Remember back in 73 when the leading tobacco manufacturers sent an "internal" memo?
It read somethimg like this: "we are losing the younger generation.We need a new approach to get the 10-12 year olds hooked now.Please make this a priority in our marketing"
This was accompanied by stats showing how sub-teens needed to be caught and hooked "with light filtered cigarettes producing lots of smoke".
This making them look cool without throwing up.
This was at the same time the industry was being questioned about the addictive qualities of nicatine and the chemical additives in all smokes.
Read this in washingtom monthly from early 90's. They have the whole memo.
Same with oil and mic. They control / own the media and can have a platform anytime anywhere.
Truth is not part of their agenda.
btw: what was the solution to the tobacco industry sagging growth with pre-teens??
Think about it......remeber when "joe camel" came out? Now you see what we are up against.
These greedy frauds have enough to spend to make you think and believe everything they feed.
Watch out.
Don't be distracted!

I have been trying for years to tell people its about corporate take-over, of our government, about a corporate owned and operated government, not about "wedge issues", or Christian vales and morals, not about right vs left...its pure and simple corporate take-over and rule of our "democratic government" (which would be called fascism)..and yes that would include the "corporate" cable news programs..(get it?) But you might as well be talking to the man in the moon or telling them that martians have taken over Congress.....you get that "no ones home" "blank stare" re-action...maybe if we spread these types of articles as far and wide as possible...some people will start to catch on to whats really happening in our country

There's space here for some follow-up investigation/reporting:
Will the companies be paying employees to attend, or managers for facilitating attendance? (I assume the astroturf organizers are sensitive to this, and that's why they've scheduled the events for "lunchtime" if at all possible). I assume, however, that the organizing pieces will take some management time. When does that happen? What internal credit to employees get for participating/not participating. "Your latest performance review indicates that you're not a team player..." If not paid, are the companies providing for employees to take time away to participate outside of normal leave procedures?

As an interesting analogy, a reporter might draw the parallel to "equal treatment" by other organizers/protesters around issues that directly impact the owner's bottom line. For example, will the ARI member companies be providing similar opportunities for Greenpeace? ["Bob, I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking an extra hour for lunch today so that I can participate with a Greenpeace group attending the 'new pipeline' town hall meeting..." "Could you help me put together a list of other interested employees..."]

This is the mosty intruigign part:

"Aside from the astroturf nature of the planned events, which appear aimed at passing off industry employees as independent citizens, the memo also raises questions about the positions of several major oil companies on the issue of climate change. BP and Shell both are members of API, and also of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of groups that supports Waxman-Markey, the very climate change legislation the memo criticizes."

Is this double dealing? Is it like the US Chamber, where some hardcore ideologues are far to the right of many of their members?

Since the Republicans failed at get-out-the-vote efforts during the election, they've decided to employ a get-out-the-mob strategy to defeat the Democrats' agenda and advance their own, disguising it as grassroots democracy. Reminds of the scene from The Grapes of Wrath in which town leaders send thugs into the government-run camp to start a fight so the local sheriff will have a pretext to raid it.

Thousand of people out protesting to defend the rights of the trillion dollar corporate empires??? How does that happen?

What do we call it when big business allies with local thugs to shut down others from exercising free speech rights?

Anyone? Anyone?

"Fascism" or "Protofascim"

Shorter Shell Game: We don't have anything to do with what the organization we are funding is doing.

Nip this in the bud - NOW!

This old fat man seems to believe that Mother Nature gives a damn about his money and his army of lobbyists. Bad news, Gerard: she doesn't.

This is what is most deranged about political and industry opposition to anti-global warming efforts. Global warming is happening. It cannot be compromised with. It cannot be reasoned with. It cannot be bribed. And most importantly, it cannot be ignored in the hope that it will simply go away.

Global warming will lead to more drought, more disease, more war, more devastation, and overall more catastrophes in the lives of every man, woman, and child on the planet, and every animal and plant, too.

Do wealthy people like Jack Gerard think they are somehow immune? Do not think that their oceanfront properties will not get flooded and destroyed? That they can't be bitten by mosquitos carrying diseases that heretofore were confined to the tropics? And on and on?

And if fat old Jack Gerard thinks he'll die before the worst happens, what about his kids? Or, are his kids just figures on the balance sheet that he apparently has instead of a soul?

Am I the only one who finds this memo too good to be true? It just sounds like a plant - it sounds like some environmentalist wet dream of what oil is doing..I want to see the birth certificate!!

The GOP and industry lobbyists are taking a page from the Atwater-Rove playbook on using fear-mongering tactics and maliciously disseminating misinformation to sway public opinion.

The health insurance industry will spare no cost in their efforts to defeat any substantive, meaningful health care reform legislation, and the petroleum industry will do likewise with energy reform/climate change legislation. It's why the banking industry fights tooth and nail to neuter regulatory reform in the financial sector.

It boils down to the Gordon Gekko mentality -- it's all about profit margins and their bottom line.

The industries that are financing the "global warming denial campaign" share the same unethical "profit at all costs" philosophy that has dominated the decision-making process of the tobacco industry as it repeatedly denied any health-related consequences of using their products.

Economic impact cannot be the sole factor in every regulatory policy of the U.S. government. Those that do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them. We can no longer afford to be so short-sighted when the long-term consequences of our inaction are so great.

There was a "kick-off rally" in Houston for the group "Energy Citizens" today.

It was held at the office building where Chevron Oil has its headquarters -- and at lunchtime.

So, it's already starting.

I agree with an outhouse, we have to keep pushing back, especially with he acid rain example.