Ritz Bits Soccer Shoot Out Game

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a study titled "It's Child's Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children," which found that more than eight out of ten (85%) of the top food brands that target children through TV advertising also use branded websites to market to children online. "Overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, the Web sites you are looking at are for foods that are of poor nutritional quality," said Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. A Kraft Foods executive said experts disagree on the impact of advertising food to kids. "There are many different factors contributing to childhood obesity and overweight," said Nancy Daigler, a Kraft vice president. Examples of advergaming are Cheetos Cowtapult, Ritz Bits Soccer Shoot Out, and several games choices featuring Pop-Tarts.

James Bamford reports that "War with Iran has been in the works for the past five years, shaped in almost complete secrecy by a small group of senior Pentagon officials attached to the Office of Special Plans. The man who created the OSP was Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. ... Before Bush had been in office a year, Feith's team had arranged a covert meeting in Rome with a group of Iranians to discuss their clandestine help. The meeting was arranged by Michael Ledeen, a member of the cabal brought aboard by Feith because of his connections in Iran. ... Working behind the scenes, the members of the Office of Special Plans succeeded in setting the United States on the path to all-out war with Iran. ... The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq." Bamford's article sheds more light on the double-dealings of Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of the neoconservatives who with CIA funding and training provided by John Rendon and The Rendon Group led the Iraqi National Congress in planting phony stories about Weapons of Mass Destruction with Judith Miller and other US news media.

Patrick Michaels. Source:Cato Institute

In a nine-page memo, the general manager of the Colorado-based Intermountain Rural Electric Association co-operative, Stanley Lewandowski Jr., rails against the the scientific consensus supporting the need to curb greenhouse gases. The memo, which was circulated in mid-July to more than 900 members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, was leaked to ABC News. "We decided to support Dr. Patrick Michaels and his group (New Hope Environmental Services, Inc.) ... In February of this year, IREA alone contributed $100,000 to Dr. Michaels." Lewandowski also wrote that IREA had rattled the tin for Michaels amongst other groups and "have obtained additional contributions and pledges for Dr. Michaels group." The memo also reports on others campaigning against taking action to limit climate change. "The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has been running two ads in ten states that were financed by General Motors and the Ford Motor Company," he wrote.