Surgeon General foolishly sides with science

post from AMERICAblog on 27 June 2006 06:33:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

How dare he step on the freedom and liberty of smokers who pollute the air of non-smokers. Can't those selfish non-smokers just hold their breath during dinner or at work and wait to breathe until they are outside? And those whiney babies and kids who are especially prone to the negative impact of second hand smoke? They can breathe when they're 18 and leaving home but until then they're just going to have to not breathe and learn to live with it.

Some 126 million nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke, what U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona repeatedly calls "involuntary smoking" that puts people at increased risk of death from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
Moreover, there is no risk-free level of exposure to someone else's drifting smoke, declares the report issued Tuesday -- a conclusion sure to fuel already growing efforts at public smoking bans nationwide. Fourteen states have passed what are considered comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws, those that include restaurants and bars.
But the surgeon general is especially concerned about young children who can't escape their parents' addiction in search of cleaner air: Just over one in five children is exposed to secondhand smoke at home, where workplace bans don't reach. Those children are at increased risk of SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome; lung infections such as pneumonia; ear infections; and more severe asthma.

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Flag burning amendment rejected.

post from Think Progress on 27 June 2006 06:33:00 PM. © Think Progress

The amendment failed 66-34, one vote shy of the 67 needed to send it to the states for ratification.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/27/flag-burning-amendment-rejected/

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Poodles Across America

post from Firedoglake on 27 June 2006 06:30:05 PM. © Firedoglake

We had a fabulous coffee this morning with the Indianapolis set — Fini Finito (who runs the Roots MySpace page), poputonian (who has an excellent post up at Digby’s), Twisted Martini and our very own *ilson, scourge o’ the trolls. [...]

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http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/06/27/poodles-across-america/

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The Colbert Report: Class Warfare

post from Crooks and Liars on 27 June 2006 06:27:54 PM. © Crooks and Liars

He’s back and very understanding when it comes to the minimum wage.Video -WMP Video -QT The Word: "Class Warfare" Keep the poor…poor. (h/t Mike for the vid)

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/06/27/the-colbert-report-class-warfare/

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Murtha Attacked by the Right For Quote Falsely
Attributed to Him

post from Think Progress on 27 June 2006 06:10:00 PM. © Think Progress

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on Sunday that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) had claimed that the United States is the greatest threat to peace in the world:American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to a crowd of more [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/27/murtha-quote/

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NRO and the Press

post from Crooks and Liars on 27 June 2006 05:59:17 PM. © Crooks and Liars

FireDogLake:In our discussion of Eric Boehlert’s book Lapdogs over the weekend, I mentioned his notion that right-wing attacks on the press were largely incoherent because they didn’t really seem to understand what the press does or how it functions. Today the welfare queens of the NRO prove that point :President Bush, who said on [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/06/27/nro-and-the-press/

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kooky

post from Eschaton on 27 June 2006 05:58:00 PM. © Eschaton

Lieberman campaign is loooooosing it.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_06_25_atrios_archive.html#115144551516275915

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Former TX DA Gets 18 Years for Drug Offenses

post from TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime on 27 June 2006 05:39:22 PM. © TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime

Last year we wrote a lot about former Texas DA Rick Roach who while prosecuting drug defendants was secretly shooting up. He ran for DA using a get tough on drugs platform.

Today Roach was sentenced to 18 years in jail.

Monday's plea is one of the final trial proceedings in Roach's case, which began with his arrest by FBI agents in a Gray County courtroom in January 2005.
A federal grand jury later indicted him on four charges of possession of methamphetamine, cocaine and guns. Roach resigned from office in February, pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge and was sentenced to federal prison in June 2005.

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http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015184.html

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Former TX DA Gets 18 Years for Drug Offenses

Last year we wrote a lot about former Texas DA Rick Roach who while prosecuting drug defendants was secretly shooting up. He ran for DA using a get tough on drugs platform.

Today Roach was sentenced to 18 years in jail.

Monday's plea is one of the final trial proceedings in Roach's case, which began with his arrest by FBI agents in a Gray County courtroom in January 2005.
A federal grand jury later indicted him on four charges of possession of methamphetamine, cocaine and guns. Roach resigned from office in February, pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge and was sentenced to federal prison in June 2005.

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http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015184.html

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The Partisan Case Against The West Wing

The West Wing is over. Thank god. That, at least, is the thesis of my article in the July/August issue of The American Prospect, which argues that the show chronicled and reinforced a particularly pathetic moment in the liberal perspective....[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/the_partisan_ca.html

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