Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

So very ready.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

This fight is for everything.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

This really is a full service blog.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

“Alexa, change the president.”

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Throw These Terms Under The Bus

Throw These Terms Under The Bus

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After the 2008 election, I will support any President who pushes to have fines attached to the usage of the following phrases:

flip-flop
throw under the bus
Sister Souljah moment

Twenty minutes of Morning Joe and listening to the bobbleheads and I am ready to kick puppies. You can add your own annoying phrases that should be banned.

*** Update ***

How did I forget “slap in the face?”

Reader Interactions

80Comments

  3. 3.

    Jake

    You can add your own annoying phrases that should be banned.

    How about the always annoying “Senator Joe Lieberman”? I’ve been instinctively cringing whenever I hear that phrase of late.

  6. 6.

    Huntly

    I have been curious lately, before 2004 what term was used to indicate what is now called “flip-flop?” I can’t imagine no one ever changed positions before Kerry did, but that phrase has become so ubiquitous that anything before has been scrubbed from my conscience.

  7. 7.

    EarBucket

    Huntly–“waffling,” I believe, was the term of choice. I know the GOP stuck it to Clinton in 1992.

  10. 10.

    Gizzi

    How does “practicing partisan politics” grab ya ?

    Every time I hear that, I want to hurl an overripe tomato in Joe LIEberman’s general direction.

  13. 13.

    Adrienne

    Hey Huntly:
    Before Kerry they called it triangulation. But Rovian politics required something shorter and more accessible to low info voters so it could stick. You know, they had to dumb it down for the stoopids!

  17. 17.

    Scott H

    Ethnic cleansing.

    ‘Cause if you say “genocide” you’re expected to do something about it.

  18. 18.

    gbear

    The word that seemed to just pop up for me about 6 years ago was ‘robust’. It seemed like everyone was describing everything as ‘robust’. Something about the sound of the word just grated on me. Maybe it was that Norm Coleman couldn’t complete a sentence without using it. Maybe because it was so often used when the word ‘tanking’ was more appropriate. Whatever, no one is finding reasons to use the word anymore.

  19. 19.

    RSA

    I’m tired of “reach across the aisle”, “heartland”, and “swiftboating”.

  20. 20.

    The Thinking Man's Mel Torme

    “on the table”

    “rock star” to refer to anyone not engaged in the actual playing of actual music.

    “bipartisan”

    “Andrea Mitchell”

  21. 21.

    The Thinking Man's Mel Torme

    Also, not a term, but any chowderhead who refers to a bill as needing 60 votes to pass the Senate is dispatched immediately to remedial junior high civics.

  22. 22.

    Scott H

    Oh, I second “bipartisan.” There’s partisan, there’s (some better word for) non-partisan, and then there’s the mendacious, avaricious, self-serving conspiracy to hose the American people once again (which would be bipartisan).

  23. 23.

    Kirk Norton

    I agree with “homeland.” Let’s just call it the Fatherland and be done with it.

  25. 25.

    cleek

    but any chowderhead who refers to a bill as needing 60 votes to pass the Senate

    a.k.a. “the entire staff @ NPR”

  26. 26.

    Wilfred

    Homeland!! Never. It is the lamest, most pathetically stupid gift that Bush ever gave the (formerly known as) America:

    God Bless Homelandia
    Land of my home
    It’s my Homeland,
    and you know, man
    That it’s where I really want to be.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    In England, with Liberal, Conservative and Labour Parties, would it be ‘tripartisan’? And on the multi-party continent, ‘polypartisan’?

    Also interesting (tangentally), the divergent meanings of Liberal/Conservative in Europe vs. the US, and the change in what passes for conservatism (know-nothing lunacy) today.

  28. 28.

    Keith

    “the tools they need” (although given today’s climate “the tools they are” should be allowed)

  32. 32.

    tessellated

    I nominate “play the ____ card”

    It’s a poisonous and over-used phrase that substitutes lazy gamesmanship for any real analysis. It should be a firing offense.

  34. 34.

    tessellated

    Hmm. The underscores seem to have disappeared from my post above. The annoying phrase should be:

    “Play the XXXX card”

  35. 35.

    CFisher

    Adding the ‘-gate’ suffix to any scandal.

    ‘Bill Kristol’

    ‘Maureen Dowd’

  36. 36.

    Scott H

    Yeah. “Homeland” very nearly rivals Richard Nixon’s design for the “White House Guard” uniforms. Just try googling for an image. That’s a bit of history that needed disappearing. So, never mind, don’t google – you might find a photo, and I can’t be responsible.

    A little more subtle, using conservative when reactionary is wanting, and Christian instead of Pauline.

  39. 39.

    chiggins

    “Unprecedented”.

    (unless of course the thing is question really hasn’t ever happened before.)

    “Contractors”.

    They’re mercenaries. Call ’em what they are, then see how America feels about having 10’s of thousands of ’em in Iraq, on our payroll. Better still, call ’em what they are and see how America feels about the possibility of them coming to your town in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

  40. 40.

    redwards95

    “President Bush”
    “Karl Rove”
    “Vice President Cheney”
    “statistical dead heat”
    “giving comfort to our enemies”
    “appeasing”
    “gas tax holiday”
    “35 years of experience”
    “command in chief threshold”
    “foreign policy credentials”
    “yes we can”
    “change”

  41. 41.

    Chris Johnson

    They should be forced to call Homeland the ‘Rodina’, from the original Soviet :)

    In Soviet Russia, Homeland collapses for you!

  42. 42.

    Garrigus Carraig

    I too can’t believe how quickly the talking heads have adopted “homeland”. It’s like a fascist takeover is being plotted and everyone is in on it except me. “Homeland”? Srsly?

    Although I would like to get rid of the DHS wholesale, I can live with changing its name at 12:05 on 20 January. Or this afternoon.

  43. 43.

    Laura W

    Bittergate
    Former Presidential Candidate and MSNBC Political Analyst, Pat Buchannan
    Working Class Whites
    Soccer Moms
    Disaffected Clinton Voters
    Obama/Clinton Dream Ticket

    I’m proud to say that ever since Scarborough went after Maddow on July 3, was it, on the Race faux-show, I have been Morning Joe clean and sober! It’s easier than I thought. Maybe he’s on vacation this week since he has mercifully not appeared on Race all week. I am so Joe-Free that I do not even know if he is on vacation. I honestly find my waking up hours far more relaxed with much less screaming at the tee vee and kicking my cats. (Bad joke. No cat kicking. Or not intentionally.)

  44. 44.

    JoyceH

    It’s new just this season, but I’m already sick of all the bloviating about whether or not an endorsement is ‘full-throated’ enough.

  45. 45.

    MH

    Homeland 100% needs to go. That was creepy as fuck back in 2001.

    Second on “Reagan democrats” and “under the bus”.

    I’ll add “fix social security” to the pile.

  46. 46.

    Bootlegger

    Surrender in Iraq
    Surrender to terrorists

    Wouldn’t this be the first one-sided surrender in history? Unless of course they actually mean that The Whippersnapper intends to have General Petreus actually surreneder his army to bin-Ladin.

    It’s a change election

  47. 47.

    EL

    I would have added “speaking truth to power,” but that one finally seems to be fading.

  50. 50.

    jake

    Family Values is long overdue for a trip to the scrap heap.

    Sanctity of marriage.

    [Fill in the blank]gate.

    Comparing any current or future conflict to WWII unless Germany has in fact invaded Poland..

    Ditto Hitler/Nazis.

  53. 53.

    b-psycho

    While we’re at it, how ’bout banning “middle-class” as a description during policy talk?

    It obscures way more than it describes. One cannot have a category that includes both a household that’s merely two paychecks away from being on the street instead of one, and puffy suburbanites with a huge house & two-car garage bitching about the cost to fill up their SUVs, without that category being completely meaningless. The lower end of that frankenclass might as well be working-poor (rhetorical question break: how come no one talks about the poor in this context? Yeah, the poor, remember them? Those people that actually fucking need help?). As for the higher end, honestly fuck them. This completely artificial style of living that has been declared The American Way ignorant of any semblance of long-term thought needs to go away, or we’re all going to suffer for it, and while I’d rather the brunt of the damage go towards the corporate interests that dragged us along so far, if achieving a more reasonable standard requires some soccer moms to cry in the process, then so be it.

  54. 54.

    plus C

    While we’re at it, how ‘bout banning “middle-class” as a description during policy talk?

    This.

    Also:
    “The gloves are off”

    “Largest ______ in history”
    “Activist judges”

  55. 55.

    Pasota

    This is more of preemptive strike at one that I predict we will be hearing more of:

    “thumbing [its/his/their] nose at”

    This can now almost be called a time-honored justification for any sort of military mayhem, up to and including war, that the U.S. might care to dish out.

    And, oh yeah, “Commander-in-Chief” when immediately preceded by the word our.

  56. 56.

    sidereal

    Any blogger who uses ‘blood and treasure’, ‘klieg lights’, or ‘Sturm und Drang’ (bonus points for ignoring the German capitalization scheme) should be sent to Guantanamo. Everyone knows they saw it on some other blog, googled it, and now want to pretend like it’s a term they’ve been using their whole life.

  57. 57.

    plus C

    Oh, and “Democratic congress” for a 49-49-2 senate and with Bush as the de facto leader of both chambers.

  58. 58.

    tom.a

    I would to add “it’s a perfect storm of ‘X'” to that list, haven’t heard it lately but all through the primary I heard it non stop.

  60. 60.

    marge

    And “folks”. I am not folks, I am a person, a citizen of the United States, a women. I don’t even know any folks and these politicians certainly don’t know me. It is such a disrespectful way of describing who the American people are. I have no problem with folk dancing or folk art but folk voters? no way.

  61. 61.

    caune

    Attack

    anytime someone expresses a contrary opinion the press calls it an attack..ahhhh

  63. 63.

    Soylent Green

    Hero.

    Applied to you if you do your job as trained, get yourself killed (even resulting from your own mistake), or serve in the military in any capacity.

  65. 65.

    YellowJournalism

    “suicide bomber”
    “Hollywood liberals”
    “Jesse Jackson”
    “MSM”
    “wave” of anything

  66. 66.

    UncleCharlie

    While we are busy eliminating catchphrases, can we mercifully eliminate ‘I tip my hat’ or ‘I tip my cap’ from any and all sports interviews forever?

  69. 69.

    Tax Analyst

    Keith Says:

    “the tools they need” (although given today’s climate “the tools they are” should be allowed)

    That phrase oughtta be “the tools they be“, or alternatively, “What tools these mortals be”.

    Apologies to Shakespeare

  74. 74.

    JenJen

    “Resonate.” “Resonating?” “Resonates.” “Resonate?”

    Followed/proceeded closely by word, “Voter.”

  75. 75.

    MissLaura

    I did a post on terms I wanted to see gone a little while back. My two favorites:

    “__________ has died.” (innocence/the Constitution/democracy)
    “Third rail of American politics.”

  77. 77.

    datacine

    Jon Says:

    To keep your references correct it’s Sista Soulja not Sister

    No, it’s Sister Souljah, like so.

    thanks for the correction

  78. 78.

    Anonymous

    My nominations for terms to throw under the bus:

    tsunami (except for the real thing)
    "photoshop" as a verb
    9/11
    christian nation (what is this, a new Iran?)
    "swiftboat" as a verb
    "president bush" (pre-emptive pending his removal from power)
    pre-emptive
    and last but not least…. Under the Bus!

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