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Ben & Jerry's co-founder inflamed by Bush
By CHRIS RODKEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Call it the burning Bush.
The co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is on the road, towing a 12-foot-tall effigy of President Bush with fake flames shooting out of the pants.
Ben Cohen believes it is an acceptable way to point out what he calls the president's lies.
"In a polite society, you don't go up to a person and look at them in the face and say, 'You're a liar,'" Cohen said in a telephone interview before arriving in Spokane, the next stop on the Pants on Fire Tour.
"We think it's a lot more dignified and there's a lot more decorum to say, 'Excuse me sir, your pants are getting a little warm, don't you think?'" Cohen said.
The "PantsOnFire-Mobile" is a trailer pulled behind a car. The Bush character is wearing a flight suit with the words "Mission Accomplished" emblazoned on the back, a reference to the president's declaration that major hostilities had ended in Iraq. An electronic ticker on the front shows what Cohen says are Bush's lies.
The head is a rotating cylinder with various Bush facial expressions.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said most people in America support Bush's policies, and that the president supports free speech.
"The president welcomes the fact that we live in a democracy and that people in this country are free to make their own opinions known," Lisaius said.
Ben & Jerry's pioneered "mobile promotions," when Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield took an RV across the country and doled out ice cream on a nationwide "scooping tour," in lieu of expensive national advertising. The same concept is at work with the PantsOnFire-Mobile, Cohen said.
The project is run by volunteers. Cohen flies to a town to train a crew of drivers, teaching them things like how to crank up the smoke machine. Volunteers come from an Internet organization Cohen founded called TrueMajority.org, which he said has 500,000 members.
The Web site, which sends out liberal action calls to subscribers, is not affiliated with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. In 2000, international conglomerate Unilever purchased the ice cream company. Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield now serve as "ambassadors" for the company.
Reaction to the effigy across the country has been overwhelmingly positive, Cohen said, so much so that he has commissioned a second one to tour.
Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado.
NightTrain said:Don't fret! There's a better ice cream for bastards like you and I.
Check out this site, it's kickass. Don't miss the hatemail they post up there for everyone to enjoy, it's Liberals in rare form!
http://www.starspangledicecream.com/index.cfm
Here's some of their flavors :
Gun Nut (Coconut Ice Cream with Almonds and Chocolate Chips)
I Hate The French VANILLA (Real American Vanilla, NOT French Vanilla)
Iraqi Road (Chocolate with Roasted Almonds and Rich Chocolate Chips)
Nutty Environmentalist (Rich Buttery Ice Cream with Roasted Pecans)
Smaller Govern-MINT (White Mint with Rich Chocolate Chips)
Donald Rum Raisin
GuantanaMocha
Kerry Ketchup Dough
Tank Tracks
Dutch (Reagan) Chocolate
Orange Alert Sherbet
And favorite flavors from the past :
Clinton Im-Peach, White House Fundraiser Coffee and Jimmy Carter Peanut Malaise.
Hannitized said:Well, I wont be eating Ben and Jerry's thank you very much!!! :dev1:
Comrade said:I think the hippie freak already sold off his share of the company.
He's just another example of an individual with a vast fortune who wants to make sure everyone else who accumulates wealth is taxed like there is no tomorrow.
Comrade said:I think the hippie freak already sold off his share of the company.
He's just another example of an individual with a vast fortune who wants to make sure everyone else who accumulates wealth is taxed like there is no tomorrow.
insein said:Thats what i don't get. They worked hard and made it big. They lived the American Dream. So why can't others partake in the same thing? Why does the government have to take care of them?
Such an ego these guys have that they think they are the only ones who could have possibly overcame the odds and made it in the world.
"This is absolutely the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Why don't all of you imbeciles get a real job? Oh, sorry, there aren't any jobs. But as long as you're 'patriotic' you think everthing will be fine. You people are PATHETIC!"
insein said:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA Pants on Fire
Wow! Maybe Moore gets his dementia from Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. Lord knows he eats enough of it.
insein said:You would get it. After all your on that same level.
insein said:I was thinking more 2nd grade mentality of "liar, liar pants on fire."
