Free Republic

Rep. Allen West is never short on words and this time is no exception. During a town hall meeting in Florida recently, West was asked some questions about his past, in particular an incident that occurred while he was still on active duty in the Army serving in Iraq. A little background: Intent on foiling a reported plot to ambush him and his men, Colonel West, a battalion commander, made a calculated decision to intimidate the Iraqi officer with a show of force. An interrogation under way was going nowhere, Colonel West said in an interview, and he chose to...

A pathologist said Natasha Harris's Coca-Cola habit probably contributed to her death in 2010. Photograph: AP Natasha Harris, 30, of Invercargill, died from a heart attack in February 2010. Dr Dan Mornin testified at an inquest on Thursday that Harris probably suffered from hypokalemia, or low potassium, which he thinks was caused by her excessive consumption of Coke and overall poor nutrition. Mornin said toxic levels of caffeine, a stimulant found in cola, also may have contributed to her death. Harris's partner, Chris Hodgkinson, testified that Harris drank between 8 and 10 litres of Coke every day. "She was addicted...

In 2008, Tony Marohn visited a local estate sale where he paid a "nominal amount" for an antique oil stock certificate. And now, Marohn's family is suing soda giant Coca-Cola, saying the certificate entitles them to 1.8 million shares of the company's stock, worth an estimated $130 million. Marohn passed away in 2010, but not before tracing the history of the stock certificate from Palmer Union Oil Co. to Coca-Cola. Reuters reports that Marohn made the connection through a series of now-defunct companies, including Petrocarbon Chemicals Inc. and Taylor Wine Co. Coca-Cola countersued Marohn in 2009, telling Delaware's Chancery Court...

Democratic officials called for a boycott of certain companies supporting an organization pushing for voter ID laws today– among them Walmart and Coca-Cola– of which at least one has responded. Five hours after the boycott rallying call came, Coca-Cola issued a statement that it would withdraw support of that organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council, but not specifically because of the voter ID law support: Coca-Cola, the statement read, did not customarily support political efforts that had nothing to do with the corporation itself, and the news that ALEC had now developed an agenda independent of anything related to Coca-Cola...

emocratic officials Wednesday launched a two-pronged attack on states with new laws requiring identification before voting, the highlight being a call to boycott Coke, Walmart and others that back a leading organization pushing for voter ID laws. Coke was quick to react to the political boycott threat, pulling support from the targeted group just five hours after it was called. Walmart said that support for a group does not mean it backs every decision by those groups. At issue: Liberal claims that some states are trying to keep minority voters from the polls via voter ID laws, a suggestion conservatives...

Democratic officials Wednesday launched a two-pronged attack on states with new laws requiring identification before voting, the highlight being a call to boycott Coke, Walmart and others that back a leading organization pushing for voter ID laws. “We are organizing. We are not agonizing,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who is leading a parallel Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s effort to get government identification into the hands of the estimated 2-3 million Democrats who don’t have one. “We have staffed up,” he said. Officials from another party-backed group, Color of Change, kicked off a boycott of Coke and other financial backers...

UNITED NATIONS – A shipment containing 16 kilograms of cocaine was seized last week at the U.N.'s mail intake center, a New York Police Department spokesman said Thursday. Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, said the drug was in a white bag evidently masquerading as a diplomatic pouch that raised suspicions when it was being scanned because it was stamped with what looked like a poorly concocted version of the U.N. logo. Browne said here was no name or address on the shipment sent from Mexico City through Cincinnati. U.N. security officials called the NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed...

Coca-Cola ’s just-announced holiday campaign to supposedly protect Arctic polar bear habitat – highlighted by the company changing its iconic red cans to white – is ending, with the company killing off its new packaging two months earlier than planned. No, Coke hasn’t seen the light on its disguised support for the global warming hoax . The images of polar bears will instead appear on redesigned red cans, after many consumers mistakenly grabbed the white cans believing they were selecting the silver-canned Diet Coke. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported that in recent days about a half-dozen customers...

Since Coke is giving $ to the WWF, I don't want to buy their product. What is a good substitute for my "Jack & Cokes"? I don't care for "Jack & Pepsi".

Who says American companies aren't investing? They are. Billions, in fact. Only, they are just not investing here in the U.S. Atlanta based Coca-Cola (KO) plans to invest $4 billion in China, the company's CEO Muhtar Kent told reporters in Shanghai this week. It's the company's biggest planned investment in China since the 2009 investment of $2 billion. The investments will start next year and is part of the company's China capex until 2014. Kent said the company is even considering listing its shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, adding itself to the list of mainstream brands listing their depositary...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will appoint Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Max Baucus of Montana, and John Kerry of Massachusetts to the new super committee tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction by November 23, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with Reid’s decision, which is expected to be made public as early as Wednesday. Additionally, Murray is expected to co-chair the committee, officially named the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, along with a still unnamed House Republican. A spokesman for Reid did not respond to a request for comment. Reid’s decision to...

GALVESTON — A jogger on Galveston Island discovered a bag in the surf Tuesday containing 25 bricks of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2 million. The jogger, whose name police are withholding, discovered the bag about 9:30 a.m. near Indian Beach, police spokesman Cpt. Jeff Heyse said. He lugged the heavy bag to his residence and slashed it open to find 25 bricks of cocaine, each weighing 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds, bundled in plastic wrap and rubber, Heyse said. Recognizing the packages as cocaine from television programs, the jogger phoned police, Heyse said.

You probably can't describe the difference between Coke and Pepsi. Perhaps one cola seems sweeter, but you couldn't certainly distinguish them in a taste test. Yet you know without a doubt which one you like more. The fierce brand loyalties of Coke vs. Pepsi are a marvel of American marketing. Slightly older, Coca-Cola was always the dominant brand. Pepsi gained market share in the middle of the century with a series of ad campaigns. In 1975 the first Pepsi Challenge claimed that people preferred Pepsi in a blind taste test. The brand was also marketed as the soda of the...

...If on any given day you find yourself walking through the hallowed halls of ATR, you will find the staff pining away for the sweet taste of “Mexican Coca-Cola” or any other bottle of Coke not produced in the U.S. and thus not tainted with sticky un-refreshing taste of corn syrup. The reason for the difference lies in the U.S. Government’s efforts to keep sugar prices artificially high by restricting the amount of sugar that can be imported to the U.S. This result is the price of sugar in the U.S. being one-half to two-thirds higher than in other countries...

TOKYO -- The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it is establishing the Coca-Cola Japan Reconstruction Fund and raised its pledge to a total of 2.5 billion Yen (US$31 million) donations towards relief and rebuilding efforts for the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami over the next three years. This includes the 600 million Yen (US$7.3 million) in cash and product announced previously. The commitment was made following a two-day visit to Tokyo by Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Kent was accompanied on the trip by Company Directors Herbert A. Allen, a member of the...

Score one for the Coca-Cola Company. Diet Coke unseated Pepsi as the second most popular carbonated soft drink in 2010, according to data from Beverage Digest. -snip- The switch marks a sea change in the industry. According to John Sicher, the editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, Pepsi has held the second position "for decades." Sicher attributed the decline in Pepsi's market share to its Pepsi Refresh Project marketing campaign, which is focused on community service.

Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages such as fruit drinks are associated with higher blood pressure levels in adults, researchers report in Hypertension: In the International Study of Macro/ Micronutrients and Blood Pressure Micronutrients and Blood Pressure(INTERMAP), for every extra sugar- sweetened beverage drunk per day participants on average had significantly higher systolic blood pressure by 1.6 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure higher by 0.8 mm Hg. This remained statistically significant even after adjusting for differences in body mass, researchers said. mercury (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure higher by 0.8 mm Hg. This remained statistically significant...

February is “American Heart Month,” and our e-mail inboxes are filling up with information about all sorts of cardiovascular-related events, including a celebrity-studded game of Capture the Flag at UCLA. Apparently, actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, singer Natasha Bedingfield, actor Ryan Kwanten and others will serve as captains of CTF teams that will compete for money to fund heart research at UCLA and UC Davis. CTF games will also be played in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Boston, according to a news release. The part that caught my eye was the source of the research money at stake in these games –...

DEA Warns Synthetic Drug Appearing In Gas Stations, Head Shops, Online ORLANDO, Fla. -- Experts are warning parents about the latest synthetic drug labeled as "bath salts" that has rapidly spread across the Orlando area and has already sent dozens of young people to Florida hospitals. Don't let the label fool you. The makers call it "bath salts" or "plant feeder" and are sold under a variety of brand names, but experts say it's really fake cocaine. The labels also usually say it's "not for human consumption" but in a drug alert sent in December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency...

More than two-thirds of New York City's public school students will begin getting more nutritious free or low-cost school lunches under First Lady Michelle Obama's pet project to get kids to eat well and exercise. President Obama signed into law Sunday the $4.5 billion Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which expands the free lunch program and requires that schools provide more nutritious lunches. "We've seen the connection between what kids eat and how well they perform in school," he said. Some 680,000 out of 1.1 million New York children participate in the school lunch program - a big chunk of the...

In December 2009, there was a thread here on Free Republic outlining the fact that Coca-Cola had released "holiday" packaging that said "Feliz Navidad" in Spanish, but "Holiday 2009" in English. Some were outraged because it appeared that Christmas was okay to acknowledge in Spanish, but not in English. It seems that Coke has learned their lesson and for their 2010 packaging, they use the English greeting "Merry Christmas". Click here to read the original 2009 Free Republic article on this matter. Click here to see an image containing both the 2009 and 2010 Coke package designs with the "Holiday...

Those who read this space know I am not a fan of the Republicans’ vaunted “Pledge to America.” I’m for simple pledges, the kind that get back to basics. If the Republican party is interested in making a pledge like that — a pledge that will resonate with the vast majority of the American people — here’s a suggestion: Promise an unwavering commitment to the principle of equal protection of the law for every American citizen. Promise, therefore, that Congress will investigate weighty allegations that the Obama Justice Department is engaged in racist law-enforcement practices. Promise, moreover, that any executive-branch...

Wall Street is ditching the white stuff in favor of something somewhat more green. And we're not talking about cash. Marijuana was present in 80% of failed drug tests last year, up from 64% in 2007, according to the tests reviewed by Sterling Infosystems Inc.. Cocaine showed up in only 7% of positive Wall Street drug tests last year, instead of 16% in 2007. Relative to the rest of the working world (3.6% of whom failed drug tests last year), the finance industry is pretty clean, with only a 2% rate of drug test failure, according to the Wall Street...

Obama says he ignored Beck rally He seemed intent on casting himself as above the political fray, saying he had more important work to do than to engage in the back and forth of the political “silly season.” For example, Obama said he did not watch any of Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally Saturday on the National Mall. “It’s not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That's been true throughout our history,” he said. But “I’m making decisions that are not necessarily good for...

An explosion in a coke battery Wednesday morning rocked U.S. Steel's Clairton Works, sending 17 people to hospitals, a thick black cloud of smoke skyward and inspectors scrambling for clues to the cause. The explosion injured 14 U.S. Steel employees and six contractors. A dozen workers remained hospitalized last night with severe injuries. One suffered burns on nearly a third of his body, and several were hooked to breathing machines because flames and smoke had damaged their airways. Three workers received on-site treatment, the company said. "It was a big boom, and then everything just went black," said John Chappell,...

"Under an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange are no longer allowed in vending machines on city property, although their diet counterparts are - up to a point."

The masterminds behind the Mentos/Coke geysers are back, and this time they're in 3-D! They're also harnessing the chemical reaction between Mentos mint candy and Coke Zero soda pop to send a rocket car rolling out of a hangar, to a distance mark of 221 feet. EepyBird's Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz made the Mentos/Coke combination famous four years ago when they combined the ingredients to create increasingly ornate fountain displays. Since then, the stunt has generated loads of viral buzz - and even a scientific paper explaining why the combination sets off so much fizz. (It has to do...

KINGSTON, Jamaica,The Jamaican government Sunday declared a state of public emergency in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew in response to gang attacks on police stations. The attacks were carried out by supporters of Christopher Coke, a gang leader who is in hiding from authorities as he faces weapons and narcotics charges in the United States, The New York Times reported. Prime Minister Bruce Golding summoned an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Sunday afternoon on the advice of Jamaican security forces, and the Cabinet decided to declare the state of emergency, the government said in a statement posted on...

In his new book on President Obama’s first year in office, “The Promise,” Jonathan Alter includes a quote from the president’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, illustrating just how opposed Emanuel was to the president’s push for comprehensive health care reform.

Two private investigators working independently are asking why President Obama is using a Social Security number set aside for applicants in Connecticut while there is no record he ever had a mailing address in the state. In addition, the records indicate the number was issued between 1977 and 1979, yet Obama's earliest employment reportedly was in 1975 at a Baskin & Robbins ice cream shop in Oahu, Hawaii. WND has copies of affidavits filed separately in a presidential eligibility lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia by Ohio licensed private investigator Susan Daniels and Colorado private...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States has warned of "severe consequences" if a successful extremist attack in America were traced back to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes." The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a failed bid to bomb New York's Times Square last Saturday. If proven, it would be the group's first act in the United States. Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has been charged with driving the crude homemade bomb into Midtown Manhattan and said he acted alone, according to authorities. But investigators have uncovered possible links to the...

Somewhere – wherever his eternal home is – Dick Nixon is smiling today. He pulled a lot of shady, underhanded, illegal stuff in his life. But he’s potentially giving the Commander in Chief props today. On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange was brought to its knees by what many reports are saying was “one stray trade” or “one mistakenly stroked key” on a keyboard. Investigators are trying to find the singular cause of the problem that caused the largest point swing in the history of investments. On Thursday afternoon, CNBC’s Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, said, “I mean this really...

The top GOP member of the Senate Intelligence Committee blasted Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday for having allegedly refused to brief senators on last weekend's attempted Times Square bombing. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the intelligence panel, accused Holder of obstructing congressional inquiries into the attempted attack. "It seems Attorney General Holder is only interested in looking tough on terrorism on TV since he’s now told the intelligence community to skirt the national security law and give only the details he wants and when to Congress," Bond said Saturday. Both Bond and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),...

Not even two months after signing health care reform into law, President Obama Saturday said his signature project is already paying dividends. The campaign to reinvent the $2.5 trillion health care system and provide medical benefits for millions of uninsured Americans is providing tax breaks for small businesses and helping families with young adults. "Already we are seeing a health care system that holds insurance companies more accountable and gives consumers more control," Obama said during his weekly radio address. The President acknowledged that the massive and hotly contested reform will play out over several years, but said it has...

Summer of 1985: Fidel Castro sits behind a transmitter and broadcasts a national radio address of monumental proportions: Cuba’s great American enemy to the north is in a state of decay. Though this statement came during the paranoid final years of the Cold War, Castro’s claim was not based on some clandestine CIA document smuggled by a double-agent. No, the proof of America’s decay, was that Coca-Cola tasted kind-of different. A few months earlier, before an audience of 700 reporters seated in New York’s Lincoln Center, Roberto C. Goizueta, Coke’s president and CEO (and, fittingly enough, a Cuban ex-patriot) made...

MULLION, England, - A British 15-year-old is being credited with saving his father's life by using a bottle of Coke to extinguish flames that engulfed him. Andrew Wythe, 52, of Mullion, England, said he was pouring gasoline on a garden bonfire Sunday when the flames grew to engulf the front of his body, The Sun reported Thursday. He said he ran toward his son, Nicholas, 15, for help and the teenager grabbed a two liter bottle of Coca-Cola, shook it up and sprayed the contents on his father. "The fire went out straight away," Wythe said. "He's a very level-headed...

Is soda the new tobacco? In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change. The industry says there are critical differences: in moderate quantities soda isn’t harmful, nor is it addictive. The problem is that at roughly 50 gallons per person per year, our consumption of soda, not to mention other sugar-sweetened beverages, is far from moderate, and appears to be an important factor in the rise in childhood obesity. This increase is...

Oh Tennessee, you have been in rare form recently. The latest tale comes to us courtesy of Nicholas Nunley, who hooked a Coke machine to his pickup outside a Dollar General then began dragging it down the road. Amazingly, an eyewitness noticed the one truck on the road with a vending machine engulfed in sparks dragging behind, and called the police. Apparently unfamiliar with the effect of drag, Nunley tried unsuccessfully to evade capture. After a Taser relaxation session, Nunley was hauled off to prison, where he is undoubtedly comparing notes with the Hill family from Walmart. [NBC-2 via Arbroth...

I used to love the Coca-Cola Polar bear TV ads at Christmastime. I marveled at the quality of the CGI animations when they first came out, like this one:

Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s time to get annoyed with the consumerism, secularism and political correctness that continue to whittle away at the meaning of the holiday season. The secular and consumption-driven nature of the season has become so routine that one has to work hard to remember to take time for the traditions and religious observances that once defined the season. I thought I had seen every example of how religious meaning has been stripped out of Christmas until a friend showed me the label on a festive seasonal bottle of Coca Cola the other day....

Climate Change: Major U.S. corporations have set up a Web site calling for a global climate treaty to be signed in Copenhagen. Considering recent evidence of massive climate fraud, perhaps they should reconsider. Many will remember the classic soft drink ad campaign where young people from many nations gather on a mountaintop and sing that they'd like to buy the world a Coke, the theory being that sharing a soda was the key to world peace. That sort of naivete has led peoples and governments around the world to accept at face value the outright fraud perpetrated by the Milli...

Costco nixes Coke products over pricing dispute Costco customers may have to look elsewhere for Coca-Cola products now that the retailer has stopped carrying them because the pair are fighting over prices. By EMILY FREDRIX and SARAH SKIDMORE, AP Food Industry Writers ATLANTA — Costco customers may have to look elsewhere for Coca-Cola products now that the retailer has stopped carrying them because the pair are fighting over prices. The public squabble between one of the nation's largest wholesale club operators and the world's largest soft drink maker is likely to fizzle quickly. But it reveals real tensions as retailers...

Congress will probably pass a tax on sugared drinks as part of the health bill. The rationale is it will reduce caloric intake of “unhealthy” drinks. The real reason is simply to increase taxes, with a believable cover, like all prior “sin taxes.” I decided to do a comparison of Classis Coke to my favorite drink, freshly squeezed Florida orange juice. Well the Coke has 100 calories for an 8 oz. serving and the fresh orange juice a whopping....

PepsiCo, the soft-drinks and snacks company, and Anheuser-Busch, the US subsidiary of the world’s largest brewer, on Tuesday announced a pact to jointly purchase a range of goods and services in the US. The two companies said the deal – believed to be the first of its kind between two large US corporations – covered information technology hardware, office supplies, travel and transport, as well as repair, maintenance and other services. EDITOR’S CHOICE Mexico is focus of global beer consolidation - Oct-02.PepsiCo expects ‘age of thrift’ to continue - Oct-08..The pact reflects the growing competitive threat posed to Coca-Cola, the...

Americans need more exercise, not another tax. Obesity is a complex issue, and addressing it is important for all Americans. We at the Coca-Cola company are committed to working with government and health organizations to implement effective solutions to address this problem. But a number of public-health advocates have already come up with what they think is the solution: heavy taxes on some routine foods and beverages that they have decided are high in calories. The taxes, the advocates acknowledge, are intended to limit consumption of targeted foods and help you to accept the diet that they have determined is...

We’ve covered a multitude of arguments against soda taxes. Speaking recently at the Rotary Club of Atlanta, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent gave his own take (and perhaps the pithiest argument yet): "I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink. If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around." Today, Investor’s Business Daily noted the significance behind the quote: Muhtar Kent knows a thing or two about guts. His father was a Turkish diplomat who in 1943 risked his life physically intervening to save 80 Turkish Jews, as cattle cars...

Two cans of fizzy drink a day could cause long term liver damage, resulting in the need for a transplant, according to new research. Researchers are now urging parents to cut back on their children’s consumption of fizzy drinks as well as reducing fresh fruit juices substituting them for water. Liver damage is normally associated with alcohol abuse but the new study has found that non-alcoholic drinks with a high sugar content can cause a condition called fatty liver disease. Related Articles Artificial sweeteners 'do nothing to help weight loss' Scientists from Israel found that people who drank a litre...

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez says he is just “inches away from pulling the plug on Globovision.” Globovision is a TV network that has aired programming that the Chavez regime has determined to be excessively critical of the government. “I am trying to build socialism in my country,” Chavez complained. “It is hard enough without the constant second-guessing spewing forth from an intransigent right wing. Unless they reform their opinions, they won’t be on the air much longer.” The move was assessed as “understandable under the circumstances” by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “Things go more smoothly for a country when everyone is...

Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.” — Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations,” 1776 That quotation, from the great philosopher of capitalism, appeared at the start of an article that ran a few weeks ago in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article argued for taxing Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull and any other sugar-sweetened beverage, largely to combat obesity. The authors were Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New...

COCA-Cola has been forced to can a TV ad that authorities say suggested women should be available for sex whenever men want it. The Advertising Standards Bureau found the ad, though light-hearted, was inappropriate to be on TV when children were watching. It was the second embarrassment in a month for the soft drink giant, after it had to admit incorrect health claims in print ads featuring actor Kerry Armstrong. The latest controversy erupted over a Coke Zero ad, titled "Break-up as it should be".