My own personal and truly random assortment of quotes from 2011, divided by topic.

Republican Presidential Candidates

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid …These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school.”

— Newt Gingrich

“I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed.”

— Mitt Romney, whose net worth is around $200 million, speaking to unemployed workers in Florida.

“Yes, that’s their goal, they’re setting up the stage for violence in this country, no doubt about it.”

— Ron Paul when questioned at the September GOP debate about “whether the National Emergency Center Establishment Act could lead to detaining American citizens in camps during martial law.”

“Absolutely, I’d vote against it. Get people to work.”

— Rick Perry responding to a question by CNN on whether he would vote against extending the payroll tax and unemployment benefits.

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

— Michele Bachmann.

“We all get up every day and tell ourselves lies so we can live.”

— Rick Santorum on the campaign trail quoting a statement allegedly made by by Christopher Lasch, which may be spurious.

More below the fold:
Climate Change

“I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”

— Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency which predicts the following:

“We’re both doing the Lord’s work, Noel.”

— Sen James Inhofe (R-OK) in an interview with Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters describing his opposition to legislation to ameliorate climate change (look the link up if you want, I won’t provide it).

“A hotter, moister atmosphere is an atmosphere primed to trigger disasters … As the world gets hotter, the risk gets higher.”

— Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist and a principal author of the IPCC’s “Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” dated November 18, 2011.From Michael Oppenheimer’s CV:

Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. He is the Director of the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) at the Woodrow Wilson School and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program, Princeton Environmental Institute, and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Food and other Natural resources

“Feeding some 9 billion people by mid-century in the face of a rapidly worsening climate may well be the greatest challenge the human race has ever faced.”

— Joe Romm of Climate Progress.

“The era of low food prices that we saw until the beginning of the millennium is over … We’re not going to go back to an era of declining prices.”

— Mahendra Shah, an adviser to Qatar’s food security program.

“The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.”

— Jeremy Grantham, hedge fund manager and Chief Investment Strategist of GMO Capital.

The Economy

“The banks got their bailout. Some of the money went to bonuses. Little of it went to lending. And the economy didn’t really recover—output is barely greater than it was before the crisis, and the job situation is bleak. The diagnosis of our condition and the prescription that followed from it were incorrect. First, it was wrong to think that the bankers would mend their ways—that they would start to lend, if only they were treated nicely enough. We were told, in effect: “Don’t put conditions on the banks to require them to restructure the mortgages or to behave more honestly in their foreclosures. Don’t force them to use the money to lend. Such conditions will upset our delicate markets.” In the end, bank managers looked out for themselves and did what they are accustomed to doing.”

— Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel award winning economist, in an article to be published in the January 2012 edition of Vanity Fair.

“We have seen increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold.”

— Ben Bernanke Chairman of the Federal Reserve, testifying the the Senate Committee on the Budget in January.

“It could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully,”

— Ben Bernanke Chairman of the Federal Reserve, testifying the the Senate Committee on the Budget in January.

“China is central to GM’s global strategy … China is clearly a crown jewel in the GM universe.”

— GM CEO Dan Akerson during a trip to Beijing in February.

I realize Sen. Patty Murray and those on the debt-reduction “super committee” need to make some very difficult choices, but it would be foolish to generate tax revenue by cutting incentives to companies that are in a position to be instrumental in our economic recovery. U.S. oil and natural gas companies want to develop our domestic energy reserves; this will in turn create jobs and lessen our dependency on foreign sources of energy. This is one of the few win-win scenarios in this economy I implore Murray and her colleagues on the super committee to please empower our energy companies to create the jobs and the domestic energy sources we so desperately need.

— Kristopher Holien in a Letter to the Editor of The News Tribune (Tacoma). The claim that Oil companies are job creators is disputed in this report by the Democrats on the Committee of Natural Resources which shows large oil companies cut 11,000 American jobs while making record profits of $546 Billion during the years 2005-2010.

Occupy Wall Street

Leading Democratic party strategists have begun to openly discuss the benefits of embracing the growing and increasingly organized Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement to prevent Republican gains in Congress and the White House next year. We have seen this process of adopting extreme positions and movements to increase base voter turnout, including in the 2005-2006 immigration debate. This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street firms. If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the Democratic party or even President Obama’s re-election team would campaign against Wall Street in this cycle. However, the bigger concern should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies – and might start running against them too.

Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protesters and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. Both the radical left and the radical right are channeling broader frustration about the state of the economy and share a mutual anger over TARP and other perceived bailouts. This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.

— A quote from the Washington lobbying firm’s (Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford – CLGC) proposal to conduct a smear campaign against OWS and politicians supporting OWS, and addressed to one of their major clients, the American Bankers Association.

Q. Did the Police deploy rubber bullets, flash-bag grenades?
A. No, the loud noises that were heard originated from M-80 explosives thrown at Police by protesters. In addition, Police fired approximately four bean bag rounds at protesters to stop them from throwing dangerous objects at the officers. —

Official Oakland Police statement regarding the incident in which Marine Veteran Scott Olsen skull was fractured and a flash grenade was seen being tossed at individuals who came to his rescue during the October 25, 2011 action to clear Occupy Oakland from its encampment. For video, pictures and reporting by the NY Times regarding the attacks by police on Scott Olsen and others at Oscar Grant plaza contradicting this police account, go to this link.

Assholes

“I hope he’s taking his blood pressure medication.”

— Paul Ryan at a recent town hall meeting after a 71 year old man was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for voicing his opinion that Ryan’s plan to slash entitlements was unjustified.

Koch: “We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowds was planting some troublemakers.

Scott:[…] We thought about that that… My only fear is that if there is a ruckus caused, that would scare the public into think maybe the government’s got to settle in order to avoid all these problems. […]

Murphy-as-Koch: Well, not the liberal bastards on MSNBC.

Walker: Oh yeah, but who watches that? I went on “Morning Joe” this morning. I like it because I just like being combative with those guys, but they’re off the deep end.

Murphy-as-Koch: Joe’s a good guy. He’s one of us.

Walker: Yeah, he’s all right. He was fair to me.

Murphy-as-Koch: Beautiful; beautiful. You gotta love that Mika Brzezinski.

Walker: Oh yeah.

Murphy-as-Koch: She’s a real piece of ass. […]

Murphy-as-Koch: Well, I tell you what, Scott: once you crush these bastards I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.

Walker: All right, that would be outstanding.

— Scott Walker, Republican governor of Wisconsin, who though he was speaking to David Koch when he was really speaking on the phone to Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy impersonating David Koch.

Feel free to add your own quotes in the comments.