A Republican senator who is also a doctor is calling for a new era of Prohibition — outlawing cigarette smoking and other tobacco use.

The unlikely demand comes from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), one of the staunchest free-market conservatives in the Senate.

Really? I mean because that war on drugs is working so well, and prohibition worked so well, and there are how many tobacco farmers, and how many people whose jobs are on the line?

No question, I'm a lefty, and this is one of the dumbest damn ideas I've seen in a while. If you want to do something worthwhile with this one, you do exactly what they just did, raise the taxes on the stuff, then put that money into a kitty that pays off the health costs of smoking related illnesses. Forced health insurance, paid for by the money spent on it.

But oh no, that would be socialism, and it's far better to create a whole new group of people to stick in jails (the 40 MILLION smokers), and a whole new class of criminals running smokes to those 40 million smokers, and hey, lets not leave out the fact that cigs become the most profitable enterprise in the country generating a wave of violence making Chicago in the 20's look tame, or the lost tax money coming in, or anything else.

Tom Coburn, you rat bastard commie!

TheHill.com - Republican senator seeks to outlaw tobacco

An immigration appeals board has denied an emergency stay of deportation requested by John Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN'-yuk), who faces charges in Germany that he served as a Nazi death camp guard during World War II.

A) I thought he was already dead. B) Going through the history, he was accused of being one guy and sentenced to death by Israel, but their courts tossed that after being given information by the Russians. C) He's now accused of being someone else?

I don't know whether he actually did it or not, but this is looking like a vendetta, and 64 years after the end of the war, I say let drop the issue and let God sort this one out. He doesn't have long left and has been going through this stuff for 20+ years already.

The Associated Press: Ohio's Demjanjuk is denied stay of deportation

Now this one will take a teeny bit of explanation. I was looking for one of these for a friend of mine who has a jersey for Terrell Owens, who is a bit of an ass, and worse, he plays for Dallas. So I told it, "I just want to see women's, because that's who I'm getting it for." Well it didn't have the player I wanted.

But if you scroll to the bottom, guess what else appears to show up...

Now to be semi-fair, it shows up across all the searches, but really???

NFL Shop - NFL Jerseys: Minnesota Vikings: Search for

I think the photo speaks for itself.

mccain office closed_bf029.jpg (JPEG Image, 400x300 pixels)

Just as I seriously began to question my own health, I read about a study recently conducted by Hiscox, a British-based luxury-car insurer. Experts found that 100% of female participants showed a "significant increase in testosterone secretion" while listening to a Maserati engine revving - in fact, measurably more so than for any other sports-car sound.

I have no idea why such a thing would happen or what it would mean, but it's damn interesting.

Aural fixation - Drive a Maserati

The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.

I wasn't aware that particular term was in wide use in England. I also think the Secret Service is probably doing back flips trying to figure out how to handle security when Senator Obama wins, am concerned about what level of politicization the current administration has managed to inject into that organization. This has turned a corner into very scary stuff.

Man shot three times by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt | Mail Online

COURIC: Like what ones specifically?

PALIN: Umm… all of them. Any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news… Alaska isn’t a foreign country where it’s kind of suggested it seems like, wow how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, DC may be thinking and doing, when you live up there in Alaska. Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

You're right Sarah, the head of the US Government doesn't know how to read either.

Crooks and Liars » OMG: Palin can’t name one magazine/newspaper she reads

As tension mounted and the pilot rapidly descended from 32,000 feet, he was asked how many were on the jet.

"51 souls on board," he responded.

Just as reference, when pilots or ground control refer to the number of passengers as "souls" it means they are probably praying to God they get them down in one piece because they may not think they can do it on their own. (Thanks to reading John Nance for that one)

ABC News: EXCLUSIVE: FAA Tapes Reveal Drama of Obama Jet Incident

Couric: Senator McCain, Senator Obama says, while the increased number of US troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as-- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others.

Waitawhataminute? Because of the surge we what? Oh, you mean this guy? Yeah, we did a great job protecting him.

Let's get the facts straight. First, one of the primary generators of the "Anbar Awakening" was that they were pissed off about the Al-Q in Iraq types not caring who they blew up, Sunni, Shiite, US troops, didn't matter. Part two was us giving them cash, guns and ammo without strings to police their own area, and we cut our actions in the area down to going after the Al-Q in Iraq types. That had ZERO to do with the surge.

Second, if anything the surge has HURT that movement by redirecting the money and troops out of Anbar and into Baghdad.

Third, the point of the surge was to buy time and improve stability for the Iraqi government to get their shit together and take over their own immediate security. On that level, the surge has been a complete failure. The casualty rates hit a marked decline in October of last year, but those are US casualties, not Iraqi casualties for which we can't get numbers. In the meantime, there has been little to no motion from the Iraqi government, except for some no-bid contracts given to Exxon, Shell etc. for maintenance on oil facilities that aren't safe to go to. In the meantime, we can't get agreement on what happens after the end of the year when the UN mandate we used to go in expires.

In the meantime, we're losing the war in Afghanistan. Casualty numbers there are up, the Taliban is in resurgence, and the real Al-Qaeda is in full swing.

Between this, the Irag-Parkistan border comment the other day, Czechoslovakia, the repeated lack of knowledge on who is supporting whom in Iraq (then getting corrected and screwing it up again), getting pretty much everything backwards on the economy, the gas tax holiday, drilling expansion that won't change the price of diddly squat, the birth control/Viagra thing, and god only knows what else, I'm starting to wonder if we're looking at Alzheimer's. He gets told one thing and something else comes out.

This is not an "age" question. This is someone who no longer appears to have command of his mental faculties.

Marc Ambinder (July 22, 2008) - McCain Disputes Obama Account Of The Surge