COMMENTS: And we are expected to believe that this trite, banal, shopworn and off-target drivel is a ringing defense of liberty. What a fraud!
Try to think, Mr. McCaslin. How many times has your newspaper, The Washington Times, mischaracterized those Medicaid lawsuits as "recovery of smoking costs" in its news stories?
Every single time without exception.
How many times has this newspaper repeated the libel that smokers are an economic burden to society? How many times has it lied to us that smokers cost the taxpayers $50 billion, or $100 billion, or $300 billion, or whatever big scary number the anti-smoking demagogues vomit up?
Over and over again, Mr. McCaslin.
And how many times has this newspaper discussed the methodology of the anti-smokers' smoking cost claims? How many times has this newspaper mentioned the Congressional Research Service report on "Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform"? How many times has this newspaper referred to the Willard Manning RAND study? When has this newspaper ever spoken of the magnitude of non-smokers' Medicaid nursing home costs?
Never, never, never, and never. Except by quoting in news stories the lie of some anti-smoking demagogue smearing unspecified work as "tobacco industry studies." It is clear to anyone with a speck of intelligence that your newspaper, in collusion with all the others, deliberately spread the lie that smokers are an economic burden, and concealed the truth to the contrary, with the expectation and intent that those fraudulent Medicaid lawsuits would be the direct result; and that they deliberately incited those ignorant, greedy, morally unscrupulous, and publicity-hungry attorneys general to file them.
Your newspaper deliberately kept the public ignorant, so that there would be no righteous outcry against them, and censored those who tried to speak.
And, as your newspaper committed this crime against us over and over again, you and your ilk let them get away with it, while you wrung your limp hands and fretted over the potential plight of people who eat Twinkies.
No, there haven't been any "dangerous precedents" set yet, have there, Mr. McCaslin. I wish that words could spit.
And as for Mr. Browne and his Libertarian Party, their pretended concern for liberty is as empty a sham as yours and the worthless American Civil Liberties Union. If you think that the so-called "slippery slope" is the issue, then you go ahead and pander for the votes of non-smoking Twinkie eaters, you phonies. But you don't deserve the vote of a single smoker, for your utter, crass indifference to this massive violation of our civil rights.
Counterpoint by
Carol Thompson
Smokers' Rights Action Group
P.O. Box 259575
Madison, WI 53725-9575
Phone: 608-249-4568
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