"We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don't then our budgets are going to blow up. And we know that small businesses are going to need help." — President Barack Obama in a statement urging lawmakers not to try to jam a bill through, but to scale back his sweeping health care overhaul and keep parts of it alive in the wake of a stinging rebuke in the Senate race in Massachusetts.
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"The overall counterterrorism system did not do its job. It's in large part my responsibility." — National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair in comments conceding missteps in the government's handling of the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.
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"The credibility of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) depends on the thoroughness with which its procedures are adhered to. The procedures have been violated in this case. That must not be allowed to happen again because the credibility of climate change policy can only be based on credible science." — Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in an e-mail to The Associated Press after five glaring errors were discovered in one paragraph of the world's most authoritative report on global warming.
