STAMP MONEY OUT OF POLITICS OVERSTAMP

Rich Bottles writes:

Ice cream maven Ben Cohen has moved on from Cherry Garcia and Imagine Whirled Peace to Stamp Money Out of Politics.

The Ben of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream says money is corrupting politics and practically everything else, from health care and student loans to energy and environmental policy. He passionately delivers a message to get money out of politics.

But Cohen may have a problem with the paper his message is printed on.

It’s money. U.S. money. Ones, fives, what have you. Some of the bills carrying Cohen’s message have shown up in the Kansas City area.

Cohen stamps his message on money and then hands it out to the likes of President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other notable public figures. Often a snapshot of the stamped-money handoff shows up online.

“The reason why we have so much money in politics is because the Supreme Court ruled that money is free speech,” Cohen said in an interview. “We’re going to make our money scream.”

Cohen figures he has stamped tens of thousands of bills in the last four years. And he’s gotten tens of thousands of others to stamp their money with the same messages, according to StampStampede.org, a Cohen-led website that sells the stamps, ink, T-shirts and other items.

The stamps say “NOT 2 B USED 4 BRIBING POLITICIANS,” “STAMP MONEY OUT OF POLITICS,” “CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE,” “NOT TO BE USED FOR BUYING ELECTIONS” and similar phrases.

StampStampede.org also goes to great lengths to assure its customers that stamping money is legal.

“No, it’s not,” said Charles Green, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Kansas City. “We see it as a violation of the law.”

Cohen fires back that his stamping is legal. It’s political speech, protected speech, an exercise in First Amendment rights. And if the Secret Service wants to put a stop to it, Cohen said he’s ready to fight.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
STAMPSTAMPEDE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE ITS MARK ON DOLLAR BILLS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n41a29.html)

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