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Arkansas governor rejects proposed restaurant smoking ban (state should not infringe on smokers)
AP ^ | 10/26/2001 | AP

Posted on 10/26/2001 6:36:38 PM PDT by TLBSHOW

Arkansas governor rejects proposed restaurant smoking ban

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)

Gov. Mike Huckabee rejected a proposed restaurant smoking ban Friday, saying that while he personally opposed smoking, the state should not infringe upon the rights of people who smoke. The governor also questioned whether the ban was constitutional and said money spent fighting possible lawsuits could be better spent on smoking prevention efforts.

Arkansas' Health Board voted Thursday to ban smoking in businesses that make more than 70 percent of the money from food sales, citing the need to protect workers and patrons.

"I feel an appointed board without direct accountability to the voters isn't the best vehicle to make such sweeping changes in the law," Huckabee said.

The Health Board proposal needed Huckabee's approval before it could become law.

The governor said that if Arkansans wish to limit smoking in restaurants, they should ask their local governments or the Legislature for new laws or support smoking prevention and cessation programs.

"This was an opportunity for better health for all Arkansans, particularly those who work in those places who really have no choice," said Democratic state Rep. Jim Wood, who took the proposed smoking ban to the Health Board after the Legislature rejected it in 1999.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/26/2001 6:36:38 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
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To: TLBSHOW
Three cheers for The Gov, who today struck a blow for freedom.
2 posted on 10/26/2001 7:26:35 PM PDT by backlash
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To: *puff_list
Finally...a politician who understands that unelected boards with their own special agenda, who get PAID--handsomely--for their anti-smoker stance, are not supposed to be writing laws the rest of us must follow! Good for you, Governor Huckabee! (See, something good did come out of Arkansas!)
3 posted on 10/26/2001 7:26:41 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: TLBSHOW
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated: but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." C.S. Lewis
4 posted on 10/26/2001 7:30:58 PM PDT by lvmyfrdm
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To: Max McGarrity
There was also that one guy-- General Douglas MacArthur, maybe you heard of 'im.

Here are some more great Arkansans (besides me, of course):


5 posted on 10/26/2001 7:41:38 PM PDT by GraniteStateConservative
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To: Max McGarrity
"who get PAID--handsomely--for their anti-smoker stance" Who is getting paid? What if the Governor is the one getting paid? Just a thought.
6 posted on 10/26/2001 7:45:20 PM PDT by sua sponte
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To: GraniteStateConservative
Sorry, GSC...that wasn't meant to be a slap at Arkansas or its native sons. It was intended as a comment on the Klintoons. Forgiven?
7 posted on 10/27/2001 11:58:37 AM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: sua sponte
"who get PAID--handsomely--for their anti-smoker stance" Who is getting paid? What if the Governor is the one getting paid? Just a thought.

It isn't difficult for anyone to "follow the money trail." A couple of years ago, after ex-smoker Gro Harlem Brundtland took the reins of the World Health Organization, several multi-billion-dollar, multinational pharmaceutical companies who produce overpriced and inefficient "smoking cessation" devices and products signed a "partnership arrangement" with the WHO. They agreed to the goal of a smokefree world.

Sweet deal. Big Drug pays the World "Health" Organization to wage war on smokers; the WHO then takes its efforts and money away from its mandated purpose--fighting starvation, infectious diseases and other true epidemics in the third world--and puts them toward engineering behavior so smokers will buy more products from Big Drugs who will then give more money to the WHO and so on ad infinitum.

Our own government agencies are just as guilty of collusion with this "enemy within" which seeks to overthrow individual liberties and private property rights. The CDC itself wasn't ready for the current bioterrorism on our soil--but in recent years they have spent billions of dollars on anti-smoker programs.

Even worse to many people is the blatant disregard for the law of the land by anti-smokers like the Robert Wood Johnson "Foundation," primary stockholder in Johnson & Johnson, maker of Nicotrol. Taxpayer money and charitable contributions are used to fund these taxfree organizations, who then turn around and use those funds to bolster their political power and buy pet politicians in total disregard to the IRS rules.

Because they are on the "politically correct" side of the smoking issue, they are apparently above the law.

8 posted on 10/27/2001 12:50:00 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: Just another Joe; Gabz; SheLion; *puff_list
I've just sent Governor Huckabee a thank you note HERE. I think it's as important to let people know when they're right as to complain at them when they're wrong.
9 posted on 10/27/2001 4:14:49 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: Max McGarrity
I agree Max.
10 posted on 10/27/2001 6:02:02 PM PDT by Gabz
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To: Max McGarrity
I didn't take offense-- I just thought it was a great opportunity to mention that Johnny Cash and General MacArthur were Arkansans.
11 posted on 10/28/2001 2:46:14 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Max McGarrity
The Arkansas Board of Health is made up of citizens that meet 4 times a year and are not paid for their service. They are mainly health professionals that deal with the number one health issue in Arkansas, smoking. To suggest they are part of a world wide conspiracy and taking bribes is just nonsense. If the money trail is easy to trace, please provide some evidence that members of the Health Board have taken any money. By the way, there is a money trail from tobacco interests to the Governor.
13 posted on 10/28/2001 6:59:40 AM PST by sua sponte
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To: NAMMARINE
Get a grip. While you are right, your rude.

This isn't an issue about smoking/nonsmoking, its all about the RIGHTS of Business owners to regulate what goes on inside of their establishments. Period. If you smoke and go inside a restaurant that prohibits smoking...don't light up. And if don't smoke and go to a business that allows smoking...go to a business that is smoke free. But for the government to demand that restaurants conform to no-smoking demands/laws or face fines/ and or closure is against everything this country was founded on.

14 posted on 10/28/2001 7:12:50 AM PST by JohnD9207
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To: JohnD9207
Exactly. Thank you.
15 posted on 10/28/2001 10:24:19 AM PST by Max McGarrity
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To: sua sponte
The Arkansas Board of Health is made up of citizens that meet 4 times a year and are not paid for their service. They are mainly health professionals that deal with the number one health issue in Arkansas, smoking.

These four "health professionals" are not elected by the people? Then what authority do they have to create laws that affect the people? The fact that they believe what they're doing is right, as you obviously do, doesn't make it so.

To suggest they are part of a world wide conspiracy and taking bribes is just nonsense. If the money trail is easy to trace, please provide some evidence that members of the Health Board have taken any money. By the way, there is a money trail from tobacco interests to the Governor.

Nowhere did I ever suggest these people are "taking bribes." But if they are guilty of getting laws passed that encroach upon the people's Constitutional rights, such as the right to run a business and make a living, then they are indeed part of the worldwide "conspiracy." whether you want to admit it or not. The War on Smokers is being waged from the very top levels of the federal government, from the National Institutes of Health in collusion with the World Health Organization, down to each local municipality. They all use what they call "Tobacco Money" (implying it was forcibly removed from the industry) to place ads, to sensationalize their latest junk science, to conduct 'polls,' to produce slick, professional anti-smoker materials to turn lawmakers into "true believers" like themselves. What they don't admit is that the money they use against smokers was NOT taken from the industry but from the smokers themselves, through punitive taxation and the Master Settlement Agreement.

16 posted on 10/28/2001 10:43:07 AM PST by Max McGarrity
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To: NAMMARINE
smoking is a filthy addiction, and smokers are among the giggest scofflaws and literers that the country has seen.

And the same to you bud.

17 posted on 10/28/2001 8:22:43 PM PST by Great Dane
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To: Max McGarrity
Just sent my own note to the governor.
You're right, a politician that finally gets that it's not about smoking, it's about business owners property rights.
18 posted on 10/29/2001 5:41:58 AM PST by Just another Joe
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To: Just another Joe
Yea really...when I was a smoker and living in NY....you couldn't smoke at the tables but you can smoke at the bar which was right by the tables....so all the smoke was blown in that direction....what was the point?????? My friends and I would eat and leave instead of ordering a few more drinks...because we couldn't smoke....I quite over a year ago and it dosen't bother me the least when someone lights up....as a matter of face....mmmmmmm it still smells good!!!!!
19 posted on 10/29/2001 5:47:13 AM PST by geege
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To: NAMMARINE
smoking is a filthy addiction, and smokers are among the giggest scofflaws and literers that the country has seen.

Number 1 - you might preview your posts BEFORE you post.
Number 2 - What gives you the idea that smokers are scofflaws? Look up the definition in the dictionary.
What gives you the idea that smokers break any more laws than anyone else? Or that they do not appear in court after they have received a summons?
As for littering, This is the only point you MAY have. Many smokers DO toss their cigarette butts out the window of their car. Just as many people will toss their fast food wrappers, beer cans, candy wrappers, etc out the window of their cars.
Why this makes smokers worse than anyone else I fail to see.
Enforece the existing laws and everyone receives the same treatment. Otherwise you are discriminating against people that consume a LEGAL product.

20 posted on 10/29/2001 5:53:37 AM PST by Just another Joe
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