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SCHIP BILL VETOED; NOW THE GAMES BEGIN |
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Turns out that Zippo is not alone with this innovation. Colibri, another well-known name in lighters, also has a new series which used a flint-wheel on a torch-style lighter, the FlintJet.
Offered in four designs, the FlintJet is a vertically-styled lighter in the Dunhill tradition which uses a sidewheel similar to those seen on standard flint-spark designs for conventional flames. But the result is a single torch flame in an easy-to-handle package.
The FlintJet lists for $100.00, quite a bit more than the ZippoBLU series, which runs from $47.95 to $69.95 each, depending on the design. But then, none of the Zippos look like the Blue Matte & Silver FlintJet!
Oregon voters getting an earful on tobacco tax initiative:
While the debate on SCHIP raged in Washington, the Democrat-controlled Oregon Legislature placed a measure on the November 6 special election ballot to increase cigarette taxes in the state to pay for health insurance for about 100,000 uninsured children.
The measure as written would amend the Oregon Constitution to include a section creating a new tax of 84.5 cents on a pack of 20 cigarettes and a new tax of 30 percent of the manufacturer’s price on cigars and all other tobacco products. It would be the only tax specified in the state constitution.
The measure does allow for the Oregon Legislature to limit per-cigar taxes to 50 cents as is the case now, but this would take an additional act of the Legislature and is not automatic.
As you can imagine, the cigarette companies are not happy about this and are fighting back. So far, Altria Group (parent company of Philip Morris) and R.J. Reynolds have put in about $4.5 million to fight the proposal and have narrowed what was apparently a big early lead down to a 53 percent approval margin in the only statewide poll published so far, by Riley Research.
The tobacco companies’ spending has already made the measure the most expensive ever voted on in Oregon. And pro-Measure 50 collections have totaled about $1.4 million, mostly coming from hospitals and health insurance companies, who would benefit from its passage.
In the Riley poll in August, 53 percent of voters (64 percent of Democrats, 47 percent of independents, 44 percent of Republicans) said they would back the measure, with 28 percent against and 19 percent undecided. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it must receive more than 50 percent of the vote. Said pollster Mike Riley in an Associated Press report, “It’s much easier to defeat a measure than pass a measure. A ballot measure starting at 53 percent and trying to hold onto a majority will have a tough time.”
Expect the pro-Measure 50 lobby to wait until the last couple of weeks prior to November 6 to unleash their final barrage at voters. They will be met, you can be sure, by a much larger blitz from the anti-Measure 50 forces, then the voters will have the final say . . . for now.
~ Rich Perelman
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