Another Reason To Hate Phil King

Now he screwing with my cigarettes. From the Startlegram.

Careless smokers will have a new safeguard against accidentally starting a
house fire, thanks to new fire-safe cigarettes going on the Texas market in the
coming months.
The product of 2007 legislation, cigarettes sold in Texas
beginning on Jan. 1, 2009 will include bands of less porous paper that should
result in a slower-burning cigarette that goes out by itself if left
unattended.

State Rep. Phil King, the Weatherford Republican who authored the
fire-safe cigarette bill, is hoping for fewer accidental house fires. He
believes the legislation will save lives.
"My local fire marshal contacted me
about the fire-safe cigarette idea before last session and told me about how
many lives it had saved in other states," King said in a prepared statement. "I
started doing a little research on it and quickly realized that there were no
added costs and it was easy to implement. I began wondering why we didn't
already have this law in place."

But Audrey Silk, a spokeswoman for a New York-based smokers' rights
group, said that when smokers cause accidental house fires, it often turns out
they're also drunk. And she said no amount of fire-safe cigarettes will prevent
people from doing dumb things when they've been drinking.

Give me a freaking break. This is a perfect example of why I can't stand most Republicans. Their mantra is smaller government, lower taxes. But put them in office and they pick your pocket clean and make more intrusive laws than you can shake a stick at.