Verbatim: Feb. 12, 2007

"If Maria Bartiromo could interview Maria Bartiromo, she would nail her on this thing."

CHARLES PAYNE, a financial analyst, about the CNBC business journalist who came under fire for her cozy relationships with sources after the resignation of a Citigroup executive was tied to his lavish spending, including trips with Bartiromo on the company jet

"I went on Amazon and ordered a copy of Kafka's The Trial because I needed a refresher course in bizarre legal procedures."

JON B. EISENBERG, Oregon lawyer who filed a suit challenging the National Security Administration's domestic surveillance program, after Justice Department lawyers used tactics like seeking to delete files from computers on which plaintiffs' lawyers prepared their case

"These are ugly decisions, but you either drink water or you die."

PETER BEATTIE, Premier of Queensland, Australia, who announced that owing to falling water levels--a result of the country's worst drought on record--the state will introduce drinking water containing recycled sewage water, starting next year

"All the time he was shaking my hand, I thought, Should I do a book report on him for my social studies class?"

EMMANUEL LIGGONS, 12, of Harlem, about Prince Charles, who played basketball with Liggons and his classmates during a visit to New York City with wife Camilla, part of a U.S. tour that also included a stop at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

"You get 79 channels here--ESPN!"

CALIFORNIA FELON, who relocated to a prison in Tennessee, in a state-sponsored videotape shown to inmates at overcrowded, racially charged California penitentiaries, to persuade the prisoners to transfer to jails in other parts of the country

Sources: Fox News; New York Times; BBC; New York Post; Los Angeles Times

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