa had "stood beside us in every war we've ever fought," when the South African leadership had been on the other side in the most recent world war… allowed Alexander Haig to greenlight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, fired him when that went too far and led to mayhem in Beirut, then ran away from Lebanon altogether when the Marine barracks were bombed, and then unbelievably accused Tip O'Neill and the Democrats of "scuttling.".. sold heavy weapons to the Iranian mullahs and lied about it, saying that all the weapons he hadn't sold them (and hadn't traded for hostages in any case) would, all the same, have fit on a small truck… then diverted the profits of this criminal trade to an illegal war in Nicaragua and lied unceasingly about that, too… then modestly let his underlings maintain that he was too dense to understand the connection between the two impeachable crimes. He then switched without any apparent strain to a policy of backing Saddam Hussein against Iran. (If Margaret Thatcher's intelligence services had not bugged Oliver North in London and become infuriated because all European nations were boycotting Iran at Reagan's request, we might still not know about this.) One could go on… This was a man never short of a cheap jibe or the sort of falsehood that would, however laughable, buy him some time.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

2000s, 2004

Jesse Ventura photo
Richard Nixon photo

“Oh, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Interview with David Frost (19 May 1977) ( video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8); printed in The New York Times (20 May 1977), p. A16; also in "Nixon's Views on Presidential Power: Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost" http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html, referring to the Huston Plan and views of presidential authority.
1970s

Herbert Hoover photo

“The American people from bitter experience have a rightful fear that great business units might be used to dominate our industrial life and by illegal and unethical practices destroy equality of opportunity…”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover (1928), Campaign speech in New York (22 October 1928)

Donald J. Trump photo
John Gray photo
Doug Stanhope photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Marine Le Pen photo
Newt Gingrich photo

“If you import a commercial quantity of illegal drugs, it is because you have made the personal decision that you are prepared to get rich by destroying our children. I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this.”

Newt Gingrich (1943) Professor, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

1995-08-27
Gingrich Suggests Tough Drug Measure
New York Times
0362-4331
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/27/us/gingrich-suggests-tough-drug-measure.html
2011-12-12
Former Marijuana User Newt Gingrich Proposed the Death Penalty for Trafficking Marijuana in 1996
Paul
Constant
The Stranger
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/12/12/former-marijuana-user-newt-gingrich-proposed-the-death-penalty-for-trafficking-marijuana-in-1996
regarding his "Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996" (H.R. 4170) bill
1990s

Viktor Orbán photo
Muhammad photo
George W. Bush photo
Chris Eubank photo

“Blair, don't send our young prince to your catastrophic illegal war to make it look plausible.”

Chris Eubank (1966) British former professional boxer

A message condemning Tony Blair for sending Prince Harry to Iraq February 22, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6387231.stm

Ian Hislop photo
Lewis Black photo

“You don't want another Enron? Here's the law: If you have a company, and it can't explain, in one sentence… what it does… it's illegal!”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues (2005)

Ilana Mercer photo
Gjorge Ivanov photo
Margaret Sullivan (journalist) photo
Lee Kuan Yew photo
Patrick Buchanan photo