Statewide Primary Election

Please vote Yes on 29 to stop smoking among young people by raising the luxury tax on cancer sticks called cigarettes $1. The luxury taxes on tobacco and alcohol are not the same as sales taxes, and opposing Prop 29 makes for a disappearing act on the part of P&F and the Green Party if the Top Two Primary idiocy is allowed to stand.

Some 90% of smokers start between ages 12 and 18, and they will certainly not start if tobacco is expensive.

If you do not understand the horror of smoking, take a look at the graphic pictures which must be on all cigarette packages by September 2012 at:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/21/cigarette.labels/index.html
The picture of the healthy lung next to the smoker's lung says it all: STOP SMOKING SO YOU CAN BREATHE.

You should not feel any pain in your chest and you should breathe easily. Smokers feel pain in their chest and we all hear their wheezing and hoarse voices.

Those of us who work in the Financial District as well as everyone else who works where lots of people stand outside buildings smoking CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO STOP SMOKING as walking past these "cancer wards" is hard on our lungs.

My 78 year old neighbor stopped smoking with Nicotine patches, available at your local pharmacy. If you do not like Nicotine patches, try sugarless chewing gum, celery sticks, water, fruit or some combination thereof.

WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY, and we will all be healthier when no one smokes. We will also save the tremendous cost in healthcare. Ideally, cigarettes should cost $10 per pack, instead of the current $5 per pack and that would certainly eliminate tobacco smoking. AND WE, THE WORKINGCLASS, DO NOT TURN TO ILLEGAL DRUGS IF THERE IS NO TOBACCO. This is an anti-workingclass lie. The workingclass is the 80% of Americans who sell our labor for less than $77,000 per year, and 70% of us do not smoke tobacco.

The information on drug use in this country may be found at
http://drugrecognition.com/Use%20Statistics.htm
Cocaine use is less than 1%. See
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Cocaine
It appears that some 1 million people in the US use cocaine. This country has 310 million people.

YOU CAN GO ON LINE TO LEARN HOW TO STOP SMOKING.
The American Lung Association has an online program. See
http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/
After reading all on that page, go to the Freedom From Smoking program at
http://www.ffsonline.org/
Kaiser members can go to the Kaiser website as well at
http://www.permanente.net/homepage/kaiser/pages/f17523.html

Then go to the nearest hospital and watch the dying lung cancer victims, hooked up to lung machines for life. I have seen it with my own eyes. The victim was 39.

Smoking tobacco causes all kinds of cancers, with one kind of leukemia directly caused by smoking. It also causes heart disease, high blood pressure, and emphysema.

Here is the Yes on 29 website at
http://californiansforacure.org/facts
and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at
http://californiansforacure.org/facts/faqs?_c=10l5k6ok87ypwtc

Vote Yes on 29 and vote Peace & Freedom or Green. In San Francisco, Barry Hermanson is running against Pelosi. It is long overdue that a Green Party (or Peace & Freedom Party) member be in the Top Two against Pelosi in November. That would go well with ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY, which is on the November ballot. YOU READ THAT RIGHT. WE ARE MAKING HISTORY IN CALIFORNIA BY ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY IN NOVEMBER. We could MAKE EVEN GREATER HISTORY BY electing a GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE TO CONGRESS.

Please do vote. If you have an absentee ballot, FILL IT OUT TODAY AND MAIL IT TODAY. The last day for mailing to be sure it gets to your Registrar by June 5 is June 1, preferably earlier. YOU NEED TO GET THOSE ABSENTEE BALLOTS IN THE MAILBOX THIS WEEK. If you somehow forget, YOU MUST DELIVER THOSE ABSENTEE BALLOTS TO YOUR REGISTRAR OR TO A POLLING PLACE IN YOUR COUNTY ON ELECTION DAY. YOU CAN VOTE ABSENTEE EVERY WEEKDAY UNTIL ELECTION DAY DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS, 8 A.M. TO 5 P.M., AND THEN SIGN UP TO BE A PERMANENT ABSENTEE VOTER SO YOU NEVER FORGET TO VOTE.

In San Francisco, you can vote Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at City Hall, entering on the Grove Street side, on an absentee ballot at the Registrar's office.

Here are more websites:
1. Peace & Freedom Party
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/platform/full-platform
3. Green Party
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.cagreens.org/platform
http://www.gp.org/index.php
http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/2010/index.php

One correction to the above post: Ever since this 62 year old can remember, Election Day voting starts at 7 a.m. in California, and still does. It says 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the top of the San Francisco Voter handbook.

Tobacco kills 16,000 human beings a year in California. There is no other product allowed to be sold that contributes to the premature death of so many people. To the tobacco companies, a tobacco related death is worth $2,500; a human life is priceless. More information on Proposition 29 may be found at the California Voter website http://www.calvoter.org/voter/elections/2012/primary/props/prop29.html
including the top donors on both sides for each proposition. The Prop 29 donors are at
http://maplight.org/california/proposition/2012/june/prop-29/funding
Yes on 29 has raised $11.2 million while No on 29, primarily the tobacco companies, have raised $46.7 million. Here are the top tobacco company donors and the amounts given:

1
PHILIP MORRIS (ALTRIA)
$27,531,416
2
R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY (REYNOLDS AMERICAN INC.)
$11,163,660
3
U.S. SMOKELESS TOBACCO (ALTRIA)
$3,039,818
4
AMERICAN SNUFF COMPANY (REYNOLDS AMERICAN INC.)
$1,750,000
5
SANTA FE NATURAL TOBACCO COMPANY (REYNOLDS AMERICAN INC.)
$1,148,000
These 5 total 58.9% of the No on 29 donors. Clearly, the tobacco companies are merchants of death, wallowing in millions of dollars. This is a crime against humanity, insatiable greed, the horror of capitalism.
I am so glad I voted Yes on 29, and I have voted. Please complete your absentee ballot today and mail it today. Remember: Yes on 29; it is about time. Let's put an end to smoking tobacco with a simple $1 increase in price for those who buy tobacco. If you do not buy it; you do not pay it. Better yet, buy Nicotine patches or sugarless chewing gum or both to finally kick the tobacco habit.