Some in this chamber are new to the House and the Senate — and I congratulate the Democrat majority.

I'm not through yet, you know I was uhh. Uhh — hehe — the, umm, it is — I'm glad my Vice President is not running for President, not that he would make a great President, but that it, uhh, it certainly changes the dynamics inside the White House. It's uhh — and it is an amazing moment, you're right, it's, I, I guess it's the most wide-open race ever. Oh, it can't be ever. Ever's too long. But — in a long time.

STUDENT: My question is in regards to private military contractors. Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq. I asked your Secretary of Defense a couple months ago what law governs their actions.
DUBYA: I was going to ask him. Go ahead. Help.
STUDENT: I was hoping your answer might be a little more specific. Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. However, Iraq is clearly not currently capable of enforcing its laws, much less against — over our American military contractors. I would submit to you that in this case, this is one case that privatization is not a solution. And, Mr. President, how do you propose to bring private military contractors under a system of law?
DUBYA: I appreciate that very much. I wasn't kidding — I was going to — I pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, I've got an interesting question. This is what delegation — I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it's kind of convenient in this case, but never — I really will — I'm going to call the Secretary and say you brought up a very valid question, and what are we doing about it? That's how I work. I'm — thanks.

After the bombing, most Iraqis saw what the — perpetuators of the, of this attack were trying to do.

The third part of our plan is to develop new technologies to defend against IEDs. We're puttin' the best minds in America to work on this effort. The Department Defense recently garnered some 6 — gathered 600 leaders from industry and academmia, the national laboratories, the National Academy of Sciences, all branches of the military, and every — uhh, relevant government agency to discuss technology solutions to the IED threat.

See, NORTHCOM is the main entity that interfaces, that uses federal assets, federal troops to interface with local and state government. I want to watch that relationship. It's an important relationship, and I need to understand how it works better.

The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else. That is one of the main differences between us and our enemies.

The campaign has ended, and the United States of America goes forward with confidence and faith.

I want to thank you all for your hard work. I was impressed every day by how hard and how skillful our team was.

The only thing I know for certain is that they are bad people.

For years the freedom of our people were really never in doubt.

And I want to thank the federal employees who have heard the call to love their neighbor just like you would like to be loved yourself.

You'll find that employees walk a little better down the halls of your companies when you've encouraged them to help a neighbor in need.

The wars of the past had known battlefields and it was clear that such-and-such had to happen. There had to be an invasion in order to achieve this or that. This is a hunt for individuals. We're chasing down one person at a time. They were foolishly collected up at one point in time in the Sha-i-kot Mountains, and it was a tough chore. But our brave soldiers, along with coalition soldiers, were able to go in and score great success at bringing them to justice, as I like to put it.

And we need to spend money on helping workers who were — lost their job as a result of the attack of September the 11th. I believe we need to expend — extend and expand that unemployment benefits to those workers.

We're united behind the fact that we must rise to this occasion.

We are not at war with Muslims. We don't have a beef with Muslims. We want to be friends with Muslims and Muslim children.

She had a relative named Eisenhower, and he and I share something in common — we're both Presidents.

The people who did this act on America and who may be planning further acts are evil people... They're flat evil. All they can think about is evil. And as a nation of good folks, we're going to hunt them down, and we're going to find them, and we will bring them to justice. Ours is a nation that does not seek revenge, but we do seek justice.

Nobody can threaten this country. Oh, they may be able to bomb a buildings...

I can't tell you what it's like to be in Europe, for example, to be talking about the greatness of America. But the true greatness of America are the people.

Natural gas needs to move in our hemisphere. It needs to move easily across our borders to find markets, to be able to ease the pressures of reduced supply all around the country.

And we need a full affront on an energy crisis that is real in California and looms for other parts of our country if we don't move quickly.

In terms of the CO2 issue... we will not do anything that harms our economy. Because, first things first, are the people who live in America.

If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything.

The people who care more about that land are the hard-working farmers and ranchers of your part of the state of Washington, D.C.