Verbatim

  • 'It's been a while.'

    LEON PANETTA, CIA director, responding to a question about when the U.S. last "had good intelligence" on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden; Panetta then said it was probably sometime in the early 2000s

    'I wish I could afford some outrage. That must be a good feeling.'

    ROB HUDSON, an unemployed construction worker, on the push to boycott BP gas stations. Hudson was quoted while filling up at a Santa Monica, Calif., BP station, where the gasoline was as much as 30¢ per gallon cheaper than that of competitors

    'It's happened to me for years now--someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed or suffered an accident.'

    SERGIO VEGA, a popular Mexican singer known as El Shaka, telling an entertainment website that rumors of his death were unfounded; Vega was gunned down just hours later

    'I apologized to England and Mexico.'

    SEPP BLATTER, president of FIFA, who expressed regret to the two teams for blatant mistakes made by World Cup referees; he also promised to open debate on the use of goal-line technology

    'We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that he ... can retire at a four-star level.'

    ROBERT GIBBS, White House press secretary, saying General Stanley McChrystal will retain his rank upon retirement

    'She may have threatened her sister, but I don't think that constitutes Homeland Security triggers.'

    SANTHOSH THOMAS, who was recently told that his 6-year-old daughter's name is on the U.S. government's no-fly list

    'I just thought it was time for my character to go ... It doesn't certainly mean the end of the show.'

    STEVE CARELL, confirming he'll leave The Office when his contract expires after the sitcom's next season, its seventh

    TALKING HEADS

    John Hilary

    Calling for an end to G-20 summits, in the Guardian:

    "As an invitation-only club whose membership was literally drawn up on the back of an envelope, the G20 never laid any claim to legitimacy. Now it is also in danger of losing any credibility as a forum for global economic governance. Its failure to address any of the structural problems that caused the financial and economic crises of the past three years has certainly not gone unnoticed in Toronto."

    --6/27/10

    Steve Chapman

    Arguing in the Washington Examiner against denying citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants:

    "Barring citizenship to their newborn babies wouldn't make these families pack up and go home. It would just put the kids into a legal jeopardy that impedes their assimilation into American society--without appreciably diminishing the number of people going over, under, around or through the border fence."

    --6/29/10

    Ahmed Zewail

    President Obama's science envoy to the Middle East, promoting science diplomacy, in the Los Angeles Times:

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