“John McCain: A Third Bush Term”
Democratic National Committee
Category: Best Line of the Day
Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
Most absurd line of the day, so far
“Some parents wonder whether having children will mean the end of their high-design dream.”
Only if Legos, Thomas and Disney princesses are not considered high design.
See the article Parent Shock: Children Are Not Décor in The New York Times.
Best line of the night, so far
“Senate Ethics Committee gives Larry Craig a slap on the wrist, tap of the foot, pat on the ass.”
Most hypocritical line of the day, so far
“I don’t think [Amy Winehouse] should have won [five Grammys]. I think it sends a bad message to our young people who are trying to get into this business, the ones who are trying to do it right and really trying to keep themselves together. We have to stop rewarding bad behavior.”
Natalie Cole, admitted former user of LSD, heroin and crack cocaine.
One of the best lines of the day we’ve ever had, so far
“If they lift the ban on [airplane] cell-phone use, they better lift the ban on passengers beating the shit out of each other, too.”
First posted here three years ago today.
Worst president ever line of the day
George W. Bush: “[B]ut most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck.”
Wouldn’t that be an argument for raising taxes on the “rich people” to even the playing field?
Oh, and Ephraim, didn’t you say here last September that “Only the rich pay taxes”? Seems your president disagrees with you. 🙂
Best line of the day, so far
“In its malaise, America’s right-wingers have emerged as an ancestor-worshiping cult.”
German newspaper Sued Deutsche quoted at cab drollery. The newspaper explains:
Reagan’s political mixture – military rearmament, religious renewal, radical tax cuts, including reducing government — is not a cure for current problems: The nation can no longer cope with billions more for the Pentagon, ever more fanatical Christian zeal against abortion and gays, and more tax relief for the wealthy at the expense of already impoverished communities. More of this kind of drastic remedy à la Ronald would drive the country to ruin.
Sarah’s Dear Jimmy Letter
Naughty word alert!
Best line of the day, so far
“Amy Winehouse may want to attend the Grammys on Feb. 10, but it doesn’t look like she can go, go, go. She’s too busy going to rehab, to which she’d earlier said, ‘No, no, no,’ of course.”
Best line from a year ago worth repeating
“By the time [Bush’s] gone, this country is going to look like a hotel suite after Van Halen passed through town. We’re going to need to burn the mattresses, pull up the carpeting and start over.”
Runner-up:
“Joe was twenty, with fewer prospects than a box turtle on a four-lane highway.”
Gerri Hirshey, writing in Rolling Stone about Joe Brown, father of James Brown — The Definitive Profile of the Godfather of Soul.
Best line of the day, so far
“Watched our President give his last State of the Union last night – which is to say I made a margarita and yelled at the TV.”
Best line of the day, so far
Reported by Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen:
I’m finally reading Killing Yourself to Live, by Chuck Klosterman. He talks about how, just out of college, he got a job writing a column for the largest daily paper in North Dakota, which made him “a mini-celebrity in downtown Fargo.” Then he footnotes: “Which is kind of like being the hottest guy in the Traveling Wilburys.”
E.D.
“Electile Dysfunction: The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year.”
Best line of the campaign, so far
“If the constitution allowed it, I’d happily have Clinton back. I’d happily have Hillary in his place. But I don’t want them both.”
Josh Marshall in a very thoughtful piece titled “The Problem with Bill 2.0.”
Best line of the day, so far
[Tom] Friedman seems to be arguing here that [Chris] Matthews is simply paid to spout opinions, and that whether they are wise or stupid is not relevant to the discussion. I am now very confused. If your job is to spout opinions, isn’t the spouting of wise opinions a pretty good measure of whether or not you’re doing your job well? In our culture, the spouting of stupid opinions generally used to be left to people on barstools, just as the spouting of crazy opinions generally used to be left to the man in the park who thought he was Napoleon. One opinion is not as good as another.
Here’s a good word
Kakistocracy (from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)
SYLLABICATION: kak·is·toc·ra·cy
PRONUNCIATION: kăk
-stŏk’rə-sē, käk’
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. kak·is·toc·ra·cies
Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.ETYMOLOGY:
Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad; caco– + –cracy.
Oldest use: 1829.* Reference link 1
* Reference link 2PUTTING THE WORD TO USE:
“Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?” – 1876 OED
Best line of the day, so far
“You know—tonight? At the Republican debate? The debate which will be moderated by Tim Russert and his ‘trophy wife,’ Brian Williams?
Best line of the day, so far
“In the last 36 hours, I saw the centerpiece of my nest egg strategy go from an impressive stock portfolio to my decision to take the Giants and points in the Super Bowl.”
Best line of the morning, so far
A study determines that the Bush Administration lied in order to get the Iraq War started. The innovation of this study: statistics. Administration officials, according to the study, lied 935 times.
Remarkably, the President lied more than the Vice President. I’d have bet against that, myself, but it seems Vice President Cheney — while lying less — lied well with men in scoring position.
Headline of the day, so far
Amy checks into rehab – at last
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no, no, no’
Yes I’ve been black but when I come back you’ll know know know
I ain’t got the time and if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me go to rehab but I won’t go go go
Changed her mind I guess.
Best line last night, so far
“Here’s what I think about the Patriots. Uh, let’s just say at half time the Giants are up 60 to nothing. The end of the game the final score will be 67-60 Patriots.”
David Letterman (to Dan Patrick who picked the Giants)
Best Rudy line of the day, so far
“If Rudy Guiliani leaves New York City at 9:11 am, and drives his Porsche 911 to a campaign stop in Tallahassee (911 miles away), and arrives at 9:11pm, what is his average speed?”
Best quotation of the day, so far
“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.’ ”
Martin Luther King quoted by Andrew Tobias.
Best line of the day, so far
“Anger is a great antidepressant.”
John Lahr, in a New Yorker review of “Othello.”
Best snark of the day, so far
“It’s time to grow up and recognize that if we’re serious about this threat, we’ve got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security.” — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
“[Chertoff] frankly has as much credibility on telling people to ‘grow up’ as Geoffrey the Giraffe.” — Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-NY
Chertoff was defending rules effective January 31st requiring Americans to have a birth certificate or passport to re-enter the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.