Free Republic

CHINA'S toxic milk scandal escalated today as one of the nation's famous candy brands was pulled off shelves and four more people outside the mainland were thought to have fallen ill. The industrial chemical melamine has also been found in Heinz baby cereal and in potato crackers in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong and officials ordered a recall of the products. In China, the maker of White Rabbit candy, given to US president Richard Nixon on a landmark 1972 trip, said it was halting domestic sales after its products were found to contain melamine, normally used to make...

(CHICAGO) As Barack Obama’s presidential campaign shifts into panic mode, Obama has reopened secret talks to become the principle spokesperson for Heinz products, pending the outcome of this year’s presidential election. According to a source close to his campaign, Obama had been approached in early May by the Heinz Corporation shortly after he made his legendary jingle-worthy gaffe on the campaign trail in Oregon: “[W]e’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states.” His verbal fumble is reminiscent of The Heinz Corporation’s world famous slogan, “57 Varieties,” which the company has used continuously since...

A mayonnaise ad that shows two men kissing has been withdrawn from television after 200 viewers complained that it was offensive. Heinz, which makes the New York Deli Mayo featured in the commercial, pulled the advertisement less than a week into its expected five week run, in response to the criticism. Viewers told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ad was inappropriate and unsuitable for children to see. The ASA has not yet decided whether to launch an investigation. snip..... It is understood that the commercial was not shown during children's television programming, because of new rules from Ofcom...

Heinz is set to challenge some viewer expectations with a light-hearted TV campaign that features two men sharing a kiss. The TV commercial, which promotes a new range of dressing called Heinz Deli Mayo, breaks tonight and will be supported by a press campaign.

Heinz is set to challenge some viewer expectations with a light-hearted TV campaign that features two men sharing a kiss. The TV commercial, which promotes a new range of dressing called Heinz Deli Mayo, breaks tonight and will be supported by a press campaign. Heinz' new ad opens with a family on a normal morning routine with a young boy and girl getting ready for school and their father preparing for the office. The young boy and girl go to the kitchen to get their sandwiches, which are being prepared by a man with a New York accent dressed in...

...in this election cycle, I can’t imagine the DNC would knowingly allow the carefully manicured image of their candidate to be pulled into the culture wars with such a provocative commercial sponsored, at least indirectly, by the spouse of their former standard-bearer... See video here

Candidate's Reform Institute also accepted funds from Teresa Kerry As Sen. John McCain assumes the GOP front-runner mantle, his long-standing, but little-noticed association with left-wing donors such as George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry is receiving new attention among his Republican critics. In 2001, McCain founded the Alexandria, Va.-based Reform Institute as a vehicle to receive funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation and several other prominent non-profit organizations. McCain used the institute to promote his political agenda and provide compensation to key campaign operatives between elections. In 2006, the Arizona senator was forced...

Zimbabwe buys Heinz cooking oil company By Byron Dziva in Harare Last Updated: 2:04am BST 04/09/2007 The Zimbabwean government has bought the 51 per cent stake owned by HJ Heinz in the country's biggest cooking oil manufacturer, it announced. The move is the first acquisition by the Harare authorities since a law targeting foreign companies and requiring all firms to be majority-owned by Zimbabweans. The government-controlled Cotton Company of Zimbabwe paid £3.4 million for Heinz's stake in Olivine Industries, which has 1,200 employees. The government already owns the remaining 49 per cent. Cooking oil is among those goods to have...

John Kerry has decided to broaden his public appeal by branching into humor -- deliberately, as it turns out, rather than just being a joke as in 2004. He delivered his highbrow brand of humor at a DSCC fundraiser last weekend, but the Hill just got around to reporting it on Friday. His joke came at the expense of his colleague, David Vitter, and his woes from the connection to a criminal case of prostitution (via The Moderate Voice): Speaking at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraiser last weekend, Kerry recited a five-line poem about Sen. David Vitter (R-La.),...

Here’s the Track’s stand on global warming: Until the celebrity windbags quit blowing hot air about saving the planet, the greening of America doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. Singer Sheryl Crow wants us to spare just a square per flush and wear something called a “dining sleeve.� But when will she cut down on her gas-guzzling tour buses, tractor-trailers and cars? And now here comes Teresa Heinz, she of the $35 million Gulfstream V, the speed boats - including hubby John Kerry’s 42-foot-long Scaramouche that gets less than one mile per gallon - and a fleet of fuel-sucking...

...Still, some conservatives have once again criticized the Kerrys, as they did in 2004, for living a lavish lifestyle while preaching conservation -- even though she and her husband have since exchanged gas-guzzling SUVs for hybrids and purchase carbon credits for their flying time. But when a recent column by Washington pundit Charles Krauthammer comes up, excoriating former Vice-President Al Gore for flying around the country promoting "An Inconvenient Truth," Mrs. Kerry can scarcely contain her irritation. "What would Krauthammer do? How would [Mr. Gore] get there? Talk to some angel that would carry him on the wings? The message...

She is no longer the outspoken, freewheeling quote-machine of the early 2004 presidential campaign, the woman beside Democratic nominee Sen. John F. Kerry who intrigued voters and frazzled political handlers with her tendency to say exactly what she thought on everything from health care policy to botox, from pre-nups to Rick Santorum. These days, Teresa Heinz Kerry seems more guarded around the news media. Since her husband's defeat, she's lowered her profile, tending to her various philanthropies and, perhaps, nursing some wounds -- not just from the election but from some snarky portrayals of her in the press. About her...

Newsweek published an article at its website Saturday about last week’s John Kerry foot-in-mouth debacle. One couldn’t immediately tell the motives behind the piece from the title: “Botched; Assessing the damage done to Democrats—and his own chances in ’08—by John Kerry’s epically flubbed joke.” Nor could one glean the significance of the authors involved: Susannah Meadows with Howard Fineman and Eleanor Clift. However, in the end, when taken in its entirety, it appears fairly obvious that this was the beginning of the assassination, and John Kerry’s chances of making a second run for president have been officially kyboshed. The hit...

Official Website of the Pittsburgh Steelers This year is quickly moving in the wrong direction with regards to an effective playoff run. What are your thoughts on the some of the issues and how things need to change for a turnaround in 2006? Me? #1 The Running Game The running game isn't quite at the level of past teams. Understatement of the year, huh? Operating a historically ball control offense, without a featured back capable of providing a consistent 3-4 yrds per carry, is a problem. That void allows pass coverages more flexibility without fear of a Steeler running...

Eagle Bridge, NY — August 3, 2006 — W Ketchup announced today it has sent 4 bottles of delicious W Ketchup to the office of failed presidential candidate John Kerry. W Ketchup took this move in response to media reports that attendance at Kerry’s last political rally in Iowa was sparse. W Ketchup’s CEO Dan Oliver stated: “We may not agree with Mr. Kerry’s political views, but it’s sad when someone has a picnic and no one comes. We think if he had some delicious W Ketchup instead of some other brand, more people might enjoy his parties. We donated...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Soros Fund Management LLC, an investment vehicle for billionaire investor George Soros, on Monday disclosed a holding of 100,000 puts on shares of H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ) at June 30. In a report of second-quarter holdings, Soros Fund Management valued the Heinz puts at $4.1 million. Puts grant a right to sell shares at a specified price. Heinz has been in an ongoing proxy battle with investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking to place five members on the company's 12-member board. Heinz shares closed on Monday at $41.23, almost identical to their close of 41.22 on June...

Blogger "Bookworm" has more on the connections between the Kerry family and the terror outfit that styles itself the Party of God, or "Hezbollah": In September 2004, there was a huge gathering of anti-American, anti-Israeli organizations in Beirut to attend a conference entitled "Where Next For The Global Anti-War And Anti-Globalization Movements? An International Strategy Meeting." The resulting manifesto, simultaneously turgid and strident, has as its primary goal attacking the U.S. war in Iraq. It's secondary goal is to challenge Israel's "occupation" of Palestinian lands. It's a nasty document, with a decidedly anti-American tone. What makes it interesting today is...

So, Mr. Kerry, were you also wrong when you voted FOR the invasion of Iraq, but then voted AGAINST the funding for it as you blamed Bush and Rumsfeldt for the lack of armor for Humvees and such? were you "wrong" for sloughing off over 76% of public Senate Intel Comittee hearings in the years following the first WTC attack? Which part of "wrong" was "I voted for it before I voted against it"? must be one or the other. were you "wrong" when you publicly gave aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese communists while they were torturing our...

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry is placing himself at the center of congressional action over the war in Iraq this week with a crisply worded resolution to require President Bush to withdraw almost all US troops by the end of this year. The measure has exposed Kerry to attacks from Republicans and some Democrats, as critics rushed to tag the plan as a ``cut-and-run" strategy. But it also has made him a rallying point for antiwar activists. The sweeping resolution amounts to the senator's sharpest condemnation of the war and his broadest repudiation of his own vote to authorize...

Ketchup Maker Heinz Sees 4Q Profit Fall, Plans 2,700 Job Cuts PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Food producer H.J. Heinz Co. on Thursday said fiscal fourth-quarter profit dropped 19 percent, and said it plans to cut 2,700 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, and exit 15 plants this year as part of a plan to cut costs and resume earnings growth. Heinz is facing pressure from billionaire investor Nelson Peltz to improve shareholder return. Earlier in the month Peltz and his Trian Group outlined a plan, which was rejected by Heinz, to improve profit by cutting costs and reducing incentives...

John Kerry’s list of travel demands makes Dick Cheney "look like a travelin’ rube,” according to the Smoking Gun, an online site that has obtained both the vice president’s and Senator Kerry’s lists of demands. Kerry’s demand list was compiled during the 2004 presidential campaign and circulated by the would-be president’s advance team to prepare hotels for a Kerry visit. The documents reveal that Kerry "hates celery,” and instructs, "NEVER order Tomato based products OR sandwiches [sic].” Thus, ketchup, the condiment that made Mrs. Heinz Kerry’s previous husband enormously wealthy, is out of the question. Kerry does like fruits –...

TIME magazine reports on the arduous conditions faced by terrorist detainees at Gitmo Camp at Guantanamo Bay. It is a remarkable look into the prison life of Mohammed al Qahtani, who is widely believed to be the so-called 20th hijacker, a compatriot of Osama bin Laden and a man who had tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001 to take part in the Sept. 11 attacks. “The conditions are unbearable,” said Qahtani. “I am interrogated for several hours each month. Sometimes I am forced to miss my TV shows.” Qahtani is reputedly fond of the Cartoon Network’s programming. Creature...

WASHINGTON -- As Senator John F. Kerry prepared to make a return to presidential-style politics with a classic day of New Hampshire campaigning, he said that the 2004 run left him tougher and more eager to fight. ''When you get knocked on your ass and lose a race, you've got to stop and reflect on what you're doing, why you're doing it, what matters, and what's important. And I did," Kerry said in an interview in his Senate office on Thursday. ''There's a very different John Kerry now who is absolutely crystal clear about how I communicate what I need...

A variety of Heinz products are seen at a convenience store in Golden, Colorado February 28, 2006. H.J. Heinz Co. on Tuesday posted a 23 percent drop in net profit, and fell short of Wall Street estimates, as its tax rate rose and the stronger dollar cut into the value of overseas sales. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Pittsburgh -- H.J. Heinz Co., one of the world's largest food producers, said on Tuesday that its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 24 percent because of high costs related to downsizing and divestitures. Quarterly net income fell to $116.6 million, or 35 cents per share, for the three months ended Jan. 25 from $152.4 million, or 43 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 6 percent to $2.19 billion from $2.07 billion the previous year. Earnings from continuing operations totaled 39 cents per share. Earnings from continuing operations, excluding reorganization, impairment costs and other items, was 50 cents per...

H.J. Heinz Co. said Tuesday it was selling its European seafood business to Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking for $506 million. The transaction is subject to customary EU competition review and approval. Pending regulatory approval, Heinz expects to complete the transaction by the end of March 2006. This major transaction successfully focuses our portfolio in Europe on three core categories: Ketchup and Sauces; Infant Nutrition; and Meals and Snacks, said a Heinz spokesman.

Since it was on one of the lower rated Sunday shows (and well... is Kerry), I figured this might have been missed by alot of people. For your entertainment... Pt 1 Pt 2

Venezuelan Authorities Seize Idle Heinz Ketchup Plant Friday, Sep 09, 2005 By: Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com Caracas, Venezuela, September 9, 2005—Venezuelan military seized a Heinz Ketchup plant in Venezuela’s Monagas state last Monday. Heinz company representatives complained that the seizure represented, “a violation of property rights and free trade as well as due process.” Venezuela’s Minister for Agriculture and Land, Antonio Albarrán, argued, though, that 80% of the plant actually belongs to the workers and that Heinz bought the plant illegally in 1996. The plant has been closed for nearly a decade, according to Albarrán. The take-over of the Heinz...

<p>While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was making a splash in New York, calling for the United Nations to be moved and blasting world leaders for avoiding action on real problems, representatives of the H.J. Heinz Co. on Thursday were meeting with officials in Venezuela to discuss a tomato-processing plant seized by authorities there earlier this month.</p>

Teresa Heinz drops 'Kerry' Compiled by Tribune-Review staff Sunday, February 6, 2005 A campaign convenience is no more. According to The Washington Times, Teresa Heinz, the erstwhile Teresa Heinz Kerry, has stopped using the last name of her husband, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, last year's Democrat presidential nominee. Preceding its Women Who Make a Difference Awards dinner next month, the National Council for Research on Women is featuring "a conversation with Teresa Heinz," according to a release from the organization. The council failed to mention the final half of the Fox Chapel ketchup heiress' formerly elongated last name in several...

Subject: John Kerry, man of the common folk.... he understands your pain, really... trust him - lol, yeah - right The many homes of former Democrat Presidential candiate, John F. Kerry. Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania (Assessed value: $3.7 million) Ketchum, Idaho ski getaway/vacation home (Assessed value: $4.916 million) Washington, D.C - Georgetown area (assessment: $4.7 million) ) Nantucket, Massachusetts waterfront retreat on Brant Point (Assessed value: $9.18 million) ) Boston, Massachusetts - Beacon Hill home (Assessed value: $6.9) ) oh, and he sold this estate in Italy to activist actor George Clooney, just before announcing his running for president. I guess...

Intercondimental crisis Thursday, September 8, 2005 A state governor and strong ally of Venezuela's Marxist President Hugo Chavez seized a closed tomato-processing plant owned by H.J. Heinz Co. The "intercondimental crisis" little affects the Pittsburgh-based food giant's operations. Gov. Jose Gregorio Briceno, while crushing property rights and saying without substance this is a job-creation measure, did not offer a plan for crushing tomatoes. Venezuela's constitution provides for a form of eminent domain. The state may seize property for public use or in the "social interest" with compensation paid. This, in principle, is similar to U.S. constitutional law. After the Kelo...

Governor Orders Venezuelan Troops to Seize Heinz Tomato Plant, Saying It Abandoned The Associated Press Published: Sep 5, 2005 CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A state governor allied to leftist President Hugo Chavez has ordered Venezuelan troops to seize an abandoned tomato-processing plant owned by the H.J. Heinz Co., a state official said Monday. The plant in the eastern state of Monagas still belongs to Heinz but hasn't been used for years, said Angelica Rivero, a spokeswoman for the governor. "The governor decided to seize the plant so it can be protected from looters and later be put to use," Rivero...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

As Senator John F. Kerry traveled the country on his presidential campaign last year, his personal investment portfolio earned him between $14,700 and $42,300 in addition to his Senate salary of $158,100, while his wife's investments made the couple millions more, according to financial disclosure forms released yesterday. Kerry reported ownership of four trust funds, with the combined value stated within the broad range of $430,000 to $2.56 million. They include holdings between $15,000 and $50,000 in companies like Procter & Gamble Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric Co., Pfizer Inc., Baxter International Inc., BellSouth Corp., and American Express Inc.,...

An accident delayed the start of Caldwell's Albertson College of Idaho Graduation today. Joining the graduates and faculty, you might call it a star-studded cast with commencement speaker, and the wife of former Presidential candidate John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry. She joined Idaho's J.R. Simplot and Esther Simplot in offering words of encouragement. Mrs. Kerry talked about her appreciation of being able to see the stars again when she visits Idaho. "And if I were to wish on one today, I might wish that all Americans would commit to ensuring that each of us has access to a healthy and...

Heinz said that pre-tax profits fell 9.4 per cent last year as the soup and ketchup-maker closed one European business and initiated a strategic review of its international portfolio. ... From continuing operations, earnings per share fell to $2.08 from $2.20 a year ago.

First Lady wannabe Teresa Heinz Kerry had a good friend inside the Bush White House - former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who, after he was fired, wrote a book that painted the president as an ignoramus who was itching to go to war with Iraq. "I have to mention how proud I am to share this podium today with my friend . . . fellow Pittsburgher, Paul O'Neill," Mrs. Kerry said while delivering the commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University last May. "Paul is a decisive, intelligent man who speaks his mind, and I have always admired that about...

Sidney Drell, a noted Bay Area physicist, arms control advocate and veteran consultant on scientific and intelligence matters to the U.S. government, has won the Heinz Family Foundation's $250,000 Heinz Award for his efforts to limit "the threat of nuclear annihilation while assuring our nation's adequate defense." The foundation is also presenting a special non-remunerative medal to San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman, co-creator of the so-called Green Nobel Prize. Since 1994, the Heinz Awards have been presented annually to deserving recipients by the Heinz Family Foundation of Pittsburgh. This year, Drell was selected as one of five recipients, who work...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Christopher D. Heinz said yesterday that he will not challenge U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, for her House seat in the 2006 elections.

PITTSBURGH - Chris Heinz, the stepson of U.S. Sen. John Kerry who was widely rumored to be considering a run for Congress, said Monday that he won't seek office in 2006. The son of the late Sen. John Heinz III had stumped for Kerry during his unsuccessful presidential bid last year, sparking rumors that Heinz would follow that with his own campaign against U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart. Heinz, 32, is the youngest of John and Teresa Heinz Kerry's three children. "I'm definitely not doing it in 2006. I've thought about it in my life, but it's just not right at...

It looks like Teresa Heinz Kerry is rubbing off on her husband. And on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. For the Republican Party, this is a good thing. You'll recall that last month, Heinz Kerry put on her shiniest tinfoil hat and blamed the Democrats' loss in November on rigged voting machines. As reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, she openly questioned the election results and fixated on areas of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes. "Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Heinz Kerry intoned, and it is "very easy to...

Teresa Heinz Kerry this week challenged about 250 doctors and scientists to help Americans "connect the dots" between environmental pollution and rising cancer rates. Her remarks in an opening address for a conference on health and the environment included a barbed reference to "the belligerent indifference of our leaders in Washington toward environmental health issues." She urged the group to continue studying the causes of drastically increased rates of breast and prostate cancers and childhood leukemia. Heinz Kerry appeared calm and comfortable even though her speech at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Shadyside was interrupted several times and finally cut...

Executors of the estate of the late Sen. John Heinz have withdrawn their appeal of a judge's ruling that opens the will to public inspection. Common Pleas Judge Frank J. Lucchino, in an order this month, granted petitions filed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Tribune-Review Publishing Co. to modify an order that sealed the documents more than a decade ago. The estate documents, by court order without a public hearing, were impounded in Orphans' Court on April 5, 1991, a day after Heinz and six others were killed in a midair collision over suburban Philadelphia. The Los Angeles Times...

TERESA Heinz, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, will be ridiculed more savagely than the other targets at tonight's Gridiron Club gala in Washington — and the woman playing Teresa is one of her biggest supporters in the media, ancient White House reporter and George W. Bush-hater Helen Thomas. At the club's 120th annual dinner of song and satire, Thomas, who once described Bush as "the worst president of my lifetime," will come out as Teresa and sing to the tune of "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." But Maurice Chevalier wouldn't recognize the new lyrics: "Thank heaven, he...

Judge unseals some Heinz records Associated Press PITTSBURGH – The public can see some records regarding the estate of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III, but others will remain sealed to protect the privacy and security of his widow, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and her family, a judge ruled. Attorneys for the Heinz estate had fought the efforts of two newspapers – the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – to unseal the estate documents. The newspapers argued the records could shed light on Heinz Kerry's charitable activities and whether she used some of her inheritance to help the White...

Americans love mystery and conspiracy theories. Crank up your favorite search engine and you can find wild theories about 9/11, famous celebrities or the founding fathers. I am not a shrink, so I can't tell you why we love them so much, but they are a part of Americana. One recent conspiracy theory centers around voting machines and the 2004 election. We don't have presidential elections every six months, so I am sure there were some glitches in the systems used on November 2nd, but as far as I have read, these did not have any effect whatsoever on the...