Verbatim

"If this makes the climate loonies in the States realize we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation." JOHN LAWTON, chairman of Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, referring to neoconservatives and Bush Administration officials who deny what he says is the reality of global warming, a by-product of which may be increased storm intensity

"The British troops should stop these barbarian and illegal actions." MOHAMMED AL-WAILI, Iraqi governor of Basra, on British troops' storming a police station there in an effort to free two of their soldiers, who were rumored to have been handed over to Shi'ite militia members but were found in a house nearby

"I'm not too sure if his heart is as big as his head." HARRY REID, Senate minority leader, on his decision to vote against U.S. Chief Justice nominee John Roberts, before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 to recommend Roberts' confirmation

"I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." BILL FRIST, Senate majority leader, in a 2003 interview, on what he did with his stake in his family's company to eliminate a seeming conflict of interest--the same motivation his spokeswoman gave last week for his request in June to sell his remaining shares as insiders were dumping HCA stock before its price fell, prompting federal investigations into Frist's sale

"We couldn't believe the irony that we might be watching our own demise on television. That seemed a little bit post-post-modern." ALEXANDRA JACOBS, one of 140 passengers on JetBlue Flight 292, on watching live news coverage of the airplane hovering above Los Angeles as the pilot tried to unjam the landing gear; all aboard survived the rough landing

"It's not like we don't know it's bad for us. It's written all over the damn can." B.J. SCHUMACHER, competitive bull rider, on an Oregon rodeo's banning tobacco companies from giving free snuff to contestants

"I didn't know Lenin was a player." BARACK OBAMA, Illinois Senator, after being told by a tour guide in Moscow that some of the Russian leader's lovers were rumored to be buried in the Kremlin wall by his tomb

Sources: The Independent; AP; Chicago Tribune; AP; CNN; AP; Chicago Tribune