———- Forwarded message ———-

Raise Your Pints Action Alert!

Raise Your Pints supporters,

The deadline for committee action is upon us. All bills must be out of committee by this coming Tuesday, February 2. If they survive committee, then they move on to the appropriate floor for discussion, vote and possible transfer to the other house to repeat the process (committee approval, floor discussion, vote). At this time, all four of our bills are stalled in committee.

If you want to see Mississippi brought up to par with all other U.S. States… NOW IS THE TIME for your action.

We need as many people as possible to contact the individuals listed below who will decide the fate of these bills.

**********************************************
Stuck in House Ways & Means Committee:
House Bill 731: Gourmet Beer Bill (raise ABW cap above 5% ABW)
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2010/pdf/history/HB/HB0731.xml
House Bill 732: Legalize homebrewing of beer
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2010/pdf/history/HB/HB0732.xml

Ways & Means Chair, Percy W. Watson: 601-544-6490 (h), 601-545-1051 (w)
pwatson@house.ms.gov
Ways & Means Vice-chair, David Norquist: 662-843-9183 (h), 662-843-6171 (w)
dnorquist@house.ms.gov

**********************************************
Stuck in the Senate’s Finance Committee:
Senate Bill 2243: Gourmet Beer Bill (raise ABW cap above 5% ABW)
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2010/pdf/history/SB/SB2243.xml
Senate Bill 2717: Legalize homebrewing of beer
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2010/pdf/history/SB/SB2717.xml

Finance Chair, Dean Kirby: 601-359-3246, 601-932-1966 (h), 601-939-5968 (w)
dkirby@senate.ms.gov
Finance Vice-chair, Eugene Clarke: 601-359-3172, 662-827-7261 (w), 662-827-7264 (F)
bclarke@senate.ms.gov

**********************************************
Lt. Governor Phil Bryant can pressure the committee chairs to support the
bill. Contact him here:
http://www.ltgovbryant.com/contact/

Don’t wait. It’s now or next year!

[via email from Craig Hendry]

If you are a Mississippian and you crave better beer in MS, please give Raise Your Pints your support.

Raise Your Pints is a not-for-profit group working to bring better beers to Mississippi. Your donations are welcomed.

Please visit the Raise Your Pints website at www.raiseyourpints.com; it is indeed a worthy cause.

Fight for your freedom for good beer.

Help Mississippi gain more tax revenue and help yourself to better beers by supporting Raise Your Pints.

Click the image to watch the video out of Kentucky.

So much delicious bourbon and whiskey poured down the drain to prove a point — a noble point, no less.

Kentucky’s master distillers and liquor company executives stood outside the state’s capitol and poured out bottles of the sweet nectar of life their own liquor hoping to stop the legislature from adding more booze taxes.

Kentucky is not the only state eyeing higher taxes on booze, New York, California and others are looking for ways to covers their asses in the budget department by taxing a whole slew of items, including alcohol sales, smoking and porn.

But lawmakers going after liquor and beer companies, in any state, seems like a bad idea to me (same goes for the other vice industries).

Like it or not, liquor companies, no matter what their politics, hold a lot of sway in state government. With the kind of money they command and lobbying power, liquor companies are usually pretty quiet about their political involvement.

So, to see a dozen liquor execs and distillers staging a protest on the steps of the Capitol like a bunch of Tea Party revolutionaries, you know the situation in the Bluegrass State has gotten dire.

Liquor companies prefer the hushed, behind-the-scenes kind of influence. Back in the State Capitol in Missouri (when I was working as a “real reporter”) it was not uncommon to see St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch products stocked in lawmakers’ offices and in state employee refrigerators. No one really asked where it came from and everyone was free to enjoy.

Let’s hope the situation turns around for those KY distillers. But if they are going to keep pouring out bourbin tell us next time and we will bring our Sham-Wow to help clean up afterward.

[via]