*”There is room for everyone in Egypt, and we are cautious about every drop of Egyptian blood.”–Egyptian Minister of Defense Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
* “On the losing side of the ledger we must add the United States, which handled the Egyptian uprising very badly and managed to come out of the crisis with all sides against it. … Whatever the U.S. government did wrong, it was the Egyptian people who started their revolution and who then let it get away from them. This is Egypt’s disaster–a disaster with no winners. It is now up to the Egyptian people to save their country.”–Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald.
* “People in the June 14 elections declared that they want a new foreign policy.”–Hasan Rouhani, Iran’s new president.
* “Privacy does not mean keeping secrets. Rather, it means having the power to keep them if you wish.”–Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.
* “If I died by lethal injection, I would still be a martyr.”–Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
* “Faith and violence are incompatible.”–Pope Francis.
* “We have to get beyond being anti-Obama. We are caught right now in a culture, and you see it every single day, where as long as we’re negative and as long as we’re vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to learn anything. And so we don’t. This is a very deep problem.”–Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at the Republican National Committee’s annual summer meeting.
* “We will never elect another president if we don’t figure out a way to attract more nonwhite voters.”–GOP pollster Whit Ayres.
* “One of the most compelling reasons for the U.S. House to pass immigration reform is to strengthen Social Security.”–Florida Congresswoman Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
* “When US Airways and American chose consolidation over competition–to the detriment of Floridians–it became my duty to act.”–Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining why she joined the Justice Department lawsuit blocking the proposed merger of US Airways and American Airlines.
* “When you’re selling dreams and vacations and memories, and the numbers are all going in the right direction, it’s a lot of fun.”–Will Seccombe, CEO of Visit Florida, on numbers that show Florida on track for another record tourism year.
* “I got to tell you, I am so baffled at what is going on here.”–U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Florida lawmakers’ decision to suspend the state’s power over health insurance rates that will leave consumers at the mercy of the market.
* “The solar market is rapidly developing with both utility-scale and (small-scale) solar applications growing in states across the country. With or without subsidies, solar … will increasingly be part of our resource mix as customers demand greater use of this technology. … The big idea is that someday in the future, Florida is going to produce all its own energy and store it.”–Duke Energy spokesman Sterling Ivey.
* “This wave is coming to kill Common Core.”–Florida Board of Education member Kathleen Shanahan.
* “Very strong consideration (is being given) to assigning someone from MLB to intervene in this process, find out exactly what the hell is going on.” Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig on the lack of progress on Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium discussions.
* “My focus is resetting the economy, attracting a type of industry we haven’t attracted before.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe.
* “If students see how important education is to their parents, and if the parents are constantly underscoring that, it makes a huge difference in the way students focus.”–MaryEllen Elia, superintendent of the Hillsborough County School District.
* “If I were a car thief, I’d move to St. Petersburg.”–Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, on data showing that of cars stolen in St. Petersburg this year, more than 80 percent involved keys left in the vehicles.
* “Amen.”–Response of Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos to news that the long-vacant Scientology Flag Building would finally open.
* “Code issues are like a cancer, and if you don’t eradicate it, if you don’t stay on top of it, it will spread through a neighborhood like a cancer through the human body.”–Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.