Free Republic

by Mark Finkelstein August 20, 2006 - 07:19 Breaking news from the New York Times: tobacco is bad for you! Of course you didn't know that. Rubes like you [probably the same kind of people dumb enough to have voted for Republicans over the years] likely think tobacco has roughly the same the health impact of bean sprouts washed down with OJ. That's because you've fallen victim to the tobacco industry's "half-century of deception." And the Times is plenty mad about it. In Tobacco Racketeers Get Off Easy, the Times stamps its editorial feet this morning, frustrated by the judge's...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered tobacco companies Thursday to admit they lied about the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes and to warn consumers in advertisements and packaging that tobacco is addictive.

(AP) WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking, but said she couldn't order them to pay the billions of dollars the government had sought. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler did order the companies to publish in newspapers and on their Web sites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine. She also ordered tobacco companies to stop labeling cigarettes as "low tar," "light," "ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no...

Many people believe that government and business are warring factions, and that political parties typically align with one or the other. But the truth, as Timothy P. Carney points out in his new book, is that big business is often in bed with big government and that both Republicans and Democrats have helped forge a partnership that consistently rips off ordinary Americans. Carney's new book, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, exposes this nasty partnership in detail—from Boeing subsidies to Ethanol mandates—and shows just how taxpayers lose their money and their voice in Washington....

Postal Service Now Major Delivery Agent for Contraband FedEx Express and FedEx Ground (FedEx) have agreed to undertake changes to their business practices that will strengthen their policies prohibiting the delivery of cigarettes to consumers throughout the United States, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced. "I commend FedEx for joining in this important effort," said Spitzer. "This is another example of private industry joining with law enforcement to address important social problems. When private companies like FedEx take the initiative to protect their services from being used by those engaged in criminal conduct, we all win." FedEx's current policy...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Inspired by a reader who sent a list of once American corporations who's profits are no longer funneled to the hard-working American employee, I investigated the subject. The clip that landed on my desk was from "America is Selling Out," published in The American Conservative, December, 2005. As I digested, emotionally charged from the publication's Web site at www.economyincrisis.org, I agreed with some of the information, discarded the sensational propaganda and extrapolated my take on the issues' raw facts. From what I've experienced and witnessed first-hand, I consider the current state...

CHICAGO, Dec 15 (Reuters)- The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA, ordering a lower court to dismiss the case in which the company was accused of defrauding customers into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer than regular ones. The much-anticipated ruling sent shares of Philip Morris parent Altria Group Inc. (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) up more than 5 percent to a new all-time high. The court found that U.S. Federal Trade Commission rulings specifically authorized tobacco companies to characterize their products as "light" or "low tar and nicotine." The case has been closely...

"My family is more important to me than my party," declared  Senator Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat, as he spoke from the podium of the Republican National Convention on September 1. "There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." [1] Many Democrats howled in outrage at Miller's "betrayal" - former President Jimmy Carter in particular. In an angry personal letter to the Georgia senator, Carter accused Miller of "unprecedented disloyalty" and declared, "You have betrayed our trust. [I]t's quite possible that your rabid speech damaged our party..." [2] But...

Big OIl, top impetus for Blair and Bush plan for illegal Iraq Invasion, is PART of the cigarette industry. Yet it's Pub proprietors and patrons, all victims of toxic/cancer-causing cigarette contaminants, who must bear burdens of law. Big oil, pesticides, chlorine and other parts of Big Cig industry not even scolded...or noticed. PESTICIDE PEGS & DIOXIN DOWELS Pub owners may have grounds for a suit against not only the cigarette makers but the government officials who allowed the tobacco to be, for so long, secretly contaminated with some of the world's worst industrial substances. Pub patrons and workers have the...

<p>As Delaware legislators consider a bill that would make most public places smoke-free, Big Tobacco is without a doubt moving behind the scenes, working to sabotage democracy, unless we put an end to it.</p> <p>The big question is who will elected officials choose to represent when it comes to a vote? The people or Big Tobacco?</p>