Verbatim

“Surely God is mad at America.”
RAY NAGIN, mayor of New Orleans, suggesting that last year’s string of devastating hurricanes in the U.S. was an expression of divine anger over the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Nagin later apologized

“Leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us … must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part. This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.”
JACQUES CHIRAC, French President, warning of the possibility of a nuclear response to acts of state-sponsored terrorism against France

“Our television show will have a message, but without getting into the tanks, the guns, the killing and the blood.”
HAZIM SHARAWI, host of a new children’s television show for Al Aksa TV, Hamas’ television station in the Gaza Strip, which aims to teach children about Palestinian politics

“It is so hard to be a free Chinese person. Damn Great Wall, damn Microsoft.”
ZHAO JING, Chinese journalist, in a message posted on a new blog after his previous site on Microsoft’s MSN Spaces service was shut down under pressure from Chinese authorities

“A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.”
AL GORE, former U.S. Vice-President, calling for an investigation into President George W. Bush’s authorization of wiretaps, without court approval, on thousands of Americans

“It is like asking John Gotti to do what he can to clean up organized crime.”
HARRY REID, U.S. Democrat and Senate Minority Leader, on the Republican proposal to rewrite House rules governing lobbying

“I have never seen a whale before. It’s not something that happens too often in London.”
LOUISE KEEN, London medical-school administrator, on a northern bottle-nosed whale that drew crowds after becoming stranded in the River Thames. Despite attempts to save the 5-m-long mammal, it later died aboard a rescue vessel