Verbatim

“I think George Bush is the most incompetent President we’ve had in our lifetime. I mean, nobody would accuse President Nixon of being incompetent.”
HOWARD DEAN, Democratic National Committee chairman, on the relative merits of the two Republican U.S. Presidents

“The impact is going to be the same as what’s been happening in Iraq.”
OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR, President of Sudan, explaining why his government will not allow a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur

“We have to decide if the persecuting of bloggers reaches a point that it’s unacceptable to do business there.”
FRED TIPSON, Microsoft senior legal counsel, on whether the software giant may suspend its activities in China, where Internet use is heavily censored

“There is no need for Japan to participate in [the talks] because it is no more than a state of the U.S.”
NORTH KOREA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY, suggesting Japan be excluded from six-party talks over the North’s nuclear-weapons program. Pyongyang agreed to return to negotiations last week, but lashed out over Japan’s refusal to accept the North as a nuclear power

“I think it will help boost the country’s image as a relaxing and nice place to stay.”
WANASIRI MORAKUL, a director of the Thailand government’s Film Office, on Rambo IV: In the Serpent’s Eye, which starts production next year in the country’s northern provinces

“We just don’t like to talk about sex.”
JOYCELYN ELDERS, former U.S. Surgeon General, calling for better sex education in schools and criticizing a Bush Administration plan to spend $50 million on abstinence-only instruction

“The time will come for a black Bond.”
DIDDY, hip-hop star and actor, expressing his desire to play James Bond. Casino Royale, the 21st 007 film, premieres next week, with (white) British actor Daniel Craig in the lead role