Carolina Politics Online

Wilmington’s Juggling Gypsy hookah bar is the first establishment in the area fined for violating the state’s new indoor smoking ban.

The Castle Street bar received two violations from the New Hanover County Health Department carrying a total of $400 in administrative penalties, under the ban that went into effect Jan. 2.

Juggling Gypsy Manager Denny Best said the bar would appeal the fine and ask for a hearing with the health department.

If unsuccessful there, Best said this week the bar would appeal further to the court system and planned on holding a fundraiser later this month to raise money for legal fees if it gets that far.

The Star News

Gasp! Smoking? In a hookah bar?!?! Why… I’ve never heard of such a thing. Surely the benevolent busybodies of government can protect all us peons from the scourge of the dastardly people forcing customers into their bars and exposing them to second-hand smoke.
[/sarcasm]

Good luck to the Gypsy. I’ll keep my on this case and let you know how to donate to their defense fun if it gets that far.

Concerned that his sales have plummeted during the first week of the statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, the owner of a Chapel Hill hookah bar is encouraging people to snitch to government officials that he’s defying the ban. Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, says he needs an official violation notice from Orange County in order to proceed with his plan to fight the law in court.

Bliss hasn’t stopped selling hookahs and beer at his Franklin Street establishment that caters to the college crowd. Even so, he hasn’t received a notice from the county. Bliss may even file a complaint himself to speed the process. “I’ve never had so much trouble getting in trouble,” he says.

The Carolina Journal

If you live in or near Chapel Hill, please visit this guy and give him your support: www.hookahbliss.com.

Don’t make the hookah bar owners angry. You won’t like them when they’re angry.

On Jan. 2, a law extinguishing smoking in bars and restaurants statewide takes effect. There are a few exceptions, but none for bars that offer hookahs, the water pipes for smoking fruit-flavored tobacco that originated in the Middle East and are growing in popularity among young Americans.

Hookah Joe’s, the four-year-old lounge in downtown Asheville, plans to defy the smoking ban and carry on into the new year.

“Honestly, we don’t really know what to expect,” co-owner James Tsakonas said. “But we will definitely be serving.”

Local health directors can fine violators $200 a day after giving them two warnings.

Legislators who passed the law this year called it an effort to save lives of workers and customers that are put at risk by secondhand smoke. Customers at Hookah Joe’s this week said anyone who would enter a hookah bar wouldn’t be bothered by the smoke.

The Asheville Citizen Times

That last line is the key to this whole debate. If you don’t want to breathe in second-hand hookah smoke… don’t go to a freakin’ hookah bar! If you do want to smoke hookah, who the hell is Hugh Holliman or anyone else to tell you that you can’t? Oh wait… they’re elected. That makes them waaaay smarter than your or me.

Good for Hookah Joe’s and anyone else who chooses to defy this junior-grade fascism. I hope our Asheville readers will stop in and have a few puffs in honor of freedom.

The owner of a Chapel Hill hookah bar says he will defy the state’s new smoking ban that has ensnared his business but exempted other types of smoking establishments. Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, believes the ban is discriminatory. He will continue to sell hookahs and alcohol beginning Jan. 2, the day it becomes illegal to smoke in most North Carolina bars and restaurants.

The Carolina Journal

Good for you, Mr. Bliss. I hope many other private business owners follow your lead and tell the nanny-state assholes in Raleigh to take their bill and shove it.

Failure to comply may bring penalties. Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director, expects enforcement to be complaint-driven.  “We’re hoping not to test that,” Konsler said. Konsler said the county is aware of Bliss and that a representative will visit him in the next week or two to discuss his plans.

I hope Mr. Bliss takes a hookah pipe and shoves it up up Mr. Konsler’s ass when he shows up. Mr. Bliss is a private business owner with private customers who make their own decisions to buy his legal product.

Are you a supporter of this bill? Well, here’s what you’ve done:

Bliss said he faced three choices: continue operating as usual, stop selling alcohol to fit the definition of a tobacco shop rather than a bar, or close his doors altogether.

Since alcohol accounts for 20 to 25 percent of his sales, eliminating beer would send the bar into a nosedive it might not survive. Closing the doors of his 2 ½-year-old business would devastate Bliss. At risk is roughly $70,000 in cash invested or still owed. Giving up would also put him on the unemployment line. Half a dozen part-time employees would join him there.

Wow! Nice job government! You’ve done it again. Thank God you’re here to protect us from the scourge of free enterprise and hookahs!

And you know who else gets a shout out? One of this page’s favorite politicians, St. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird. We love Ellie here at CPO, and this is one of the reasons why:

Bliss thought he’d won the support of Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange. He said he worked with her assistant to create an exemption [for hookah bars]. On the evening the bill passed the Senate, Kinnaird called and told him she had not introduced the exemption at the request of a sponsor.

Bliss was stunned. He told her she was, in effect, closing down a viable business. Kinnaird’s response wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “This is as close to a quote as I can [recall] — ‘I know it will be difficult.’

“I said, ma’am, you don’t know anything. You’re sitting in an office paid for by people like me and you’re telling me you’re going to take my business away — tough noogies?”

Kinnaird stands by her support of the smoking ban. She said she tried hard to help Bliss, knowing he’d put his life savings and vision into the business. “But when I went to the sponsor of the bill, Dr. [William] Purcell [D-Anson], he asked me not to put it in because he said it would weaken the bill.”

Aren’t you all glad smart people like Ellie Kinaird are in Raleigh making decisions for you? Don’t you wish you could turn over more of your life choices to her? After all, she’s been elected to stuff- that makes her super smart. Way smarter than you and some lame business owner trying to make a living.

The next time I’m in Chapel Hill I’m stopping in at Hookah Bliss to give Mr. Bliss some of my business. Please do the same.

If this doesn’t get your blood boiling…

The challenge ahead for conservatives is to tap into this clear support for freedom by illustrating what happens to real people when their lives and dreams get in the way of government tentacles that stifle personal and professional liberty.

That brings me to Adam Bliss, who owns Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill. Thanks to North Carolina’s ban on smoking (pdf link) in most bars and restaurants, which takes effect Jan. 2, Bliss may lose his business and life savings. Why? Because hookah bars fall outside the exemptions state legislators wrote into the smoking ban to protect cigar bars and some clubs. As Bliss told The Daily Tar Heel, “If you look at the exemptions, they’re generally all places that rich, older white men like to smoke. If our representatives liked to smoke in hookah bars, hookah bars would have been exempt as well.”

Bliss is a real-world example of what happens when government policy — even when it’s well-intentioned — collides with the freedom to operate a business and sell a legal product.

The Carolina Journal

There’s only one reason someone would voluntarily walk into a hookah bar. Yet, the conceited anointed in our government think they have an obligation to protect us all from unwittingly inhaling the scourge of second-hand hookah smoke.

Adam Bliss is the face of freedom lost. Today it’s hookah bars. The question is, which industry — and which one of us — is the next Adam Bliss?

Town officials pressured David Bowden on Thursday, saying they will levy fines against the Cary man if he doesn’t remove or tone down a bright protest sign painted in huge, orange letters on the front of his house.

He has seven days.

In a statement, town officials say attempts to negotiate with Bowden have failed to resolve an impasse that started in July, when he had “Screwed By The Town of Cary” painted on his home at 305 SW Maynard Road.

The N&O

I’ve driven past this house. Honestly, I think the sign provides a nice contrast from the suburban monotony along Maynard.

Bowden, who says his house was damaged by runoff caused by town road construction, refuses to budge. The slogan is a free speech issue, he says, a stance that has the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

Like the odd comet or the government voluntarily making itself smaller, sometimes incredibly rare things happen that you didn’t ever imagine seeing in your lifetime, and this is one of them. I am actually going to agree with the ACLU. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Town officials offered to install a trench drain and new drainage pipe to re-route water away from Bowden’s home. Bowden declined the offer and issued his own ultimatum: The sign wouldn’t come down until the town buys his house. Bowden also declined third-party mediation, according to a town statement issued Thursday.

Is this guy being a stubborn jerk? You bet. Can he and should he work with the town to resolve this? Probably. Should the government force him? Nope, no, and Hell No. His house, his paint, his complaint. If he had a blaring bullhorn that would be one thing, but a bad paint job is another.

Sorry neighbors. If this is really getting to you, plant a hedge or something.

People have asked me why I am running for the State House 33 seat in the North Carolina legislature.
I have to respond that “We are losing our freedom and God given rights on a daily basis”.

People ask me why in a state so dominated by the Democratic Party why I am running as a Republican.
I have to respond that “My core principles are a best fit in the Republican Party. It is apparent with the level of corruption and quid pro quo that is happening in North Carolina, we are corrupt only second to Illinois”. Let me be blunt, the Democratic Party leadership is responsible.

I have been asked what we can do about jobs in North Carolina. I have been asked what we can do about returning this state and District 33 back to prosperity.
First we need to reduce the tax burden on the small businesses and people who are the spenders in this capitalist society. And at the same time we need to go back to zero based budgeting. It is common sense to only budget what we NEED and what we can AFFORD as a state.

Another question that has come up is the Defense of Marriage act.
Unlike my opponents I am fearless when it comes to defending marriage being defined as the union of one woman and one man at one time. This is especially important in District 33. I will put any opponent I face next year in the spotlight concerning this issue.

I have been asked about forced annexation and property rights in this state.
Those two issues are both separate and connected in some way. The municipalities are allowed to annex without reservations any blocks of unincorporated land in their zone of influence. And the Supreme Court allows a government to take from you to give to another private entity. These are both issues where we need to pass laws not allowing either one of these issue without those citizens approving it.

I have been asked about redistricting and how that will affect us in the future.
Republicans have to win the State House and or State Senate next year. And we need the help of independents and Conservative Democrats next year. Not winning is not an option. Gerrymandering, some of which has been struck down by the courts, disenfranchises many voters.

How are Republicans going to win?
We need the grassroots volunteers and most of all we need money. $20 dollars from many people will add up for us state level candidates, and donations of $100 will be critical. In my case I can expect my opponent to raise close to $50,000. My campaign as an example will need at a minimum of $20,000 to get out the mailers to like minded voters before the election. If 1,000 people gave $20 or even 500 gave $40 that would equal the minimum.

I am enthusiastic about the results of the School Board elections in Wake County. It was a bipartisan effort by everyone along the entire political spectrum that brought change to our schools. Unlike the current House 33 seat holder, I will be on a mission to do what is right for all of House 33’s citizens. Listening to the citizens will be my first priority.

Bane and I have spoken before about the sad saga of N.C. Hookah Bar owners. Thanks to friendly neighborhood thug Hugh Holliman and his merry band of fascists, these private business of owners will have to close or convert their smoke bars because of the property-rights killing anti-smoking bill.

The smoking ban will take effect in January. Before that happens, some legislators want to amend the ban by creating an exemption in the law that would allow existing hookah bars to continue to allow smoking.

Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, is trying to get the exemption passed in the House. Tarleton was a strong supporter of the original smoking ban, but he said yesterday that the ban’s effect on hookah bars was unintended.

“I am not interested in opening Pandora’s box here,” Tarleton said yesterday. “All I want to do is to save some 20 small businesses across the state that opened legally, legitimately, with the full intention of serving a population. (The smoking ban) is going to shut them down, and that’s an unintended consequence.”

The W-S Journal

Tarleton is not a hero here. If he wasn’t smart enough to understand the consequences of pissing on property rights (and it seems obvious that he isn’t) then he’s not smart enough to be in government. Unfortunately, he’s got plenty of company up in Raleigh.

But it’s not to be. The Winston-Salem Journal reports today that Rep. Cullie Tarleton is dropping his bill to exempt hookah bars from the ban after bar owners objected to amendments to the bill that they said would put unfair restrictions on them.

Private business owners are going to have to shut their doors because Hugh “Himmler” Holliman thinks he’s smarter than you. Meanwhile, consenting adults are being told they can’t perform a legal activity on someone else’s property because it offends other people.

Tell me how this is a free county again?

In my wildest drug fueled hallucinations I never thought I’d write a headline like that. Neal Boortz is a libertarian talk show host who celebrates freedom and limited government. Raleigh City Councilman Thomas Crowder is some wacko liberal who loves big government and wants to ban garbage disposals.

In response to residents’ complaints, Crowder recently proposed a ban on letting property owners park cars on their yards -not their driveways, their yards.

He has written a new ordinance that, if adopted, would require thousands of Raleigh residents to get their cars out of the front yard and possibly spend hundreds of dollars to pave parking areas.

“If it’s not a problem it shouldn’t be imposing on anybody,” Crowder said. “It’s an environmental issue. It’s a stormwater and water quality issue. … [I]t’s a quality of life issue.”

The N&O

Typically, even when Crowder is right, he’s right for the wrong reasons. This has nothing to do with the environment or water quality. This is about my property values going down because my neighbor has eight cars in his freakin’ yard and it looks like I live next to used car lot. You can do almost anything you damn well want in the privacy of your own home- I don’t care. But when your actions affect me (ie. bring down my property values), I start caring. Your freedom ends when you make my street look like a junkyard.

Boortz criticized Crowder’s newest proposed law on his talk show Monday as government overreach.  Also opposing it was councilman Phillip Isley.

“This is beyond the nanny state,” Isley said. “This is a homeowners association on steroids.”

But they’re wrong this time. Here’s one reason why:

The rules would be a major inconvenience for people like David Morton, who has eight vehicles in his front yard in southwest Raleigh. His family parks four cars perpendicular to his driveway in a way that would be illegal under Crowder’s ordinance.

Eight cars? Eight freaking cars?! No, sir. Your yard is not a car lot. You can do pretty much anything you want in the privacy of your home, but your freedom ends at the tip of my property values.

The N.C. House voted yesterday for a slew of changes to the state’s contentious, 50-year-old annexation law, which gives cities wide latitude to take in new residents and force them to pay municipal taxes and fees.

Residents have long argued that the law is unfair and is frequently abused by cities.

But the most vocal opponents of annexation did not get everything they wanted and said that the bill, while better than nothing, does not go far enough to seriously rein in forced annexations.

The W-S Journal

If this bill were infused with steroids (and not just any steroids; the good stuff baseball players use) and ate Wheaties every day for a month, it would still be unable to do better than Wuss at one of those “Test Your Strength” carnival games. Hell, it probably wouldn’t be able to pick up the damn sledgehammer you need to play.

The most important provision in the bill would give annexation opponents the chance to trigger a referendum before a future annexation could take place. The opponents would have to gather signatures of 15 percent of the total of voters in the city and the area targeted for annexation.

If they did that, the city would have to hold a referendum among all city residents and residents of the annexation area. A majority of the voters would have to approve the annexation before the city could go through with it.

What the hell good is that gonna do? First of all, as someone who has gone door-to-door collecting signatures for candidates, 15% is a big damn number. Especially if the city doing the annexing is Raleigh or Charlotte, and really especially if the annexee is just a small cluster of homes that won’t have the manpower to fight back.

Also, why are residents of the annexing city allowed to vote? It’s not their taxes poised to skyrocket. It’s not property being taken over. And they can vastly outnumber the people in the area to be annexed.

I know Property Rights forces wanted something done about annexation, but this bill is so damn bad it will do more harm than good. The next time they rightfully complain about annexation, someone can point to this bill and say, “well, you’ve got some rights now. What are you bitching about?” It will make it that much harder to pass a property rights bill that really protects homeowners.

The controversial effort by the Wilmington City Council to annex the community of Monkey Junction, which sparked protest and debate, including a lively public hearing that resulted in two arrests, came to a head on May 5 when the council voted 6-1 to annex the rapidly growing community.

Some 3,300 residents are included in the annexation, and many have made their opposition very clear. A public hearing on April 6 — the only one — drew hundreds of protesters to the meeting and the street outside. Police and fire personnel provided a beefed-up security presence, including escorts for council members and police snipers on surrounding rooftops. The protesters who filled the council chamber reportedly banged on the walls and chanted slogans; two men were arrested for disrupting an official meeting, a misdemeanor.

The Carolina Journal

There’s a near riot against this annexation, and 6 bonehead councilmen STILL voted for it.

Bane, you  just got back from Wilmington. Were you aware that you had left the United States? Did you have to show a passport or ID when you entered Wilmington city limits?

Sometimes I really, really hate my government. This is one of those times.

Hookah bars, which surged in popularity in America’s college towns and big cities when tobacco use was in general decline, find themselves battling the smoking bans that are sweeping the country.

In North Carolina, hookah bar owners are joining forces to save their businesses. In the coming weeks, they hope to persuade state lawmakers to make legislative exemptions for them similar to those granted cigar bars and country clubs that will allow smoking after the indoor ban takes effect Jan. 1.

They know of the health risks of secondhand smoke but counter that their patrons choose to come despite the hazards.

The N&O

You mean… people actually enter certain establishments for the purpose of… gasp!… smoking! Perish the thought!

“The simple fact is that hookah smoking is no better, and it may be worse, than any other smoke,” said Dr. Adam Goldstein, director of the tobacco prevention and evaluation program at UNC Medical Center. “The only good aspect about the hookah trend is it is a blip in history that will be gone in 10 years.”

Goldstein does not favor smoking ban exemptions for hookah bars, and he is no more supportive of those in place for cigar bars.

“It’s a serious issue,” Goldstein said. “The fact that kids see and think of cigar smoking as elite and high-end promotes tobacco use. Right now we have to deal with this.”

People like this douchebag Goldstein make me want to run out and play in traffic. This nannyist jerk thinks he’s just so freakin’ smarter than everyone else, that he gets to decide what private activities we’re allowed to engage in. He doesn’t give a damn about freedom, property rights, or the dangers of government intervention. I miss the days when people like him could be tarred, feathered, and exiled from their village.

Bliss, 41, who opened Hookah Bliss two years ago on Franklin Street, said the ban hits him hard as small businesses struggle during the recession.

“In this economy, if they shut me down, I will lose my house,” Bliss said. “I’ve never been very political, I have to admit, but this has my dander up.”

I hope all you jerks who supported this bill are happy. “If they shut me down, I will lose my house.” You freedom-hating assholes brought this about. I wonder how many of you have the stones to talk to Mr. Bliss face-to-face and tell him that losing his house is just a sacrifice he’ll have to make for better health in N.C.

The House narrowly agreed to the Senate version of a smoking ban, sending to the governor a bill that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

“This bill has come a long way,” said Rep. Hugh Holliman, the House Democratic leader and champion of the bill. “It’s had a much debate as any bill has ever had in this state.”

The N&O

Yeah, rights-killing fascist bills do tend to inspire debate, don’t they Heinrich?

Gov. Beverly Pedue is expected to sign the bill into law. It’s a law that might have been unthinkable just a few years ago in a state built on the tobacco industry.

That might have been unthinkable just a few years ago in a country built on freedom and private property rights, but I guess those have become quaint antiquated notions these days.

The original House version allowed smoking only in businesses that prohibited anyone under 18 from entering the premises. That exception generally excluded all bars from the ban.

But the version adopted by the Senate removed the section of the bill that applied the ban to all workplaces.

Holliman said the compromise was “probably as good as you’re going to do on a bill that’s as far reaching as this.” He held open the possibility that he would take another run at all workplaces later.

Oh, I’m sure you will, you little fascist jerk. Because you can’t stand that someone else might have the freedom to do something you disagree with. When “Heinrich Himmler” Holliman introduced this rights-killing atrocity a few months ago, I pondered what might happen if you dosed him with sodium pentathol and asked him what he really though of his constituents. But I don’t think we need to- we already know. This is a man who thinks he’s so damn freaking smart, he can tell private property owners what legal activities they can and can’t allow in their own establishments. He’s so damn freaking smarter than all of you, he’s going to take it upon himself to make consumer choices for everyone.

Hugh “Heinrich Himmler” Holliman epitomizes the most dangerous trend in American politics today- the slow but inextricable tilt towards soft tyranny. His is a smiley-faced fascism with velvet chains that seduces you with open arms… then places you in a smothering bear hug from which you can’t escape. Y’know, Hugh is probably a very nice man. I’m sure he means well and honestly thinks he’s doing the right thing. But good intentions do not excuse the theft of freedom he has orchestrated.

Hugh Holliman, in trying to help you, has shown he does not respect you. He does not believe you are adults capable of making your own decisions. He does not believe that private property rights are sacrosanct in a free country. He does not believe that you are smart enough to decide, on your own, which establishments to patronize. So he is going to decide for you. Why? Because he won an election, and that must make him the smartest person in the world. Because he’s the government and he’s here to help you, as he seems to think you are incapable of helping yourself. And so, with a smile on his face and good intentions in his heart, Hugh “Heinrich Himmler” Holliman has taken a part of your freedom and used it to wipe his ass. As of today, you have less freedom. And if you know anything about government, you know you aren’t likely to get it back.

Today they went after smoking, a foolish and unpopular activity that had few supporters. But what about tomorrow? Today they have decided that private property rights are meaningless if used to engage in an unpopular activity. So what activity will they choose next, and what barrier exists to stop them, now that we have decided that private property rights are expendable once 51% of the people decide it is? Do you anti-smoking zealots have any idea the kind of Pandora’s box you have just opened up?

I hate smoking. I don’t want to be around smokers, so I, myself, choose not to be around them. I don’t want or need Hugh Holliman to do that for me. I am an adult; so are you. I am free; so are you. But thanks to Hugh and his merry band of well-meaning nannies, we are less free by the day. Today they came for smokers. What will they come for tomorrow?

Where Hugh Holliman lives…

Fascism showed itself to be alive and well in North Carolina on Thursday, as a bunch of assholes took it upon themselves to determine what legal activities you can and cannot perform on your own property.

Let’s not mince words- every single one of these authoritarian bullies thinks you are too stupid too be trusted with freedom. They think you are too dumb to be entrusted with the liberty to make your own decisions about your own body and your own property. They think that by virtue of winning an election, that they suddenly possess the mystical knowledge of the ages that justifies using some of your unalienable rights as toilet paper.

I don’t want to hear a single one of these fascists ever use the word “freedom” again. Without private property rights, freedom becomes a very tenuous thing. What sort of “free country” do we have when, with a simple vote, a bunch of brainless do-gooders can prevent you from running your business, your property, your life, as you want?

“The proposed ban is being sold as a way to protect people from secondhand smoke, but this is a dangerous slippery slope,” said Daren Bakst, JLF Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst. “There are many things, other than exposure to secondhand smoke, that the government could ban under this ‘nanny state’ mindset, from diet to sexual behavior.”

Property owners have the right to let people smoke or to prohibit smoking, Bakst said. “Smokers do not have a right to smoke on someone else’s property,” he said. “Similarly, nonsmokers do not have a right to a smoke-free environment when that environment belongs to someone else. Smoking ban proponents actually want to create a new right: the right to be able to go anywhere they want, including for-profit private clubs, and not have to deal with smoke.”

The Carolina Journal

Five Republicans voted for this statist, right-killing bill, including my own state senator, Richard Stevens. Not only will I never, ever vote for Stevens for anything again, I will actively support any primary challenge to him in 2010. That is, after all, what Dead Republican Walking is all about:

The scope of a statewide smoking ban was narrowed Wednesday to include only restaurants and bars, the result of political realities in the Senate that left neither health advocates nor tobacco boosters pleased.

The altered bill was recommended by a wide margin in the Senate Health Care Committee, where just a week ago a more restrictive bill was approved by a clearly divided panel. But the bill was sent back to the committee after Senate Democrats said there weren’t enough votes to pass a measure that would have extended to all work sites as well.

The N&O

Yeah, ‘cuz the last thing I want to do when I go to a bar is do something unhealthy. This bill remains nothing more that a bunch of authoritarian do-gooders taking a piss on private property rights.

If you haven’t called your state senator yet, why the hell not? Thursday might be your last chance.

I usually don’t read letters-to-the-editor, let alone post them, but this one caught my eye. I don’t know Susan Bedwell, but judging from this letter, she is smarter and better acquainted with the concepts of “freedom” and “responsibility” than most of the statist nitwits we keep electing to office.

Here’s what she wrote in the N&O:

The proposed ban on smoking in restaurants and other businesses is now in the hands of the N.C. Senate, where it has the support of the powerful Democratic leader.

But the bill’s fate is far from clear, because it faces new opposition from the state’s restaurant owners, who are angry over an amendment to the bill that occurred in the N.C. House.

Until this week, the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association had stayed on the sidelines. The group agreed to remain neutral as long as the smoking ban applied evenly to all restaurants and bars. The original bill, sponsored by state Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, would have done that.

But on Wednesday, some House members successfully passed an amendment that carved out an exception for establishments that are restricted to people 18 or older.

The W-S Journal

Here’s the NC Senate webpage. This week I’m calling my state senator and letting him know that there will be consequences for voting against property rights. Please look up your senator and contact them too.

Private property rights? Hah! You old-fashioned rube. Don’t you know that the smart people in government get to determine your rights now? Now shut up and go along with it.

The House adopted a bill today that would ban smoking in restaurants and workplaces across the state.

The bill would not ban smoking in most bars. It cleared the House 72 to 45 and now moves to the Senate.

The N&O

Eighteen Fascists-with-Values (Republicans who don’t give a damn about rights or freedoms, but talk a good game about “values”) voted for this monstrosity, including House Minority Leader Paul Stam. Shame on you, Paul.

Introducing the first ever edition of a new project here on CPO- Dead Republican Walking:

As the legislative session continues, every time some RINO votes for a rights-killing bill, we’ll update the chart so you know which “Republicans” ought to be “Dead Republicans Walking” in 2010.

In the meantime, this bill is heading towards the state senate, where there is still a chance to kill it. Call your state senator and let them know that you don’t want to see them on the senate version of the above list.

The ban would cover virtually all public workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

“It’s close,” Rep. Hugh Holliman said of the count measuring support among the chamber’s 120 members. “We’ve got some people working on it.”

Holliman, the bill’s chief sponsor, said the floor vote would likely come early next week. In 2007, a similar bill failed on a 55-61 vote, which is an uncommonly close margin for all but the most controversial of legislation.

This year’s version of the bill cleared the House Judiciary I Committee Tuesday morning on a voice vote.

The News-Record

Call your State House Representative and tell them there will be a consequence for voting against private property rights.

Meanwhile, the following “Republicans” either sponsored or co-sponsored this atrocity:

Jeff Barnhart, Dist. 82
Pearl Burris-Floyd, Dist. 110
Pat B. Hurley, Dist. 70
Wil Neumann, Dist. 108

To their names I will add every other fascist posing as a conservative who votes for this rights-killing bill.