Verbatim: Jul. 12, 2004

"Let freedom reign!" PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, after being informed that sovereign power in Iraq had been officially passed to the Iraqis

"I would like you to please hurry." AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI, appealing to NATO for more troops before his country's September elections

"It is as if I were to tell the United States how it should conduct its relations with Mexico." FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC, on President Bush's call for Turkey to be admitted to the European Union

"We want to make a light baby." GOVERNMENT-BACKED ARAB MILITIAMEN, who have been raping dark-skinned women as part of a campaign to ethnically cleanse Darfur, Sudan, of Africans

"My style is to be a diplomat, not a bomb thrower." DAN GLICKMAN, onetime Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture, just named to succeed Jack Valenti as chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America

"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, speaking to a group of wealthy supporters, suggesting they will lose some of the Bush Administration tax cuts if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress in the upcoming elections

"You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job because you didn't want to get an education and now you're [earning] minimum wage." BILL COSBY, speaking of black men, at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference

"This statement is another victory for the frozen-food industry in the ongoing campaign to earn appropriate recognition that 'frozen is fresh' when it comes to quality and nutrition." LESLIE G. SARASIN, head of the American Frozen Food Institute, referring to a statement issued by a congressional committee, which noted that along with fresh food, the committee "recognizes that frozen and canned fruits and vegetables also have value"

Sources: New York Times (2); Washington Post; New York Times; Telegraph; AP (2); AFFI