Guess who his manipulation worked in favor of. You guessed it, the Tobacco Companies. They avoided having to pay an extra 120billion in settlements. Now there is a nice little kitty to pay campaign contributions from. I wonder what the Republicans settled for in campaign contribution/kickbacks? If they didn't get a 1% commission they were taken for a ride.
Thank goodness the share holders of the tobacco companies were spared another 120 billion in expenses. After all it is the teenagers, stupid enough to bite on advertising aimed at them, who should be held responsible, don't you think?
From The Washington Post
"The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.
Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.
'The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.'
She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said."
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2 comments:
"After all it is the teenagers, stupid enough to bite on advertising aimed at them, who should be held responsible, don't you think?"
I do think there is something to that, actually. There have been big warnings on the packages since long before today's teenagers were ever born, and it is common knowledge that they'll "kill ya".
I do agree that rational people have been given fair warning.
However I also know a bunch of people in advertising, as it is a big industry around here. They have told me that no block print on a package can hold a candle to what they can do with image and placement for the desirability of a product. In an arms race to catch the attention of teenagers, a simple warning on a package will lose every time.
Not to mention, I have told my son not to do something, about a thousand times. He still does them anyway. He seems to be hell bent on making his own mistakes.
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