Reacting to a report that revealed American cigarette exports to Iran have risen tenfold during George W. Bush's time in office, Republican presidential candidate John McCain commented, "Maybe that's a way of killing 'em." He followed this by saying, "I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years." McCain's public joke about killing Iranians was the second of his campaign. Last year at a South Carolina campaign stop, when he was asked if there was a plan to attack Iran, McCain responded by saying "You know that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran?" He then sang "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" before discussing what he believed to be the serious threat Iran poses to Israel's national security.

California is a hotbed for political messaging, as same-sex couples get married and conservative groups try to stop them with a November ballot initiative. Equality for All, a coalition supporting same-sex marriage, has hired Ogilvy PR Worldwide, the Democrat-leaning firm Dewey Square Group and the polling firm Lake Research Partners. Dewey Square's Steve Smith is the coalition's lead campaign consultant, while Ogilvy's Maggie Linden, a ballot initiative veteran and former political aide, is heading media outreach. On the other side, ProtectMarriage.com has hired Schubert Flint Public Affairs. The firm's Jeff Flint is leading the effort in support of the ballot initiative, called the California Marriage Protection Act. Flint used to work at Russo Marsh & Rogers, the Republican-leaning political firm which counts the pro-war group Move America Forward among its clients. Other firms are focusing on the burgeoning same-sex marriage industry, with Manning, Selvage & Lee promoting Chemistry.com to Californians and Laramore Communications promoting marriage and honeymoon packages in "gay-friendly" Sonoma County.

Rachael Ray Dunkin Donuts ad featuring controversial scarfDunkin' Donuts pulled an online ad for frozen lattes featuring domestic maven Rachael Ray after receiving complaints from right-wing bloggers, including conservative FOX News commentator Michelle Malkin, that a black-and-white paisley scarf Ray wore in the ad too closely resembled a traditional Arab headdress called a kaffiyeh. Malkin wrote that the scarf resembled "a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos," and that "the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons." Amahl Bishara, a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Chicago who specializes in media matters about the Middle East said, "Kaffiyehs are worn every day on the street by Palestinians and other people in the Middle East -- by people going to work, going to school, taking care of their families, and just trying to keep warm ... To reduce their meaning to support for terrorism has a tacit racist tone to it."

Pastor John Hagee endorses John McCain for President in March 2008Pastor John Hagee, the controversial Christian televangelist who last March endorsed Senator John McCain's nomination for Republican candidate for U.S. President, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis were doing God's will when they chased the Jews out of Europe in order to herd them into Israel, where they could establish a Jewish state. In an audio tape of the sermon revealed by Huffington Post, Hagee went in and out of biblical verse as he preached, "'And they the hunters should hunt them, that will be the Jews. From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks. If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that." A Hagee spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the remarks, which can be found at around the 1:08 mark of his sermon titled "Battle for Jerusalem." Hagee later apologized for the remarks. But McCain, who had earlier sought Hagee's endorsement to improve his standing within the evangelical community, quickly distanced himself from the pastor, describing his comments as "crazy and unacceptable."

The proposed Food and Drug Administration tobacco bill currently under consideration would ban artificial flavors like cinnamon and cherry from cigarettes, but strangely gives special protection to menthol. Public health advocates wonder why menthol has been exempted from the bill, especially when it masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners. A 2006 study also showed that menthol makes it harder for addicted smokers to quit. Menthol brands are also disproportionately popular among African Americans; seventy percent of blacks smoke menthols, compared to only 30 percent of whites. While African Americans smoke less than whites overall, they suffer higher rates of cancer and other tobacco-induced diseases. Despite all this, legislators believe that menthol cannot be eliminated as a cigarette flavoring under the bill because menthol is crucial to the $70 billion cigarette market. It is of particular importance to Philip Morris, which has been planning for, and driving FDA regulation of cigarettes since 1999. The watered-down terms resulted from legislators' belief that the bill won't pass without PM's buy-in.

Author Eric Schlosser editorializes about "the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying," citing Burger King Corporation's spying on the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers through Cara Schaffer and her private security firm, Diplomatic Tactical Services. "The Bill of Rights was adopted to protect Americans from the abusive power of their government. I've come to believe that we now need a similar set of restrictions to defend against irresponsible corporate power. Today companies like Wal-Mart and ExxonMobil have annual revenues larger than the entire budgets of some states, and they employ former agents from the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the Secret Service to do security work," Schlosser writes. "John Chidsey, the chief executive of Burger King, knew about the use of Diplomatic Tactical Services. Mr. Chidsey should get a chance to raise his right hand and tell members of Congress why he thinks this sort of behavior is acceptable." Meanwhile, Burger King says it is "investigating online postings made by one of its vice presidents vilifying the Coalition of Immokalee Workers," reports the Fort Myers News-Press.

Sludge keeps rearing its ugly head. Scientists used federal grant money to "spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil." The residents were not alerted to any harmful ingredients in the sludge, and were assured that it posed no health risks for their families. In exchange for participating in the 2005 study, nine families were given food coupons and a free lawn by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Freedom of Information Act requests by the Associated Press produced grant documents, but none showed any medical follow-up with the homeowners. The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted similar research in East St. Louis, Illinois, another impoverished and predominantly African American community. "Thomas Burke, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says epidemiological studies have never been done to show whether spreading sludge on land is safe. 'There are potential pathogens and chemicals that are not in the realm of safe. What's needed are more studies on what's going on with the pathogens in sludge - are we actually removing them? The commitment to connecting the dots hasn't been there.'"

A British county has been using an anti-terrorism law enacted in 2000 to spy on minors for petty crimes like using cigarettes and alcohol. The Staffordshire County Council in Britain's Midlands region has been using Britain's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) for a host of non-terrorism-related applications, like monitoring underage liquor and tobacco sales, recording the movements of farm animals and tracking counterfeit DVD sales. Brandon Cooke, Staffordshire County Council's Fraud and Community Safety Manager, defended the Council's use of surveillance under RIPA by saying the operations were crucial for "combatting antisocial behavior."

From Dove's new websiteIn 2004, the Unilever company Dove got lots of attention for using "ordinary-looking -- in some cases heavyset -- women in its ads for shampoos and beauty products. The ad and public-relations effort, called 'Campaign for Real Beauty,' created free publicity for the company." Now, Dove is "trying to create a new online community for women that offers entertainment, blogs, advice and advertising." The website was designed by the WPP firm Ogilvy, to "strengthen the link" between the Campaign's empowerment rhetoric "and Dove's line of products." To date, the Campaign's "marketing impact has been somewhat blunted by the fact that the social cause hasn't been linked directly to specific Dove products." Dove's new site will face competition from similar corporate-sponsored, woman-focused websites. Yahoo recently launched "Shine," designed to give "the struggling Internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households," reports AP. And Kraft has "uPumpItUp," a so-called "cause initiative for the Crystal Light brand."