POLITICS: Bush Admin Subtracts $120 Billion From Tobacco Racketeering Penalties

Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum ordered Justice Department lawyers to lower the racketeering penalty for the tobacco industry from $130 billion to $10 billion. Democrats have responded to the "unreasonably weak demands made by the government" by asking Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (R) to not author this revised settlement. The trial lawyers, who have been angered to the point that they threatened to quit their jobs, argue that the new settlement would be seen as politically motivated and legally groundless.



Other than the obvious, I think one of the most satisfying aspects of this story was that the New York Times mentioned in their article that McCallum was a member of Yale’s decreasingly illusive Skull & Bones society as well as a member of an Atlanta law firm which has done legal work for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco. This not only serves as yet another source for proving the blatant corruption in this country, but also serves as another indicator that the liberal establishment is about to wage an all out war on these conservative Bonesmen. This combined with the Downing Street memos, the antagonism towards the Patriot Act, the issues at Guantanamo Bay, and the increasing coverage of all the above in the press will lead to some dire times in America.

Related News Links:
www.nytimes.com[/url ]
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050616/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/tobacco_trial_4]news.yahoo.com
www.usdoj.gov

He has to. If they go out of business altogether the US loses billions in export taxes for all the sales to other countries.
Perhap's the only thing I agree with the Bush Administration through his term.

Dallas

This not only serves as yet another source for proving the blatant corruption in this country, but also serves as another indicator that the liberal establishment is about to wage an all out war on these conservative Bonesmen.

Wasn't Kerry a Bonesmen, too?

And for some reason, I don't see the "liberal establishment" waging war on anyone.

This is certainly an interesting development. And one neglected by the news channels, as far as I've seen.

The author may wish to have the code corrected in the link at the botoom of the story.

Of course they won't bankrupt them. EXPORTS are the main reason why.

Dallas

It's just more evidence BushCo is in bed with big corporations.

Nothing new here at all.

Sad, but true.

The money did not go for its intented purpose anyway. My state said it would use quite a bit of the tobacco money to cover the shortfall in the budget and not for anti tobacco usage education as it was intented. I thought the original lawsuit extorted money from the tobacco industry to begin with.

Those crooks should pay.The tobacco farmers of this country have known for decades that they were all getting together and setting the prices, there was no auction or free market system and there was nothing that we could do about it. Tobacco farmers could sell their tobacco for more 25 years ago than they could last year and the input costs were at least 5 or 6 times what they were then. Now that there in no government program they will take the tobacco from the farmers. Not from me though, this the first year since 1926 that this farn doesn't have tobacco growing on it.

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This news is a bit dated [most of the time ATS seems to get things ahead of time, but I guess not always]

One more corporate sell-out in Washington.

Big corporations get what they want and the American people get another screwing.

But as long as you are distracted by that pointless mess in Iraq, I guess people dismiss what is going on right on their own doorsteps.
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