Verbatim

"This begins what may be a crucial week in determining future U.S. involvement in what has become a civil war in that country." BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC Nightly News anchor, following his network's decision to call the situation in Iraq a "civil war"

"There's all kinds of speculation about what may or may not be happening." PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, dismissing the use of the term civil war. His preferred phraseology: "sectarian violence"

"Sorry, haters. God is not finished with me yet." ALCEE HASTINGS, Florida Congressman, after House Speaker--elect Nancy Pelosi declined to name him Intelligence Committee chairman

"It seems whenever someone tries to say 'Peace on Earth' it is met with so much resistance." LISA JENSEN, Denver homeowner, after being told by her 200-home subdivision's board to take down a wreath shaped like a peace symbol. Some neighbors saw it as "politically divisive" during wartime

"Once we spread out into space ... our future should be safe." STEPHEN HAWKING, British physicist, on the necessity of expansion to other planets for the long-term survival of the human race

"We didn't want to fall back on the baby-switch story again." JULIE HANAN CARRUTHERS, executive producer of the ABC soap opera All My Children, explaining the decision to introduce the first pre-surgical transgendered character on daytime TV

Sources: NBC News; New York Times; Washington Post; AP (2); New York Daily News

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