My first response to Meghan was admittedly blunt and
direct.
George Jepsen's office had been directly contacted by The
Shuster Project no less than 13 times via Press Releases and special "Alerts"
which only produced ONE response from George which turned out to be an empty promise and
an equally empty committment.
Also, with respect to Meghan's first letter to us, I,
personally, was somewhat surprised at the initial lack of professional presentation (the
absence of an accompanying, scanned image of her business card confirming her idendity)
and not being completely honest and forthright with respect to the extent to which she had
"read most of" our web site and other disturbing inconsistencies which you will
find as you read these exchanges which were ultimately ironed out and refocused upon.
Although it would appear that after I suggested, in
subsequent correspondence to Meghan, that we step back from the bluntness each of us were
exchanging with each other and seem to have forged a friendly working relationship with
each other, it remains to be seen if Meghan is actually going to follow through with her
stated goals and objectives, quoting Meghan:
"Please
believe that I will do all I can to help you (I don't know how far that will go, but you
will get 100% effort from me!)."- Meghan Fenn
(Please Note: This letter is dated 5/31/02)
Dear
Meghan,
We, here at The Shuster Project, are currently experiencing a period of a significant,
positive convergence of continued critical acclaim.
Having had bestowed upon us our second meritorious Award, in as many years, for
significant, educational, reference-resource web content, this directly reflects our
change in focus.
Rather than continuing to attempt to educate and counsel CT's legislators, the Governor,
Gubernatorial candidates, the CT state Attorney General and the others in state government
who chose to continue their avoidance and, yes, negligence, as to these crucial tobacco
industry fraud & false claims issues and the enormous negative financial impact/toll
that they continue to take upon CT and it's citizens and taxpayers, The Shuster Project
has switched focus.
We now are successfully reaching out to and teaching our young people and the
"ordinary" citizens of Connecticut these issues of tobacco industry fraud &
false claims in equal detail to those named above.
That said, I am not at all surprised by the tone and tact of your curious correspondence
to me.
First of all, I have no idea as to what "letter" you are referring to when you
state, "I read your letter with interest..."
In addition, if, as you claim, you "read most of" our "web site, and
perhaps" you "just missed it", you are correct that you "missed"
the "explanation of and proof of the cigarette companies crimes."
Our most recent Press Release, #7, the title of which is:
"The standardized formula utilized by the tobacco companies which defraud all states
with "State Minimum Price" statutes (including CT) of hundreds of millions of
dollars of state sales tax revenues, including illustrated calculations to demonstrate
these losses."
...had you "read it," it should satisfy your curiosity as to an
"explanation of and proof of the cigarette companies crimes" and your reference
to "how you arrived at your dollar figures."
As it applies to Connecticut, conservative defrauded revenues figures involving additional
"crimes" not mentioned in that particular Press Release, at the state and
municipal level, exceed $1 Billion Dollars.
Incidentally, Press Release #7 also mentions in part, from a much more detailed and
comprehensive chapter in our web site, losses to the U.S. Treasury in excess of $300
Million Dollars.
And yes, I can just imagine that George's campaign personnel would appreciate "any
additional information" we could provide as he's been receiving each and every one of
our Press Releases and "Alerts" from the very beginning anyway and did nothing
back then, does nothing now and we can safely assume he is going to do nothing in the
future.
You'd be best served to read his letter to The Shuster Project, which I assume you read
anyway in your research, and then read our response.
Both are in one of our CORRESPONDENCE sections.
In the first place, although I sincerely do not wish to sound derogatory or rude, you are
not the one we would be offering any information to, as campaign staff is/are an
inappropriate gateway for such an exchange of dialogue to occur between George and The
Shuster Project.
Secondly, and again although I sincerely do not wish to sound derogatory or rude, I do not
believe you when you purport to have read most of The Shuster Project web site or you
would have not asked such ridiculous questions when there are chapters devoted to the very
topics you express curiosity about.
And lastly, as someone who has had 17+ years employment within the tobacco industry, the
figures, facts, explanations and proof come from indisputable, responsible, credible,
acknowledged, critically acclaimed and recognized eyewitness experience.
The fact that your letter is completely irrelevant to anything that could possibly be
construed as actual, honest concern, constructive, legitimate or actually pertaining to
the very issues you raise validates the correctness of our decision to change focus away
from legislators, government, associated personnel and the media and to turn decisively
towards the citizens, young adults, students and the future legislators and leaders of
this state and country who will take the knowledge we are teaching them and then do the
many things that must be done to eradicate these crimes and finally recover the massive
amounts of defrauded state and federal revenues once and for all.
Our continuing successes and confidence lay with them.
The upcoming multimedia schools curriculum study guide we are currently putting the
finishing touches on will move us into the next level of addressing tobacco industry fraud
& false claims issues.
As has been our consistent policy from when we launched The Shuster Project web site back
in May of 1999, should George still be in government service when we release our
multimedia schools curriculum study guide, he will be notified along with the other
members of the CT state legislature via a Press Release or Alert that this study guide is
available.
Sincerely,
RXShuster
The Shuster Project - Tobacco Industry Fraud & False Claims Issues
http://www.rxshuster.org/
C/o
177 Andrew Avenue
Naugatuck, CT 06770-4359
Telephone: 1-(203)-723-1690
Fax: 1-(801)-705-3078
Toll Free Voice Mail: 1-(877)-547-1908
Email: RShus177@aol.com
Join my "Save the Rainforest" Team at:
http://rainforest.care2.com/welcome?w=226471792
ps...attached is a Word 97 Document of the entire above transcript for your files should
you choose to retain it.
(See:
Word 97 Document Meghan Fenn Letters2.doc
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