Wisconsin Smoking Ban - - Presumably Fixed - - Goes Into Effect in Two Months
Yes, Wisconsin's reluctant smoking ban finally gets into the books with one final amendment - - but not until lawmakers delayed the implementation until after one last July 4th holiday money-grubbing, cigarette-celebrating carcinogenic inhalation.
And had to fix their so-called initiative by closing, maybe, a head-scratching loophole.
How does that happen?
Note that North Carolina, home to cigarette making, beat Wisconsin to it. As did entire countries where smoking is a tradition, in and out of taverns.
How does that happen?
The smoking ban fiasco speaks volumes about the dismal state of the Wisconsin legislature, and its embarrassingly tepid, unapologetically agenda-free Democratic majority and leadership.
On OWI reform - - legislators instituted weak, tinkering changes after a spate of horrific high-profile OWI deaths because tavern and other lobbying forces successfully kept Wisconsin the only state in the country where nearly all first-offenses remain as tickets.
And you still gotta get four convictions before you have committed a OWI felony. The message there: First offenders, you get a pass.
Repeat offenders - - have one for the road.
On clean energy progress - - total failure.
On payday lending - - shallow, first-ever changes - - but no cap on interest rates - - even after a key Democrat who had been a champion of tough regulation admitted to a relationship with a payday lobbyist.
On regional transit - - nothing (though an earlier veto by Gov. Doyle left them with a tough situation - - one they were not strong enough to repair).
Gone are the days that Democrats stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the disenfranchised and powerless.
These days, Democrats care more about fund-raising and staying in office than actually doing anything once there, which is one reason why a lot of them are going to lose their seats.
The legislature shouldn't be a place for place-holders.
1 comment:
Many "non-profits" have major ties to huge entities. First, the non-profits CREATE a crisis that benefits these huge entities using their tax-exempt arm to lobby government and influence legislation. Like the health advocates. Like big pharma. They are not really concerned with health, they are concerned with profits to be made. Then the state gets their hands in there for the taxes to be raised. Just like the global warming scammers trying to make people believe that skyrocketing taxes in the name of the planets health are acceptable, and the newly CREATED obesity "crisis" demonizing our youth, these non-profits have a global agenda of trying to make people believe that tobacco and the second hand smoke scam is a legitimate reason for skyrocketing taxes on one segment of society that everyone pays at the end due to trickle down economics, leading to banning legal products on privately owned property. Ohio even used election fraud to get it on the ballot. The owners can no longer decide what happens on their own property and lose everything they've worked for. Ask bar owners. Tens of thousands of small mom and pop businesses worldwide have closed due to the interferece of these "health advocates". Wisconsin's elected officials have been cowed by the tobacco control brigade. It is not business owners preferences, it their RIGHTS! Their rights trump patrons preferences by the U.S. Constitution! Ohio is rethinking their ban that has been in place for over 3 years with disastrous results to the small business and state economy. Michigan's new ban has also been disastrous to the Veteran's clubs and the hospitality industry. Minnesota has not recovered, and Wisconsin's ban that began July 5th will most likely be repealed as soon as competent leadership takes the reins. In truth, these scams land on the heads of incompetent politicians.
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