Monday, June 04, 2007

The Smoking Ban--Hypocrisy at Its Finest

HT to Kevin, the Hypocrite Express rolls on in Madistan:

But Gottlieb is also concerned about the patchwork of local laws that have been passed. He thinks it would be better to arrive at a statewide standard, something that businesses have asked for. You see this when one community passes a very strong smoking ban that is adjacent to a community without a smoking ban, and one has a competitive advantage over the other. Businesses are asking for a level playing field and to make it competitive for everybody.

A "level playing field", eh? So Gottlieb is copacetic with the "level playing field" of Wisconsin taxation vs. that in Illinois--or the monster difference between gasoline taxes in Iowa vs. Wisconsin? Nope.

Instead, he chooses to violate the principle of subsidiarity, arrogantly substituting his personal (bought-and-paid-for-by the restaurants) "wisdom" for that of the localities.

If Appleton establishments are doing all that well with a smoking ban, Gottlieb, then let Grand Chute alone. If Grand Chute barkeeps want to go banko in a cloud of smoke (which is the inference from the Appleton mayor's testimony,) LET THEM!!

Of course, there's the Grand Master of Hypocrisy, DarthDoyle himself.

However, what I don't understand is how the employees of the 13 native American casino's were smoking will not be banned are any less affected by second-hand smoke. What is going on here?

Silly question. All you are trying to do, Ms. Bar-Owner, is eke out $50K/year in taxable profits for yourself.

Answer provided by Kevin:

Governor Doyle would never propose a smoking ban that includes Indian casinos, the people that donated millions of dollars to his re-election campaign.

Get it?

$50K for you, or $Umpty-Millions for Doyle?

Stupid question.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy answer - tribal lands are seperate countries with their own laws. The state can't pass a ban on them. They are sovereign.

This is 4th grade american history here people, not that hard.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

The law is more complex than that. While a few casinos may be in places where an immunities issue would be present, most aren't. For example, the City of Madison would not provide city services to DeJope until the HoChunk agreed to operate under City of Madison regulations.