The Hollywood Liberal

Franchise defends its ?Global warming is baloney? signs: Burger King is acting like ?cockroaches.?
The Memphis Flyer recently caught multiple local Burger King restaurants sporting big “Global Warming is Baloney” signs. The Burger King corporation quickly distanced itself from the controversy: “The two restaurants where these signs appeared are independently owned and operated and were not authorized to display this statement. The signs have since been removed.” However, […]

The Memphis Flyer recently caught multiple local Burger King restaurants sporting big “Global Warming is Baloney” signs. The Burger King corporation quickly distanced itself from the controversy: “The two restaurants where these signs appeared are independently owned and operated and were not authorized to display this statement. The signs have since been removed.” However, Leo Hickman of the Guardian reports that many of the signs are still up, and the corporation in charge of the franchises — a Memphis-based company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation — is defending its position:

Media attempts to contact MIC to establish why it was taking an apparently defiant stance were rebuffed, but the Guardian managed to grill MIC’s marketing president, John McNelis.

“I would think [Burger King] would run from any form of controversy kinda like cockroaches when the lights get turned on,” said Mr McNelis. “I’m not aware of any direction that they gave the franchisee and I don’t think they have the authority to do it.”

McNelis added: “The [restaurant] management team can put the message up there if they want to. It is private property and here in the US we do have some rights. … Burger King can bluster all they want about what they can tell the franchisee to do, but we have free-speech rights in this country so I don’t think there’s any concerns.”

Susan Robison, vice president of corporate communications for BKC, responded that “BKC has guidelines for signage used by franchisees [which] were not followed. We have asked the franchisee to remove the signage and have been told that the franchisee will comply.”

Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama.
In his weekly radio address, President Obama declared “it’s time to deliver” on health reform. The White House is sending the message to lawmakers and the American public that it “is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers.” Apparently over-sensitive to the White House’s […]

In his weekly radio address, President Obama declared “it’s time to deliver” on health reform. The White House is sending the message to lawmakers and the American public that it “is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers.” Apparently over-sensitive to the White House’s public calls to deliver on health care reform (or upset that the President is visiting Paris), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote these nonsensical tweets against Obama today:

While Grassley was popping off, White House officials were showering him with praise. Senior adviser David Axelrod said on CBS: “I would hope people of both parties would get together. I was encouraged by Sen. Grassley’s comments in the last few days suggesting that he thought we could get there.” The AP notes, “Grassley’s attitude is significant because any hope for bipartisan consensus on health care rests on an alliance between Grassley and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 4:32 am and is filed under Main Blog (All Posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.