Help Overturn Citizens United: Rubberstamp Your Money

I don’t suppose this will have any effect on the Supreme Court’s “Bribery is protected by the First Amendment” ruling.  But it should raise public awareness, which is a first step.

Ben Cohen — co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s — is working with Move To Amend to distribute rubber stamps to the public.  He wants to encourage “thousands of people to buy rubber stamps and stamp any currency that comes into their possession.”

Each of these rubber stamps will have a slogan such as:  “Money is not speech,” “Corporations are not people” and “Not to be used for bribing politicians.”

And yes, it IS legal to stamp a message onto a bill, as long as the bill is still legible.

I personally like this approach better than “Occupying” public places.  You’re not confronting the police or alienating the public.  And if enough bills are rubberstamped, this has the potential to reach a lot more people.  Most people don’t follow the news very closely, other than the front page of the daily paper and the “top stories” on the evening news.  But everybody handles paper money.  This message might actually penetrate the public consciousness.

One can hope anyway.

Would Jesus Eat Schweddy Balls Ice Cream?

The American Family Association is boycotting Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream over the obscene name of their newest flavor:  Schweddy Balls.  The flavor is named after a Saturday Night Live skit about a baker named Pete Schweddy, whose best-selling holiday treat is Schweddy Balls.

Yes, that’s what Jesus would do — go into a hissyfit over a double entendre.  The Bible clearly states that suggestive phrases are EVIL.  Don’t believe me?  It says right here — hmmm, wait, that’s not it.

OK, here it is.  OOPS, that’s not it either.  Damn it, it’s in here somewhere…

OneMillionMoms, a group affiliated with the American Family Association, is organizing the boycott.  The group’s website says:

“The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive. Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket.”

OK, now that we’ve taken care of this Earthshaking problem…

Government “Regulators” and Big Business: Goliath and Goliath

Sometimes it seems like government and industry are so closely intertwined that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. In one of the most blatant examples of this, some state governments have teamed up with Monsanto to PREVENT food companies from labeling their ingredients accurately.

Ben & Jerry’s has been advertising that their ice cream doesn’t contain the synthetic bovine growth hormone made by Monsanto. This hormone was approved by the FDA in the 1990s in the United States. Canada, Japan and the European Union have never approved the drug because of safety concerns.

Just when you think you’ve seen the most absurd intelligence-insulting Astroturf organization yet, the bar gets lowered even further. American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology is the "grassroots" organization that's trying to prevent Ben & Jerry's from even telling you that their ice cream doesn't contain rBGH. Take a wild guess: this gang of douchebags consists mostly of (A) farmers; or (B) Monsanto lobbyists.

psssst! The answer is (B).

And just to make the whole situation even more Orwellian, a Monsanto spokesperson said “Monsanto is really an advocate in support of accurate labeling of dairy products in the dairy case.”

So now we have a popular organic ice cream company being squelched by two 800-pound gorillas (hereafter referred to as David vs. Goliath & Goliath).

Monsanto’s growth hormone (rBGH) was banned in most other countries for the effect it has on animals. It doesn’t directly affect humans. But rBGH causes increased levels of another growth hormone in cows; and that hormone is believed to cause cancer in people.

sssshhhhhh!!!! Move along! Nothing to see here!

cross-posted at Bring It On!