Punkin' Heads and Potentates

Common sense told most Americans the idea of giving away $5,000 savings bonds to every kid born in the country was a goofy notion.

Sen. Hillary Clinton showed rare virtue in pulling the plan off the table this week…and in its place, a wealth-redistribution gambit to entice more middle class Americans to save for retirement: $1,000 tax cuts in return for opening 401-K’s…the tax cuts to be paid for by the proceeds of Estate Taxes.
Must be an election year.

Speaking of which, Fred Thompson was on TV last night, and it wasn’t a re-run of “Law and Order.” The latest horse in the Republican race for the White House is being given pretty good marks in toe-to-toe discussions with Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney…but could catch heat for saying he’d "check with attorneys" before launching an attack on an Iranian nuclear facility.

In national polling, Thompson trails only Guiliani by 8-points, and is well ahead of the rest of the pack.

In Europe and the Middle East, terrorists’ target of choice is the public bus. At Fir Point Farms in Oregon, they drop 1,000-pound raw pumpkins on them.
Video footage is on YouTube showing the humongous gourd lifted 100-feet into the air by a crane and released to fall on an old airport bus.

Pretty pricey stunt, given the price of pumpkins this season…I hope terrorists don’t adapt this idea to their nefarious ways, and we’re left with electronic produce scanners at the grocery store. Nothing like exploding melons to take the edge off your day.

I am compiling a list of new words in the American English vernacular.
Your input is welcomed.

This word* emerged this morning while trying to pronounce the name of a foreign dignitary in a story we were covering. Can’t lie to you—I have to rehearse some of these names that have more syllables than I have teeth. Sometimes, I still get caught on them, and this morning, my tongue got in the way of my eye teeth, and could not work out the phonetic logjam.

Thus, we offer you “Consonated*:” What happens when your tongue gets stuck in your mouth trying to pronounce Middle-Eastern names.

If you're reading this from outside the US, please don't take offense.
It works both ways.
I know English words we take for granted are linguistically-challenging for peoples not accustomed to our unique dipthongs, tripthongs, and some plosives.

In fact, it would be interesting to see your posts, distant brethren, of American phrases and words you find equally baffling.