Fantastic. You know, there's a part of me that thinks "hey, this is what they get for voting for Republicans like Babar" but then there's another part of me that says this kind of thing ultimately hurts all of us - the taxpayers of America. Why? Because poor kids are the most likely to start smoking, and its those poor kids that grow up to become poor smoking adults. And when they come down with cancer in 30 years, who pays the medicare and medicaid bills for them? That's right, you and me. So thank you Haley, thank you for saddling us all with more future Southern cancer cases.

hmmm.... clearly this "good old boy" got his way - redirecting funds from kids who clearly need it - these kids wouldn't happen to be of color would they? - I guess the "old ways" are alive and well

this is horrible ... how does something like this go on because of one person ... isnt there something the people of mississippi can do about this?

Absolutely disgusting. I'm appalled by this. He just lost any support that I would have ever given him.

I love the smell of compassionate conservatism in the morning!

What about the kids, Haley?

He should be required to visit every child with cancer in Mississippi.

Unfortunately, at this point, there are still far too few Mike Moores and far too many Haley Barbours in the state of Mississippi.

Charles Rangel was correct, and owes no apologies.

If kids cant smoke in Mississippi they will just chew tobacco instead. They are hippacrits anyways, with "dry" counties but your kids can smoke. I never heard any churches complain about cigarettes and until they do, nothing will get done about it

Barbour should be given a raise!
Most commenter's here have not seen the abuse of the tobacco money wasted by Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.

How wasted? In the highest paid salaries in the nation for administrators that never even saw the program first hand. By millions handed out to just about anyone with no accountability for spending, results, or progress.

Get a copy of the Partnership for a healthy Mississippi budget. Decide for yourself.

As said above:
"Barbour has proposed a "Healthy Kids" Initiative, which would allocate the $20 million to expand the school nurse program, maintain anti-tobacco education and advertising, expand cancer research and fight against drugs."
The money in the tobacco fund is NOT being cut off. It is being put to better and audit-able sources.

this guy is an idiot and clearly on the payroll of big tobacco. he's in the pocket of big business and cares nothing of middle class voters and tax payers. well mississippi got exactly what it deserved. if they keep electing folks like this, well that's exactly what they get.

I must agree with " Xiores " on this , he should also kill the Partnership for a healthy Mississippi , and put the moneys to better use in accountabil orgs.

If we talking facts we have to look at them. Now Barbour is saying the funds aren't being accounted for and there is proof that it IS accounted for. The reason behind his abrupt cut off of funds due to his "tobacco ties" is very accurate. Wake up people and see what we have in front of us!!!! Me being originally from MS, I know and still see the amount of Crooked Business happening in MS!! Always a state behind all others because of the leadership placed in charge of the people of MS. Thanks Gov. Barbour for knocking MS back fifteen years. I'm sure you're content now!!! Pitiful.

Com on-n-n . . . He's a friend of Bush 43 . . . who could have expected either honor or integrity?

It's a crying shame that we feel that the USA is a real democracy. True, we have it better than most countries, but money speaks louder than common morality in some places. I'm glad I live in California. We have our own oddities, but at least most of them aren't as blatantly biased as this.

Shame on Mississippi. No wonder you come in last in almost every quality of life issue of all 50 states. You get what you vote for. Too bad your educational system is the worst--you're paying for it now. "Keep the masses ignorant" seems to be your politicians' plan; unfortunately, it appears to be working. Wake up!

If it wasn't for MS, Arkansas would be last in everything. A proud tradition Gov. Barbour seems willing to continue.

There are worse things than smoking. I think everybody already knows it's bad for your health so why spend so much money on anti-smoking campaigns.

The ex-AG Mike Moore and his cronies were making a fortune administering this fund. Still its no excuse. Barbour's policies have put Mississippi back 20 yrs. He definetly a one term governor!

while we're at it, lets legalize and tax marijuana. Proven to benefit health in many ways both physical and emotional, loved and used by a LARGE segment of the public, pot is much healthier than tobacco. Of course, it also feels good, so the warped masochistic mindset of the "Christian right" (an oxymoron if ever there was one)cannot accept it.

Gov. Barbour i am with you all the way. mike moore has give away too much money. it need to be took away

They deserve the leader they got. They voted for him, so I say let them choke till the end of his term.

Who would vote for someone so ethically challenged as a tobacco lobbyist in the first place?

You reap what you sow...

This is called Bribery and once upon a time it used to be illegal.

Barbour is a perfect example of how good people can rationalize anyone. My mother has hated tobacco all her life on moral prinicles as well as health. But because Barbour is a bible thumper, hates gays, is a advocates forced births, and not a damn liberal, he can do no wrong in her eyes. It doesn't matter he is s crooked as a barrel of fishhooks.

Why is anybody suprized? In the end that is was politics is about, money. And who pays the bills? Big tobacco

DOesn't suprise me at all, afterall, we ARE talking about Mississippi. The worst state in the Union. I don't even drive thru that backwards state.

" these kids wouldn't happen to be of color would they? - I guess the "old ways" are alive and well"

What an asinine and racist comment in itself. Here's something you haven't bothered or cared to research...A study by the Mississippi Health Department shows that lung cancer accounted for 34.2% of the cancer related deaths for whites compared to 26.1% for non whites. Thanks for trying to interject the race card into this subject. Here's something else that no one bothered to report...according to the American Lung Association smoking has decrease 37% from 1999 to 2003 for middle and high school students nationally - using the Partnership's own data their program is lagging behind the national average with a 32% decrease. During this same time frame a state law was passed that made it illegal for anybody under 18 to purchase tobacco products. That contributed to more of the decrease than the Partnership's efforts.

For those uninfored not from MS – our former state AG sued tobacco companies and won a large settlement for the state (not his own political agenda). But instead of using the settlement to fund some of our state’s healthcare needs caused by the effects of smoking he helps create the non-profit Partnership and funds it with $ from the settlement. By state law, the legislature, not the AG appropriates state funds.

For those gripping, read the rest of the story...the Gov.'s plan is to keep the same efforts in place using the same $20 million per year that was used to fund the Partership - it's just now we have financial accountibility inplace.

"There are worse things than smoking. I think everybody already knows it's bad for your health so why spend so much money on anti-smoking campaigns."

You are right. WE shouldn't spend money on anti-smoking campaigns, we should just start arresting people who grow the stuff.

Hey, you do it to people who grow weed, so why not be consistent? Build more jails!!!

I think that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is on the right track. Big tobacco needs a break from all this so called nonprofit organization. All there doing is trying make a name for themselves and make there job important.

'Barbour has proposed a "Healthy Kids" Initiative, which would allocate the $20 million to expand the school nurse program, maintain anti-tobacco education and advertising, expand cancer research and fight against drugs.'

Read the whole article before getting outraged. I'm as far left as you can get, but honestly, the blog hype about this story is pitiable, inaccurate, and sensationalist.

Reactionaries.

Rank has its privileges and its privileges are rank.

Is this the progression of lobbying? Why try to lobby the government from the outside when it much simpler to just fund your own candidates and then control the goverment from within. After all, it's worked so well for the oil industry.

As a citizen in the state of Mississippi, I'm aware of the changes that are taking place with the tobacco monies. So what if the Govenor is doing a healthy initative campaign need to when we have over-weight children. Question? "Where does tobacco prevention fall in with the Govenor's healthy initiative program.? Cancer research is great but, when it comes to prevention this does help to eliminate lung cancer, emphaseyma, heart disease, etc..Just think, Mississippi is finally leading in something positive by saving children lives and helping adults with tobacco addiction with the help of the Community Youth Partnership statewide Coalitions and the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.

Look, you'll all just upset because for once smoking won a victory and not the anti smoking army. I just hope his example helps others kill smoking laws in their own states.

Being from Mississippi myself, I can understand why all of you out-of-staters made the comments you made. It's no secret that Mississippi falls low in all of the surveys and polls in every aspect of anything someone could find to poll about. So obviously what would you expect from a "leader" chosen from our state. As stated previously, people from the south do not bother to thoroughly investigate candidates. However, due to the fact MS is such a republican state, there probably won't be an end in site for this "good 'ole boy's" stint in the Governor's office.

I belive the money Mike Moore won was thoughtfully put to use. What better way to ensure that Mississippi attempts a climb up the ladder in society then starting from the ground up? Why use all of the money to "fix" the problem in older generations who more then likely are wasting the money anyways. The truth is, they are soon going to die with all of the "tobacco" money in them. Why not prevent the use in MS children so that Mississippi can begin getting out of debt. Part of Haley's problem is that he can't see the big picture. Instead he is only looking for a temporary fix. If we had someone in office who wasn't afraid of who he ticked off, we'd be better off! Instead Mississippi officials are constantly looking to re-election and how not to make the public mad. They are doing more harm and until the people realize this, we will continue the downhill spiral.

It is so sad that it seems that our nation is on a collision with everything. Greed is like anything else, too much is bad for you. Unfortunitly everybody's under the impression that self greed doesn't hurt everyone else. But' thats a mistake because collectivly its like everyone successful puffs just a little puff of air into a balloon. Unfortunatly the balloon is only capable of holding so much air before it explodes, regardless of who puffed it in. Our nations politians and our U.S. corporations are going to keep pumping air into our nations for greed until one day when we least expect it "POP." Please wake up and stop doing the wrong thing. Did your parents or at least someone teach us right from wrong.

the old ways are not alive and well craig, because NOW, we know about it, and can do something about it. the squeeky wheel gets the grease...

Why are people so up in arms now, when the program is ending? Why is this in the news now, when the program is ending? The horse is so far out of the barn now that you can all spout off to make your selves feel good. Where were you, and all those Bush supporters as well, before stupid and destructive decisions like this one, were being?

Honestly, who would want to destroy a program that is providing a safe and healthy future for kids? I am 18 years old, and from my point of view, I think the Governor is down right wrong.

Let's forget about his past history of employment with his tobacco related job; children who is being helped by this organization shouldn't be affected by his "whatever" reason of ending this program.

What sense does it make to end one program and try to create another program just like the original? When it all boils down, Gov. Barbour wants his lobbying friends to get rich off of kids who will eventually start smoking. What is next with Mississippi?

Let me get this straight... the Governor of Mississippi terminates a program that has a documented track record of reducing youth smoking rates claiming that there is no accountability. That is a joke! A bad joke unfortunately since the real joke will be on the citizens of Mississippi, who will end up footing the medical bills for treating the extra cases of cancer, heart disease and other ailments resulted from this backward decisionmaking. It looks to me like Mr. Barbour is now interested in investing resources in cancer treatment. Now that makes sense since he is clearly in the business of promoting cancer!! Maybe he should invest in some undertakers also. If the citizens of Mississippi want accountability they ought to toss this guy out of office!

Surely no one is at all surprised at Haley Barbour. Besides being in the pocket of the cigarette industry, he has no compassion for kids who will get sick from their smoking. No doubt he thought, "what the heck, these are kids of poor parents so why worry. No possible donation from them."

We all do jump to conclusions don't we? It makes a good headline, but scratch the surface, and there is much more to the story. It's about the AG vs. the Governor and who gets to allocate the $$.
As for the race card and Charlie Rangel's comment "who wants to live in MS, anyway," how many of those on this blog have been here? Certainly not Congressman Rangel (although he's planning a trip, now). I'm a NYer transplanted here. Mississippi is a beautiful place, and not nearly as backward as stereotypes and statistics may lead us to believe.

Last Spring 70% of the citizens of Mississippi supported legislation to raise the tax on cigarettes and lower the tax on groceries. Barbour killed that too.

I have lived in Mississippi for 5 years. It is a beautiful state with wonderful people. In fact we have the highest per capita donations to charities in the country. That being said, the way of thinking here continues to baffle me. That Barbour would do this is no surprise. In fact, his approval ratings will go up. In response to the writer above who said he will be a one term governor. Forget about it. He will be easily reelected. In Mississippi, if you are a Democrat, you are branded as anti-family, pro gay, anti-church, you can go on and on. It is the same old tired Republican line that thank god died this past fall everywhere in the country except here. Hopefully the people of this great stae will see this as pure politics and favors to a former employer rather than trying to hold the anti tobacco gruops responsible

Shame on HALEY! I have seen first hand how great the partnership program has helped young people to be educated about the dangers of tobacco. The more educated kids are the smarter choices they will make.The kids love learning from the R.A.T. pack team.
Dianne

Such a dust storm over the intentions of a tobacco lobbyist, who was known as such, prior to his election. Yet so little concern when we realize the fanatical anti smoking groups so often in the media are primarily funded by Nicotine market competition. Augmented with huge funding of the public trough.

Tobacco settlements were never an imposition of the tobacco industry just a backroom deal affording absolution. The real costs were handed along to the consumers. Punishing the victims is profitable to all concerned parties. The most effective marketing campaign in world history.

Propaganda has even convinced the Surgeon General Smoking and Second hand smoke are the primary cause of the majority of mortality with not a shred of physical evidence or timeline observations to back up most of the theories presented.

Epidemiology determines if a risk exists certainly not a cause especially with all the unknown variables involved. Common sense has to be applied at some point to determine the weight of the evidence apparently the checks and balances in the media are asleep as the garbage truck is pulling away.

What do we have for evidence in most cases? Epidemiology research a creative way of demonstrating political voice with numbers.

Mississippi's Legislature has Democratic majorities in both bodies. The Legislature's own watchdog committee reported years ago that Moore non-constitutional funding mechanism should be dissolved.

Accountability of state funds IS a good thing. From looking at the program its obvious that the same results could have been done for ALOT less money, but somehow WHERE the money went..no one can tell? Much like the levee money given to New Orleans for generations. Right now smoking is the big bugaboo. Where is the billions of tobacco lawsuit money? Oh thats right most went to the lawyers...good place for it. People are focusing on how "good" this did...would the focus be the same if it cut the teenage pregnancy rate? I dont think so..since the abortion industry doesnt want that to go down...

Are you anti-Republicans all ignorant? The article says the 20 million will be put to better use. Translation: The Tobacco companies still have to pay. What part don't you ignorant Democrats understand? It isn't hard to see what makes up the constituentes of the Democratic Party. The ignorant.

Just what we should expect from a "good old boy" that wormed his way into the governorship of the state of Mississippi. The state gets a lot of flack it doesn't deserve and this is only going to add to it. But Mississippians elected this jerk so they get what they deserve. Maybe one day Mississippi and its leaders will join the USA. Maybe.

Why don't the gutless politicians of all stripes simply outlaw tobacco. It is a proven killer and serves no useful purpose. But, no, because the tobacco companies have become cash cows for all politicians to set up programs where, in many cases, there is little oversight, little accomplishment, and a lot of new government jobs.

For the past four years of my life I have spent time working as a teenage advocate with The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. Everyone is forgeting about the people who are being hurt the most by governor Barbour's personal agenda, the children. For all of you that said MS is getting what we deserve because we voted Barbour into office well, the youth don't have a vote. Governor Barbour's "healthy MS" program doesn't have an area for tobacco education and that is what is key to prevention. MS was finally first in something and it makes me physically ill that something so positive is being taken away.

Some of the user comments are so far off it is shameful. MS is one of two of the nation's leaders in the anti-tobacco education initiative. Yes, most adults know tobacco is bad for you but what about the children who are so impressionable that tobacco ads are able to teach them that tobacco is cool. Mike Moore has done a better job heading this initiative that Haley Ba Ba will ever do as the regretted elected govenor of MS. Wake up folks and see Ba Ba for who he is and who YOU elected to serve you because I did'nt elect him nor do I support him or anything that he is doing!

Mississippi needs to pass laws against Children smoking or buying cigarettes under 18 yrs. As adults they can make their own decisions. Why do you need government programs that cost tax payers with no results.. Where are the parents of these children who smoke in your state. This is a matter for law enforcement and parents. No-one has ever proven that tobacco killed anyone. Cancer is caused by a virus not tobacco. HELLO

I wish to speak in reference to Kevin Muldina's post. As one who has managed to live through 3 pulmonary embolisms but with some diminished lung capacity, I have to be connected to oxygen so I use portable oxygen bottles when I go out. I can vouch for the fact that Second Hand Smoking is hard on the lungs. Even breathing pure oxygen does not block out all the smoke. We have had to turn around and leave a place that we would have liked to eat their food; however, my lungs could not handle the smoke in the air. Conversely, we have gone into some small restraunts that have systems to remove the smoke. At one such place, there was a man and woman sitting at the place next to ours.
They finished their meal before my husband and I finished ours. The gentleman took out a cigarette and started to light it. The lady stopped him, pointing to my air hose. He said the smoke wouldn't bother me since the restraunt had an excellent smoke removal system. She said that it was still a matter of courtesy. He started to say something else but my husband spoke first. He said that we realized the restraunt had an excellent smoke removal system and that was why we stayed; however, smoking that close would still cause a breathing problem for me and if he got a lighter or a lit cigarette too close to the oxygen then it could detonate and cause serious damage to the people present and do a number on the restraunt. He also said that we had been married many years and hoped to keep it that way
for many more. The gentleman put the lighter carefully away and returned the cigarette to the pack.
The lady introduced her husband and herself to us and we responded in kind. Then the lady turned to her husband and said I've tried for years to get you to stop smoking. Do you really want to take the chance of winding up in this lady's condition? Hopefully, I was a sign to him and he has stopped smoking.

If you don't smoke, don't start.

If you do smoke, stop.

Believe me, it is no fun to be
"hooked up" all the time except in the shower.
If you have small children, teach them that smoking is truly bad for their health and,if you must smoke, do not smoke around your children.

There is the possibility that you could smoke and live a long life but why take the chance and, how would you feel if a child of yours should develop a breathing problem or cancer? You would never know for sure that you were or were not responsible.

Anyone who is smoking should do some serious rethinking about doing so and what the consequences
could be.

It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant...I thought I could ask them about, you know, 'Can you confess Jesus as Lord?' And they could answer all that.

Why do you people want the government and politicians tell you what to do, what to eat and control your life? Those who want to ban products, sell products to stop you from smoking and eating so called junk food. Open your eyes! Mommy government is BAD FOR ALL OF US! THINK PEOPLE, THINK!!

I am so dissappointed in the Barbour administration. We in Mississippi are still recovering from the foiled "Beef Processing Plant". This is something that our elected officials did in the cover of darkness, implemented in broad daylight, and the taxpayers will pay for years to come. The state has spent more than $55 million on the plant, which includes grants, consulting fees and upkeep. Lawmakers used money from a $100 million tax settlement with MCI, the former Clinton-based company known as WorldCom, to retire the debt. Excuse me did Haley use the words accountability and state legislators in the same sentence? PHM has been more than above board with spending. We have been very fortunate that someone had the vision for PHM. There are thousands of smoke free children in our state thanks to Terrance the Rat. All I can say is elections are coming up.

for all you pointing out the "good ole boy" crap, the current "good ole booys" in MS are ALL of color. the rampant racism i see every day is black on whit, NOT white on black. things have turned around 180 degrees from teh days of white lynch mobs. now the blacks have started to gain more and more political power and do not know hoow to use it. they take money every where they can get it, spend it how they please, then LIE or just simply refuse to show how it was spent, to keep from going to jail.

i see this EVERYDAY in my dealings with multiple local governements. they ask me to rewrite invoices to show that they paid me more than they did, or that they bought something other than what they did. i refuse to do so.

I think that a lot of the responsibliity for educating our children is falling into the hands of someone other than their parents. Why are we funding groups like this? Because we are too lazy to pay attention to what our kids are doing, not talking too them? And why is so much effort spent on stopping smoking? What about all the other substance abuses out there that have far higher and more immediate dangers, such as alcohol and drugs? Yes, smoking has effects, it is deadly. I smoke. But, we are focusing too much attention on one vice. Iowa is looking at raising cigarette taxes by as much as $1 a pack. I don't see taxes going up on alcohol. I see rampant commercials for it, especially now with the holidays. I for one am glad he put a stop to it for whatever reason he did it. We must be more accountable for our own children and our own lives. We are letting too many others control what we do. Doesn't that sound something like socialism? Think about it, are we Americans or just a bunch of lemmings?

Anti-smokers are the lying, cheating, stealing, bloodsucking FILTH of the planet earth - and everything those VERMIN have, they got by conspiracy, fraud, and racketeering. That's what Mississippi (and the rest of America) needs next: A RICO LAWSUIT AGAINST THE DIRTY SUBHUMAN ANTI-SMOKER PARASITES! And I hope that someday, we can extermionate these ceatures, genocide their children, and smash their putrid culture to rubble!

The lady who has emphesema excepted everyone but SMM who has posted is an idiot. The American Lung Association who I assure is not in the governor's pocket reported that Mississippi's program for reducing smoking in middle school and high school students is 5% BEHIND the national average.

The last time I checked if you were behind average you are FAILING. The money was therefore obviously being wasted and ending the program to give the money to someone who can do a better job whether the accountability is the same or better is best thing to do for the children of Mississippi.

Not one single person speaking against the governor's actions gave a single shred of evidence that the program worked as well as it should work. This a bunch of liberals whose political agenda is more important to them than the safety of their children.

If you read the full article and all of the evidence you would be appalled by the way the money was wasted and be supporting the governor's decision to give the money to someone with better accountability or at least who is better able to run the program.

If you want to make Mississippi a better place then stop your political rantings and stop ignoring the truth, the facts, and the realities that don't suit your agenda. The program was a failure and needed to be stopped end of story.

TC Living in Texas but from Louisiana with family in Missippi

Finally, a man with guts enough to stand up to the anti-tobacco thugs. Lately I've been wondering if there are any real men left on planet earth. Governor Barbour is indeed a brave man, as he has kept Mississippi FREE, not smoke-free. All you whiners out there be thankful that you have a Governor that fights for your rights because when somebody comes to take away something from you, he'll be fighting for you too. And, oh yes, did you know that all these so-called scientific studies on second hand smoke are based on non-verifiable memories of people. This is not science. This is governmental interference in YOUR personal life.

Hooray for Governor Barbour.

gosh, the person who posted their comment yesterday afternoon sounds kinda angry... all the smoking must be making her feel mighty toxic & hostile. how sad.
i hope she (barbb) has no problem paying for the medical bills she'll rack up as a result of that ugly habit. i'm sure she wouldn't want the rest of us to pay for that because of the poor decision she chose to smoke in the first place.
just PLEASE stay away from us non- smokers so we don't have to breathe that sickening smoke :-0

Neither of my two kids ever touched a cigarette and not one dime of public money was needed to prevent or disuade them from smoking.

It is about time that parents reclaim their responsibilities as parents and community leaders execute their responsibilities as leaders, and time that our citizens reclaimed their own personal responsibilities. Abdicating our personal responsibiities to a publicly funded organization is the kind of horsehockey that's got our society in the mess it is in. If your kid smokes...that's your responsibility, not mine or your neighbors.

Barbour's actions are an appropriate response to an out of control, lying tobacco control movement.

Wow, this is one of the worst examples of a corrupt politician I've ever seen. The tobacco settlement money was supposed to be used for that purpose(stop teen smoking), but so many states have done similar low-down stunts. They use the money for their own purposes and side step the intent of the settlement agreement.
Your a bad guy Govenor.

Considering I was apart of the
R.A.T (Reject All Tobacco) team for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, I have you know our money went to very good use. If you havn't seen one of our shows i encourage you to do so. I cant tell you how many parents have called into our Hotline telling us how their kids in help by our program helped them to quit smoking.
And for Mr Hailey I dont think this money should be in his pocket....can anyone remember the comment he made about "Martha likes to entertain guest here at the Gov. Mansion" and something about them wanting to remodel some of it or what ever...now thats bull crap.
Crazy tobacco lobbyest!

The story sure did not include all of the information. While the Partnership was a good project, it was not within the laws of the state and that had to be corrected. The fact that $20 million a year was their budget which is larger than some of the state agencies was crazy, especially when that same time you had Medicaid deficits.

Living in Mississippi, I don't think that Barbour is a great person, but he was the best option that we had at the time. Musgrove was not balancing the budget and the state had some serious spending issues that needed to be fixed.

For those of you that are not from MS and want to rant about how stupid and backwards those of us that live here are, remember that we are number 1 in one category every year - charitable giving. So the next time you need help call us because we will listen to you badmouth us and then help you out any way we can.

By the way, if you have not worked for the Partnership, you would not know how much money was wasted on productions and ad campaigns that could have cost a great deal less and been just as effective. Trust me, I know first hand.

This is exactly what you get for voting Republican.....good!

He is doing exactly what I would expect him to do.

Anti-smoking is big business and these anti-smoking zealots need to be accountable both in where the money is going and what the message is.

Too often they use this public money to try to scare people into believing that any second-hand will harm them. They are in affect argung for a smoking band and sometimes they are blatantly doing this.

They should not use public money to lobby.

Thank you Gov!!!!

Even smokers can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke. It's why they always open up their car windows, even while driving alone--to let the smoke out. If it's cold outside the smoker keeps the heat on but opens his window. If it's hot outside the smoker keeps the air con on but opens up the window. If it's raining outside, the smoker opens up his window anyway--to let that annoying smoke out of his car. Funny--smokers don't complain that you can't open up any windows in a bar, yet they open up their car windows--to let the smoke out.

I'm glad that Governor Barbour stood up to the anti-tobacco zealots. It's very sickening to me how much fanaticism has overtaken the anti-tobacco movement, and how much they lie and distort statistics to reduce the legal rights of smokers to smoke(and saying this as a non-smoker myself). Not to mention all the shameful health organizations and big pharmacutical companies that've taken part in this lying about the effects of secondhand smoke, such as the World Health Organization, Pfizer, and the American Cancer Society. If this could just start to happen in other states too..

Well at least there are a few people left that can read! Smoking is not the only cause of sicknes and if you did something besides follow the political correct crowd you would know that your freedoms are at risk! This country needs informed leaders that do more than line their own pockets. People have ben lied to about everything including prescription drugs that kill yet the FDA says the are safe there is no scientific proof about second hand smoke now your car exhaust thats another story read the facts not propaganda Hitler had scientific proof that jews were cause of germans problems (he made it up) drug comanies are getting rich from this anti-smoking nazie movement and we are all being manipulated with this same money. Home cleaning products have ben linked to the same problems as smoking Please read something besides political correct bull

Mississippian,s if these political guru's really cared about our health then they would outlaw the sale of cigarette's in our state.
they say 70% of mississipian's support the tax increase on cigarette's but I bet they can't show you where they ran a poll asking people all across the state of mississippi how they felt about smoking I have lived here for 35 years and i've never seen one.As for the decrease in youth smoking that is a direct result of the law prohibiting the sale of tobacco to under aged people.It has nothing to do with the partnership they are taking credit for someone else's work. When the tobacco suit came about in mississippi it was to recover money spent by our state on medical services recieved by people who had smoking related illnesses. But when the money came in instead of giving the hard working tax payers a refund
certian people found other ways to spend it and build a political following.MR.Babour is correct in wanting to keep certian people from squandering the money.Anyone who knows how additive cigarette's are knows the only way to stop smoking in our wonderful state is to ban the sale of all tobacco products.AND YES I'M A SMOKER but I would support a state wide band on the sale of tobacco.

ms is suffering under a meaness of spirit from its penny pinching govenor barbour-along with a group of lawmake