Verbatim

'I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something.'

VIRGINIA THOMAS, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in a voice mail left for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing the Justice of sexual harassment in 1991

'We have abundant experience in holding elections.'

THEIN SOE, Burma's election-commission chairman, announcing that foreign observers and journalists will not be allowed into Burma for its Nov. 7 elections, the country's first in more than 20 years

'We're sort of preparing for all eventualities.'

DAVE LAPAN, Pentagon spokesman, on the government response that is being prepared in anticipation of watchdog WikiLeaks' release of 400,000 military documents from Iraq

'We do expect people to cover their heads. Obama ... could just wear a cap.'

GURBACHAN SINGH, a senior official at the Golden Temple of Amritsar, reacting to the decision not to have President Obama visit the spiritual center of the Sikh religion during a November trip to India; reports suggest that Obama, a Christian, wants to avoid any further controversy about his faith

'I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian.'

SHARRON ANGLE, Nevada's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaking before a meeting of the Hispanic Student Union at Rancho High School in Las Vegas

'We're on the verge of a major extinction spasm.'

RUSS MITTERMEIER, president of Conservation International, as delegates from more than 190 countries met at a U.N. conference in Tokyo geared toward protecting the planet's biodiversity

'Today, Calgary is a different place than it was yesterday. A better place.'

NAHEED NENSHI, on being elected mayor of the conservative Canadian city of Calgary; he is the country's first Muslim mayor

TALKING HEADS

Jonathan Cohn

Arguing in favor of a tax on the rich, in the New Republic:

"Yes, a good work ethic will take you far. And I know many well-educated professionals convinced that nobody works as hard as they do ... But I've met many people at the bottom of the income ladder who work just as hard, for far less reward. Between 1980 and 2005, the richest 1% of Americans got more than four-fifths of the country's income gains. Does anybody seriously believe that the other 99% didn't deserve to take home a much larger share?"

--10/17/10

Tom Brokaw

Noting in the New York Times that some crucial issues are absent from election campaigns this season:

"Notice anything missing on the campaign landscape? How about war? ... Why aren't the wars and their human and economic consequences front and center in this campaign, right up there with jobs and taxes? No decision is more important than committing a nation to war. It is, as politicians like to say, about our blood and treasure."

--10/17/10

Zalmay Khalilzad