Raising the level of discourse in America

BSOM forwarded me a link to this article about the "Pants on Fire" tour sponsored by stoner ice cream company founder Ben of Ben and Jerry's fame.

I love how this is what passes for political debate by the left in this country - calling the president a liar and building a giant effigy with burning pants. And people say that O'Reilly screams too much (he does, but that's not the point). At least when Rush and O'Reilly scream, they are screaming about actual issues, not just making blanket statements.

Blanket statements about Bush lieing that are, of course, lies.

And as this great article points out, the left seems to be split on how to cast Bush- brilliant liar, able to pull the wool over the eyes of John Kerry to convince him to vote for the war in Iraq, but at the same time too stupid. The B&J Bush doll does this, combining the liar aspect with silly facial expressions. So which is it, ice cream man? Is he a brilliant liar or an idiot?

I will confess that Ben and Jerry make good ice cream, although being a cheapass I only buy it when it's on sale and I have a coupon. But their politcs have always made me shudder. I remember reading this book years ago, and I thought it is was funny that one of the things they were so proud of as their examples of public service was they ran a drive to get every school in Vermont signed up for the free federal school lunch program. Yup, they didn't actually donate money to feed kids, but instead donated money to get the government to feed kids using taxpayer money - money from working-class taxpayers, as opposed to rich business owners who started sucessful ice-cream companies.

Of course, the school breakfast/lunch program is a brilliant pork program. Pay farmers way too much for crops, then give it to poor people. This way, you satisfy two special interest groups and make it that much harder to get rid of the program, as public-choice theory would dictate.

Anyway, I do give mad props to the Bush PR guys for their response to this:
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,".

At least someone still engages in civilized discourse in this country.