Listen, the estate tax is a lousy deal, particularly for farmers and small business owners. I mean, you get taxed twice. You get taxed when you build your business, and then they tax you when you die.

DUBYA: Every good school — every school that succeeds — by the way, it's a Blue Ribbon School. So I asked Margaret — like, I remember coming up, everybody was a blue ribbon school. I don't know if you remember those days. It was kind of a feel-good era. Just say, okay, you're a blue ribbon school, and everybody feels better about education. There's less than 300 Blue Ribbon schools across America this year. I think — what did you say, thirteen —
EDUCATION SECRETARY MARGARET SPELLINGS: Two hundred and thirty nine public.
DUBYA: Two hundred thirty nine public schools are Blue Ribbon Schools, and maybe a dozen here in the state of Illinois.

I want everybody to vote. And I understand that parts of the Sunni area are being targeted by these killers. And their message is, if you vote, we'll kill you. But their real message is, is that we can't stand democracy. And — you know — if the free world steps back and lets these people have their way, it'll be we can't stand democracy here, and then we can't stand democracy there, and we'll never address the root causes of terror and hatred — which is frustration caused by tyranny.

First of all, we spend about $80 billion on asbestos litigation, and that could end up being $200 billion over time. Secondly, these asbestos suits have bankrupted a lot of companies, and that affects the workers here in Michigan and around the country. Thirdly, those with no major medal impairment now make up the vast majority of claims, while those who are truly sick are denied their day in court.

That's been the proven example around the world. Democracies equal peace.

And why is it [asbestos lawsuits] a national problem? Well, first of all, we spend about $80 billion on asbestos litigation, and that could end up being $200 billion over time. Secondly, these asbestos suits have bankrupted a lot of companies, and that affects the workers here in Michigan and around the country. Thirdly, those with no major medal impairment now make up the vast majority of claims, while those who are truly sick are denied their day in court.

And it was hard leadin' up the Afghan elections, as you remember. There was the lot of talk about how the — somebody was gonna get killed and they couldn't vote. And sure enough, when people were given a chance, millions of people showed up, and the first voter was a woman in a country where women had been savaged by the former government run by the Taliban. So, look, I know it's hard.

Well, I know there's an investigation going on, and I look forward to see the findings. But as I said, if he was mistreated because of his ethnicity, I'm going to be plenty hot. That means angry.

[We're] working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis there's a way to deal with their problems without going to war.