Free Republic

In a study published online on Feb. 8 by the journal Tobacco Control, researchers from the University of California at San Francisco—using taxpayer funding from the National Cancer Institute—argued that the tobacco industry helped create the Tea Party Movement through a process the researchers called “astroturfing.” “Rather than being purely a grassroots movement, the Tea Party has been influenced by decades of astroturfing by tobacco and other corporate interests to develop a grassroots network to support their corporate agendas, even though their members may not support those agendas,” said the researchers. … Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots,...

by Mark Finkelstein July 23, 2006 - 06:47 Don't the press in general and the New York Times in particular take pride in portraying themselves as ever-the vigilant defenders of the First Amendment? But judging by an editorial in the paper this morning, the Times experiences a power loss worse than the one currently gripping Queens when it comes to defending the First Amendment rights of groups it disfavors, in this case the tobacco industry. Entitled Take the Tobacco Pledge, the editorial urges ratification of The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, known colloquially as 'the tobacco treaty.'...

June 23 — Is there virtue to investing in vice? For some people it can be either a lifestyle, or an investment philosophy. ...in Australia, investors have legally gotten in on the world’s oldest profession. The Daily Planet Bordello began trading publicly last month, with Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss on hand. Shares have nearly doubled since the debut. And, flush with cash, the company says it now wants to build a theme park in Las Vegas. But though he’s the manager of the Vice Mutual Fund, Dan Ahrens doesn’t see much potential in brothels. “We’re not looking for bad areas,”...

GENEVA -- A major international conference on the regulation of tobacco products kicks off Monday in Geneva and could find Japan in an awkward position trying to protect its large domestic tobacco industry. The anti-tobacco conference is attended by 192 countries and led by the World Health Organization, with plans to institute severe rules on tobacco as a step toward worldwide regulations on cigarette products and advertisements. In July, the conference released a draft of its proposed regulations, which apparently irritated the Japanese government, sources have said. The planned regulations include; 1) a ban on attaching misleading titles such as...