The Cheeseburger Bill: GOP’s Urdahl tries again to get lawsuit immunity for fast-food restaurants

“I spent probably less than an hour this entire session on this particular bill, and that includes the time that I am spending with you right now.”

Sorry, dude.That’s too much time. You’re suppose to be about jobs and we’ve seen NOTHING yet. Just another example of the Republican “social agenda” being shoved down our throats. We’ve seen way too many examples already.

I hope Urdahl’s next bill is to totally defund diabetes testing and insulin medication. I don’t want my tax dollars going to people that can not make healthy decisions on their own.

Fast food causes a massive burden on our healthcare system. Americans have shown that they can not make intelligent decisions on their own so we now need to protect those that enable us so they do not get sued like the tobacco companies did.

Rep. Urdahl, what are you doing? You’re wasting time with this legislation while Billy Ray Cyrus’s family is under attack by satan? Drop what you’re doing and organize a circle prayer, your best and brightest are under attack by the powers of darkness! Once Miley is safe then, and only then, should we protect corporate america from the consequences of it’s behavior.

Praise Jebus! God hates healthy people. Amen.

Why give immunity to anyone? Isn’t there someone better for the Representative to be carrying water for than McDonalds? Waste of time and clearly about something else other than personal responsibility.

The fact that fast food restaurants try to aggressively mask the actual nutritional content while marketing the hell out of of their food is the reason why a liability claim can be reasonably pursued. This bill is pure corporate pandering and shouldn’t – but probably will – make it to Governor Dayton’s desk to be vetoed.

Yeah, because without lawyers getting rich via frivoulous lawsuits, the democrat party would lose an important money stream. Mike Ciresi pocketed $440 million from the tobacco companies shakedown which made the DFL very happy.

Torts are the last resort against corporate abuses. That Dennis favors unilaterally protecting corporations for fraudulent action is telling.

Burger King is not responsible for your obesity, you are.

There, I just gave the circuit judge his written decision for him in advance.

You make it too easy, Dennis.

Burger King – and McDonald’s, and Wendy’s, and KFC, and Arby’s, and Dairy Queen, too – are in fact responsible for deceptive and coercive advertising and for deliberately making it difficult if not impossible to ascertain the nutritional content of their food – often holding it as a “trade secret” even though it should by rights be public-domain information.

When a company makes it difficult to make an educated, responsible decision, they must be held accountable. This bill makes it harder to do that.

This silly bill has no merit given that the judge has the discretion to toss out frivolous lawsuits. Given my stepfather’s recent passing away at the age of 67 after a terrible struggle with lung cancer due to heavy smoking, I have nothing but utter contempt for Dennis’ cavalier attitude towards “the tobacco companies shakedown” – and even more for Pawlenty and his ilk for using the tobacco settlement funds to balance the budget instead of towards cessation and awareness programs.

If a bill must be passed, it would be far better to require disclosure of accurate nutritional information upon request with no allowance for vague terms like “proprietary blend of spices.” Caloric counts should be prominently displayed next to the prices on all menus and display signs.

I was shocked to see that a big slice of pizza has a whopping 700 calories! I decided to order only one slice instead of the usual two; subsequent visits saw me seeking out healthier, but just as tasty, entrees.

“When a company makes it difficult to make an educated, responsible decision, they must be held accountable. This bill makes it harder to do that.”

Only if you’re an idiot.

But given what the democrats have done to the government school system, there’s probably more running around than I care to notice. Oh look! There’s one making a comment just prior to mine!

Lane, I’d be willing to bet the farm that your stepfather knew cigarettes were bad for him 50 years ago.

Dennis, you are truly an asshole. The dangers of nicotine addiction was purposely hidden from the public by the tobacco industry 50+ years ago who extensively targeted the young with advertising and promotional campaigns in an effort to maintain obscene profits even as its products were killing its customers.

I dare you to tell each member of my family as well as all of my stepfather’s friends that he deserved all the suffering and pain in the past year when he slipped into deep coma after having his right lung removed. He woke up after almost dying to spend a month in extensive rehabilitation at a hospital. He never regained his ability to swallow. Each breath through his tracheostoma was a struggle. He was always weak and confused. He was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes. When he was home, there were visits from the public health nurse, physical therapist and home health aide. It took a heavy toll on my frail mother who tried her best to take care of him and to support him.

Never underestimate the power of addiction, asshole!

Nonsense. I smoked my first cigarette 50 years ago and we all knew then that it was bad for us or we wouldn’t have had to sneak around to do it.

In 1965, Congress required all cigarette packages distributed in the United States to carry a health warning, and since 1970 this warning is made in the name of the Surgeon General. In 1969, cigarette advertising on television and radio was banned, effective September 1970.

I smoked two packs a day for almost 40 years, so I know something about addiction too. But I eventually quit smoking. Cold turkey. But not because it suddenly occurred to me that it was bad for me.

No one deserves to suffer from the pain of cancer. But if the tobacco companies and their products are so evil, why are they still legal?? Why haven’t the democrats in congress ever tried to outlaw it as a toxic substance like DDT? Because they’d rather people like your stepfather pay the tobacco tax to the government than to protect them from a poisonous substance, that’s why.

So instead of blaming the makers of a legal product for your stepfather’s death, maybe you should blame the politicians who know it’s dangerous and refuse to outlaw it like they would any other lethal substance. You’re the one who expects the government to protect you from everything.

I am not taking the bait, Dennis. You are still an asshole – utterly soulless and without compassion.

Dennis, let me put it this way so that your peabrain can understand.

Yes, the tobacco industry and many of its products are evil, and should be illegal. Why haven’t the Republicans tried to outlaw them? Because they’d rather have people like my stepfather and you to pay the tobacco tax to the government than to protect him and you from an addictive, poisonous substance, that’s why. In Pawlenty’s case, the primary motivation definitely was to balance the state budget rather than keep the smokers’ best interests at heart.

I don’t know that any politican with a brain and a heart, regardless of ideology, tried to outlaw tobacco or at least subject the tobacco industry to strict regulation by the FDA and other appropriate agencies. And yes, I expect the government to do its duty to protect us citizens from harm.

After all, requiring all of us to wear seat belts and increasing penalties for driving while distracted are but examples of smart governance. And the Minnesota Republicans’ attempts to rollback the smoking ban inside buildings is a BAD idea.

Finally, not everyone is able to go cold turkey, but good for you. It’s just too bad that the government can’t protect me from stupid people like you and your precious Bachmann.

Correction.

I don’t know that any politician with a brain and a heart, regardless of ideology, DID NOT TRY to outlaw tobacco …

“Yes, the tobacco industry and many of its products are evil, and should be illegal. Why haven’t the Republicans tried to outlaw them? ”

Because republicans don’t ban things. That’s what you guys do. Remember? The nanny state is a democrat dream, not a republican one.

Republicans don’t ban things, eh? Let’s see. Full equality under the law for those who are LGBT including full access to civil marriage. Women’s reproductive rights and control of their own bodies. Full pay equity regardless of gender. The right of workers to organize and collectively bargain. The right to a clean environment. Policies based on sound science and peer review. Consumer protection and rights. Necessary taxes to fund what makes civilization possible. And so on and on.

Meh.

The conservative ‘stern-father’ model of morality has become an ‘abusive father.’ There is no sense in trying to reason Dennis out of his position because he did not reason himself into it.

In short, Dennis is supporting a bill that enables fraud.

Yeah, you’re right Lane. We’re against murdering innocent unborn children and two gay guys calling themselevs man and wife. That’s so radical.

Katie, in a free society, it’s expected that free people will take it upon themselves to determine what is in their best interest regarding which businesses, including fast food restaurants, they should patronize. Because of the free market, there are several of these businesses to choose from and so the patronage of the good ones and customer avoidance of the bad ones has the effect of weeding out those businesses, including restaurants, whose products or services don’t measure up to the society’s standards.

In a controlled society, the stupid people wait for someone, usually the government, to tell them what to eat and where to eat it. When the government fails to do their job, which is most often the case, the dependent people turn to litigation to mitigate their intellectual shortcomings.

We all know which society you prefer.

Freedom for corporate profits but none for the individual isn’t freedom. In fact, it has a word: fascism. A nationalist and militarist right-wing political philosophy which pairs corporate and political power together as a hand wears a glove.

The American fascist movement is in full control of the right wing, and represented here by Dennis.

Conservatives, it seems, are always in favor of “freedom” – as long as it’s the right KIND of freedom (freedom for themselves to do whatever they want).

When it’s the wrong kind of freedom – the freedom for others to hold them accountable to their words and actions, the freedom of others to do things that conservatives might not want to do, the freedom of others to control their own bodies and lives – conservatives LOOOOOOOOOVE to ban it.

[...] The Cheeseburger Bill: GOP’s Urdahl tries again to get lawsuit immunity for fast-food restaurants [...]