Things that make you go WTF???
Tim Lambert gives John Lott a day off and turns his attention to Philip Morris, the Clinton Health Care Plan, Bruce Bartlett, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute and Microsoft:
As part of the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Philip Morris (PM) agreed to release millions of documents about their operations. These detail how ADTI was hired by PM to conduct a public relations campaign against the Clinton health plan in 1994. ADTI provided PM with regular progress reports to prove that PM was getting value for its money, so they also let us see how these campaigns are conducted.
We hate to say “read the whole thing” — but you really need to.
Added: In the comments, Bruce Bartlett writes:
Read the document. ADTI only ASKED for money from PM. To my knowledge, it never got any.
This PDF document posted by Tim Lambert seems to indicate the opposite however. Updates to follow…
WTF indeed. I think the real Alexis de Tocqueville would be outraged by some of the things that seem to have been perpetrated by his namesake. There was a flap on at Slashdot over the anti-OSS book, too.
The ADTI is infamous in the software industry for their constant bullshit. Every few months they publish some new “research study” touting MS’s supposedly lower total cost of ownership.
Read the document. ADTI only ASKED for money from PM. To my knowledge, it never got any.
The cover letter for the ADTI proposal states
So it certainly looks like PM gave them money, though not as much as they asked for.