Our relationship with nature is more one of being than having. We are nature: we do not have nature.

I do not intend to dispute in any way the need for defence cuts and the need for government spending cuts in general. I do not share a not in my backyard approach to government spending reductions.

We have in this country a federal government that increasingly is engaged in trying to determine which business, which regions, which industries will succeed, which will not through a whole range of economic development, regional development corporate subsidization programs.

The fact of the matter is, we have the strongest banking system in the world.

The media is tremendously important for all governments that are able to communicate through the it. It doesn't mean there is a balance of editorial opinion that favors what you are doing or that the opposition doesn't have its voice, but you have to be able to effectively communicate your story through the media.

On the justification for the war, it wasn't related to finding any particular weapon of mass destruction.

We've got to see a state where the Afghan government can handle its own day-to-day security.