Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
From Dave Pell at Electablog
President Bush invited Indy 500 champ Buddy Rice into the Oval Office where he compared Rice’s racing team with his own administration and explained:
“I’m the driver of our team here.”
Someone should tell this guy that he’s been driving around with his blinker on for four years.
TBogg in an interview at Catch —
Which writers or bloggers are your biggest influences?
James Lileks. He is the Thomas Kinkade of blogging, in the sense that no one can fathom why he’s so popular.
See below for NewMexiKen’s first posting on the Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr duel that took place 200 years ago today. Ron Chernow, author of the currently best-selling biography of Hamilton, has an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times that puts the shooting into a broader, more analytical historical context.
“Yet, there [McCain] is, seriously on board with people who’d sell him back to the Vietnamese if they thought it meant 10 points in Ohio this fall.”
Charles Pierce writing as a correspondent to Altercation
Dan Froomkin at The Washington Post sharpens the focus:
A theme increasingly running through President Bush’s public messages these days (even more than his constant insistence that he is optimistic) is that his values are America’s values.
Bush is hoping to persuade American voters that his own morality, faith and patriotism stand in contrast to Senator John F. Kerry’s and more closely mirror their own. It’s a powerful assertion.
But it’s an assertion that is vehemently challenged by Democrats — and it may have some risks.
Imagine what would happen if, for instance, it were to turn out that Bush was using terror warnings for political purposes; or if he shirked his National Guard duty in Vietnam; or if one of his top aides were charged with outing a CIA operative as an act of political retaliation; or if he is perceived as being part and parcel with the likes of indicted former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth L. Lay.
Imagine.
“Truth decay”
Applied by Tim Dunlop to the larger issue of relativism in politics — as opposed to actual Truth. NewMexiKen thinks it applies even better to the news media specifically.
“Fahrenheit 9/11” Not Even About Temperature, Say Republicans
Tom Burka, Opinions You Should Have
Link via Eschaton.
“[P]eople who appear to be mentally unbalanced, and not always in a good way.”
Billmon talking about some of those making comments at Whiskey Bar.
“[A]nother NBA draft that should have been televised by Nickelodeon.”
Greg at the Sports Law Blog
“In fact, the most heartbreaking thing about F 9/11 is that we are now engaged in the national argument over a film that we should have had about going to war.”
Charles Pierce reviewing the film for Altercation
“Bill Clinton, who has written more books than George Bush has read…”
— TBogg
“We think Dick Gephardt is our father’s oldsmobile and uninspiring.”
“[T]he ultimate test of good writing: it is more painful to stop reading them than it is to keep going.”
Louis Menand in The New Yorker
The question, in the NBA and in life, is not whether or not you can shoot. The question is whether or not you can get your shot.
Ralph Wiley at ESPN.com: Page 2 (May 27, 2004).
Wiley died of heart failure this past Sunday at age 52. In the column noted above he speculated that the Pistons “have a better-than-even shot of exploding the Laker Myth.”
“It is a hot day at Santa’s workshop when I say something nice about …”
At first I didn’t mind the prospect of investing an entire afternoon in a sporting event, but that was before I knew that Bob Costas would be involved.
Headline in the Detroit Free Press, referring to last night’s win by the Lakers:
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
See the Freep front page [pdf].
“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt after all.”
Eric Alterman
“Cold enough world without gettin’ done against by your own.”
Seth Bullock, Deadwood, Episode 11
Grammar rule from the best-selling Eats, Shoots & Leaves: “don’t use commas like a stupid person.”
“Annoy the media! Elect John Kerry!”
“The movie [The Day After Tomorrow] raised many interesting questions, the most important of which was probably, if there were another ice age, what would be the best SUV to have?”
Visiting blogger Tom Smith at The Volokh Conspiracy
“Like they say, politics is show business for ugly people.”
Susan DuQuesnay at Juanita’s
“Tom [DeLay] doesn’t believe that man evolved from lower animals likes apes. That’s because he didn’t. His knuckles still drag the ground.”
“If God did choose George Bush, it wasn’t to lead us. It was to test us.”
Comment at Eschaton