Year: 2010

Verbatim

Buck Banks

He’s very humble about being the President of the United States, especially in comparison to some presidents we’ve had who come across like they don’t need anybody’s help. I think he knows he’s in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot.

— Merle Haggard, in an interview with Rolling Stone, on meeting President Obama.

Verbatim

Trish

The economy really sucks. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees. So I think we should all rise up and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing because they’re destroying this country. They’re driving us into bankruptcy so that they can impose socialism on us…

— GEICO ad man R. Lee Ermey, commenting at a U.S. Marines Toys for Tots rally. If you think GEICO should can this asshat, let them know. Suggested subject line: “Can the Asshat.”

Americans Use Phone for Politics

Buck Banks

26%

Of American adults used their cell phone to learn about or participate in the 2010 mid-term election campaign, according to Pew Research. The mobile political user group is more male than female, young than old, better off financially than less well-off, and better educated than less well-educated. African-Americans also are more likely than whites or Hispanics to be in this group.

Time to Lose the Time-Worn Political Cliches

Buck Banks

In preparing for the coming elections of 2012, Politics Daily‘s Walter Shapiro says we should clean house on worn-out and meaningless political terms that crop up with lamentable regularity in speeches, columns and news stories:

Already, I am braced for the linguistic assault from 2011 trench warfare in Washington and the verbal pyrotechnics from the 2012 presidential campaign, even if Sarah Palin — the Elocution Queen of Alaska — does not run. That is why I have compiled a personal list of political words and phrases that have outlived their usefulness. In the quest for original political rhetoric, these cliché-ridden expressions should be sent to the glue factory, consigned to the dustbin of history, and shoved down the booby hatch.

It’s a well-written, wry piece that should not be taken with a grain of salt.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

I think we’ve become wussies … We’ve become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.

— Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), in a radio interview, still upset that the NFL postponed the Philadelphia Eagles-Minnesota Vikings football game due to snow.

Florida Legislature Set to Make Fake Pot Illegal

Buck Banks

Don't bogart that bogus bongo weed!
Don't bogart that bogus bongo weed!
Not content with having possession of real marijuana against the law in the state of Florida, the bright lights in the Florida senate and house are considering two bills that would make fake Mary Jane illegal, too, according to the Florida Times-Union. Makes you wonder what they are smoking ….

Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, and state Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, have filed identical bills in the House and Senate that would make the individual ingredients that make up the pretend pot — which is sold as “incense” — illegal. The stuff is described as dried herbs sprayed with chemicals, and it’s labeled not for human consumption.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has already announced that it is declaring the five main ingredients illegal for a period of one year while it studies the deceptive dope’s effects on human people. Not content to let the federal government do its job, the lawmakers are determined to outlaw the fakey whacky tobacky on the state level first.

Ironically, the stuff was created by John Huffman (huff-man, get it?), a researcher at South Carolina’s Clemson University, who was studying the effects of THC — the mellow in Jamaican yellow — on the brains of humans. Huffman maintains that the Jacksonville sinsemilla is not fit for human consumption, either.

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