Hotkey (Keyboard Shortcut) for selecting (highlighting) the current line

I love using shift-ctrl-c to grab text from the terminal. Use it dozens of times a day, but just wish I could stay away from the mouse by highlighting the current line with the keyboard. It's the "missing link" for my workflow. Some ideas for hotkeys:

* [shift]-[ctrl]-[a] to cause cursor to move to the beginning of line "dragging" highlighting along the way
* [ctrl]-[a] in series to select ever more text:
  - once to grab current line
  - twice to grab current line including prompt
  - thrice to grab "page"
  - fource to grab entire session
* gedit style: [shift]-[arrow-key] to move cursor as normal, but drag highlighting along the way
* vim style (seems awkward): ? [shift]-[ctrl]-[h] and [i] to move cursor left/right while highlighting
* emacs style: ?
* nano style: ?