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House Democrats pick vacation over economy, smoking ban

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 07:43:47 AM EST
Tags: Central Station, smoking ban, Monica Conyers, Andy Dillon, Basham, environmentalists, SVSU (all tags)

The good people organizing the big Earth Day celebration at Saginaw Valley State are going to be so disappointed.

Not only does a disproportionate amount of hot air continue to come pouring out of Lansing but now the Democrats in the House of Representatives are abandoning one of their cardinal issues, shelving plans to force small businesses to prohibit smoking on their own property. And SVSU's greenie crowd aren't the only ones up in arms.

According to the Detroit News:

Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, a leading proponent of the smoking ban, said lawmakers can work on more than a couple issues at a time.
"I'm OK with multi-tasking," Basham said. "When 3,000 people are dying in Michigan every year from secondhand smoke and smoking-related diseases are costing us billions a year for health care, we should find time to deal with this."

House Speaker Andy Dillon disagrees.

House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, said he has decided the House should zero in this spring on balancing the cash-strapped budget and creating jobs in the wounded economy.
"The smoking ban is an important issue, but jobs and the budget are more important right now," Dillon said. "I see us getting back to the smoking issue by summer."

Lansing has a weird complex where one minute they're not thinking things through enough and the next they're wearing grooves in the carpet with all of their back and forth. They've been discussing a complete workplace smoking ban for as long as I've been in the game and Dillon has made it a point of emphasis in the past.

Practically speaking, if they want to activity X in location Y, they've got the legislation ready to go. One reason they shelve it... even the Democrats, boasting an overwhelming partisan majority in the legislature, aren't on board with the concept. The votes just plain aren't there.

And Mr. Speaker? Lets stop blowing smoke at the press... you couldn't care less about jobs and the economy right now. The only thing on your caucus's mind this week is the legislative spring break on which you sent them. You're not focusing on one piece of legislation at the expense of the other. You're focusing on your tans.

Read on...

Which is fine. Everyone is entitled to a break every now and again. But you don't have to lie about it.

And adding insult to injury for the "green" crowd, a heaping helping of new pollutants may be headed into the atmosphere as the Detroit City Council yesterday effectively encouraged the demolition of Michigan Central Station. The Ivory Tower reports that they'd like the building's owner to pay to raze the site. Or, you know, turn it into a strip mall.

"It should've been down years ago," Council President Monica Conyers said, adding she would consider other options if (owner Matty) Moroun "came up with some type of plan to make it viable," like a shopping outlet.

If you aren't familiar with Michigan's holiest shrine for urban explorers, take a look at just a few of the haunting images HERE.

Then tell me, after looking at those pictures, can't you just picture the place with a Shoe Carnival and a Kohls?

< 3 Questions for the president and the first is: Tell us two things you don't like about your wife? | Wednesday in the Sphere: April 8 >

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House Democrats pick vacation over economy, smoking ban | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)

Smoking ban (none / 0) (#1)
by dsheill on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 08:37:39 AM EST

You got to give Dillon credit, he found a convenient excuse to escape a losing political issue. Reps like Paul Scott will argue that smoking bans are actually quite popular with the vast majority of the people. It's not that simple in my opinion. You need to look at what I call "issue saliency." For example, take abortion. Those who are pro-life often use the issue as an outright litmus test for who they vote for. In other words, it's an automatic deal- breaker issue for a large block of voters. With smoking, I'm sure the vast majority of Michiganders no longer smoke, and when I'm at a sports bar I prefer to sit away from the smokers. However, that does not mean that supporting a smoking ban is a litmus test for who a vote for. On the contrary, I believe the issue IS a litmus test for the significant minority block of voters who still DO smoke. Many of them I might add are liberal Democrats who I went to law school with. They get so pissed when the supposed party of civil rights turns on them with this issue.

www.mi.rlc.org

Oooppps! (none / 0) (#2)
by dsheill on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 08:40:59 AM EST

In the 4th to last sentence I meant to say:

"However, that does not mean that supporting a smoking ban is a litmus test for who I vote for."

Vacation is fine (none / 0) (#3)
by Republican Michigander on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 09:20:04 AM EST

If Dillon's on vacation, we aren't screwed by more laws like this ridiculous ban on legal activities in privately owned establishments (Smoking bans).

This stuff makes me want to take up smoking just as a middle finger measure. The first one I'll light up is in front of Basham, with the 2nd one in front of Paul Scott (What are you thinking, Paul?)

Liberal Echo Chamber (none / 0) (#5)
by dsheill on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 01:05:20 PM EST

It's the job of Eric Barren and Co. to attack train their readers into uniformly hating everyone Republican. But the smoking ban is a perfect example of where there is a potential crack in this liberal echo chamber. On one side you have traditional liberals who take a laissez faire approach to people's lifestyle choices (e.g. gays, pornography, and of course, smoking). On the other side are the "health Nazis" comprised of feminists who believe that porn encourages violence against women and smoking of course hurts the greater community's health. Despite allegations that we don't yet have socialized medicine yet, Medicare often picks up the tab for people who can no longer pay their bills. So naturally, the health Nazis believe we can provide universal access while at the same time cutting costs if we simply ban smoking. Well, heart disease caused by a bad diet has recently surpassed smoking as a #1 killer. So why not ban trans-fats (like many municipalities are currently doing), and mandate people consume better diets? Doesn't this all logically flow from their arguments?

Feminists by Michigan Redneck, 04/09/2009 01:08:09 AM EST (none / 0)

oops I meant to say... by Michigan Redneck, 04/09/2009 01:18:38 AM EST (none / 0)
Porn and violence by dsheill, 04/09/2009 01:26:48 PM EST (none / 0)

The Link Between Porn and Aggressive Behavior by Kevin Rex Heine, 04/09/2009 01:52:19 PM EST (none / 0)
I don't believe in banning... by Michigan Redneck, 04/09/2009 04:44:47 PM EST (none / 0)

If they aren't in Lansing - (none / 0) (#6)
by snoopygirlmi on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 03:41:47 PM EST

then they can't do more damage to our individual freedom to choose to consume a legal product.

At least they aren't talking about what the state bird should or shouldn't be! <sigh>

I really wish they would come out and try to pass legislation to make smoking illegal because that's what these groups really want, but are too chicken to say.

Average Michiganders aren't ignorant to what the real goal is.

Nice (none / 0) (#7)
by quigonjames on Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 07:02:11 PM EST

That second pic down looks like a good opening scene for a bad horror movie. Why not turn it into an asylum/new HQ for city council?

Death of creativity (none / 0) (#10)
by Michigan Redneck on Thu Apr 09, 2009 at 01:28:51 AM EST

Wow, looking at those pics of the former Michigan Central Station and comparing it to a possible strip mall makes me sad for this country, state, culture and current generation. Many thoughts are running through my head on that one. There seems to have been such a build up of complacency (sp?) within the past 40 years. But the speed it is going now is even worse. Up until mid-century America, people were creative and industrious. And they were rewarded for it. At some point after World War II people had the attitude of entitlement. Talking smack about how great America is, yet not doing anything to prove the case. Now this whole country is a welfare country, or sliding down a slippery slope towards it.
Does anyone think that anyone out there would be willing to take the time it took to build such architectural masterpieces as the Michigan Central Station. It is so easy to design and build those box buildings, or a rectangular mess of little box buildings. Even I could do that.

What a waste (none / 0) (#14)
by gnu2u on Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 01:19:00 AM EST

This is sad and indeed symbolizes the decline of the City of Detroit.

If the City had not been rife with corruption, back in the 80's that building might have been saved. There were many developers interested in adaptive reuse of that building. Unfortunately, neither the building owner nor the City showed much interest, and the building just sat and decayed, like the old Hudson's building and any number of old industrial buildings. Don't get me wrong - I don't think every old building is worth saving. However, there was a point in time where Michigan Central Station was worth the effort - too bad it has passed. The last think Detroit needs is another strip mall/shoe carnival abomination.

House Democrats pick vacation over economy, smoking ban | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)

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House Democrats pick vacation over economy, smoking ban

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