I'm clearing out some old files and found some good stuff. One of the things I found was something I had written for this forum back in 2001. Though some of the names are no longer pertinent (such as David Kessler), the essence of the document is still pertinent:
quote:
Several years ago I fought hard using the Freedom of Information Act and the state equivalent in Florida and got more than 1,000 pages of material on the CDC's IMPACT program (a twin to NCI's ASSIST program). Among the documents was a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) outline prepared by Michael Pertschuk of the Advocacy Institute for a national anti-tobacco conference held in Boston June 4-6, 1995. The meeting itself was funded largely with tax dollars and was a collaborative effort among NCI, CDC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and state health departments.
Among the "Strengths" of the antis: "Momentum," "Increased Hostility of the Media" (against tobacco), "Multiple Fronts" (antis conducting their nastiness on a lot of fronts), "New Alliances (Common Cause, INFACT, etc.)," "Social Revolution," and "New Litigation Challenges" (all the lawsuits).
Among the "Weakensses" of the antis: "Rise of LIBERTARIAN/Radical Individualism Right," and "Inability to mobilize and focus massive intense citizen support."
Among the "Opportunities": "Vulnerability of adversaries," "David Kessler and FDA: Smoking--a Pediatric Disease, Cigarette=a drug delivery device," "States: Clean Indoor Air--social revolution; air now belongs to non-smoker," "States desperation for revenues; popularity of excise tax," "POTENTIAL wedge between Libertarian Right and Religion [sic] Conservative Right."
Among the "Threats": "Regulatory 'Reform,'" "Tort 'Reform,'" "Anti-tax pledges."
Among the "Next Steps": "Stepped up focus on exposing of tobacco lobbying/corruption (Support Common Cause in their quest for the 'money trail')," "Framing of Tobacco Use as a PEDIATRIC DISEASE," "Federal Campaign to support FDA Commissioner, David Kessler," "Federal Petition to the FTC," "States: focus on stopping Preemption," "States: Excise Tax Campaigns," "Clean Indoor Air Acts," "Youth Access Laws."
Most of these things involve a POLITICAL agenda, and yet this conference and Pertschuk and the Advocacy Instute were FUNDED with tax dollars.
Oh, wait! There are laws against such stuff. I guess they just don't apply when tax money is illegally used by politically correct people for politically correct causes.
