do you smoke?

[tankie]

Originally Posted by RamHammer

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Thanks

[MarquezRazor]

Have cut down from 7-8 a day to 3-4 a day.Trying hard to quit.

[Ironduke]

Originally Posted by dalem

Nobody else here smokes cigars?

Dayum.

-dale

Occasionally. Last cigar I had was a Rothschild Montecristo.

[Skull6]

Is this only about smoking, or using tobacco in general?

I dip when outside for recreation. Copenhagen.

You can take the boy outta the woods, but ya cain't take the woods outta the boy!

[Maggot]

I used to smoke a pipe, but I haven't since shortly after I left the military. Even when I smoked it, it was a once in a while habit, with good tobacco blends.

[RamHammer]

Originally Posted by MarquezRazor

Have cut down from 7-8 a day to 3-4 a day.Trying hard to quit.

Keep at it, and don't give up!

You'll feel much better when you stop.

[dalem]

Originally Posted by Ironduke

Occasionally. Last cigar I had was a Rothschild Montecristo.

Hmm. Never tried one of those.

I'll have to git your butt over here one night for a good smoke.

-dale

[Ray]

Originally Posted by dave lukins

I'd better keep the wife out of the forest

[Desdemona]

Smoke 'em if you got 'em! Here we go again with our fabulous government raising taxes yet again on tobacco products. Subsidized, penalized and taxed yet again.

As if the taxes aren't bad enough, a Senate committee recently approved legislation that would, for the first time, allow federal regulation of cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration would be authorized to restrict tobacco advertising. What business does the FDA have in advertising. So much for free speech.



Congress Aims to Put Out Cigarettes
By CHARLES BABINGTON,AP
Posted: 2007-11-10 03:37:40
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress is taking new whacks at the cigarette industry, banning tobacco sales in Senate buildings and - more importantly - seeking a significant federal tax increase on cigarettes.

The industry, once a lobbying behemoth, is quietly working against the tax bill. But it lacks the clout it once wielded.

Several key lawmakers said they have had no recent contacts with tobacco lobbyists. And both houses have signaled a willingness to raise the cigarette tax if other provisions of a children's health bill can be resolved.

"I think the industry has tried to do things more quietly, largely because they obviously know how popular a tobacco tax is," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The health advocacy group supports a proposed $35 billion increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which a higher cigarette tax would finance.

House and Senate negotiators are trying to craft a veto-proof version of the bill. President Bush says he would veto it because it calls for a 61 cents-per-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, taking it to $1.

The House came within about a dozen votes of overriding Bush's veto of a similar bill last month. The bill's supporters are offering to change program eligibility rules in hopes of picking up enough Republicans to make the revised bill veto-proof. The proposed cigarette tax increase is not at issue, leaders of both parties said.

Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker, sponsors a Web site, mailings and a toll-free number urging people to ask Congress to sustain Bush's veto. "Taxing smokers is unfair," the materials say, adding that states have increased sales taxes on cigarettes 73 times since 2000.

"We are sharing our position with legislators," Philip Morris spokesman Bill Phelps said in an interview. The company also has encouraged tobacco growers, retailers and wholesalers to get involved, he said.

But tobacco's critics say health concerns have deeply eroded the industry's influence in Congress.

"The country and elected officials have really made a turn," said Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Cigarette companies, he said, "don't have the opportunity to go in and push members as much."

The tobacco industry gave $3.5 million to federal campaigns and candidates in the 2006 election cycle, ranking 64th among major industry groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Ten years earlier, it gave $10.5 million, ranking 26th.

Some Democratic lawmakers have groused that House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., is married to a lobbyist who has worked for Philip Morris' parent company. Blunt, who is monitoring the children's health negotiations, says his wife no longer lobbies on tobacco issues.

In a landmark 1998 settlement of many lawsuits, four major tobacco companies agreed to help states pay for smoking-related health care costs. They paid $52.6 billion from 2000 to 2005, the government reported.

In some ways, tobacco's presence on Capitol Hill is literally waning. The Senate Rules Committee recently ordered shops in the Capitol and all Senate office buildings to end cigarette sales by Jan. 1.

Cigarettes are still sold in the Longworth House Office Building. But last January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., banned smoking in the ornate Speaker's Lobby, just off the House floor.

"The days of smoke-filled rooms in the United States Capitol are over," she said, citing the risks of cancer and respiratory diseases.

Other congressional actions could have a far greater impact on the industry. A Senate committee recently approved legislation that would, for the first time, allow federal regulation of cigarettes. The bill, also pending in the House, would require the Food and Drug Administration to restrict tobacco advertising, regulate warning labels and remove hazardous ingredients.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
11/10/07 03:12 EST
Congress Aims to Put Out Cigarettes - AOL News

[glyn]

Whatever happened to the concept of Land of the Free?

[TopHatter]

Used to smoke Marlboro Lights, as well as the occasional cigar or tobacco pipe.

I loved sitting outside, enjoying the beautiful Florida weather, with a thick book, a pack of smokes and a bottomless glass of Captain Morgan and Whatever.

I quit smoking all tobacco products on October 10 2005 and I've never looked back (except when I've had a few too many drinks, but direct eye contact with a lit cigarette and a whiff of it's smoke usually brings me back to the straight and narrow...not to mention making me nauseous. )

[jame$thegreat]

Originally Posted by dalem

In a few decades the whole anti-smoking crusade will be revealed as as big a panic fraud as global warming is now.

Nowadays they blame everything on smoking. Come on there are just some bad things that happen that you cant tag onto smoking. I'm hesitant to believe that cancer in competely unrelated parts of your body from your lungs and heart have cigarrettes to blame...

I also think that they exagerate second-hand smoking to an outlandish scale. Second-smoking is not nearly as dangerous as these anti-smoking fanatics let on.

The most infuriatiing part about it is that left-wing nuts have been rallying to label any movie with smoking in it R. When I was in Albany I saw the whackos lobbying near the senate building, rediculous. Their (far fetched) reasoning is that if children see their role model from a movie smoking they will begin smoking. Personally I think that the numbers they use rope people into their cause are all manufactured, every single one. Any kid that begins smoking simply because he sees someone in a movie doing it is going to get killed one way or another due to his incredible stupidity. This is simply natural selection.

[Traps]

To about 60 a day.

Only because the anti-smoking Nazis are driving me insane!

[glyn]

Originally Posted by Traps

To about 60 a day.

Only because the anti-smoking Nazis are driving me insane!

The anti-smoking lobby seems to be part of the environmental lobby which has also been hijacked by the Climate Change religion.

[Traps]

The voice of reason

Thought Leader » Michael Trapido » Anti-smoking Nazi bastards!