Ben Cohen
Posted on 07/20/2004 6:27:25 PM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
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.
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On the Net: www.TrueMajority.org
I would like to see Benny boy roll one of his Bush effigies down my street.
Old Ben is a socialist. Just tell him you are going to borrow "our" trailer for a few months...
But it is polite to haul a 12 ft likeness of them down the road as it burns.
Ben Cohen cannot document a single lie that W has told,
unlike Klintoon. He can use his ice cream for an enema
as far as I'm concerned.
Ben and Jerry? Christ, cant they come up with any new lefties? Who is next, Grace Slick and David Crosby?
These libs are just getting more and more extreme. These folks are certifiable.
Irony is that their "great lie" is that "Bush lied".
This ought to be about Sandy Berger.
Well, they *do* believe in recycling, after all.
"It's much more polite to mock them in effigy, thousands of miles away."
I wonder how many of Ben's employees got laid off when he sold out to corporate America.
Errata: "Reaction to the effigy accross the county has been overwelmingly positive..."
Mr. Cohen said that next week he will take his display out of San Francisco and across the Bay into Oakland.
I wonder how left wingers ever develop a successful business to begin with.
Hmmm...who's that total babe that used to hang out with Jerry Brown? I sure can't recall her name....but she'd probably qualify.
What IS her name? This is gonna really bug me, and I probably won't sleep a wink tonight until I get it.
... 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.Hmmm, isn't this the same 'Unilever' we just got done writing to concerning Whoopie Goldberg? Looks like its time to just do an outright boycott of all Unilever products. They just don't get it!!!
Unilever brands:
Axe, Bertolli, Birdseye, Cif, Comfort, Domestos, Dove, Family Brand, Findus, Healthy Heart, Heart, Hellman's, Iglo, Knorr, Lipton, Lux, Omo, Ponds, Radiant, Rexona, Signal, Slim fast, Sunsilk, UBF Food Solutions
Linda Ronstadt?
FMCDH(BITS)
Hannity then nailed him to the wall by pulling out a book Cohen wrote for liberal activits that dedicated chapters to LYING and how to do it, when to do it, why to do it, and what to gain by doing it.
Example is the typical seminar caller lying to the call screener.
When smacked with his own authorship of what is basically a guide to lying, he said, well, thats different.
Haagan Dazs has ALWAYS made a much better ice cream.
Ben & Jerry should stick to soda jerking.
Ideas for New Ben and Jerrys flavors: "Idiotic liberal crunch" "Flaccid old hippie sundae" "Leftist nutty nut-job"
"Too Much Time on My Silly Liberal Hands Sorbet"
I can honestly say, to the best of my knowledge, none of these products are in my house. Infact, I don't even know what half of them are.
ATKINS
"borrow our trailer for a few months" LOLOL
The reason Cohen and his ilk don't call others 'liars' to their face is because he would have to back it up with something else besides words. He's a joke. And a wuss.
Never bought Ben and Jerry's. Won't either.
Just Cohen's excuse for not having the guts to tell President Bush to his face that he is a liar. Cohen is a cowardly piece of shit.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Phony a$$hole and he IS a liar.
In the case of Ben & Jerry's, we can not know what was in Ben Cohen's mind over the five years that his company issued press release after interview that deceptively claimed that it was sourcing Brazil nuts from indigenous sources.
What we do know is that Cohen was aware at all times that not one Brazil nut was ever purchased directly from indigenous sources; less than 5% were sourced from one Co-Op which eventually ended its relationship with the company claiming that Ben & Jerry's was profiting far more from this adventure than it was; and that more than 95% of the nuts were purchased on commercial markets supplied by the most rapacious, anti-environmental agri-businesses in Latin America.
This ought to be about Sandy Berger.
Yes... Sandy Burglar apparently had enough paper stuffed in his pants recently to get a pretty significant fire started...
"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." My dad's answer to that, if he was still alive, would be, "where were you in 1939 -1941?"
I'm not a big fan of boycotts, but IMHO ben'n'jerry are commies and I'm proud to write that I've never had as much as a spoonful of their product. Bluebell or DQ works well enough.
Oh, noooooooo. In a polite society, you go behind his back and call him a liar or you run down the street and call him a liar, but you never, ever look him in the eye and say what you have to say.
Girlie-man.
TS
Amen on the Bluebell, vanilla with a Big Red soda in a glass.... yep that's heaven.
Just another "inflamed" hemmoroid, smear him with Preparation-H and he might shrink back up into the arse he fell out of.
RANK, BLEEDIN, BLIND, TRAITOROUS HYPOCRITES!!!
IDIOTS!
Talk about lying. Must be their occupation.
So go make some hemp ice cream and "drop out"
Who needs Ben and Jerry's when you've got Blue Bell?
Ben Cohen can bite me. As far as me and my family, we won't be biting anything of his...
Socialist ice cream tastes bad.
Ben and Jerry? Are those pot-heads still alive?
Ben Cohen is another in a long list of secular Jews who have no moral contraints preventing them from bearing false witness against our president (or anyone else). The mere fact that President Bush is a Christian is sufficient evidence to secular Jews that the President must be removed from office.
bttt and thanks!
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