WEB SELLERS BURN TAX-DODGE PUFFERS

New York Post ^ | 6/29/03 | AL GUART

[kattracks]

New Yorkers dodging heavy taxes on cigarettes by buying from Native American sellers on the Internet could be hearing soon from the taxman.

Under a settlement in the federal appeals court, the Ojibwa Trading Post, a popular online cigarette vendor based in upstate New York, has agreed to report its sales and hand over customer names to authorities every two weeks, effective immediately.

[July 4th]

Very cool...but their wine is a little on the pricey side. (And probably smells a bit like tobacco. :)

[July 4th]

Quitting, my dear sir, has never been an American response.

Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No!

[Dan from Michigan]

JBT's at it again.

[metesky]

You forget about the millions of two-fers out here. I've been fighting the MJ battle for forty years, incarcerated for it in '66/'67, and now in my dotage I've got to start hiding my tobaccy.

Don't think so, FRiend.

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees, as somebody or other once said.

[Madame Dufarge]

Wolfie, I like you and I completely understand your point; that said, Gabz is right.

I think a large majority of tobacco smokers haven't bought into the demonization of marijuana users, but maybe didn't see that train a comin' toward them.

I've been against the WOSD from the getgo. It's a war on personal liberties and the tobacco jihad is just a ratcheting up.

We're natural allies, though there will always be detractors, as Gabz pointed out.

[Wolfie]

Tobacco is verboten in her house, but weed is not? The human capacity for double standards never ceases to amaze me.

[edsheppa]

Wow, hard to believe anyone could be confused by my post. It's risible to complain about "posturing" then equate a cigarette sales tax to Nazis rounding up the Jews. It's moronic to do both in the same post.

[CatoRenasci]

The Stamp Act analogy is incorrect. The colonists were not objecting to taxation per se, but taxation without representation in Parliament.

We have representation, however imperfect. It's our very own legislatures that are voting all these stupid tobacco taxes because (1) they think a majority of their constituents want those laws and (2) they don't think those who disagree are sufficiently politically powerful or well organized to do anything about it.

Moral: if you don't like the taxes, change the lawmakers who put them in, and get rid of the taxes.

[Centurion2000]

bump ... thank God for Texas.

[Madame Dufarge]

Your response is the template for brushing aside the Nazi analogy by claiming it diminishes the suffering of the Jews, while ignoring the overall Nazi philosophy that the Master Race needed to be engineered by the state. This is a cheap and easy way to deflect the argument.

In the Wonderful World O' Nazis, the assumption was that individuals' bodies and lives were the property of that state.

This approach is so inimical to the vision of the Founders and the purpose of the U. S. Constitution that I'm astounded anyone posting on a conservative forum doesn't instinctively get it.

Individuals have been replaced by "groups" thanks to years of government school dumbing down and subsequent brainwashing, so it's apparently become perfectly acceptable to some that a particular group can be picked off and onerously taxed for the "greater good" of other groups. After all, we're "all" paying for health care. (A bogus argument, since smokers pay more than they get, and by the way socialist thinking to the core.)

I would argue that you are the one doing the posturing as a conservative.

[metesky]

The Stamp Act analogy is incorrect. The colonists were not objecting to taxation per se, but taxation without representation in Parliament.

One of the points I've been trying to make for five years on this forum is that we are not represented now, and become less and less so as population increases and the House remains static at 435.

[edsheppa]

The difference between us "Madame" is not that I'm not conservative but that I have a sense of proportion.

[SheLion]

It's the American's duty to shop cheap. It's our right.

If the Native American's are going to start turning over customer lists, then why don't they just tax the damn cigarettes they sell, and be done with it!

And I sure can't understand how the FEDS can do this. What with all the Internet Auction sites that aren't collecting taxes for sales. I think they should worry about the Internet auction houses, don't you?

BTW, Presque Isle, Maine Native Americans are going to open up a store and sell tax free cigarettes. Our Guv is having a fit! heh!

[SheLion]

The best way to foil the taxman who places outrageous taxes on cigarettes is not to smoke. If you don't purchase cigarettes, you won't have to pay the taxes.

How about rolling my own? Instead of paying into the state coffers for a carton of cigarettes that cost anywhere from $44 to $50 dollars a carton, I roll a beautiful carton for under $8.00.

There's more ways to skin a cat, you know. Why should I give up something I truely enjoy? And have enjoyed for many years.

[SheLion]

:::Sigh::: You are right, of course. I will try once again to quit.

Why the hell should you give up something you enjoy? ROLL YOUR OWN. Save the money to buy something else. Let the state pound sand!

[SheLion]

Cry me a river.

[Conspiracy Guy]

They don't want to let us smoke but they want that blood money. The creepy little combover creeps.

[SheLion]

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees, as somebody or other once said.

Oh my goodness, metesky! GOOD one! heh!

[ampat]

What a joke. When will the govt. learn. People will continue to seek cheaper cigarettes, wherever they can find them. If Indian Reservation smokes dries up, then cheaper cigarettes will pop up somewhere else and the state will spend all or more of their cigarette revenue trying to shut down the new source. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, when they could be spending it on something worthwhile.

[Gabz]

As I said I despise hypocrites.

And as Madame indicated, we should all be allies.

And I consider tobacco smokers who want weed kept illegal and users jailed to be just as hypocritical as weed users wanting to see tobacco outlawed.