Day 1 of Eau Claire ban…

… And they’re already calling for a level playing field.

Go figure, right? But let’s dissect this new article:

State Rep. Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire, and State Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, said the passage of the Eau Claire measure and others around the state since then has placed the onus on the Legislature to adopt anti-smoking regulations sooner rather than later.

Wrong. Wrong! You people made your bed and are now whining that you don’t want to lay in it. Sorry to say, but I don’t want to lay in it either. It’s nobody’s place to rush out and save you people from the burden of your own mistakes.

Those anti-smoking actions are pushing many legislators who previously were undecided about a smoking ban closer to supporting one, Smith said.

“Some of the legislators who were on the fence on this are feeling pushed over the fence now,” Smith said.

So should we be honest? I know that honesty is a rare thing with these folks, so let me translate: “We’re working our asses off to cow the rest of the legilsature into submission so that we can have our way. We’re going to hurt our own people and continue to hurt them until the undecided or anti-ban folks feel so much guilt that they can’t help but to give ini. And then we win. Nay Nay!”

Also prompting the adoption of a ban is the fact that states surrounding Wisconsin – Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan – have enacted bans of their own.

“We’re really the lone holdouts here,” Smith said.

What Smith is telling us is that he is embarassed over the fact that Wisconsin is a free state while MN, IL and IA have all caved in and given their rights to the government. So Smith wants to be a babysitter with all the power and he thinks the other states are laughing at him? That’s what I hear from him.

However, a statewide ban must be enacted soon to protect “the little mom and pop” taverns most at risk in communities where bans are adopted, Smith said.

Ah, I love the guilt trip. But again, I see that now they’re not even hiding their plans. Put your own people in a vice and then beg the state to help them out by putting everybody in a vice.

“That’s the downside of communities enacting their own bans,” Kreitlow said.

Yes, because clearly communism is better. We might as well dissolve states too, because individual states having different rules makes a weaker national government. Who in the hell elects these people?

But ban backers weren’t willing to wait while the Legislature debated a ban without taking action, he said.

As always, the true colors of the anti-tobacco crowd. No compromise. No talks. No logic. Just do as we say and do it now.

“We had no guarantee that (the Legislature) was going to act,” Duax said, “so we felt we needed to do protect the public’s health.”

City Councilman Daux needs to hang his head in shame for being a compelte fool and buying into the claims. Anybody who thinks that smoking bans have anything to do with public health or that secondhand smoke is indeed a public health threat are either too ignorant to be trusted to even dress themselves in the morning or just too dishonest to be an elected official.

Congrats, Eau Claire, your elected leadership is embarssing you… And I only hope that they are not truly representative of you people.