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.