John McNicotine is now for the tobacco lobby after years of working against it.  He not only opposes the cigarette taxes he used to support but also opposes FDA regulation of the tobacco industry after years of supporting it.  McNicotine is an ex-smoker and should understand just how addictive nicotine is, and he even acknowledged the exceptionally high death rate for tobacco users when he joked that cigarette exports to Iran were part of his plot to kill Iranian citizens.  For McNicotine to cave in to the tobacco cartel is the ultimate flip-flop:
http://www.boston.com/...

Why has McNicotine caved in to the interests of the tobacco drug cartel?  It couldn't possibly have anything to do with hiring tobacco lobbyist Charlie Black as his senior adviser.  Move along folks.  There's nothing to see here:
http://firedoglake.com/...

Now let's use the traditional Rethug "moral values" and "sanctity of life" frames against McNicotine!  There's more in the flip.

Some family, friends and I have decided to get together at my house to watch Obama's nomination acceptance speech. With a chuckle, we decided to make it an "elitist" event.

I'm calling on the DKos Kommunity to help us out.

There are times when the Dog despairs that his fellow liberals will ever grow a sense of humor about some issues. It is this humorlessness that makes us easy targets for the witless Right, we are so serious, so earnest that we can not seem to let go a make a casual joke about an issue that we feel is really important.  The Dog gets it, some issues are to serious, or to potentially damaging to allow them to used in humor or even treated lightly in discussion. However, that does not make the habit of treating these issues with more import than the average man any less open to ridicule.

I just ran across this website.

This is where our modern day brownshirts have begun to get their supplies.

I know that this is not a long diary but I am just so sad.  I think about the path of fascism we are on as a country.  If we do not win this election, we will lose what is left of this nation.
Got Ammo

One of my favorite small blogs is this one:

http://seattleforbarackobama.blogspo...

They post lots of good Obama stuff.  Today, they posted a "what if Karl Rove worked for the Democrats" youtube "fake" attack ad against John McCain.

To see it, go below the fold:

There is a slow-motion pogrom going on in this country with Liberals as its victims.  They are shooting at us.  We are being murdered for our beliefs.

On Sunday, July 27, 2008, one Jim Adkisson entered a Unitarian Universalist Church and began shooting.  Reports indicate that Adkisson did not expect the Liberals to fight back, and was surprised when he was prevented from finishing his extermination of the group.  Adkisson's motive?  To kill Unitarians because of their liberal politics and friendliness towards gays.

On August 13, 2008, one Timothy Dale Johnson entered Democratic Party headquarters and shot Arkansas party chairman Bill Gwatney. Johnson had recently told people at the Baptist convention that he had lost his job.

What is the meaning of these events? What's next? Why have they happened? and why now?

My hypothesis on the flip.

It happened again. Another deranged right wing redneck murdered a liberal in Arkansas. It looks as though Bill Gwatney was shot to death in his office by a 50 year old redneck who hated "libruls".

Nothing like getting incensed while reading realclearpolitics in the morning.  Our good friend, Pat Buchanan (Buch the Puke) wrote an op-ed today, entitled "The Catholic Case Against Barack," which reflects his views expressed on such shows as Hardball or Morning Joe.  Essentially, Buch boils down the Catholic vote to abortion and abortion only.  This is a sad misunderstanding of Catholic voting patterns and viewpoints.

The struggle against Egalitarianism continues

More and more, Marxism has become confined to the academics of the United States and Western Europe, comfortably ensconced as parasites upon their capitalist economies. But even among academics, there is almost nothing left of the triumphalist Marxism of the 1930s and 40s, with their boasts of the economic efficiency and superiority of socialist central planning. Instead, even the most dedicated Marxists now pay lip service to the necessity of some sort of "market," however restricted by government.

I am 39, I will be 40 on April 21.

Gift line forms to the left... cash donations work best.

I do not know about you, but when I was a kid I thought people over 21 were ancient. People over 30 needed a rocking chair, and 40? Woah... people over 40? Woah. Old age.

Now that I am about 40, I find myself saying

"He's what, 95? That's still young!"

But enough about that. I find myself becoming more like my parents. I do not know if others have/had the same issue. It is nothing new. It is not just me I am sure. But it leads me to a question:

"Are the kids of today different when we were kids?"

<More after the break>

So by now you might have heard that John Edwards had an affair or if you didn't well, John Edwards had an affair and you know what...I don't care and neither should you.

This is between him and his wife.  

The debate about the effectiveness of Barack Obama’s proposal that we all perform routine auto maintenance was considered by many on the left to be somewhat of a farce. Everything pointed to Obama being correct that that action, performed by enough people, would be more effective than off shore drilling. In contrast, the GOP thought that they saw a potential opportunity here. In fact, they were so excited that many on the left were left perplexed as to why. They were wrong, all the evidence said so. To understand why the GOP thought they had a winner requires that one change your entire world view and think like a Republican. Step one, assume the American people are either stupid or lazy or both.

All the diaries obsessing about the hate speech that could have driven a loony killer over the edge are missing a very interesting "first" in the history of shootouts: The gunner was stopped. He was unable to carry his planned massacre and will die an inglorious death in jail

One man, one community stood up against hate and terror. And rendered it powerless. We liberals lost a hero and some dear friends in Knoxville, but we showed the world and the haters what a united community can do against hate. We can unite against it and some of us will not make it, but hate will lose and our unity will win the day.

Hats off to the Unitarian Universalist Church community!

I often think long and deep before deciding about posting a diary about gay issues alone. I even gave more thought to this diary.

What would you say if I mentioned someone who did/said:

Gay people are a security risk.
Gay people are not good role models for our children
The heterosexual lifestyle was "morally superior"
Reduced AIDS funding
Prohibited federal funding to a program that showed the gay "lifestyle as normal"

Who is this person? Jesse Helms? George Bush? John McCain?

No. No. And No.

Sam Nunn.

The point of this diary is that we as GLBT and our friends need to educate people who attack us. If education does not work, we need to attack back. I do not care if these people have a "D" or an "R" next to their name. My "fear" is that all too often we forgive our friends and overlook statements by others in their party that we would be deeply offended by if said by others. We cannot stand idly by. Hateful words are hateful words no matter their source.

<More after the break>

oh, I know... all is fair in love, war, and politics, but I find myself increasingly disgusted and enraged by the entire right-wing establishment.
From talk radio to Faux News, Hannity to Coulter, Cheney to Vitter, it is time, once and for all, to put an end to the rule of terror we have been under for the last 30 years.

I'll be accussed of hyperbole, but I do not know what you call the continued threat to the Constitution that the right-wing has undertaken. The lack of respect, the lack or morality, and the continued attack on the ideals many of us hold dear...and for what? To maintain power for a select few, at the expense of the greater good.

Suffer little children, while Rome burns around you.  Your country? Take it or leave it!  

I'll meet that challenge -- I want to TAKE IT BACK.  

I am aware of diaries about the attempted mass murder of liberals in Tennessee. I am aware that the murderer was an intellectual of sorts who read such great savants as O'Reilly, Hannity, and Savage.

So what bothers you most about the shooting in the Unitarian Church in Tennessee, which has now taken two lives -- beyond the senseless deaths at the children's performance of "Annie"?  Just the fact that it is not all that shocking -- even inevitable?

Much will be made of the killer, Jim Adkisson's, hatred of liberals, and the finding of books in his home by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.  Make of that what you will.

But what about this:  According to the latest reports, he bought the shotgun that he used in the attack just in the past month -- at a pawn shop.  A hard to conceal weapon? He carried it into the church in a guitar case.

Palpably Magoo is not a happy camper at the moment, even the Bush administration seems to have turned their back on him, refusing him even the tiniest of favors to bomb, bomb, Iran. Instead, they seem hell bent on adopting Obama's loony liberal, soft on terror ideas, and opening up a bit of dialogue with the bad guys.

But, Magoo knows wars aren’t won by talking, he knows how to WIN wars properly, you know, by using special secret strategies and breaking things and hurting people.

Here’s a man who knows how to win wars, he’s a self-proclaimed war winner, it’s his strength and he's determined to play to it. But, if no one’s at war, how can he possibly win one? Magoo needs a war and it seems he’s decided, that if no one's prepared to start one for him, he's gonna start one himself.