Federal Government Quotes

“Well, you know what Stalin said: it’s not who votes that counts. It’s who counts the votes.”
― James Allen Moseley, The Duke of D.C.: The American Dream

“Adult obesity and overweight statistics have increased by about 50 percent since the Dietary Goals were announced. [by the federal government, in 1977] That bears repeating: a 50 percent increase in obesity/overweight correlated with a 10 percent decrease in fat content in the diet.”
― Larry McCleary MD, Feed Your Brain, Lose Your Belly

“Virginians don’t belong in Maryland for the same reason Marylanders don’t belong in Virginia. When we meet, it should be in DC where everyone is the same kind of nasty: feds.”
― Ian Kirkpatrick, Bleed More, Bodymore

“Well, then what the federal government should have done was accept the assistance of foreign countries, of entrepreneurial Americans who have had solutions that they wanted presented. They can't even get a phone call returned, Bill. The Dutch—they are known, and the Norwegians—they are known for dikes and for cleaning up water and for dealing with spills. They offered to help and yet, no, they too, with the proverbial, can't even get a phone call back.”
― Sarah Palin

“Turner [Reagan's "drug czar'] was especially determined to purge psychiatrists from federal drug agencies. "They're trained to treat," he said, "and treatment isn't what we do." Methadone was out, so Turner blocked advocates of the treatment who were still in the federal government from speaking about it publicly.”
― Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces

“Ray plunged into sobering thought. What would have happened if he had, by some cruel twist of fate, got hitched to this lunatic female? He could just see himself laying his head gently on his pillow, thinking, “O woman! When pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou,” when suddenly into the bedroom would leap this female Blackbeard, a parrot on her shoulder and a dagger in her teeth. He shuddered.”
― James Allen Moseley, The Duke of D.C.: The American Dream

“So take something that's been happening in recent years: devolution―that is, removing authority from the federal government down to the state governments. Well, in some circumstances, that would be a democratizing move which I would be in favor of―it would be a move away from central authority down to local authority. But that's in abstract circumstances that don't exist. Right now it'll happen because moving decision-making power down to the state level in fact means handing it over to private power. See, huge corporations can influence and dominate the federal government, but even middle-sized corporations can influence state governments and play one state's workforce off against another's by threatening to move production elsewhere unless they get better tax breaks and so on. So under the conditions of existing systems of power, devolution is very antidemocratic; under other systems of much greater equality, devolution could be highly democratic―but these are questions which really can't be discussed in isolation from the society as it actually exists.”
― Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“Kesho yake Ijumaa Rais wa Meksiko alirudi kutoka Panama na aliomba kuonana na Vijana wa Tume; alitaka kuwapongeza binafsi, na kuwapa nishani za heshima kwa mchango wao mkubwa kwa Jamii ya Meksiko. Randall Ortega alilipeleka ombi hilo kwa Rais wa Tume ya Dunia; Rais wa Tume ya Dunia akakaa na Kamati ya Usalama ya Tume ya Dunia na kumrudishia Randall Ortega jawabu, kwamba Vijana wa Tume waliruhusiwa kuonana na Rais wa Meksiko na baadhi ya maafisa wa juu wa serikali ya shirikisho. Saa mbili usiku wa siku hiyo, Ijumaa, kulifanyika sherehe ndogo ya siri nyumbani kwao Debbie; sherehe iliyohudhuriwa na Rais wa Meksiko na mke wake, Mkuu wa Jeshi la Polisi Nchini Meksiko, Mkuu wa Mamlaka ya Kudhibiti Madawa ya Kulevya Nchini Marekani, Mwenyekiti wa Tume ya Taifa ya Haki za Binadamu Nchini Meksiko, Naibu Mwanasheria Mkuu wa Serikali, maafisa wa tume na watu wengine wa muhimu katika kazi ya Vijana wa Tume.”
― Enock Maregesi, Kolonia Santita

“There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. That is not an exaggeration.”
― John Baker

“To the early American his state government was at least on a par with the federal government in his esteem. Illustrative is the following incident:
President Washington was about to arrive at Boston on a visit, and Governor Hancock was perturbed over a matter of protocol; would he be compromising the dignity of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts if he went to meet the “father of his country” on arrival, or would it be more proper that the President call at the state Capitol? The Governor finally settled the problem by pleading illness…. The sequel to that incident is worth noting. President Washington was asked to review the Massachusetts militia; he refused on the ground that the militia was the military arm of the state, not the federal government; after all, the tacit understanding in those days was that the militia might be called upon to face the federal army.”
― Frank Chodorov, The Income Tax: Root of All Evil

“If you want change, don’t waste time debating with those happy with the status quo. Instead, use your energy to create a GRAND movement that will cause the most rigid in authority to Act!”
― Tanya Ward Jordan, 17 STEPS: A Federal Employee's Guide For Tackling Workplace Discrimination

“Unfortunately, the mental health centers legislation passed by Congress was fatally flawed. It encouraged the closing of state mental hospitals without and realistic plan regarding what would happen to the discharged patients, especially those who refused to take the medication they needed to remain well. It included no plan for the future funding of the community mental health centers. It focused resources on prevention when nobody understood enough about mental illnesses to know how to prevent them. And by bypassing the states, it guaranteed that future services would not be coordinated.”
― E Fuller Torrey

“Ideally, leaders of the Five Tribes would exercise their sovereignty and be the governments that recognize groups that claim to be their blood kin. However, political and legal realities intervene: only the federal government can recognize that a ‘government-to-government’ relationship exists between it and forgotten Indian communities scattered about the country. As such, the Five Tribes and other reservation groups helped establish the Federal Acknowledgment Process within the BIA in 1978 to determine which groups were still living indigenous communities.”
― Mark Edwin Miller, Claiming Tribal Identity: The Five Tribes and the Politics of Federal Acknowledgment

“We're with the federal government. I'm Mr. Harrison. This is Mr. Woods."
I didn't move, and I kept my left foot wedged securely behind the door. I wasn't as tall as either of them, but I was strong, a farmer, an athlete, a chopper of wood and hoister of fence posts. I trusted my ability to slam the door in their faces. I said, "What branch?"
"What?"
"What branch of federal government?"
Harrison's mouth quirked to one side as if he was resisting a patronizing smile. "Information," he said.
"That's not a branch." I braced my foot more securely. "The FBI is a branch. The War Department is a branch.”
― Louisa Morgan, The Witch's Kind

“Measured by what he accomplished – not just by what he said – Hoover was among the most powerful conservative political figures of the twentieth century, able to steer the ship of state in his direction even when electoral politics and White House sentiment might have dictated otherwise.”
― Beverly Gage, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

“It was this combination of factors – openness and secrecy, liberalism and conservatism, hard and soft power – that gave Hoover his extraordinary staying power.”
― Beverly Gage, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

“We cannot know our own story without understanding his, in all its high aspiration and terrible cruelty, and in its many human contradictions.”
― Beverly Gage