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by seabooty
on Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:42 pm |
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How many will join the NOHAS? Pronounced NO-HASS The National Organization of Hopelessly Addicted Smokers, a minority non profit organization. Membership will only be $20.00 and will pay for legal fees to fight city hall, donations of any amount will be encouraged. An association to fight the descrimination against smokers, bring back smoker's rights, advertise the antismoking "smoke" and mirrors and show how detrimental to USA freedom these laws are becoming.
This is not a joke, I can go through all the trouble in Florida and actually get it going. |
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seabooty
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by runamok
on Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:00 am |
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seabooty wrote: How many will join the NOHAS? Pronounced NO-HASS The National Organization of Hopelessly Addicted Smokers, a minority non profit organization. Membership will only be $20.00 and will pay for legal fees to fight city hall, donations of any amount will be encouraged. An association to fight the descrimination against smokers, bring back smoker's rights, advertise the antismoking "smoke" and mirrors and show how detrimental to USA freedom these laws are becoming.
This is not a joke, I can go through all the trouble in Florida and actually get it going.
Along these lines, there is something I have been discussing in a secure forum at FORCES that has generated very little interest there  , so I will bring it up here.
There is a very interesting situation unfolding in South Dakota.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090626/NEWS/906260326/1001/news
In a nutshell, an organization called Citizens For Individual Freedom was formed and they had a successful petition drive which delayed the smoking ban (was scheduled to start on July 1) and will put it on the Nov 2010 ballot for the voters to decide. This is unprecedented.
Assuming anti and their gov't cronies can't get the petition invalidated (I put nothing past them), this shapes up to quite possibly be our last chance to stop the ban machine, or at least throw a stick in their spokes that will take them a long time to recover from. Time enough perhaps, to get off our backs before we're counted out of the fight.
We know that anti will bring in massive resources from all over the country to try and avert this potentially huge setback. Shouldn't ban opponents be doing the same?
How do we get hospitality (and other) business owners from around the country, particularly those in states without bans yet, to rally around and support, both morally and financially, this uprising in SD? Sending anti packing in SD would certainly seem to be in the best interests of those businesses in other states that haven't let the horse out of the barn yet.
I know we need to be careful and pick the right fight but my gut tells me that South Dakota is the right place to make a stand against anti. Two reasons:
1) It is a red state. Not to say that the R's are much better than the D's on the smoking issue but you sure as hell wouldn't want to bother trying this in a blue state.
2) We have some time here. The real battle won't even get under way for at least a year.
I'm looking for any and all volunteers that want to pitch in and see what kind of support we can drum up from around the whole country.
Before anybody starts shotgunning out communications to any individuals or organizations, we need to get organized, starting with who will cover what states. We need to find out what organizations in the various states are actually sympathetic to the cause. Just because they are a "Tavern League" or whatever does not mean they haven't been bought off already (as in Wisconsin).
I've already sent emails to both the Deadwood Gaming Association and the Licensed Beverage Dealers of South Dakota (two of the parties involved in the petition drive), congratulating them on their ambitious endeavor and gave them a stern warning of what they are up against with anti-smoking. I've heard nothing back from either yet, not that I expected to.
I have begun drafting a letter to send to Larry Mann (frontman for Citizens For Individual Freedom)which I will drop in the mail over the weekend. Would prefer to email it but I have no address for him but that may be just as well. I think paper letters actually impart more of an impact than an email. They apparently have no website.
I plan on going through with this thing. I'm sick and tired of spending my time and energy preaching to the choir. If nothing comes of this, I will know for sure that the only option is to wait for anti to self-destruct which I know they will somewhere down the road, but I'd like to be involved in sticking it to those arrogant, lying bastards at least once.
I know this campaign will be wrought with pitfalls and I may not even get very far out of the blocks but I'm ready to make a major commitment to this.
Any interest? |
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runamok
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by Asmoker2
on Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:42 pm |
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| I hope there's lots of interest, although these fights seem to be starting a bit late. |
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Asmoker2
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by Randall Jett
on Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:25 pm |
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Asmoker2 wrote: I hope there's lots of interest, although these fights seem to be starting a bit late.[/q I am happy to see someone is agreeing that we need an organization, but using the courts is just not going to work. Use what economic leverage you have to put pressure on local and state governments by making as many major purchases as you can in another state or city. It won't take long for the politicians and businesses to take notice. If we can get enough people to join the group we could cause politicians to begin worrying and perhaps start paying attention. |
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Randall Jett
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by runamok
on Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:17 pm |
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Asmoker2 wrote: I hope there's lots of interest, although these fights seem to be starting a bit late.
The real battle won't even start for well over a year. The vote doesn't take place for 17 months. That's why I think this is the right fight. This is substantially more time than I've ever seen between the time it was decided there was going to be a vote on a ban, and the actual vote. Fact is, there's very few statewides that were actually voted on by the people. Ohio is the only one I know of. The rest were all done by state lawmakers and signed into law by their governor. South Dakota, with the petition, is a unique situation that may be a unique opportunity.
I know this is a longshot. Complacency and resignation are certainly rampant but, ya never know. Maybe enough business owners and their organizations in states without bans have finally wised up to what's coming their way if they don't get a little more pro-active. Seems to me it would be much better to fight the enemy in someone elses state than to have that messy and expensive squabbling close to home.
Of course, first, I've got to see where Larry Mann is at on this whole thing. Maybe he doesn't want anyone outside his circle meddling in this. I don't know. |
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runamok
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by runamok
on Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:39 pm |
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I figured this would happen.
http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/49755867.html
The anti-smoking cartel is challenging the petition. They're picking it apart on notary technicalities and are forcing the state to check each individual sheet and signature. This will likely take weeks rather than days.
Interesting, but not unexpected, twist. |
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runamok
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by libertarian99
on Fri Jul 03, 2009 2:41 pm |
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runamok wrote: Complacency and resignation are certainly rampant but, ya never know. Maybe enough business owners and their organizations in states without bans have finally wised up to what's coming their way if they don't get a little more pro-active. Seems to me it would be much better to fight the enemy in someone elses state than to have that messy and expensive squabbling close to home.
I'm not going to say where I live, because that would probably alert the antis and trigger an attack.
What kind of help do you need, anyway? Does a person have to travel to SD to support your effort?
I read the challenge to the petition and it seems like it would be easy enough to register people to vote, if the reason their signature is being challenged is voter registration. What does that take, filling out a post card and turning it in? |
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libertarian99
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by runamok
on Fri Jul 03, 2009 5:47 pm |
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libertarian99 wrote: What kind of help do you need, anyway? Does a person have to travel to SD to support your effort?
I read the challenge to the petition and it seems like it would be easy enough to register people to vote, if the reason their signature is being challenged is voter registration. What does that take, filling out a post card and turning it in?
I don't even know what kind of help I may need yet. I'm still feeling my way around looking for individuals and organizations who are willing to spend some time putting together a coalition of sorts.
Ultimately, I'll be looking for business owners from all over the country who would be willing to support, both morally and financially, an all-out effort to defeat anti in the state of South Dakota.
I don't even know what state you are in but apparently it does not have a statewide ban yet. It would be helpful if you could find out what sort of restaurant associations or whatever, exist there that I could contact and try and convince them that funding the battle in SD would be in their best interest down the road.
And no, I'm not looking for anyone to travel to SD. If this ever gets off the ground I may go there to meet with people but it's not that far for me. I'm in Minnesota.
I think most of the work that would need to be done could be done from your keyboard. Understand that I haven't even been in touch with the coalition in SD as of yet and I don't plan to until this petition is finally validated. If it ends up getting thrown out, well, the game is over before it even starts.
Bottom line is, I don't know what the hell I'm even doing yet. I just know that posting clever comments here and elsewhere isn't changing anything. I need to take some action and this SD thing seems like the right fight to get involved in. |
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runamok
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by libertarian99
on Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:47 am |
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runamok wrote: I don't even know what state you are in but apparently it does not have a statewide ban yet. It would be helpful if you could find out what sort of restaurant associations or whatever, exist there that I could contact and try and convince them that funding the battle in SD would be in their best interest down the road.
I did a little research and came up with the following information, if it helps.
Indiana Restaurant Association: http://www.indianarestaurants.org/
Indiana Hotel and Lodging Association: http://www.indianahotels.org/
Indiana Bed and Breakfast Association: http://www.indianabedandbreakfast.org/
Indiana Licensed Beverage Association: http://www.indianalba.com/
Kentucky Restaurant Association: http://www.kyra.org
Bed and Breakfast Association of Kentucky: http://www.kentuckybb.com/
Kentucky Hotel and Lodging Association: http://www.kyhotellodging.com/
List of Biker-friendly bars, restaurants and liquor stores in Kentucky: http://www.bars4bikers.com/ky.html
It's hard to figure out what business associations include bars, because the keywords "bar association" pull up the attorneys' bar associations. |
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libertarian99
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