The Gong’an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

“The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” said Chen Nianzu,

Well, the Republic was already screwed before Specter dropped the mask. The Zimbabwe-ization of America did not need the clammy hand of the Senator from Pennsylvania to direct it. If Arlen gets bounced in the Democrat primary – and I think he might, since Specter will grate on Democrats’ nerves as much as he did on Republicans’ – the Won still gets His heart’s desire of America as one big happy concentration camp (who says there is no such thing as a happy ending?).

But, as this small-tent conservative is fond of pointing out, watching Arlen run down the stars and stripes and hoist the hammer and sickle merely makes it harder for the Far Left to wash its hands of the looming economic disaster that is the Won’s Thousand Year Reich. At some point the fig leaf of “bipartisanship” becomes too small to find even with an electron microscope.

Besides – it’s not like the GOP was going to make a comeback in 2010 or 2012 – or ever. ACORN and the Holder Justice Department will keep free elections out of the grubby hands of the racist God-and-guns clingers from now on. But liberals above all must “feel” like they are getting away with it, and the fact that soon they will be as popular as HIV/AIDS is upsetting to them. Even though they cannot be voted out of office, they will still rage.

It won’t last forever, but conservatives need to mitigate the damage. Liberal friends need an intervention. For a couple ideas on how to go about this, there is a funny piece at:
LINK

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason that he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its health-care priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS’ Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he thought his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats.

“Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn’t want me as their candidate,” Mr. Specter said on “Face the Nation.” “But as a matter of principle, I’m becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats’ approach. And one of the items that I’m working on, Bob, is funding for medical research.”

LINK

Ohhhh Specter, just ‘fess up, you have always been a Democrat at heart and now you can play foot loose and fancy free with them all day long, well until 2010, when you lose your primary. HAHAHAHAHA!! – Lorica