BATTLE STATIONS!! Big Tobacco Taking Aim At YOUR E-Cig

 It's Time to "Kiss the Girlfriend"

Clearing the air is lots easier when there's no cigarette smoke

MeanMesa is an old smoker.  Even when considered over generously, that claim is more than substantiated by decades of pack a day plus cigarette use.

There have been a few -- very few -- attempts to quit, but the picture was never a pretty one.  There's something a little degrading about a grown man scratching off the dry wall with his bloody finger nails, not to mention the look of pale, condescending terror in the faces of all those victims in his household while the train wreck is unfolding.

So, in terms of "kissing the girlfriend," there is little comfort to be extracted from denial.  This old bird is a nicotine addict.

With that out of the way, let's have a short little story to introduce this post.

MeanMesa makes a habit of planting someone who needs a little help in the spare bedroom.  The young man just prior to its current resident was also a heavy smoker, but this new fellow, looking around the dingy walls covered with years of tar and nicotine got the idea that he would "inspire" the landlord to paint the apartment which serves as the Galactic Headquarters of Short Current Essays.

It All Started With A Paint Job

Well, the maintenance man came, buckets or paint, ladders and rollers in hand, and painted the whole thing -- some shade of suspiciously industrial "white like" cream color.

Looking at all those newly painted ceilings and walls brought a "moment of clarity."

The visual comparison between what they looked like now and what they looked like before emboldened this young associate to propose the unthinkable.  "We should both quit smoking."

The words landed on MeanMesa like the "Arizona asteroid."  A rationalizer with long experience, the response was easy and instant.  "At this age, this geriatric codger has not the slightest inclination to spend the precious short remainder of his life in a state of bitter, anti-social insanity -- the inevitable state which would automatically follow such a decision.  In any case, if these things haven't killed MeanMesa yet, it probably portends a natural destiny to die from something else."

This young room mate almost instantly produced an e-cig, informing MeanMesa that he intended to use this new contraption instead of cigarettes.

Further, he emphasized in a sort of irritating, patronizing tone that this decision of his was not at all similar to the brutal prospect of simply quitting, that is, anything similar to the history of such attempts in MeanMesa's long past --  memories of cruel, self-inflicted hyperbole such as cold turkey, line in the sand or die trying.  

Instead, he continued, the e-cigs would continue to provide the nicotine needed to assuage MeanMesa's openly admitted addiction, but in a much healthier way, that is, without the carcinogenic smoke and additives found in commercial cigarettes.  He immediately added more even more persuasive nonsense about "feeling better" and "not having brown stuff dripping down the walls."

For "icing on the cake," this little trouble maker offered up the significant cost savings the change would bring.  At the time this household of two smokers was plunking down around $200 a month for the old cancer sticks.

[The cost of sustaining two functioning e-cigs is now around $35/month.]

The metamorphosis from cigarette smoker to e-cig user revealed the primal depths of the cigarette smoking habit.  One on occasion MeanMesa suddenly  froze while trying to "light" the e-cig battery with a cigarette lighter while working on the computer!

It doesn't stink.  It doesn't stain. It doesn't smoke. [image source]

The rules for the change were intentionally not dramatic.  A carton of the old cancer sticks was tucked away in the freezer, and the plan was simple.  Whenever the craving for a "burning" cigarette became too strong, just smoke one.  However, as one week turned to another, there were more and more days without any cigarette at all!  

And, this was unbelievably easy!  Without "Jonesing" for nicotine -- now quietly supplied by the e-cig -- these "cigarette breaks" became less and less satisfying.  The fantasy of "how good it will taste" became a disgusting reality accompanied by smashing half an unsmoked cigarette in the ash tray.

Now, for the amazing part of the story.

A month after replacing that last cigarette with the e-cig, MeanMesa jumped in the swimming pool and swam a mile without getting winded!  It has been two and a half years since that last cigarette.

With that in mind, let's get to the Big Tobacco Attack part of this post.

Big Tobacco Will Do Just About Anything

Including "buying" JUST ABOUT ANYBODY.

Even more than the millions Big Tobacco was forced to spend advertising the horrible consequences of smoking, the e-cig has driven a "stake through the heart" of the gigantic industry in a way no legislation could dream of doing.  As more and more smokers discover that they, too, can make this money and health saving change, cigarette sales have started dropping for the first time.

We can all remember the brazen corruption of John Boehner as House Minority Leader passing out tobacco lobbyists' checks on the House floor to protect the subsidies for cigarette makers. [Read the whole December 2010, Examiner article here.]

Did Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican Minority Leader who is likely to become the next Speaker of the House actually hand out tobacco company checks as bribes to legislators before a US House vote?

Yes, he did…and he even admits that he did it.

We should hardly be surprised that Big Tobacco has "gotten out the Big Guns" and, of course, the check books to regain control of the nicotine addiction market they have spent so much developing over the centuries.  Even a cursory review of the recent history of their behavior paints them in a picture dismally familiar to the "American free enterprise oligarchs" who pulled a similar scheme selling Indian opium in China century ago.

While this post could rattle on and on about the different strategies we can expect in this latest challenge to Big Tobacco's glory, a specific example may suit just as well.

A Quick Visit to the Local News

MeanMesa's abusive cable contract presents the local broadcaster, KOB, on Albuquerque's Channel Four.  Because the other local stations have long ago succumbed to the right wing check books and become thinly veiled, salivating camp followers of Murdoch's FOX Empire, MeanMesa relies on good old Channel Four [ABC] for local news -- coverage which is, generally, pretty good quality.

However, last week the Channel Four folks, while preparing their weekly allotment of time-fillers, put together a special in their series "4 On Your Side" titled "Clearing the Air on E-Cigs" in which was intended to inform viewers with pertinent facts about the product.  The reporter found a sympathetic doctor from the local Presbyterian Medical Group for this "revealing" and "riveting" interview.

An excerpt is presented below.  [Watch the video or read the entire transcript here. ]

"4 On Your Side"

"Clearing the Air on E-Cigs"

Part of not having rules means regulators aren’t watching over what goes inside the e-cig.  No one knows that better than Denise Gonzales, M.D. of the Presbyterian Medical Group. 

 

"I had a patient I took care of in the ICU who used e-cigs,” Dr. Gonzales explained.  “It's very likely that the fluid he vaporized and inhaled was contaminated.  He got a very particular type of bacterial infection in his lungs from bacteria that grows in contaminated water.

Dr. Gonzales said her patient thought e-cigs were a safer alternative than traditional smoking, but turned out to be very wrong.

"This patient required artificial life support and was on a ventilator.  I had to go in and take biopsies of his lungs and treat him with antibiotics,” Dr. Gonzales said.  “He was a young person, only 19 and stayed in the hospital for two weeks."

There are no standards about the water the manufacturers puts in the e-cig cartridge.  So if the e-cig is made in China or any other foreign country, chances are the water inside comes from that same factory.

Countries like Portugal, Australia and Mexico have created regulation surrounding e-cigs.  Some blame a 2010 appellate court ruling for the U.S. being behind the ball in creating regulation.  U.S. courts determined that so long as e-cig companies aren't marketing themselves as a way to cure traditional smoking or any other disease, the product doesn't have to be tightly controlled by the FDA.

Although all this sounds "palatable" enough, just think about it for a moment.

Refresh your memory. What, exactly, was causing the young man's medical problem?

The implied answer is easy. It was poison water from China, right?

MeanMesa could not avoid a "mental LMAO" while listening to the "reporting." The problem is that this old blogger makes a trip to the "vapor store" at least once a month to purchase the fluid our household E-Cigs use. On those trips, the man at the counter always asks a few questions such as:

"What flavor would you like?"

"What nicotine level are you using?"
 

With this information carefully provided, he steps back a few feet to MIX the vapor fluid MeanMesa just ordered. Everything he is doing is quite visible. There are no secrets.
 

There is, most assuredly, NO contaminated water imported from China in the recipe.

Next week, Big Tobacco will probably announce that their latest, totally scientific E-Cig research proves the product will create unwanted pregnancies.

 

Latest Freedom Works Email - Cannibalism in GOP

Without a comment here is the email sent to MeanMesa from right wing tea bag owners, Freedom Works. 

Finally, it's starting to implode. [links disabled]



The email.

Dear MeanMesa,

House Speaker John Boehner and the failed political establishment are purging House Committees of fiscal conservatives.

So far, Reps. Amash, Huelskamp, and Schweikert have been removed from their respective committees for refusing to vote in lock step with the Republicans on endless spending. These members have been some of the most reliable votes for economic freedom and the Constitution, and they are now being punished for their loyalty to their Oath of Office.

Click here to call Boehner right now and tell him to restore these Members to their Committees.

These statesmen have been fighting tirelessly for us, and now we must fight for them.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (KS) – Removed from the House Budget Committee (96% FreedomWorks Lifetime Rating).

Rep. Justin Amash (MI) – Removed from the House Budget Committee (100% FreedomWorks Lifetime Rating).

Rep. David Schweikert (AZ) – Removed from the House Financial Services (96% FreedomWorks Lifetime Rating).

It’s bad enough we have to fight the big-spending liberal Democrats. But with friends like Boehner, who needs liberals?

Call Boehner Now!

The Republican leadership is tired of principled fiscal conservatives fighting against their big-government agenda, and this is just the first shot. We need to send a message to Boehner that we will not allow our most valued Congressmen to be purged for upholding their commitment to economic freedom and the Constitution.

In Liberty,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO, FreedomWorks

The "Odd Couple:" Boehner and PayGo

Sometimes events arising from the intricacies of raw fate  simply flow together uncontrollably, fabricating grotesque, coincidental situations which are so sinister that we begin to search under every rock and in every crevice for  some comforting evidence of conspiracy or terrorism.  After these "mousetraps" have snapped shut on our unsuspecting fellow travelers, previous areas of disagreement seem to pale as we stare at the difficulties which have emerged to confront our old opponents now trapped and suffering under the fanciful waltz of unconcerned destiny.

It's probably something akin to "outrageous fortune." 

After our mid-terms, the narcotically soothing tragedies of the latest round of such furtive traps are now in place.  Life's inebriated carelessness is now in full advance.  An unhappy marriage has been arranged which shows no compassion for our love torn youngsters.

Who will suffer from this cosmic insult?  What bright faced boy now finds himself chained to the toothy harpy where the heady prospect of marital bliss descends at once to torment and desolation?

Are we talking about Obama and the new Republican House of Representatives?

No.  Actually, things are not that bad on our ship of state.

Instead, we are noting another, somewhat distant, new matrimony.  It is the "shotgun wedding" between Mr. John "the Boner" Boehner and an under publicized "mousetrap" which has been firmly anchored in the House policy by the Democrats who were in charge until last week.  

The groom, Mr. Boehner has, perhaps, just now met his bride, the House policy of "pay as you go" (PayGo).

Under the old management, PayGo has -- in the first budget of the Obama administration -- already reduced the monumental deficits of the last Republican administration by $200 Billion.  That would be the first deficit reduction we have seen in years.  In a world where Fox "News" controls the misinformation flow to "low information voters," most Americans don't know anything about this.

It's as if such facts go quietly into an unopened Birthday Present along with tax cuts for the middle class, newly insured families, material corrections to a long neglected infrastructure, the withdrawal from the murderous W's oil war in Iraq and so on.  The cheap, political pornography in the birthday card which has been "opened" tells a different story -- tax increases, per job costs calculated as if stimulus projects produced nothing else  (not repaired highways) and the "ObamaCare spending bill," all "topped off" with more white sugar frosting and a phoney label claiming that this soiled cake is, actually, "healthy food taken right off the table of our Founding Fathers."

A tide of misinformation may seem like facts and causes, but when the hypnosis of relentless complaints inevitably ends, it reveals itself as no more than the foamy spray careening along the top of actual waves of green water below. 

PayGo says that whatever the House may do, it must also pay for, and the "pay for" part will expose itself as "green water" rather quickly.  The immediate future of John Boehner's House of Representatives literally begs Hamlet for the Dane's dark prognosis.

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.3

A few MeanMesa examples may aid in making this posting's point.

Extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% will cost an estimated $700 billion before that stinky bill can "sunset" again in 2020.  Obama need only insist that the $700 billion be off set by savings from spending or tax increases before the tax cuts are renewed.

Repealing the health insurance reform will cost $1.3 trillion over the next ten years.  Come on, John, pony up the money.  You know, "Pay as You Go."  Of course your campaign sponsors from the insurance industry are salivating at the prospect of continuing their "profit" extraction schemes, but you'll have to cut something else to actually be able to hand them the cash.  Regardless of what Murdoch's dancing chorus has said, the bill we have right now is, of course, revenue neutral.

Although there are no details just yet, MeanMesa has to assume that Boehner will reinstate a nice collection of expensive Cold War weapons procurement programs.  After all, Boeing and Lockheed were not bashful farm girls at the ball where untraceable, Citizen United campaign donations were being collected like stolen kisses.  Ridiculous re-armament expenditures will be a task which will undoubtedly be made much easier after Fox "News" unleashes its next terror campaign on the geriatric hill billies and the stumbling American Legion bar sots.

Oh dear.  John, where-oh-where will you get all this Treasury "tax and spend" blood money to pay back the loan sharks which delivered the cash for your campaign?

Well, although the new "throw-backs-in-charge" have been very secretive about their plans to free up tax dollars to pay off their debts, a few "great ideas" have slipped through the net thanks to the babbling Senate tea bag girls who talked too much.

Thanks, Sarah, Christine, Lisa, Sharron, Carly and friends.

Abolish the Department of Education.  That thing has just made all sorts of disgruntled tax payers, and the GOP always does better with illiterates for voters.

Privatize Social Security.  That multi-trillion dollar trust fund has been nothing but a constant tease for your Wall Street contributors.

Repealing the banks and brokerage regulation will add untold buckets of pretend  money to the economic growth figures in the GDP.  Never mind the little problem that none of those who will profit the most will actually pay much in taxes.

Charge the Federal Treasury for putting more Mexican Immigrants into contract prisons.  Long the favorite of Arizona's heavily soiled Governor, every day of incarceration adds a few bucks to the GDP and pads the pockets of the prison lobbyists filling her staff offices.

It's not all bad news, John.  You and your House Republicans can start borrowing again, too!  There are still a few billionaires in Russia, Dubai, China and Saudi Arabia anxious to own even more of the country.  The new House "management team" can just continue to reward off shoring jobs and selling domestic real estate until the boat is completely under water.  A few really tasty "Free Enterprise" favors will lubricate the process.

Nothing about this is particularly promising.

If things get overly sticky with too many destitute American voters, there's always the media opportunities of "big show" political tantrums.

This means that MeanMesa has to now suggest to folks who pay their rent with Social Security money should start tucking away as much as possible.  These Republican economic geniuses have also spoken openly about "shutting down the government" in the old Newt "Contract on America" Gingrich style.

The "Boner's" Game Hand - Will A Pair of Fours Beat the Straight?

MeanMesa is watching the leadership of the Republican Party inundate the broadcast hours of their "wholly owned media" with the newest strategy.  The idea is to simply present misinformation at a rate which will exceed the capacity to challenge it.

Leading the charge is the highly soiled House Minority Leader,  John "the Boner" Boehner (R - Ohio).  Equipped with an apparently inexhaustible supply of neo-con "talking points," we find "the Boner" luxuriating in a flood tide of unchallenged media time dedicated to his "not quite right" economic "facts."

Even our rather long suffering President has finally begun to face the facts in this case.  Obama has been "naming names" and speaking his mind.  

In a series of White House Blog articles, administration officials have been calling out "the Boner," offering up actual facts and numbers to rehabilitate the misinformation effort designed to deliver the mid-term elections to the GOP.

Happily, there is only so much that even a "mouth junk" expert such as "the Boner" can do with a raging horde of inflamed hill billies and bigots.  In fact, once this pack of "screamers" emerges from the boundaries of the trailer park, an actual count of numbers suggests that "the Boner" still needs to be looking for more votes.

All the sides of this conflict would settle the argument themselves if the White House side were a bit more successfully public.  The neo-con wing nuts, enjoying a "super editorial interest position" in the corporate media, are hogging the coverage to the detriment of much factual information being available to voters.

The White House Blog article which follows is a fine example.  It will undoubtedly reach a few million American voters who, like MeanMesa, subscribe to the site.  However, how many voters will never see it?

MeanMesa intends to do its part by publishing the article here.  The visit the site (source), link here.

The White House Blog

Boehner's Budget Gimmicks: Another Attempt to Hold Middle Class Tax Cuts Hostage

Posted by Jen Psaki on September 08, 2010 at 01:30 PM EDT 

 

 

It is disturbing but unfortunately not surprising that an entire political party would rally together to hold tax relief for middle class families hostage as leverage to push through tax cuts for the very richest Americans -- people who don’t need them and haven’t even asked for them. But that is apparently exactly what Republican Minority Leader John Boehner is trying to do.

Even as the Republican Party has tried to shed its dismal record on fiscal discipline, they have been consistent and unwavering in their attempts to borrow more than $700 billion to support permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. But giving an average $100,000 tax break to those making over $1,000,000 a year when we can’t afford them and they don’t need them is not sound economic policy.

The latest trick from Republican Minority Leader John Boehner says a lot about Republican priorities and strategy – and seems like an obvious recognition of just how irresponsible their position is. 

In an interview this morning he issued a half-hearted call for a two year extension of these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This is nothing more than a throwback to Bush-era budget gimmicks that helped get us into the fiscal mess we're in today, an attempt to mask the true budget-busting cost of the Republican agenda. If there was any doubt about that, it was eliminated when immediately after the interview he issued a press release making clear the Party’s continuing desire to borrow more than $700 billion to make these tax cuts permanent (“House Republicans will continue to fight to permanently stop job-killing tax hikes.”)

It is also ironic that Mr. Boehner would suggest a two year extension of all tax cuts while preaching about uncertainty for businesses.  President Obama believes that the working families who have been hardest hit over the last decade deserve the certainty of knowing that their taxes are not at risk of being raised only one or two years from now.  That is why the President is proposing to make all middle class tax cuts permanent, and why he is calling on Republicans to stop holding this relief hostage and pass a permanent extension of middle class tax cuts without delay.

Make no mistake, we simply cannot afford to follow Mr. Boehner and the Republican’s strategy of adding to our deficit for the sake of high-income tax cuts that the Congressional Budget Office determined were the least effective of all the measures it analyzed for creating jobs and supporting economic growth. And to hold middle class tax relief hostage to such an irresponsible proposal is beyond the pale.

Jen Psaki is Deputy Communications Director

Oooops! Was That A "Boner?"

MeanMesa is delighted to once again elevate our clean little blog with the latest White House rebuttal to the endless "gloom and doom" messages from House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio).

This guy could completely fill an entire blogspot with nothing besides his own ranting.  MeanMesa promises that our postings will not get stuck in this swamp of misinformation, and this commentary from the White House is a good way to put that plan in motion!

From the White House Blog: Recovery Act.  Read the article here.

An Increasingly Awkward Dance

Posted by Jared Bernstein on August 25, 2010 at 04:09 PM EDT 

 

Ever since the Recovery Act passed last February, Congressional Republicans who opposed this economic rescue plan have had to do an awkward dance around the truth.  After all, when you declare from the beginning that the Recovery Act won’t create a single job, you’re going to be forced to do a little two-step around the facts as week after week leading economists, the nation’s governors, and even your own constituents say otherwise. 

But yesterday, when Representative Boehner declared that “all this ‘stimulus’ spending has gotten us nowhere” on the same day the nonpartisan CBO said the program has created or saved as many as 3.3 million jobs nationwide and his own home state’s Department of Transportation said nearly 9,500 construction workers were on the job in July just on Ohio Recovery Act transportation projects alone… well, let’s just say that dance got a little more… awkward.   

Now, Representative Boehner was one of the first to declare the Recovery Act dead on arrival - the day it was signed into law, he declared it would “do little to create jobs.”  But as soon as June 2009, as funding for Recovery Act transportation projects began to flow into Ohio, he said those dollars would be used for – get this – “shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs.”  [Boehner.House.gov, 6/15/09]

And then when the nonpartisan CBO, Congress’s top watchdog and an institution widely respected on both sides of the aisle, began weighing in on the job impact of the Recovery Act, the dance got a little more complicated.   Check out these quotes from Rep Boehner, followed by the facts:

AUGUST 2009: Maintains that stimulus hasn’t created any jobs:  “You know, after the $1 trillion dollars stimulus bill that didn’t create any jobs.”  [Hugh Hewitt Show, 8/29/09]

• NOVEMBER 2009: The nonpartisan CBO announces the Recovery Act created or saved as many as 1.6 million jobs through September 2009.  [CBO Report, 11/30/09]

JANUARY 2010: Says the stimulus “clearly hasn’t worked”: “Their trillion-dollar stimulus plan from a year ago clearly has not worked.”  [NPR, 1/27/10]

• FEBRUARY 2010: The nonpartisan CBO announces the Recovery Act has created or saved as many as 2.1 million jobs nationwide through December 2009.  [CBO Report, 2/23/10]

MAY 2010: Still asking where the jobs are: “Where are the jobs?” [Boehner Statement, 5/7/10

• MAY 2010: The nonpartisan CBO says the Recovery Act created or saved as many as 2.8 million jobs through March 2010.  [CBO Report, 5/25/10]

And then, of course, yesterday was the most difficult dance step of all: on the very same day that he declares in a major speech that the Recovery Act has “gotten us nowhere,” first,the nonpartisan CBO announces the Recovery Act has created as many as 3.3 million jobs nationwide and lowered the unemployment rate by as much as 1.8 percent through March of this year [CBO Report, 8/24/10], and then the Ohio Department of Transportation announces that nearly 9,500 construction workers were on the job on Ohio Recovery Act transportation projects in July, the highest monthly total since it began.  [Columbus Dispatch, 8/24/10]

I suspect those nearly 9,500 Ohio construction workers and 3.3 million Americans at work thanks to the Recovery act would disagree with Rep. Boehner’s statement that the Recovery Act has “gotten us nowhere.”