Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the biggest congressional asshole of all?
Move over Dana Rohrbacher, (R-48th District), the former gold standard for such a dubious honor, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th District) has got you beat by a vaporizing mile.
As if air travel weren’t horrible enough, Hunter, the congressman from Alice’s Wonderland, would like to allow people to vaporize on airplanes, too. This didn’t work out for him last year when he got laughed out of committee with that canard, so he decided that he’d double down on being a vaping vampire again this week. What do you expect from someone whose favorite president is Donald Trump.
For the second time in the last year, the five-term — believe it or not — congressman this week vaped in a congressional committee to punctuate his point that he’s the biggest loser in Congress.
As reported by several news sources Tuesday, June 27, Hunter pulled out not one, but two — count ‘em, two — different vaporizing devices to contend flaws existed in an anti-smoking amendment to an aviation bill offered by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).
Norton’s amendment would ban e-cigarettes on airplanes by changing the definition of smoking to include “a device that delivers nicotine to a user of the device in the form of a vapor that is inhaled to simulate the experience of smoking,” according to The Hill newspaper.
Duncan, apparently not fully consumed — yet — by a Department of Justice criminal investigation into his alleged use of campaign funds for personal spending that could result in several years in prison, objected to Norton’s amendment.
“Let me show you the problem I have with Ms. Norton’s amendment,” Hunter said, as reported by The Hill.
The congressman from Palookaville whipped out a small electronic cigarette that contained nicotine and took a puff from it. Then, he pulled out a larger red vaporizer that contained no nicotine.
“This is not covered … under Ms. Norton’s amendment,” said Flunkin’ Duncan, who puffed on the second device in the exact same manner to prove his point. “That doesn’t make sense to me. Either say that an e-cigarette is illegal, whether it has nicotine or not in it.”
Last year Hunter also vaped during a congressional session where he vigorously argued that vaping should be allowed on airplanes. He got smoked, oops vaporized, into a national laughingstock eviscerated on several late night television shows including Seth Meyer’s late night show and Trevor Noah’s Daily Show.
As for this week’s enveloping chapter of Hunter’s profiles in idiocy: “Duncan pointed out that the Department of Transportation has already banned the use of e-cigarettes on flights, and said flight attendants can already stop passengers from vaping,” according to The Hill.
“And they do,” Duncan assured fellow lawmakers. “Every time we fly, every week, that’s what they tell us.”
Yeah, thanks for the travel update, blowhard. Doing a lot of traveling on campaign donor funds, are we?
Hunter’s smoking obsession knows no bounds either
Rep. Duncan Hunter vaping during a House committee meeting last year where he advocated allowing people to vape on airplanes.
A former chain smoker, who claimed vaping got him off cigarettes, Hunter was pissed off because he wasn’t allowed to give military personnel cigars or allow them to smoke. Our stinking congressman from Alex Jones fantasyland couldn’t understand why military personnel in war zones couldn’t smoke, since obviously life-threatening addictions were nothing compared to blowing off steam in a war zone.
Hunter isn’t going to be in Congress long, just long enough to embarrass us and the nation.
The fact is he already has acknowledged using campaign funds for personal expenses and repaid some $60,000 of the money to his campaign fund. It was all a mistake, he said, due to his wife confusing the color of her credit cards.
Fortunately for Hunter, he is allowed to use campaign funds to pay his lawyers defending him from criminal charges, but that’s another story.
And as for Norton’s amendment, the Republican-majority committee nonetheless voted 30-29 to pass the amendment and attach it to the aviation bill.
Darn, guess that means Hunter won’t be able to piss off the unfortunate travelers on one of his campaign-financed plane rides with his obnoxious smoke, er vapors. Same difference.
Department of Justice Hunter probe this way comes
Based on the US House Committee on Ethics investigation into Hunter’s alleged misuse of campaign funds, DOJ opened a criminal investigation in late March
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the committee’s investigative arm, issued a report earlier this year alleging Hunter “”converted tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds from his congressional campaign committee to personal use to pay for family travel, flights, utilities, health care, school uniforms and tuition, jewelry, groceries,and other goods,services, and expenses.”
The use of campaign funding for personal expenses is a violation of House rules [text], standards of conduct [text, PDF], and federal law [§ 30114, PDF].
OCE began a probe into Hunter’s campaign expenses after the campaign logged an extraordinary range of questionable charges that total tens of thousands of dollars. They included flying a pet rabbit cross-country, registering his daughters in an Irish dance competition and paying for $1,300 of video games for his son.
Hunter “may have converted tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds from his congressional campaign committee to personal use to pay for family travel, flights, utilities, health care, school uniforms and tuition, jewelry, groceries, and other goods, services, and expenses,” said the ethics office, an independent body that House Republicans, including Hunter, tried to shut down in January.
As an ever-sensitive representative, Hunter actually derided the bunny flying expense in his own inimitable fashion. He said it wasn’t his fault. It was a family pet, and if he had his way, he would have sautéed the bunny into a soup.
Other expenses chronicled publicly included an $800 oral surgery bill, purchases at Disneyland, and a family trip to Italy. Thousands of dollars were spent at grocery stores, purchases at a surf & skate shop and repairs to a garage door at his home.
Margaret Hunter, the wife, also received tens of thousands of dollars of income from the committee.
Hunter took out a personal loan and repaid some of the questionable expenses prior to last November’s election.
More Hunter campaign finance smoke, er vapors
It’s getting close to legal midnight on Duncan Hunter time.
A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, brought a complaint with the ethics office last April charging that Hunter’s campaign spending included family trips to Italy and Hawaii, consulting fees to his wife, payments to his children’s parochial school and $1,300 for video games that he said his teenage son mistakenly charged to a credit card.
Noah Bookbinder, the group’s director, told the New York Times Hunter “has shown a blatant disregard for the rules.” He called the case “the most egregious congressional spending scandal since Aaron Schock,” referring to the former Republican congressman from Illinois who gained infamy for decorating his House office in an ornate manner inspired by “Downton Abbey.” Mr. Schock was indicted by the Justice Department last November on 24 criminal counts and has pleaded not guilty.
Another case close to Hunter’s virtual home involved former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., (D-Ill.), and his wife Sandi.
The Jacksons pled guilty in 2013 to illegally diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds for personal use, including school tuition, mortgage payment and memorabilia from the late singer Michael Jackson. Both Jacksons went to prison for their crimes.
“He didn’t try to repay back what he thought were accidental expenditures, or incidental expenditures,” said Hunter to Politico in reference to the former Illinois Democrat. “Jesse didn’t look at his FEC report and go, ‘Holy shit, what is that? I’m gonna pay that back.’”
Hunter, though, continues to deny campaign funds were used to pay his family’s expenses, despite campaign records and news reports stating that, and repeated that he had “no knowledge” of any such actions.
“I’ve been doing this for a while. I know what’s appropriate and what’s not,” Hunter declared.
Really, Hunter, really.
Blowing smoke, er vapors, isn’t much of a defense. However…
See you in federal prison next year, where the good news is you can vape all you want.
TLDR because SD Rostra can’t read, sorry we’re the home of stoopid pig trolls.
Good golly, SD Rostra, why would you make yourself look so bad? Is it true you’re a cowardly right-wing pig?
At a time when our national healthcare system is the central concern for our nation, how embarrassing is it that our Congressional representative focuses on his personal self-interest in vaping rather than working to bring about better legislation for his constituents? 320,000 in Hunter’s District 50 may loose healthcare due to pre-existing conditions and Duncan chooses to focus on vaping? And in comparison, just how many of his constituents care about vaping? Grow up Congressman.
He shot himself in the foot again even worse this time by giving the nation a live lesson in how e-cigarettes can be used as stealth drug paraphernalia for cannabis, meth, heroin and other drugs. He felt compelled to declare that one e-cigarette had nicotine while the other had none because there is no way to detect what substance is being abused by the emissions generated. The health risks of e-cigarettes have actually been known for years because they emit synthetic fog generated the same way as AC electricity powered fog machines. The battery power source of e-cigarettes actually adds a horrific new health risk because they explode and burn. E-cigarettes are battery powered synthetic fog toys available with nicotine and flavors. They give adults desperate to quit smoking tobacco a false sense of harm reduction, plus children who never smoked tobacco are lured into substance abuse to taste and smell flavors, with visual thrills from the fog, addicting them to nicotine, and ultimately most of them start smoking tobacco also.
The long term damage being caused by inhalation of e-cigarette emissions by both users and bystanders is already well known because they generate emissions/vapor with propylene glycol/glycerin heated by electric coils exactly the way special effects/theatrical artificial fog machines electrically heat propylene glycol/glycerin, and occupational safety authorities have known for over a decade that exposure to that synthetic fog is hazardous to both workers and audiences who inhale it.
See: Smoke and Fog Hazards, By Michael McCann, Ph.D., C.I.H., Center for Safety in the Arts, 1991, University of Illinois Chicago;
American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Volume 47, Issue 5, May 2005, Pages 411–418, Effects of theatrical smokes and fogs on respiratory health in the entertainment industry,
Sunil Varughese MSc,
Kay Teschke PhD,
Michael Brauer ScD,
Yat Chow MSc,
Chris van Netten PhD,
Susan M. Kennedy PhD
First published:12 April 2005; Ontario Ministry of Labour, Fog and Smoke Safety Guideline for the Live Performance Industry in Ontario, Issued: August 2005, Content last reviewed: September 2012; Ontario Ministry of Labour, Guideline No. 9: Smoke and Fog | Safety Guidelines for the Film and Television Industry in Ontario, ISBN: 978-1-4249-9952-1, Issued: November 1990, Revised: June 2009, Content last reviewed: March 2011; Ontario R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 833: CONTROL OF EXPOSURE TO BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL AGENT, under Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1, Versions current July 1, 2016, Table 1 Ontario Table of Occupational Exposure limits-Propylene glycol; Safe Stages by Theatre Alberta and Alberta Human Services.
Minors have been major consumers of e-liquids/e-cigarettes when it has been known all along that they should not be handled by children. The warnings to consumers about emissions from propylene glycol heated by electric coils in fog machines have been available for decades on the Halloween fog liquid labels:
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207508101847359&id=1433395014&set=p.10207508101847359&source=47&__tn__=R
“This product is not intended for use by children.”:
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207508161608853&id=1433395014&set=p.10207508161608853&source=47&__tn__=R
Add to that the fact that e-cigarettes often inflict property damage (e.g. car fires), third degree burns and ballistic trauma when they explode; that they emit some of the same carcinogens and toxins in tobacco smoke; that they emit some toxins and carcinogens not even found in tobacco smoke (propylene oxide, chromium, glycidol), and enough is already known for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to block e-cigarette importation plus order e-cigarette recalls, and for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate nicotine e-liquid in e-cigarettes as tobacco products. Without waiting for action by those agencies, local and state governments plus hospitals, universities and companies can protect employees and the public by making vaping e-cigarettes illegal everywhere smoking cigarettes is already outlawed in their jurisdictions. The wording of “E-cigarette: an evidence update. A report commissioned by Public Health England”, sometimes attributed to the Royal College of Physicians, that said that “best estimates show e-cigarette are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes” is flimsy, and their “95%” statistic turns out to be a feeble guess, not a real percentage based on mathematics using data or measurements. E-cigarette peddlers initially gave their customers and bystanders a false sense of safety by claiming that e-cigarette emissions are just water, but as laboratory evidence has proved that to be false they now claim that it is safer than tobacco smoke because there is no ‘tar’, however even without tobacco smoke the nicotine itself is dangerous because it damages arteries and is a powerful neurotoxin. Nicotine is so poisonous that synthetic analogs of it called neonicotinoids are used as pesticides. Inhaling nicotine by either vaping e-cigarettes or smoking tobacco is like huffing bug spray. Finally, most people who vape e-cigarettes continue to smoke cigarettes anyway, resorting to e-cigs only when they are in places where smoking tobacco is not allowed. E-cigarettes are bogus harm reduction and a smoking cessation hoax.