Calif. cigarette tax threatens citizens' liberties (FReeper author? "Lowbeam" reference...)

Daily Bruin (UCLA) ^ | 8/26/02 | Joel Schwartz

[SheLion]

Get rid of this chain around our necks and freedom will be ringing loud and clear.

I sure would love to find out how! The lawmakers lie boldfaced to our face, we vote them in, then they turn on us. How the 'ell are we supposed to get rid of them! It's pathetic! And California REALLY needs a change. Just like Maine!

[SheLion]

Could you lead me to the source for this statement?

I know, Joe. I was scratching my head over that statement myself. My bumper sticker says "I Smoke And I Vote." And I never EVER miss an election!

[SheLion]

The unfree society of Michael Bloomberg

No Fun In New York City

Online smoking sales choking states

Read Their Lips: No Taxes/New York

[uncbob]

Gee, that's news to me. I've been a voting Republican for as many years as I've been smoking... 34 years. I was smoking a Winston cigarette while applauding Barry Goldwater at a rally in 1964.

You are one person

If most smokers vote and most vote for the GOP how they hell are they able to screw the smokers and the homosexuals have so much power

[SheLion]

If most smokers vote and most vote for the GOP how they hell are they able to screw the smokers and the homosexuals have so much power.

Because they lie to our face, or are easily swayed once they are in office.

[uncbob]

Because they lie to our face, or are easily swayed once they are in office.


How about because smokers don't call or write their representatives on the issue to exert pressure

How abour because they don't have an organization like NOW or AARP or ACT UP etc etc

[Madame Dufarge]

most smokers don't vote and probably don't even know who the governor is

Most of the ones that do vote probably yank the democrat lever

Wow, I'll bet you've got reams of research to back that up.

Do you think you pay too much in income tax?

What's the matter, don't you vote?

[SheLion]

How abour because they don't have an organization like NOW or AARP or ACT UP etc etc

We do call and we do write! A LOT!

The reason we, as private citizens do not have a coalition like NOW or the AARP is because we are not funded like the anti-smokers are or the above mentioned groups. We are not funded by anyone.

A lot of people like to accuse us of working for Big Tobacco, but we definitely do not. We have no funding and everything we do, we do at our own time and expense.

[Great Dane]

I think he is a non-smoker, therefore he likes to convince us all that we are of the low class non-voting persuasion.

[dark_lord]

Darn! Well, how about we just:
A. Legalize marijuana.
B. Tax it at $1/gram (about $25/oz.)
C. Sell it at Walgreens and Osco.
:-)

[Koblenz]

But we don't see a smear campaign against meat companies or massive taxes on their products.

Coming soon: trial lawyers attack against "Big Meat"

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

It's not so much that the politicians don't understand economics,the most important thing to them and the"scare-de-cat"public is to control other people's lives.I just hope someday something awful will happen that NO LAW can protect from and the anti crowd will be helpless to stop.Something that only the anti-freedom bunch will be upset about.

[Madame Dufarge]

Of course.

The smokers-are-morons gambit.

[maxwellp]

I'm in Central New York State and can drive to an Indian Casino where I buy my cigarets (Marlboro Lights) for half price. All my friends who smoke, including some in NYC and Brooklyn, are buying cigarets over the Internet. Also, I'm a member of the Conservative Party, have never missed voting and George Pataki is the Governor of New York.

[Jaidyn]

The smokers-are-morons gambit.
Silly me! I thought a diverse group of intellectual beings smoked. The dummies are those that impose their so-called valueless values on others. They want to remove smokers from their own establishments, not because they want to frequent them, but to shove their superiority in our faces. These smug jerks ought to stay home where it is safe from all carcinogens, eat tofu and die of boredom. We own a bar, I SMOKE, and no one is going to tell me I, nor our customers cannot smoke inside our walls! I could care less if any non-smokers enter. The regulars are our backbone, not some Saturday night, one-drink-they-are-gone idiot.

[GoldMan]

yesmoke.com
Marlboro $14.95 per carton w/ free delivery
From a duty free warehouse in Switzerland

[VermiciousKnid]

Where is your bar, Jaidyn? I would be delighted to become a patron. Did you see the news that Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties are all "working together" to formulate a "comprehensive" smoking ban at ALL bars, restaurants and pool halls?

One charming Dem from Nassau County uttered these words: "If you're downstate, the only place you're going to be able to smoke is in your own closet."

The whole lot of 'em (Dems and RINOs) are disgusting.

Regards,

[Saundra Duffy]

Sin taxes are sinful.

[Jaidyn]

Our bar is in Ohio. It is just a bar, no food except for popcorn! There's one can of soup that has been there for years. When we opened it, there was a law that you had to have food available so we got a microwave and some soup that no one wanted. We tried sandwiches, but the customers preferred nice, cold beer and spirits along with their smokes. Ya'll are welcome to visit.

[VermiciousKnid]

Sounds like a great place! I bet you guys have a great jukebox, too.

Regards,