Notes and quotes from the nation's news pages

This alleged economic upturn is not just a jobless recovery, it's a job loss recovery.

Bob Herbert of The New York Times, in response to a report that the recent decrease in unemployment rates is due to job candidates leaving the market, rather than finding work.

The dam has broken; it looks like we have the worst of all possible worlds.

Leon Panetta, former California Congressman and White House chief-of-staff, on the rapid influx of candidates for the California gubernatorial recall election

I've just about concluded that the real problem may be the President himself and that next year we ought to fire him and get a new one.

Al Gore, former Vice President, in a speech about false statements made in last year's State of the Union Address.

He is guilty, but he is not guilty as a planner; he does not have sufficient intelligence to become a mastermind.

Wirawan Adnan, lead counsel for Amrozi, shortly after his client was sentenced to death for his role in the bombing of a Bali nightclub last October that killed 202 people.

This is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history ... This is not normal government policy. What we have here is a form of looting.

George Akerlof, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, in a speech about economic reforms enacted since the beginning of President Bush's term.