"WHAT ABOUT US, MR. PRESIDENT?" : NCJIS Leaders Protest in Bush's Own Backyard! On October 24, 225 grassroots, low-income leaders from 14 states and allies from two dozen local organizations descended on President Bush's home state of Texas to find his Administration guilty of pandering to the rich and powerful while ignoring the needs of America's poor. For a complete summary of the event, visit www.the-rest-of-us.org/texas.html. The People's Court at Halliburton, Inc. The group began their day with a surprise visit to the headquarters of Halliburton, Inc. in downtown Dallas - Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer - to subpoena the company's executives to appear at a People's Court. The charge? Lining their own pockets and those of their friends while millions of low-income Americans struggle just to get by.
Visit www.the-rest-of-us.org/ap1.html for an Associated Press article about the action at Halliburton, Inc.
Visit www.nationalcampaign.org/photos082.asp to see more photos from The People's Court. On to the Ranch... The group then boarded buses for the two-hour journey to Bush's Crawford ranch to personally deliver their verdict to the President, who was in town for a meeting with the Chinese president. Less than a half-mile from the entrance, the buses were stopped by a single patrol car blocking the road. As planned, activists poured out of the buses and headed straight for Bush's door. There, they met a formidable array of law enforcement personnel including Secret Service agents, Texas Rangers, and local officers headed by Crawford police chief Donnie Tidmore.
Visit www.nationalcampaign.org/photos092.asp for photos of the march to the Crawford ranch. After a very tense set of negotiations with Chief Tidmore, who agreed to deliver an invitation to a "People's Economic Summit" to President Bush, the leaders agreed to return to the buses. By the time they arrived, several members of the local and national press had arrived on the scene. Thanks in part to those who participated in the National Call-In to CNN and ABC earlier that week, the "Texas Action Tour" created an incredible buzz in the national media. Coverage included the Associated Press, USA Today, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, CBS, National Public Radio, as well as the Waco Tribune-Herald and nearly every local Dallas and Waco television network affiliate. A crew from the Bill Moyers PBS show accompanied the protesters for the entire day as part of their research for a magazine-length story that is scheduled to air in December.
Click on the links below for more coverage of the Texas Action Tour:
"Protesters turned away from Bush's Texas ranch," Associated Press, October 25, 2002. www.the-rest-of-us.org/ap2.html
"Protesters miss Bush at ranch," by Mike Anderson, Waco Tribune-Herald, October 25, 2002. www.the-rest-of-us.org/waco.html
Transcript of National Public Radio coverage of the Halliburton action. www.the-rest-of-us.org/npr.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20021112/fd26e316/attachment.htm>