Former Tobacco Lobbyist Turned Miss. Governor Kills Statewide Anti-Smoking Program

[LynneSin]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/former_tobacco_.html

Former Tobacco Lobbyist Turned Governor Kills Statewide Anti-Smoking Program


Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco industry lobbyist, won a long battle in court to withdraw all funding for Mississippi's highly successful anti-smoking program, and last week the last dollar ran out.

"This is truly a case of one man, a longtime tobacco industry lobbyist, using his power to destroy a program that was reducing tobacco use among Mississippi's kids," said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization.

<<<<snip>>>>

Barbour complained that the program received its funding directly from the courts and that it needed legislative approval, according to Myers. When the legislature passed a bill to continue the funding, Barbour vetoed it and went back to the courts to withdraw all remaining monies from the program.

<<<<snip>>>>

Myers says Barbour's attack on the anti-smoking program is an "outrage" given the program's strong record of success in preventing teens and children from smoking.

Between 1999 and 2004, the program reduced smoking by 48 percent among public middle school students (from 23 percent to 12 percent) and by 32 percent among public high school students (from 32.5 percent to 22.1 percent), according to Sharon Garrison, Communications Director for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, the organization that runs the program.

[underpants]

1. Don't forget-Haley Barbour = CCC

http://www.adl.org/learn/extremism_in_america_updates/groups/council_of_conservative_citizens/CCCitizens_up_1_cms.htm

[Botany]

2. He also worked to stop "global warming" information from getting out too.

and in 2005 a warm Caribbean sea cooked up Katrina ... which
flattened Mississippi.

Smoker's Lung




I swear to God this crop of republicans are without shame.

[SacredCow]

3. Sheesh....

How hard is it to connect THOSE dots?

Barbour is among the most self-serving pieces of dung in politics...

[BOSSHOG]

4. By the looks of the roadways in the state

haley must have also canned the state's anti-littering program. All these wonderful red state conservatives just chuck their trash out the window of their vehicles. The prisoners can't keep up with it. Yeah, ole slobbermouth is quite a guy.

[LynneSin]

6. He makes Trent Lott seem almost like an ok guy

Almost, Lott still has a ways to go

[yellowcanine]

5. Mississippi is under a court order to spend $20 million on smoking prevention

programs annually out of settlement money received from tobacco companies. Haley Barbour got the court order vacated based on his veto of a law to keep funding the programs. An appeal before the Mississippi Supreme court is pending.
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/state.php?StateID=MS

On edit: And Republicans squealed when Charlie Rangel had the temerity to say, "But who wants to live in Mississippi?" It is shit like this that generates that kind of sentiment.

[BOSSHOG]

7. The former chairman of the grand ole party

doesn't give a fuck about the citizens of Mississippi, but I think its true to say that many don't give a fuck about themselves. There's a whole bunch of non christian stuff going on in this state that professes to be so family oriented and christ like.