The fix is in, next on 21.

I'll tell you about California when I damn well feel like telling you about California. In the meantime, I'm catching up on all the news I've missed while hiding out on the left coast. Good Lord, are they insulated from current events or what?

Did you hear that the Federal District Court case against Big Tobacco wrapped up this week? With some fireworks? Oh, you didn't know? Well, you better call somebody!

The government's nine-month racketeering trial against the nation's leading cigarette companies ended on a tumultuous note Thursday as company lawyers accused the government of a last-minute change in the terms of a proposed national stop-smoking program.

...

The eruption began in the final minutes of closing arguments when Sharon Eubanks, a government lawyer, provided new details of a $10 billion stop-smoking program - to be paid for by the defendants if the judge rules against them - that replaced the $130 billion program the government had been seeking until earlier this week.

At that point, the stop-smoking program was the biggest financial hammer left to the government after an appeals court ruling in February that civil racketeering laws would not allow the government to seek $280 billion in past profits from the companies.

Oh yeah. They couldn't sue for $280 billion because an earlier ruling said the government can't sue for profits made in the past by tobacco companies.

The $130 billion? To create a stop-smoking campaign for current and potential future smokers over the next 25 years. That number specifically came from a recommendation from an expert witness, Michael Fiore, a University of Wisconsin medical professor, called by the US Government in the case.

Then, on the last day of the trial, Eubanks, lawyer representing the US government, calls for a 5-year, $10 billion program for potential future smokers ONLY. For no known reason, since the US government ALREADY recommended the 25 year, $130 billion program IN THIS CASE. This even caught the Big Tobacco lawyers off guard:

"This is like a comedy skit on 'Saturday Night Live,' " Ted Wells, a lawyer for Philip Morris, said. "It's outrageous. It's ridiculous. This was a $280 billion case that became a $130 billion case that became a $10 billion case that will eventually become a zero billion dollar case."

"...Their case is in total disarray," said another Philip Morris lawyer, Dan Webb. "Even if they prevail in front of Judge Kessler, they are not going to prevail in a court of appeals."

And why should you worry, even if you don't smoke?

William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the last-minute changes suggest political interference by the Bush administration to soften the blow for the tobacco companies.

"It appears senior Justice officials decided on an amount of money and are now trying to justify that amount by describing a cessation program that doesn't make sense and won't work," Corr said. "They are changing the cessation program to protect the financial interests of the industry rather than 45 million addicted adults."

Somebody is letting Big Tobacco off the hook here. I won't point fingers (Bush), but the fact that a group of corporations that creates a product THAT KILLS ITS USERS can get away with crap like this is downright infuriating.

It's insulting that they can't at least come up with a better excuse. Democrats on Capitol Hill are calling for an investigation, and rightly so. If the department was behaving reasonably when it introduced evidence that called for the larger figure, it has no business now -- with circumstances unchanged -- refusing to seek the vast bulk of what its evidence suggests the American people are lawfully entitled to. If the administration was going to cave in to its donors and friends in the tobacco industry, it should have done so six years ago. But then, what's $120 billion between friends?