Ellen Merlo, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris, gives quite revealing speeches. This speech describes Philip Morris' strategy and political activities in the New England states. In it, Merlo directly links Philip Morris' "Accommodation Program" to thr company's enacting of pre-emption laws at the state level. She even runs the words together into a single term, "Accommodation/Pre-emption." Merlo gives a complete nuts-and-bolts run down of what she refers to as "our preemption strategy" and "our preemption bills," boldly claiming company ownership of this novel political interference strategy that effectively stops people from taking action on smoking and health issues in their own communities. Merlo tells us PM's goal to enact their preemption laws in all 50 states. She tells us about PM's strategy to reign in boards of health, whose free-standing power to enact regulations PM fears. She also tells us that Philip Morris is not above pressing their own sales force, employees and even external employees at Kraft and Miller Beer, into taking political action on their behalf, and she makes clear that they also use the grocers associations and restaurant associations to do their bidding. According to Merlo, even your friendly local convenience store owner may actually be the eyes and ears of the Philip Morris Tobacco Company, reporting back on health-related efforts in your town. Documents like these reveal how deeply this corporation is involved in co-opting the democratic process to stop public health measures, right down to the street corner level in little cities and towns throughout the country. But then, they also tell us where WE can be most successful at getting around them, too.