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Johnny Hayes, fundraiser for Al Gore, dies at 67  

Johnny Hayes, a prominent Democratic fundraiser who managed finances for the two presidential campaigns of former Vice President Al Gore, died Saturday. He was 67.

His family issued a statement through Deputy Gov. Stuart Brunson saying Hayes died of stomach cancer at his home in Sideview, about 30 miles northeast of Nashville.

Hayes first managed Gore's campaign finances when he was elected to the U.S. House in 1976 and for his subsequent Senate victories. As a fellow Tennessee native and longtime Gore confidant, Hayes was tapped to lead the finance effort for Gore's presidential bids in 1988 and 2000. . . .

Tennessee Ethics Commission filings indicate Hayes was registered to lobby Tennessee lawmakers for 13 companies, including UST Inc., the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco. Hayes had personally given nearly $70,000 to candidates for federal office and Democratic causes since 1993, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

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Tobacco Sellers Resist Bid to Outlaw Displays 

SHOPKEEPERS say their profits will go up in smoke if the Government follows a recommendation to outlaw in-store tobacco displays.

But health authorities argue the move will cut youth smoking and lower the smoking death toll of 5000 every year.

Cancer Society chief executive Dalton Kelly -- whose petition in support of a ban received 20,000 signatures -- said children walking into the country's 10,000 retail stores were confronted by "a power- wall of tobacco advertising". . . .

The parliamentary health select committee's report, issued yesterday, found tobacco displays could "create a false impression of the safety, social acceptability, and prevalence of tobacco use".

National MP Jo Goodhew said its four MPs on the committee had voted against the ban because they believed "more robust international evidence" was needed.

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DENNERT: State Senate Quick Updates Including More Tobacco Money  

( Funny how tobacco companies have an interest in who we elect here in Ventura County. What exactly do they want?) . . .

3. Lots of money flowing into the campaigns, including more tobacco money. Have fun arguing about cigarette company money again. Maybe Mr. Butt will be making more appearances ? Click here to read the story.

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• Japan Tobacco Starts Petition Against Cigarette Tax Increase  

Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third- largest publicly traded cigarette maker, will enlist customers in a campaign to stop the government from raising cigarette taxes.

Consumers opposed to the proposal to increase retail cigarette prices by as much as threefold should fill in a petition at tobacco retailers, by mobile phone or on the Internet, the Tokyo-based company, which is 50 percent owned by the government, said today.

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• "Nicotine Nazis strike again": a brief analysis of the use of Nazi rhetoric in attacking tobacco control advocacy  

FORCES, a smokers’ rights organisation, uses similar strategies, as their tactics include "constantly linking anti-tobacco activists either to fascism/Nazism/communism or to some sort of criminal conspiracy against smokers and those people sympathetic towards FORCES’ causes".75 (Unlike earlier "smokers’ rights" groups where information in tobacco industry documents demonstrates often undisclosed funding and management by the tobacco industry, the documents are silent on FORCES.23 24 76–78) As of December 2007, the FORCES archives portal (http://www.forces.org/Archive/) documented this endeavour with 85 online newspaper articles or commentaries including the word "Nazi", 61 including "fascism", 31 including "Hitler" and 23 including "Gestapo" (out of a total of 3724 articles on the tobacco debate).79 As such, the tobacco industry’s efforts to popularise the images and rhetoric of Nazism have successfully penetrated the popular media, including sources with no identifiable ties to the tobacco industry80–87 (fig 388). Nazi imagery is also appearing in the new media, such as www.youtube.com, a potentially fruitful social networking site for tobacco marketers.89 Between October and December 2007, this website published 19 short videos using extensive Nazi imagery to attack and ridicule tobacco control interventions, including the Irish smoke-free legislation, and organisations like Action on Smoking and Health (fig 4). . . .

* Historically accurate or not, the tobacco industry has drawn connections between tobacco control and authoritarianism, evoking the rhetoric and symbolism of Nazi Germany. The tobacco industry has used and promoted Nazi and health fascism rhetoric in the United States and United Kingdom and around the world for decades and successfully penetrated the popular media, including sources with no identifiable ties to the tobacco industry. Identification and monitoring of the use of extremist imagery and rhetoric are crucial to counter this strategy.

CONCLUSION

Nazi and health fascism rhetoric has been used and promoted for decades by the tobacco industry around the world. Against the background of Proctor’s suggestion that the use of Nazi rhetoric would increase with stronger tobacco control efforts,5 the current use in Germany is neither new nor a purely German phenomenon, but probably a sign of increasing strength of Germany’s tobacco control movement. The use of Nazi and health fascism rhetoric can be regarded as part of an institutionalised practice of the tobacco industry and its front groups to discredit tobacco control activities and prevent the introduction of effective policies. "Playing the Nazi card" is an established strategy developed first in the United States and the United Kingdom, then widely used around the world, so far, predominantly outside countries with a Nazi or fascist history. This imagery is now simply being applied in Germany.

The tobacco industry is far from abandoning this strategy. Capitalising on fears of terrorist attacks in the Western world, this rhetoric is increasingly receiving a new focus, as more and more articles aim at the "Antismoking Ayatollahs" and the "theocracy of the Tobacco Taliban," especially in the British Isles. The tobacco control community should identify and monitor the use of extremist imagery and rhetoric by the tobacco industry and its front groups, to unveil their strategies and counter their attacks on effective tobacco control and its advocates. It remains to be unveiled if the Tobacco Taliban will one day replace the Nicotine Nazi. In the meantime, such rhetoric should not deter public health advocates (and the media) from educating the public about the adverse effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.

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• PROCTOR: On playing the Nazi card 

FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) once offered my 1988 book, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis, for sale as "vital" for understanding "the statist and paternalist world view of the Nazis" and "the health fascism of contemporary anti-smoking and ‘health’ lobbies".3 Schneider and Glantz rightly conclude that the industry’s interest in such matters has nothing to do with German history, nor with the realities of fascism, but rather with an opportunistic effort to do whatever it can to keep selling cigarettes.

The industry’s reductio ad Hitlerum is superficial, and ahistorical. The Nazis excelled at rocketry—does this mean that the Apollo mission was ballistic fascism? Many Nazis urged fitness and health through exercise: is jogging therefore athletic fascism? The fact that healthful or progressive policies were occasionally endorsed by the Nazis does not mean they are inherently fascist or oppressive.

The industry and its allies push the Nazi analogy, but they never probe it very far. They never point out that the German cigarette industry collaborated closely with the Nazi government (in confiscating tobacco firms in occupied territories, for example), or that tobacco taxes provided a massive source of revenue for the Nazi state. They never point out that the "Brownshirts" had their own brand of cigarette—the "Sturm-Zigarette"—or that tobacco taxes helped prop up the Nazi state (more than half of all storm-trooper income, for example, was from tobacco taxes). . . .

Arguments of this sort can, in fact, already be found in the 1930s, when the German tobacco industry ridiculed anti-tobacco activists as "fanatic psychopaths" . . .

One of the great challenges of tobacco control is to come up with new and imaginative ways to think about how and where to intervene in the causal chains that lead to smoking. Visitors from another planet would probably be astonished by our willingness to tolerate mass death on a scale exceeding any other preventable cause of death. . . .

virtually all tobacco control efforts are directed at preventing consumption rather than preventing production. The industry has managed to direct most of our attention onto consumer choice (or information), leaving the means by which cigarettes are spun forth into the world unexamined, unhampered. Few people can even imagine the inside of a tobacco factory, fewer still know anything about how or where the world’s cigarette-making machines are made (clue: check out the Hauni company in Hamburg). . . .

until we broaden our imagination, and the media through which it is expressed (film! contests! public art!), we should not be surprised to have the world still think of tobacco harms as "old news" and tobacco control as tyranny.

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[U]ntil we broaden our imagination, and the media through which it is expressed (film! contests! public art!), we should not be surprised to have the world still think of tobacco harms as "old news" and tobacco control as tyranny.
Noted cultural historian Robert N. Proctor.

Campaign donors: NRA, big tobacco, Biden  

Republican Mel Brown, who holds the 53rd District seat, and his Democratic opponent in November, Kathy Lofft, have filed campaign finance statements with state election officials showing Lofft has raised and spent more money than Brown has. . . .

Brown, who is a well-connected legislator who served in the House in another district before winning the local seat, has secured money from the gun-rights lobby, big tobacco and labor interests, among others. None of his donors are individuals.

The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund gave $500, the parent of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company gave $250 and EnergySolutions, the nuclear waste company, provided Brown with $250. . . .

"No I haven't done anything special for them," Brown said about his campaign donors, describing that the corporate interests represent the "free market, free enterprise."

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Accused of Being Out of Touch, a 25-Year Congressman Campaigns for Dear Life  

It was a grueling day of nonstop activity for United States Representative Edolphus Towns. He started campaigning shortly after sunrise at a subway station in East New York, in the heart of his Congressional district in Brooklyn. . . .

In his campaign, Mr. Powell has reignited many of the criticisms lodged against Representative Towns in earlier campaigns: that he is in the pocket of the tobacco industry and various political action committees . . .

Mr. Towns has accepted nearly $90,000 in contributions from tobacco companies since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks campaign donations. That places him in the top fifth of all members of Congress -- and significantly higher among representatives from outside the South. The critics, including anti-smoking groups, say Mr. Towns should not have accepted the money because cancer rates in his district are high and many residents have little access to health care.

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Palin lobbyist ties include oil firms 

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose independence was touted when she was named Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential pick Friday, collected at least $24,000 from registered state lobbyists in her gubernatorial campaign, records show.

The lobbyists who donated to her campaign represent a range of industries, including oil and gas, tobacco, education and the Native Alaskan community. . . .

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Howard Kurtz - MSNBC's Family Feud  

McCain says Palin has "fought oil companies," but the Washington Times finds:

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose independence was touted when she was named Sen. John McCain´s vice-presidential pick Friday, collected at least $24,000 from registered state lobbyists in her gubernatorial campaign, records show.

"The lobbyists who donated to her campaign represent a range of industries, including oil and gas, tobacco, education and the Native Alaskan community."

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• Tobacco industry preaching 'responsibility' 

In an interesting development that took place this week in a nice and cozy hotel located in the famous tourist resort of Nathiagali, a leading tobacco industry spent hundreds of thousands of rupees to organise a one-day workshop on 'Responsible Journalism.'

Around 20 journalists were taken to Nathiagali on the expenses of the tobacco industry to learn the A, B, C of 'responsible' journalism and the impact that irresponsible reporting can have on people reading or watching their scripts.

Taking note of the development, Khurram Hashmi, coordinator of the Society for Alternate Media and Research (Samar) as well as Coalition for Tobacco Control, told 'The News' that his organisation will register its regret to the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) against the tobacco industry openly engaging with mediapersons. . . .

The tobacco industry also distributed attractively designed booklets about how hard it is trying to save the crippling economy of the country by contributing millions and millions of dollars as taxes. Interestingly, none of the booklets contains any mention of the millions and millions of dollars the government requires to provide treatment to patients suffering from diseases induced by tobacco use.

This new move by the ever-intelligent managers of the tobacco industry has come almost a month after the Ministry of Health and WHO facilitated the establishment of the Journalists' Health Forum . . .

'The News' has learnt that some of the tobacco industries operating in NWFP and parts of Kashmir have openly started violating the anti-tobacco law by issuing banned advertisements to various media outfits.

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• Personal freedom group fights potential smoking ban 

A group called Smoke-Free St. Louis City released results Aug. 19 that show the majority of registered voters they polled favor prohibiting smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants.

In releasing the results, the group cited a 2006 U.S. Surgeon General report on second-hand smoke in which the surgeon general said, "The debate is over. The science is clear. Second-hand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard."

The debate is not over. At least not for a group of St. Louis residents who oppose a governmental ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.Bill Hannegan of the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood is part of a group called Keep St. Louis Free. The group opposes smoking bans in the St. Louis area. . . .

Hannegan said the group is willing to compromise. It put forward a proposal to exempt bars and restaurants that meet a certain standard of air filtration.

"We think air filtration can reduce it to a point that government can leave businesses alone," he said. . . .

David W. Kuneman of Rock Hill serves as director of research for the Citizens Freedom Alliance, a national group that opposes smoking bans and the use of eminent domain. The former pharmaceutical chemist for Monsanto and Mallinckrodt Veterinary said many claims made against exposure to second-hand smoke don't come true when tested.

"We're just not seeing the health benefits anti-smoking groups claim we should get when bans are passed," Kuneman said.

Among the information Kuneman cites are a report issued in 1995 by the Congressional Research Service and a report prepared in 2004 by the National Restaurant Association.

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Govt 'caving into pressure' over tobacco laws  

Anti-smoking groups have criticised the ACT Government for delaying its tough tobacco laws saying it has bowed to pressure from retailers.

The Tobacco Control Amendment Bill is scheduled to be debated in the Legislative Assembly today.

The bill originally proposed a ban on counter displays which would come into affect six months after the laws passed.

But the Government now plans to delay its introduction, giving general retailers until the end of next year to comply and specialist tobacco retailers until the end of 2010.

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Pete Robinson: Scottish pubs thriving since smoking ban - claims ASH 

I've mentioned before that when I'm in need of a good belly laugh I go to the ASH News Bulletins. There's always some whitecoat in Timbuktu who has proven a link between passive smoking and ingrowing toenails. Or a brand new set of statistics even more farcical than the last.

And I wasn't disappointed. ASH are running a report claiming Scotland officially now has more pubs than before the smoking ban. . . .

You see the claimed figure of 5186 pubs refers only to the number of licences in force at the end of 2007. Because these licences are only renewed every three years those stats include many 'ghost' publicans who have gone bust owing to the ban while their licence technically remains in force.

The Scottish Beer and Pub Association cites Industry research showing at least 450 pubs have closed since the smoking ban, almost 10 per cent of Scotland's entire pub stock.

Once again it's the traditional locals, especially in rural areas, that are closing at an alarming rate. . . .

Although ASH purports to be a 'charity' it's principle source of funding comes from the Tobacco Advisory Group (TAG) - a tiny, somewhat obscure organisation who's principal role is to dole out cash to proactive anti-smoking parties.

But who funds TAG? You may (or perhaps not) be surprised to learn that TAG is a subsidiary of Cancer Research UK. . . .

Should charities be meddling in politics, significantly in politically correct social engineering? Not when their relationship with government becomes so intertwined they are virtually allowed to dictate policies that override previous electoral promises already voted on by the public.

It's undemocratic and it smacks of corruption. In short it stinks.

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Parties Skirt Rules on Gifts, Plan Lavish Conventions 

When the Democratic Party holds its convention the week after next, members of Congress will be able to hear singer Kanye West at an all-expenses paid party sponsored by the recording industry. . . .

Free drinks and cigars will be on offer at a bash thrown by the liquor industry. . . .

when the Distilled Spirits Council throws the "Spirits of Denver," party goers will hear a brief presentation on how to prevent underage drinking.

The council also is adapting to another new rule that forbids gifts for anything more than "nominal" value -- a phrase interpreted as under $10. (Under the old rules, anything worth up to $50 was acceptable.) People who attend the spirits party will get the traditional gift bag with cigars from Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company. But the cigars will be lower-grade than in previous years.

"We want to showcase our fine products and be 100% within the rules and the law," says Frank Coleman, the spokesman for the distilled spirits industry.

Parties like this weren't supposed to happen at this year's conventions.

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