Tag: smoking

Obama: “Is it intermission yet? When’s intermission? I need a cigarette. I mean I really need a cigarette.”

Check the quick shot of the President toward the end of this clip. He’s working that Nicorette gum like it’s trying to get away.

Check the quick shot of the President toward the end of this clip. He’s working that Nicorette gum like it’s trying to get away.

“Hey, I thought you said we were coming to see Kabuki. What’s with the music and the costumes? When do the fat guys strip down to their thongs and start wrestling? I’m the President, damn it, and I want to see the fat guys wrestle. Man, if this is going to last much longer, I’m really going to need a smoke.”

Fox News reports what the President was doing when he looked so in need of a ciggie:

It wasn’t quite a Kennedy Center Honors Award show, but the entertainment in Yokohama, Japan Saturday evening made President Obama smile as Japanese performers of traditional Kabuki theater put on a show for world leaders in town for the APEC summit.

Kabuki is highly stylized Japanese singing and dancing which has been a tradition since the 17th century.

What? No fat guys in thongs?

Source: Fox News

New York cigarette tax leads to reduced consumption which leads to tax shortfall which leads to dumbfounded officials

The economic geniuses in New York raised cigarette taxes by 58%, which increased the price of pack of smokes in New York city to a remarkable $11.60. As you might expect, cigarette sales plunged by 27%.

When will they learn? The economic geniuses in New York raised cigarette taxes by 58%, which increased the price of pack of smokes in New York city to a remarkable $11.60.

cigarette-tax-new-york
There's only one solution, New York: Lower the legal smoking age

As you might expect, cigarette sales plunged by 27%. As you also might expect, cigarette sales are up by more than 40% in neighboring states and Indian reservations.

The NY Post reports the “duh” details:

Sales of taxed cigarettes have plummeted a staggering 27 percent statewide since the highest cigarette tax in the nation took hold in July, a Post analysis has found…

“That’s what we warned would happen, and obviously it has come to fruition,” said James Calvin, of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.

“Every tax increase drives more smokers to that dark, shadowy, unregulated, unlicensed, untaxed side of the street. The whole policy is self-defeating.”

If the trend continues, the state could fall far short of the $260 million windfall Paterson expected from the 58 percent tax hike.

How do you solve the shortfall? Liberals would tell you the only solution is to raise taxes.

Source: New York Post

San Antonio wants to ban smoking, but Hispanics call ban “racist”

Last week the astronomical geniuses at the NAACP called “black holes” racist. This week Hispanic activists have one upped them in the stupid department by calling a proposed smoking ban in San Antonio racist.

san antonio racist smoking ban
Light up while you still can, San Antonio residents

Last week the astronomical geniuses at the NAACP called “black holes” racist. This week Hispanic activists have one upped them in the stupid department by calling a proposed smoking ban in San Antonio racist.

No. Really. It has to be true, because no one could make up anything that crazy.

WOAI Radio has the story of the activists huffing and puffing:

The effort to ban smoking in all workplaces across the city appears to be going up in smoke, as prominent advertising executive Lionel Sosa tonight will brand the proposal as racist, 1200 WAOI news reports.

“The proposed ordinance is economically discriminatory to members of the Hispanic community,” Sosa will tell council, according to a text of his letter obtained by 1200 WOAI news. “When you look at the population of the small area bars, poll halls, and VFW halls that populate our community, you will see the overwhelming majority of those that will see their freedom of choice stripped from them by this ordinance are Hispanic-owned businesses.”

OK, NAACP, let’s see if you can top that one for stupidity. (When it comes to stupid, our money’s on the NAACP if for no other reason than they’ve had more practice.)

Source: WOAI Radio

Quote of the Day: Hypocrisy

“Obama spent a lot of time in his speech … demonizing insurance companies as cruel and money-hungry, while also calling for a law mandating the purchase of their product. Politicians have said similar things about, say, the tobacco industry. But so far as we know, no one has ever proposed forcing every American to smoke two packs a day.”

cigarette-butt “Obama spent a lot of time in his speech … demonizing insurance companies as cruel and money-hungry, while also calling for a law mandating the purchase of their product. Politicians have said similar things about, say, the tobacco industry. But so far as we know, no one has ever proposed forcing every American to smoke two packs a day.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Man charged $23 quadrillion for cigarettes. Obama’s new taxes must have kicked in.

Josh Muszynski, a New Hampshire man, was charged $23,148,855,308,184,500 for cigarettes. Obama taxes?

Cigarettes kill people. Taxes kill economies.
Cigarettes kill people. Taxes kill economies.

Josh Muszynski, a New Hampshire man, went down to his corner gas station and bought a pack of cigarettes with his debit card.

A few hours later he went online, checked his account, and was stunned to see that he had been charged an astronomical $23,148,855,308,184,500 for the ciggies.

After picking himself up off the floor, Muszynski spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to solve the problem. Luckily, B of A corrected the error and even reversed their $15 overdraft fee.

We say if President Obama is smart he’ll act immediately and slap a $23 quadrillion tax on every pack of cigarettes sold.

In one stroke, he’ll wipe out smoking. And if he can just sell one pack, he’ll generate almost enough taxes to pay for ObamaCare.

Source: AP

Chinese government more honest than American government about its cigarette habit

Patriotic Chinese child doing his part to boost his nation's economy.
Patriotic Chinese child doing his part to boost his nation's economy.
If cigarettes are as bad as the government says, if they cause so much disease, so many deaths, so much pain, why doesn’t the government just outlaw them?

We all know the answer to that, don’t we? State and federal governments are addicted to the sales taxes that cigarettes generate. Without those tobacco taxes, they couldn’t keep building their house of cards.

At least the Chinese government is honest about it. Here’s how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports it:

Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports…

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said.

“The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

Light up another ciggie, Americans. President Obama needs the money for another bogus social scheme.

Source: ABC via Tim Blair

Mr. Manners:
What Obama teaches us about excellent etiquette

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the Huffington Post from The Onion. They recently ran a story by Anna Post, great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post. It’s a perfect example of blind Obama worship.

In Anna’s eyes, there is nothing Barack Obama can do wrong. He is the perfect president, man, father, husband, and probably lover. (But based on the photo attached to the story, Anna’s kind of hot, so we’ll cut her a wee bit of slack.)

A credit to the women who raised him, the President uses his napkin to gently wipe his mouth. Children of America, take note!
A credit to the women who raised him, the President uses his napkin to gently wipe his mouth. Children of America, take note!
“Most public figures learn to dread what photographs might reveal about them, but President and Mrs. Obama make the grade as ambassadors for our country. Their exemplary manners are caught on camera repeatedly enough to clearly be habit and not just for show. After all, manners aren’t just for special occasions–though the Obamas attend plenty of those. The best manners come through seamlessly in the little things that make up everyday life….”

Anna shows many examples. And as far as we can tell, she thinks every photo ever taken of President Obama is proof of his perfection. For example, the photo and caption above.

But we think Anna hasn’t gone far enough. There are so many more examples of Barack Obama’s perfect manners that she could have shown in her short slide show. So please allow us to complete the job Anna Post began.

We proudly present “Mr. Manners: What Obama teaches us about excellent etiquette, Part Deux.” Continue reading “Mr. Manners:
What Obama teaches us about excellent etiquette”

“PROMISES, PROMISES:
Obama tax pledge up in smoke”

A salute to the new cigarette tax.
A salute to the new cigarette tax.
That’s the headline the normally-reliable Associated Press used in an article yesterday as it turned on President Obama and bared its yellowed smokers’ fangs.

One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

To be sure, Obama’s tax promises in last year’s campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.

“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

He repeatedly vowed “You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.”

Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases.

The AP story continued:

“Listen now,” he said in his widely watched nomination acceptance speech, “I will cut taxes—cut taxes—for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”

An unequivocal “any tax” pledge also was heard in the vice presidential debate, another prominent forum.

“No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama’s plan will see one single penny of their tax raised,” Joe Biden said, “whether it’s their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.”

An observation: A smokers tax could prove very costly to a party whose entire platform is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Source: Associated Press via Breitbart

Did Bill Clinton kill Socks the cat?

Socks that cat is dead. We’re not exactly Columbo, but we suspect Bill Clinton may have been the cause of his or her death.

Socks died after a long bout with throat cancer. One of the leading causes of throat cancer is cigar smoke. Bill Clinton loved cigars in the White House (and sometimes even smoked them). The dangers of second-hand smoke have been well-documented. So simple logic leads us to believe that Socks died as a direct result of the former president’s filthy smoking habit.

The Clintons loved Socks while he was young, playful and good for public relations. However, he eventually lost his kitten-ish appeal and when the Clintons left the White House, they dumped Socks like an old pair of shoes.

“Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere,” said a Clinton Foundation statement. “We’re grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years.”

We bid a fond farewell to Socks, who was the White House cat at the same time that Bill Clinton was the White House horndog.

Source: Gateway Pundit

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