Maherisms:

"I feel like I'm wearing orthopedic shoes, because I stand corrected." -Bill Maher

On Oil:

"The president finally arrived on the Gulf Coast today to survey the damage. I thought this was telling: while he was there, FEMA arrived for Katrina." -Bill Maher

"There's a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico every summer the size of New Jersey, where there's not enough oxygen for things to live. So, it's not a question of, can the oceans take anymore? The oceans can't take anymore. They couldn't take anymore 50 year ago." -Philippe Cousteau Jr.

"I could cut my leg off. I could cut my arm off. I could gouge an eye out. I'd still probably survive. But not very well. And that's what we're doing to the oceans. It's the life-support system of this planet. We've been dumping in it. We've been polluting it. We've been destroying it for decades. And we're essentially maiming ourselves." -Philippe Cousteau Jr.

"I think we're putting a little bit too much faith in big business right now, in thinking that they have all of our best interests at heart. And that may not be the case." -Philippe Cousteau Jr.

"There's no way BP is going to be able to pay for all of this pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to last for decades and decades. Taxpayers will be paying for this." -Philippe Cousteau Jr.

"We have a whole new generation out there that wants to make a positive difference in this world. And I think if there's any hope, it lies with them." -Philippe Cousteau Jr.

"I think presidents are not judged usually by the public so much on what they do legislatively...but how they respond to crisis." -Bill Maher

"The federal government actually controls very little of what's going on in the Gulf right now. And that's sort of the issue." -Patrick Ruffini

"I think we have to keep in mind, though, that in a democracy, the president is still a fellow citizen. He just happens to rule for four or eight years." -Dr. Cornel West

"The Bush people sold the country to the corporations" -Jonathan Alter

"How about a president for once ever saying, 'The environmentalists were right'? They were right!" -Bill Maher

"If it were the end of the Reagan era, I mean, we would be going in and nationalizing BP in the Gulf oil response. I mean, that's what liberals did before Reagan was in office." -Patrick Ruffini

"Rand Paul said last week that Obama's criticizing of BP was really un-American, because apparently he was blurring the line between pro-business and anti-life on earth." -Bill Maher

On Stupid States:

"Mississippi has produced the greatest artists this country has ever produced." -Dr. Cornel West

On Economics:

"We can't allow Obama's charisma and brilliance to hide and conceal the suffering of not just black poor, but poor people across the board." -Dr. Cornel West

"Education has always been the key. If you graduate from college, your lifetime earnings are a million dollars more than if you don't." -Jonathan Alter

"The Republicans are saying the banks didn't do anything wrong - it was just poor folks who bought houses they couldn't afford. And that's a bulls**t answer." -Jonathan Alter

"The Achilles' heel of the Obama...unemployment, under-employment and Afghanistan. If he can't deal with both of those, he's going to miss out and be a Clinton rather than a Lincoln." -Dr. Cornel West

On The Supreme Court:

"Beginning with the Reagan Administration, the Republican Party engaged in a self-conscious program of appointing young people to the federal bench." -Scott Turow

"The Supreme Court ruled that inmates do not have the right to DNA evidence to exonerate themselves...it seems so un-American." -Bill Maher

"Justice Scalia has been willing to accept the possibility of executing an innocent person if there's been, you know, exhaustion of legal remedies." -Scott Turow

On Joe Sestak:

"To criminalize politics is insane." -Johnathan Alter

"Rahm Emanuel has been obsessed with cutting deals rather than taking moral stands for a long time. It's part of the Chicago political culture." -Dr. Cornel West

"There's a lot of gangster proclivities in the history of Chicago politics." -Dr. Cornel West

On Fighting The Man:

"As long as we have a campaign contribution system like we have, and one in which the Supreme Court authorizes campaign contributions by corporations, for reasons that I can't fathom, you are not going to decrease the power of corporations. Because they're going to control the mother's milk of politics." -Scott Turow

"The only countervailing force against organized money at the top, is organized people at the bottom." -Dr. Cornel West

"I don't agree that Obama has gotten nothing done. I think he is trying to change the country, but he does try to kind of soft-pedal it." -Patrick Ruffini

"The hypocrisy highway is so glutted with Republicans right now." -Jonathan Alter

"These [Tea Party] people have always been with us. They used to write letters on the red ribbon of the old typewriters. You know, they were called 'cranks,' and now they have their own network called Fox." -Jonathan Alter

On Controversial Buildings:

"If you can have a porno shop and a strip joint, you can have a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero." -Dr. Cornel West