﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Smoking Lobby Forum for Smokers Rights and Smoking Bans]]></title><description><![CDATA[Articles]]></description><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/</link><copyright><![CDATA[Copyright Smoking Lobby Forum for Smokers Rights and Smoking Bans]]></copyright><generator>sNews CMS</generator><item><title><![CDATA[SmokingLobby Under New Management]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hello, allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Carlos Ag. and I am the new owner of SmokingLobby.com!  I just wanted to say hello to all the forum members which come here on a regular basis, and of course invite all our new visitors to join the discussion on smoker's rights in our   pro smoking forum  .  As has always been the case with Smoking Lobby, both smokers and non-smokers (and even some anti-smokers) are allowed to participate in the discussion about smoker's rights.  I realize this is a very heated debate, and people have a lot of things to say about smoking - how smokers are being criminalized, abused, discriminated against, and treated as second class citizens.  Hopefully we can enlighten some people about the fate of smokers, and shed some light on some of the myths surrounding the dangers of cigarettes.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:35:02 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/smokinglobby-under-new-management/</link><guid>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/smokinglobby-under-new-management/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Speakeasy, Forces, and Smoker&#039;s Club Destroyed the Smoker&#039;s Rights Movement.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This whole experience has taught me a lot about people in general, and why our efforts in this country standing up for the minority rights of smokers has failed, and always will fail. 

Here's the problem with this country: when something starts going a little south, we beg and plead and cry like little babies, "Oh please help me, give me free money and charity, give me donations, I deserve it ... blah, blah blah, boo hoo hoo." The Speakeasy debacle is a prime example of this and angers me to no end. They started Speakeasy several years after I started Smokinglobby for the express purpose of taking my traffic away and funnelling resources away from Smokinglobby. They could have offered to help me run SmokingLobby, so we could have created a huge forum for everyone to go to for Smoker's rights, but they didn't. And then Smoker's Club added a forum to steal traffic, and then a few years later Forces created one. 

Make no mistake - Smokinglobby may not be the first Smoker's Rights site on the internet, but it was definitely, AS A FACT, the first Smoker's Rights FORUM. The first forum which gave members a voice to be heard. When I started this site I did it because I wanted to fight TheTruth.com and all the anti-tobacco legislation, and there was NOT ONE site on the internet which offered a forum for smokers to discuss their rights. So I created it. And asked for no money, no handouts - I built it from the ground up with sweat and perseverance. 

So you can imagine the anger and ire I felt when these copycat clone forums popped up for no reason other than to steal traffic and make a quick buck. They could have just linked to my forum, or they could have partnered with me - but I didn't receive ONE OFFER from any of these douchebags - and the motha uckers at Smokers Club, Speakeasy and Forces know damn well who they they are. 

So now I see those idiots at Speakeasy have decided "smokers rights" isn't cool anymore so they want to throw in the towel. And what happens? My own forum members donate money to them to keep their site alive. Sickening. 

Make no mistake - Speakeasy is NOT a website. It offers no news, no facts, nothing - it is just a forum, in direct competition with Smokinglobby. They do nothing different - there is absolutely no reason in the world for the two to exist seperately. If all forum sites were merged they could have created one powerful voice to be heard. 

And that is why the smoker's rights movement has failed and always will. I offered to partner with Smoker's Club years ago so that we could have one forum with thousands of members that could make our collective voice be heard as one. But no, they make money off their ads and wanted to steal as much traffic as possbile. Forces is just as bad - they actually tell their members to install the Alexa toolbar and artificially drive up their traffic rankings so they can make more money (see http://www.forces.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?t=1038) 

Now, I understand we are in a capitalist society and although I may not like Forces and Smokers Club for openly competing with me in a free market, I still RESPECT their right to do so. They care about making a few bucks rather than partnering to create one forum 10,000 members strong. As capitalists, that is their right. 

But the Speakeasy pussies are a bunch of whiny bitches that just want welfare handouts. Just like the Democrats and Socialists that took away all our rights to smoke, they want free handouts to keep them afloat. So even though I competed with them and BEAT them in a fair, open market (they have 900 members, this site has 2,600), they cry poor and get free handouts. 

AND YOU PEOPLE ARE THE ONES THAT GAVE IT TO THEM. Here was a chance to merge the sites and make this forum 3,500 members strong - and actually make Speakesy's owners earn money because I would have PAID them - but our "smokers" decided no, let's keep our numbers weak and seperate. 

Divided we have been conquered. 

And before everyone thinks I'm just being greedy - I don't want to run anything other than a forum. Forces can keep their news platform, Smokers Club can keep their Newsletter, etc. It was intention only to partner and run one forum - AND SPLIT PROFITS, if there were any (which there actually aren't)!!! Smokinglobby is the original Smoker's Rights Forum, and it was my child, so I wanted to see it grow to become the one place on the internet legislators and news media could come to to hear one voice. 

Instead, you have splintered our cause into several factions and the last several years have seen the final death of public smoker's rights as we know them. In a few years, smoking will be outlawed altogether. I hope you can get your donations to Speakeasy written off now while you can, because apparently all you people ever cared about was money.

]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:32:20 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/how-speakeasy-forces-and-smokers-club-destroyed-the-smokers-rights-movement/</link><guid>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/how-speakeasy-forces-and-smokers-club-destroyed-the-smokers-rights-movement/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Smoking ban passes in Manhattan]]></title><description><![CDATA[  From KTKA News, New York, NY  

Soon, smoking will be banned in many public places in Manhattan.

Tonight, voters in the Little Apple approved a smoking ban.

57 percent of voters said yes.

This summer, the Manhattan city commission decided to put it to a vote.

And supporters of the ban say they fought hard against misinformation in the campaign.

"They saw through all of the stories from the other side and finally what the city commission didn't do and what hasn't happened until now, the voters passed this ordinance...Very exciting," ban proponent David Seay said.

This is an issue the Manhattan city commission refused to decide three times.

That last time, they decided to put it on the ballot.

The ban goes into effect in 60 days.

]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:24:36 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/smoking-ban-passes-in-manhattan/</link><guid>http://www.smokinglobby.com/home/smoking-ban-passes-in-manhattan/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Protect rights of smokers]]></title><description><![CDATA[I just wanted to post this letter to the editor of the   Santa Maria Times   ... I think it says it all:

"I am not an advocate of smoking. I quit over 30 years ago, and regularly advise others to do the same.

My argument is that there is already too much government in our everyday lives.

You must agree that people you are proposing to regulate are taxpaying citizens, with every right to enjoy the parks as anyone else. The second-hand-smoke theory is very loosely based on junk science, as so many things are these days.

Common sense tells us that for a smoker to affect another person in a open space, such as the parks, he/she would have to be directly in that person's face. It is far more likely that dust and/or any number of other contaminants will be inhaled.

If city fathers wish to be so Draconian, they should set aside areas for smokers, as smoking, per se, is not an illegal activity.

K. Weber
Santa Maria"


null]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:54:42 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/smokers-rights-news/protect-rights-of-smokers/</link><guid>http://www.smokinglobby.com/smokers-rights-news/protect-rights-of-smokers/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Anti-smoking ban site launched by 4th District Congressional candidate]]></title><description><![CDATA[REPRINTED from the   Iowa Independent  : 
Independent Congressional candidate William Meyers, who lost his district's Democratic primary last month, has launched a new Web site he hopes will become the focal point for the movement to repeal the recently enacted statewide smoking ban. The site attacks most Democrats in both chambers of the state legislature.

The site,   RepealTheSmokingBan.org  , officially went live earlier today. Meyers said he is currently operating it on his own but hopes in the coming days to contact interested parties who are working to overturn the ban to see if they would be interested in utilizing the site to unify the movement on a statewide basis.

"I want to donate the site to groups trying to get this terrible law overturned," Meyers said. "This site can help form a statewide coalition to make that a reality."

Meyers said he first became interested in the idea when he was running in the Democratic primary for the 4th District U.S. Congressional seat. The site, however, is completely separate from his independent run for Congress, Meyers said, though he hopes he can use the experience he has gained during the campaign to benefit the anti-ban movement.

"I'm willing to do what I can, whether that is helping with research for a future lawsuit, assist in online networking or just out talking to people and letting them know why this ban is a bad idea."

One section of the site, entitled "The Nannies," lists every legislator who voted in favor of the smoking ban, along with contact information. A "Nanny," according to the site, is anyone who "thinks they should be able to tell other adults how to live. The militantly anti-anything-else-they-see-someone-else-enjoying."

Many Democrats were already upset with Meyers, fearing his independent run for Congress could siphon votes away from Democratic nominee Becky Greenwald and tip the race to Republican incumbent Tom Latham. In designing a Web site aimed directly at a bill Democratic legislators and Democratic Gov. Chet Culver advocated,he runs the risk of further alienating the Democratic establishment.

"I think this shows my willingness to reach across the aisle and speak out on an issue I believe in," he said. "I was embarrassed to call myself a Democrat when my party pushed through the smoking ban, and I think it will hurt them and any Republican who voted for it this fall."
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:29:14 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.smokinglobby.com/smoking-ban-news/antismoking-ban-site-launched-by-4th-district-congressional-candidate/</link><guid>http://www.smokinglobby.com/smoking-ban-news/antismoking-ban-site-launched-by-4th-district-congressional-candidate/</guid></item></channel></rss>