* “When we have the unique capacity to avert a massacre, the United States cannot turn a blind eye.”–President Barack Obama, on his authorization of airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS.
* “We are not fighting a terrorist organization. We are fighting a terrorist state.”–Kurdish regional President Masoud Barzani, in appealing for allied help against ISIS.
* “I think President Putin represents a deep strain in Russia that is probably harmful to Russia over the long term, but in the short term can be politically popular at home and very troublesome abroad.”–President Barack Obama.
* “Geopolitics and the ubiquity of social media have made the world a smaller, seemingly gorier place.”–David Carr, New York Times.
* “Whether amnesty or clemency ever becomes a possibility is not for me to say. That’s a debate for the public and the government to decide. But, if I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home.”–Edward Snowden.
* “The doomsday scenario of Ebola being brought to the United States and spread via passengers on airplanes is very unlikely, unless an infected and symptomatic person is allowed to board and then swaps spit with or bleeds on fellow passengers.”–Jane Hu, Slate.
* “Ebola won’t become a threat to the general public from their (two infected Americans) presence in our facility, but the insight we gain by caring for them will prepare us to better treat emergent diseases that may confront the United States in the future. We also can export our new knowledge to treat Ebola globally.”–Susan M. Grant, RN, chief nurse for Emory Healthcare.
* “America and other countries with advanced health systems have very limited vulnerability to the Ebola virus. Ebola fever, however, continues to infect the American media.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.
* “It’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”–U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner, reacting to rumors that the House GOP leadership may seek to serve President Obama with impeachment papers.
* “The GOP must learn to speak a language it has shunned to people it has ignored. Because its biggest threat is not the Democratic Party but demographic reality. And right now, that reality is winning, hands down.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.
* “It defies logic in this day and age that marijuana is still in Schedule I alongside heroin and LSD when there is so much testimony to what relief medical marijuana can bring.”–Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
* “I want our leaders to understand that Florida is ground zero for climate change, including the best of what our state has to offer (sorry Orlando!)–our barrier islands, our harbors, our prime real estate, our hotels, our marinas, our beaches. These places are at risk. Insurance companies already know this.”–Jeffrey Chanton, FSU oceanography professor, one of the 10 scientists who recently requested a meeting with Gov. Rick Scott.
* “Neither this Court nor the Florida Supreme Court can decide this federal issue with finality. The United States Supreme Court, however, ‘has the final word on the United States Constitution.'”–Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on settling the issue of gay marriage.
* “These (same-sex) families should not suffer just because our attorney general has chosen a legal strategy that has plagued her with awkward and embarrassing media coverage.”–Howard Simon, director of the ACLU of Florida.
* “What frankly concerns me is it (gubernatorial ) is going to be a very nasty election in which a lot of people will go to the polls asking which of these two bad choices is least bad. Nobody is going to be elected with anything that could be described as a mandate to do something.”–Bob Graham, former Florida governor and U.S. senator.
* “I have always felt that we’re the body that should be promulgating an agenda and championing what the people want because we probably know it quicker and better than our counterparts in the Senate or the executive branch.”–State Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Trinity.
* “It has completely transformed into a wonderful place.”–A description of the newly dedicated Water Works Park by David L. Tippin, the city’s water department director from 1974 to 2003.
* “We’re really providing a social network service for people who don’t have cars.”–HART system assessment by Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who sits on HART’s governing board.
* “Undergoing a major gastronomic renewal.”–A recent Tampa reference by FoodNetwork.com.
* “I had a lot of fun here; I really did.”–Tampa’s Lou Piniella in his induction to the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame.