Verbatim

'This jet, before it heralds death for enemies, is the messenger of salvation and dignity for humanity.'

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, Iranian President, referring to his military's new unmanned drone, which has a range of more than 600 miles (970 km)

'If people know where you are, they know where you're not.'

RAINEY REITMAN, spokeswoman for San Diego--based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, on Facebook's new Places feature, which shares the location of users with their online friends

'I cannot surrender now simply because an obstacle has been set before me.'

WYCLEF JEAN, musician, vowing to fight the declaration by Haiti's electoral council that he is ineligible to run for President in the country's November election; the following day, a council lawyer announced that Jean could not appeal, calling it "a waste of time"

'The President says he's a Christian. I take him at his word.'

MITCH MCCONNELL, Senate minority leader, responding to a recent poll that found that a growing number of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim even though he has repeatedly asserted his Christian beliefs

'You need someone to say, "I know what they mean when they say ballin' or pinching pennies."'

MICHAEL SANDERS, DEA special agent, on the search for Ebonics translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of drug investigations

'If there's no traffic jam in the city, that would be news.'

NIU FENGRUI, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on a 60-mile (97 km) bottleneck--made up of thousands of cars heading into Beijing--that lasted 10 days before it was broken up

'It's just a cat, at the end of the day.'

MARY BALE, a British woman, saying she doesn't "deserve to be hated by people all over the world," after an online video showing her putting a cat in a trash can earned her death threats

TALKING HEADS

Roger Ebert

Weighing in on the controversial mosque near Ground Zero, in the Chicago Sun-Times:

"I wonder how many Americans realize the community center is not intended for Ground Zero. [Instead], what will be constructed there includes a 55,000-sq.-ft. [5,100 sq m] retail mall. This mall will be deep enough to connect with subway lines--deep enough, that is, to theoretically be embedded in the ashes of some of the 9/11 victims."

--8/19/10

Alberto Gonzales

The former Attorney General calling for immigration reform, in the Washington Post:

"I am a descendant of immigrants and a grateful beneficiary of the opportunities available to our nation's citizens ... Today, however, there is virtually universal agreement that our immigration process is broken ... Even my apolitical and saintly 78-year-old mother wonders whether the Democrats are keeping this issue on the table ... hoping that Republicans will propose enforcement measures that alienate Hispanic voters."

--8/22/10

Con Coughlin