And Your Stance With Iraq?

puppet.

A month ago and a day ago I posted on DU about having a 40+year cigarette addiction, 3 packs a day, and no matter what I tried, even giving them up once for 3 years, I was still addicted. I then tried e-cigarettes. When I posted the thread I was asked by several smoking DUers for an update, to see if it would work.

I have now been successfully tobacco free for a full month! It has been for the most part very easy, but costly in mistakes that I made finding the right e-cig combination for me, but I don't miss smoking real cigarettes at all. Due to my heavy smoking I needed a unit that provided the vapor strength and battery life I needed. I am still experimenting with cartridges and cartomizers that can hold the maximum amount of e-juice.

I started with a system that was inappropriate for my smoking habits but knew that if done right, this could work. Once I bought and received better equipment, I completely stopped smoking cigarettes on the third day. The following day I removed my ashtrays. About a week or so into it, I was still a little edgy and annoyed at constantly having to recharge batteries and I purchased and committed to the e-cig that I have now. It gets a battery life of about 5 1/2 hours. It doesn't look like a cigarette, but more like an elegant stogie.

Granted there are few times when my brain tells me, like right after a meal, to light up, but then of course I remember I no longer do that and I vape. That's what it's called, vaping, as you are creating vapor with the e-cigarettes and that simulates smoke. The liquid used is a combination of nicotine, food grade vegetable glycerin and food grade propylene glycol and flavoring. The nicotine is delivered by the vapor as are the flavorings. At first I thought I should be vaping a tobacco flavored e-juice and although tolerated in the beginning, hate it now. No e-juice could simulate burning tobacco successfully and at this stage, who wants it? I compare the thought of it to licking a dirty ashtray. Finding the right e-juices too have been a series of trials and errors. I still buy but have been also creating my own.

So that's my update! I really do encourage anyone who smokes and has tried many ways to give them up unsuccessfully, and wants to stop, to at least try e-cigarettes. I know that it isn't like going cold turkey and giving up nicotine immediately or completely (you can wean down on ecigs by reducing the nicotine percent in the e-juice), but some of us just don't have the willpower.

Of course I have switched my method of getting my addiction but I am no longer spreading smoke with 1000s of harmful chemicals into my body and into the world. I will not soapbox the evils of smoking and will never tell another person that they shouldn't. It's not for me to judge them. What they do is their own thing, as what I am now doing is mine.

My lung capacity is better and so is my skin. My sons are proud of me and have told me so. The topper was when one of my older son's friends told me how proud my son was about this. Big smiley sigh here.

Just one thing I would like to add. There has been a big push by the FDA and state governments to ban the use of e-cigarettes. If everyone who smoked cigarettes switched, a lot of big business (drug companies, tobacco companies) and government revenues from cigarette taxes would be devestated. That's how successful these things are. One only has to log onto an e-cigarette forum, like I have to see how many success stories there are out there. The e-cigarette forum I belong to is
e-cigarette-forum.com

Peace to you all,
Ommmmmmmmmmm

Posted below is my original thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

I have been smoking since I was about 15 years old and I am coming up quickly on my 59th birthday. I have been known to go through 3 packs a day. I didn't smoke them all, as many burn out while I'm working, but they have been my forever addiction and prop. Add to that I live in NY and cigarettes have been escalating in price. Almost 2 years ago a friend of mine introduced to me to cigarette injection machines and tubes. I have for the most part been making my own till now. I would occasionally treat myself to a "real" pack but at $9.50, they have become unaffordable.

I have quit 3 times in the past. The first time I quit for three years, when I was 24. A bad break-up with a boyfriend had left me with two alternatives, go out the window or start smoking again. I of course chose the latter.

Fast forward about 20 years ago I decided to try again and it last about 5 months and then another year later it lasted for about 2 months. Both time I tried the nicotine patch and an anti-anxiety medication, when I had health insurance and could visit the doctor.

I have since used nicotine patches when I was under situations when I couldn't smoke (ie jury duty, flying to and from CA and also the UK), and it helped take the edge off as long as I wore 2 full strength patches but I just couldn't commit to stopping again. I even thought the nicotine lozenges would work but all they gave me was severe heartburn.

About a year ago, I started to hear about e-cigarettes and I was intrigued. I started to look at them and was quite confused as there seemed to be very little conformity between makes and models. There are a few brands that have excellent marketing but most were a bit too expensive for me to lay out immediately. I also had to take into consideration the cost of maintenance. How much would it cost per month.

I also read about controversies about how healthy/unhealthy they were. I figured that due to the fact that I've been putting tar and so many more chemicals into my body, anything less would be a plus.

A couple of weeks ago I found an offer on eBay (which I use a lot for purchases) and bought via "coupon" a system. eBay does not allow direct sales of tobacco products, although these do not have tobacco, but flavoring and nicotine. It arrived and had problems because the cartridges it came with ran out of vapor within an hour or so, batteries had to be recharged almost every 2 hours but it seemed that if I didn't have these problems, I could use this kind of device to give up smoking.

I then did what I should have done from the beginning. I started to visit the e-cigarette-forum.com. It became an invaluable resource. From what I read, there were some brands and models more superior to others. Most posts put down the ones that were highly marketed and recommended more versatile ones that you could just fill with your own e-liquid, with superior vapor production (simulates smoke) and charging options. The forum is also a place for vendors to peddle their wares from hardware to the e-liquid (juice). Many offer discounts and coupon codes. I estimate that the total cost will be between $30.00-$40.00 a month. I have been making my own cigarettes for about $90.00 a month.

I decided on what appears to be one of the highest rated models, the Joye 510 in a kit and ordered it directly from China for $34.95 with free shipping(it isn't here yet), and also a passthrough system for the Joye 510, which I bought from a US vendor (with a 40% off ecoupon!). The passthrough is the battery part and connects to USB. I am practically always in front of the computer and it made sense to buy it. I also ordered blank cartomizers which one fills up with the e-liquid. I received the passthrough 2 days ago, and have, as of now, had 2 real cigarettes today. I put both of them out half-way through and re-lit them. That's it. I am not irritable/bitchy and in fact calm. It's a pleasure not having a cloud of smoke around me.

Using the e-cigarette does simulate smoking and is giving me the nicotine that a patch, gum or lozenge would do, and I hope that by next week I won't have to make a cigarette again.

I do know that it won't be a "walk in the park" physically as just like quitting cold turkey, I expect a constant sore throat and lots of coughing to follow. Probably for months.

I never ever do this here at DU, but please, wish me luck!

Peace,
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

of the planes coming down from Boston.

It was an exquisite morning, a perfect morning. I was watching the Today Show and it was cut into with a newsflash from local NBC news. They were reporting that a plane hit the WTC. They were interviewing on the phone a witness who described the plane as a small jet. I was watching in shock and then saw the second plane hit. I knew then it was a deliberate attack. Not too long afterward I lost tv reception. I then surfed the cable networks and CNN was covering it. When the first tower went down I got on the phone and called my ex-husband. He works in midtown Manhattan and I was told he was out of the office for a meeting. Paranoia set in and my older son (he was home from school sick) and I were on tenterhooks for 3 hours until my ex called and said he was in a meeting near Grand Central which is in midtown..and he was fine.

I recall reports of planes being missing and also that all planes were being called down to land. About an hour after that, my son and I heard a jet and we ran onto my deck. We saw a plane heading due south and we both had the same thought and my son verbalized it...Mom, where's Indian Point (the nuclear power plant)? I told him it was southwest of here. We both held our breaths until we saw the plane move southeast.

To this day I believe that if "terrorists" really wanted to harm us, they would have targeted Indian Point........ and to this day, there is hardly any protection of that facility.

Interesting HBO documentary, Indian Point, Imagining the Unimaginable by Rory Kennedy
http://tv.nytimes.com/show/172605/Indian-P...

I have been smoking since I was about 15 years old and I am coming up quickly on my 59th birthday. I have been known to go through 3 packs a day. I didn't smoke them all, as many burn out while I'm working, but they have been my forever addiction and prop. Add to that I live in NY and cigarettes have been escalating in price. Almost 2 years ago a friend of mine introduced to me to cigarette injection machines and tubes. I have for the most part been making my own till now. I would occasionally treat myself to a "real" pack but at $9.50, they have become unaffordable.

I have quit 3 times in the past. The first time I quit for three years, when I was 24. A bad break-up with a boyfriend had left me with two alternatives, go out the window or start smoking again. I of course chose the latter.

Fast forward about 20 years ago I decided to try again and it last about 5 months and then another year later it lasted for about 2 months. Both time I tried the nicotine patch and an anti-anxiety medication, when I had health insurance and could visit the doctor.

I have since used nicotine patches when I was under situations when I couldn't smoke (ie jury duty, flying to and from CA and also the UK), and it helped take the edge off as long as I wore 2 full strength patches but I just couldn't commit to stopping again. I even thought the nicotine lozenges would work but all they gave me was severe heartburn.

About a year ago, I started to hear about e-cigarettes and I was intrigued. I started to look at them and was quite confused as there seemed to be very little conformity between makes and models. There are a few brands that have excellent marketing but most were a bit too expensive for me to lay out immediately. I also had to take into consideration the cost of maintenance. How much would it cost per month.

I also read about controversies about how healthy/unhealthy they were. I figured that due to the fact that I've been putting tar and so many more chemicals into my body, anything less would be a plus.

A couple of weeks ago I found an offer on eBay (which I use a lot for purchases) and bought via "coupon" a system. eBay does not allow direct sales of tobacco products, although these do not have tobacco, but flavoring and nicotine. It arrived and had problems because the cartridges it came with ran out of vapor within an hour or so, batteries had to be recharged almost every 2 hours but it seemed that if I didn't have these problems, I could use this kind of device to give up smoking.

I then did what I should have done from the beginning. I started to visit the e-cigarette-forum.com. It became an invaluable resource. From what I read, there were some brands and models more superior to others. Most posts put down the ones that were highly marketed and recommended more versatile ones that you could just fill with your own e-liquid, with superior vapor production (simulates smoke) and charging options. The forum is also a place for vendors to peddle their wares from hardware to the e-liquid (juice). Many offer discounts and coupon codes. I estimate that the total cost will be between $30.00-$40.00 a month. I have been making my own cigarettes for about $90.00 a month.

I decided on what appears to be one of the highest rated models, the Joye 510 in a kit and ordered it directly from China for $34.95 with free shipping(it isn't here yet), and also a passthrough system for the Joye 510, which I bought from a US vendor (with a 40% off ecoupon!). The passthrough is the battery part and connects to USB. I am practically always in front of the computer and it made sense to buy it. I also ordered blank cartomizers which one fills up with the e-liquid. I received the passthrough 2 days ago, and have, as of now, had 2 real cigarettes today. I put both of them out half-way through and re-lit them. That's it. I am not irritable/bitchy and in fact calm. It's a pleasure not having a cloud of smoke around me.

Using the e-cigarette does simulate smoking and is giving me the nicotine that a patch, gum or lozenge would do, and I hope that by next week I won't have to make a cigarette again.

I do know that it won't be a "walk in the park" physically as just like quitting cold turkey, I expect a constant sore throat and lots of coughing to follow. Probably for months.

I never ever do this here at DU, but please, wish me luck!

Peace,
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

some of the most IMHO conservative members do so. Perhaps they do believe they are liberal because of their own life experience/where they grew up and what era they cut their political teeth on.

I'm one of those Liberal Democrats that Reagan demonized and although my politics have never changed, the center of our party has. It made a big jump to the right with Clinton, and continues to travel in that direction, which now, according to our President, categorizes me as far left.

When I came to DU, almost 6 years ago, I felt this a haven for me, with people of like mindedness, open mindedness and similar goals. A community that you set forth in your "mission statement" At that time Shrub and his minions were the common enemy. Why? Policies. We recently lost several of our most valuable members either through elimination or by their leaving on their own accord, because this mission statement doesn't seem to apply any more to them. Although our President is a Democrat and we have "control" of the House, there are policies that are still continuing from the Bush era. Policies that most at DU fought against and now supported by many members of DU. Policies that were supported by "Conservative Idiots"

This has nothing to do with pragmatism or idealism, but it has to do with right and wrong.

Is it right to continue a war in Afghanistan that was based on lies?
Is it right to continue to support FISA?
Is it right to continue to prosecute Siegelman and allow Repukes to go free?
Is it right to defend DOMA in the courts?
Is it right to tear down the teacher's union in favor of corporate charter schools?
Is it right to still allow off-shore oil drilling and saying that it's being done because we need the oil, when in reality, that oil can be sold to the highest bidder?
Is it right that the President selected as a COS a man who made it his mission to get elected as many conservative Democrats that he could?
Is it right that the Health INSURANCE Reform bill puts billions of money into the pockets of the same insurance companies that rather save money than people's lives?
Is it right that Geitner was selected, a fox in the hen house?
Is it right that a Monsanto man was selected to head the FDA?
Is it right?


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ-gj1AsYB0

In this video, Randy Glass, a private US citizen working as an undercover agent in a government sting operation, discusses how he learned about a threat to the World Trade Center and tried to warn various officials in government before 9/11. Florida State Senator Ron Klein and US Senator Bob Graham admit being given a warning by Randy Glass in the months before 9/11. What was the warning, who else knew about it, and why wasn't it acted upon?

Reuters says they have examined the last photographs on two digital camera bodies that Noor-Elden was using. One body had a wide-angle lens, and the second body had a medium-length telephoto lens on it. The news service says the sequence of images, based on the cameras' internal clocks, show that he photographed a wide-angle lens shot from behind a window that has a bullet hole in it and two older women, dressed in black, are walking towards the window. Other pictures show what they believe is the aftermath of an earlier shooting incident. Then on the camera with the long lens, four frames of a U.S. Humvee at a crossroads. Ten minutes later, what Reuters thinks is the last picture taken by Noor-Eldeen while he's alive shows the top of someone's head as he appears to be falling to the ground or crouching as dust sprays off the top of a wall.
http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2...

Reuters says they have examined the last photographs on two digital camera bodies that Noor-Elden was using. One body had a wide-angle lens, and the second body had a medium-length telephoto lens on it. The news service says the sequence of images, based on the cameras' internal clocks, show that he photographed a wide-angle lens shot from behind a window that has a bullet hole in it and two older women, dressed in black, are walking towards the window. Other pictures show what they believe is the aftermath of an earlier shooting incident. Then on the camera with the long lens, four frames of a U.S. Humvee at a crossroads. Ten minutes later, what Reuters thinks is the last picture taken by Noor-Eldeen while he's alive shows the top of someone's head as he appears to be falling to the ground or crouching as dust sprays off the top of a wall.
http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2...

post a while ago pointed out to you that Karzai signed in Shia law. So we are supporting a government that doesn't take in the best interest of women. Do we go to war against Karzai too?

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/13/afgh...

And undermining women who want to run for Parliment?

http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf...

And this is a goody that takes into men and women in Afghanistan and how the Karzai government operates

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/... /

U.S. report offers damning picture of human rights abuses in Afghanistan

Conditions are horrific, torture is common and police frequently rape female detainees, the U.S. State Department finds



Oh yeah, we're certainly helping to win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis....bullshit.

I read and admired your articles for Truth Out for quite some time before I joined DU.

Let me begin my mentioning to you that I've been a Democrat since the cradle. My parents pinned Adlai Stevenson buttons onto my jumpers. I remember being bundled up in the car with the rest of my family to see JFK campaigning at Long Island Rail Road whistle stops. As a child I started a scrapbook with pictures of the Kennedys and even wrote to the White House and to Lyndon Johnson receiving autographed photos from all. I still have that scrapbook.

I lived through JFK being cut down and was told it was a lone gunman. I then lived through Dr. King being gunned down and told it was a lone gunman and the same with Bobby. My suspicions of our government began.

Then there was Watergate, the October Surprise and Iran-Contra and started to figure out that politics was a fixed game. But I thought it was all the Republicans fault, until Bill Clinton came to office and he never really held anyone accountable for the BCCI scandal and Iran-Contra (just like how Obama will not even look into the prosecution of the war criminals who were running the last administration). Then, with his actions in office (NAFTA, welfare "reform") I learned that with Clinton, I helped to elect a Republican lite.

I voted for Obama with hope that I was dead wrong about him and about the "system" and was in seventh heaven when he was elected (check my right after election posts). After Edwards dropped out, I selected Obama over Hillary due to his anti-war stance and most importantly, no mandate.

Why didn't I support him earlier? I had deep reservations about his background and votes in the Senate. I saw him come out of no where, and when Ryan had to leave the Senate race and Alan Keyes was put in Ryan's place, I knew that the GOP had no desire to contest Obama.

Once Obama was in the Senate, his first truly important vote, as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, was to recommend Rice as SOS. Barbara Boxer gave the most incredible presentation on why Rice shouldn't be selected, which was just short of Boxer calling Rice a war criminal.

The kicker of course was when Obama voted for FISA.

But I wasn't wrong. The moment he selected Rahm for COS I knew. I just didn't realize how bad it would be.

Obama, like most "Democrats" is kinder and gentler than their peers across the floor. The student loan program is an example. This gives an impression that both parties are different, but it is a false dichotomy. The Republicans and Democrats, due to corporate and powerbroker interests, are truly Opposames. They give a great show but in the end, the results are the same. Even the dog and pony health insurance reform (I do hope that it helps you and your wife and that you will be able to afford it after all is said and done), resulted in a "Republican" bill. It seems that with most everything else that he has positioned himself is for corporate interests.

If Bush was pulling some of the stuff that Obama has been doing, there would be an uproar here at DU that could be heard around the globe.

It also doesn't help when he starts calling good Democrats, like you and myself, part of the "far left".

It isn't a matter of how many elections it will take, it is a matter of how we can wrest away corporate influences and power broker influences from our election process. We need strictly public financing and to get rid of corporate lobbyists.
It costs millions of dollars just to run from Congress now and it is tempting for people to sell their souls, just to hold on to their seats.

As an example, in 2002, I helped to elect a Progressive Congressman to my forever Republican district. He was anti-war, pro-environment, pro health care...etc, etc, etc.

He won the district by about 1-2%. He wound up on "Rove's Hit List". Rahm Emanuel got his claws into him and I guess my Congressman decided it was more important to keep his seat and give up some votes. He had more money that he knew what to do with for his 2004 re-election. He had ads on all the cable stations, all the time and his opponent had no support from the GOP. Why was that? He was on Rove's Hit List and running practically unopposed???

Meanwhile, my Congressman has now been voting to fund the wars and even supports the war in Afghanistan. Of course he voted for the H"I"R bill.
My Congressman was a rock star, John Hall, and god knows what they have on him...... It will be interesting to see how much he supports this off-shore drilling as he tags himself as a strict environmentalist.

Frankly, right now, at this moment, I am outraged out and IMHO, I have every right to be. I see our country continuing on its Corporatist (euphanism for Fascist) tack with no end in sight and I see people on this board, defending indefensible policies because those policies are from "our team". I'm an adult and no longer need a team. I do need a government though which is for and by the people (not for corporate personhood) and I just can't see that happening in my lifetime.

Peace be with you and your wife.
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmm

deductions or wait until they file their income tax to get a refund back.



http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111... :

Subpart A--Premium Tax Credits and Cost-sharing Reductions

This is going to be a headache for most Americans. It means shelling out the money to the insurance companies and having to wait for the tax refund to recoup their in your words "subsidies".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

Do you Love him for defending telecom companies right to spy on citizens? Do you Love him for escalating the war in Afghanistan? Do you love him for selecting people close to him such as a former Monsanto lobbyist for heading the FDA, or a Bush shill drug czar, Michele Leonhart for the DEA? Or keeping war criminal Robert Gates on as Secy of Defense? Or Geitner assisting in robbing the hen house for his Goldman Sachs buddies? Or do you love him for backing down (if it is backing down --- I personally think he said what others wanted to hear) on Health Insurance Reform which was originally Health CARE Reform? Or do you love him for dismantling the New Deal? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...
Or do you Love him for supporting Charter Schools and selecting his buddy Arne Duncan to help dismantle the public school system in our country?
Or do you Love him for keeping NAFTA?
Or do you Love him, Or do you Love him, Or do you Love him????

Frankly, I believe that we have a one party system that is run as Kabuki Theater and that the Democrats are slightly kinder and gentler when it comes to social issues than the Republicans. What we have is a kinder, gentler Republican in office. Unfortunately it took me decades to figure it out.

begetting the very thing that it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. So it goes.

Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."-
Dr. Martin Luther King

Peace
Ommmmmmmmmmmmm