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Heard Around the World: Nearly 1,000 Arrested in Series of
RNC Protests
Schwarzenegger Reaches Out to Fellow Immigrants to Vote Republican
Medea Benjamin Dragged off RNC Floor for Unfurling "Pro-Life:
Stop the Killing of Iraq" Banner
First Lady, Bush Twins Address RNC
RNC Protesters Rush to Defend Johnny Cash Legacy
New York Protesters Hold "Fox News Shut-Up-A-Thon"
NYT's Paul Krugman on Bush's Economic Record and the Media
GOP Delegates Mingle with Industry Lobbyists at Corporate-Sponsored
Parties
Peter Stone on 527s, Rudy Giuliani and GOP Operative Ralph
Reed
Thousands of Unemployed Workers Form Three-Mile-Long Unemployment
Line in Symbolic Protest
Shout Heard Around the World: Nearly 1,000 Arrested
in Series of RNC Protests
More than 950 people were arrested yesterday as thousands
of activists carried out a series of direct actions and civil
disobedience organized by the A31 Action Coalition at locations
throughout New York City yesterday. We take a comprehensive
look at the protests and the police tactics to quell them.
More than 950 people were arrested yesterday as thousands
of activists carried out a series of direct actions and civil
disobedience at locations throughout New York City yesterday.
The protests were organized by the A31 Action Coalition, a
decentralized umbrella group made up of scores of activist
organizations and affinity groups. Yesterday's arrests brought
the number of arrests during the Republican National Convention
to over 1500.
The groups participating in yesterday's coordinated actions
ranged from the War Resisters League to the Ruckus Society
to CODE Pink to Direct Action to the San Francisco-based Stop
the War. The protests targeted Republican delegates, corporate
media outlets, mega corporations and government buildings,
as well as other sites. A few hours before the actions kicked
off, some of the groups working with the A31 Action Coalition
held a press conference.
Shahid Buttar, Washington DC lawyer, speaking at the A31
Press Conference on August 31, 2004.
- Jeremy Scahill, producer and correspondent for Democracy
Now!
- Eric LeCompte, outreach coordinator of School of the
Americas Watch.
Schwarzenegger Reaches Out to Fellow Immigrants to
Vote Republican
We hear California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking
on the second night of the Republican National Convention
in his national political debut.
Inside the heavily-fortified Madison Square Garden, the Republican
Party formally nominated George W Bush for a second term last
night.
The second day of the convention featured a revival of President
Bush's 2000 campaign theme of "compassionate conservatism."
Headlining the evening were California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
and First Lady Laura Bush.
Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-born bodybuilder, became governor
of California in the state's first recall election last year.
On the first night that the major broadcast networks carried
live coverage of the convention proceedings, Schwarzenegger
took to the stage to make his national political debut
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Republican National
Convention on August 31, 2004.
Medea Benjamin Dragged off RNC Floor for Unfurling
"Pro-Life: Stop the Killing of Iraq" Banner
Peace activist and Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin was
kicked off the floor of the Republican convention after she
unfurled a pink banner that read "Pro-Life: Stop the
Killing in Iraq."
During Schwarzenegger's address, peace activist and Code
Pink founder Medea Benjamin was on the floor of the convention.
As she was standing less than 20 feet away from Vice President
Dick Cheney, she unfurled a pink banner that read "Pro-Life:
Stop the Killing in Iraq." Security officials quickly
approached her and told her to put it away. Medea responded
by saying it was a pro-life banner. Minutes later, a Secret
Service man came up and asked for her press credentials. She
stalled for a few minutes cheering Schwarzenegger along with
the Republican crowd.
She was soon surrounded by more security officials. When
she realized she was being escorted off the convention floor.
Medea Benjamin turned to Vice President Dick Cheney who was
sitting 20 feet away and repeatedly yelled "Stop the
killing in Iraq." Secret service members carried her
upside down off the convention floor.
- Medea Benjamin, inside Madison Square Garden on August
31, 2004.
First Lady, Bush Twins Address RNC
President Bush's daughters, Barbara and Jenna in their national
television debut and First Lady Laura Bush speak at the Republican
convention last night. After Schwarzenegger, the other headline
Republican speaker at the convention yesterday was First Lady
Laura Bush.
Before she took the stage, her 22 year-old twin daughters
Barbara and Jenna made their national television debut at
the convention. They had the job of introducing their father,
President Bush, who appeared via closed circuit from a campaign
stop in Pennsylvania. This is an excerpt of Barbara and Jenna
Bush last night.
- Barbara and Jenna Bush, speaking at the Republican National
Convention on August 31, 2004.
Their father, President Bush arrives in the city today and
plans to meet with a group of firefighters and supporters
in Queens. The last speaker of the night was First Lady Laura
Bush. This is an excerpt of what she had to say.
- Laura Bush, speaking at the Republican National Convention
on August 31, 2004.
RNC Protesters Rush to Defend Johnny Cash Legacy
The Tennessee delegation to the Republican National Convention
sparked protests by hosting an exclusive "celebration"
of Johnny Cash at the auction house Sotheby's. We hear a report
from the streets.
New York Protesters Hold "Fox News Shut-Up-A-Thon"
Members of Code Pink and others gathered in front of Fox's
corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan to protest the
network's biased coverage. We speak with Robert Greenwald,
producer and director of the documentary "Outfoxed"
and Medea Benjamin who was arrested.
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in New York yesterday in
large protests against the Republican National Convention.
Thousands of activists took to the streets to carry out a
series of planned direct actions and civil disobedience at
locations throughout the city yesterday.
A total of 1,500 people have now been arrested since protests
against President Bush began six days ago. The protests yesterday
were organized by the A31 Action Coalition, a decentralized
umbrella group made up of scores of activist organizations
and affinity groups.
The groups participating in yesterday's coordinated actions
ranged from the War Resisters League to the Ruckus Society
to CODE Pink to Direct Action to the San Francisco-based Stop
the War.
One of the day's main events was the "Fox News Shut-Up-A-Thon"
where members of Code Pink and others gathered in front of
the of Fox's corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan.
Filmmaker Robert Greenwald was also there. His latest film,
"Outfoxed" accuses the Fox News Channel of tailoring
its coverage to back President Bush.
- Robert Greenwald, speaking yesterday in front of Fox's
corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan.
- Medea Benjamin, was arrested at the protest.
NYT's Paul Krugman on Bush's Economic Record and
the Media
We hear celebrated economist and New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman discuss the media and the Bush administration's
economic record and tactics.
On Monday, Republican delegates approved a new party platform
with little debate. The New York Times reports that for the
first time the platform puts the party firmly on the record
against legalized abortion, gay marriage and other forms of
legal recognition for same-sex couples. The gay rights group
Human Rights Campaign called the platform one of the "most
discriminatory platforms in modern history." On economic
issues, the platform calls for the privatization of social
security and for making President Bush's tax cuts permanent.
That same day economist and New York Times columnist Paul
Krugman spoke at an event in New York University about the
Bush administration's record.
- Paul Krugman, speaking at New York University on August
30, 2004.
GOP Delegates Mingle with Industry Lobbyists at Corporate-Sponsored
Parties
We take a look at the hundreds of company-sponsored parties
that Republican delegates are attending during the GOP convention.
Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch files a report. Some 5,000
Republican delegates and alternates as well as 15,000 journalists
descended on New York City last weekend to attend the Party's
2004 national convention. Corpwatch and Democracy Now! visited
a few of the locations that the official delegations were
staying at and tracked down some of the company sponsored
parties.
- Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch
has this report.
Peter Stone on 527s, Rudy Giuliani and GOP Operative
Ralph Reed
We speak with National Journal reporter Peter Stone on Section
527 organizations funding political ads in the Kerry-Bush
race, Rudolph Giuliani and a preview of Republican operative
Ralph Reed.
We are going to focus on one of the GOP's most successful
operatives and that is Ralph Reed, the former head of the
Christian Coalition. The company Reed founded in 1997 is called
Century Strategies LLC. It bills itself as one of the nation's
leading political and corporate consulting firms, providing
consulting services to Fortune 500 corporations, members of
the US House and Senate leadership, numerous Governors, and
the campaign of President Bush. According to a July 2004 investigative
piece in The National Journal, Century Strategies has raked
in millions of dollars by mounting grassroots lobbying drives
and other campaigns -- as well as doing some inside-the-Beltway
advocacy -- for two dozen or so Fortune 100 companies and
lesser-known enterprises."
In 2003, the Georgia-based firm opened a Washington DC office.
The National Journal reported that Century Strategies "is
poised to earn handsome fees from the [Bush-Cheney 04] re-election
campaign and from the Republican National Committee as a key
vendor for voter contact and mobilization. ... Reed's firm
received a total of $4.3 million from the RNC and the Bush
campaign in 2000 for doing voter calls and direct mail."
- Peter Stone, reporter for the National Journal.
Thousands of Unemployed Workers Form Three-Mile-Long
Unemployment Line in Symbolic Protest
Thousands of unemployed workers gathered along Broadway,
in a single file line, stretching some three miles in a symbolic
protest that is being billed as the world's largest unemployment
line.
They're billing it as the world's largest unemployment line.
This morning, just minutes ago as our program went to air,
at 8:15 New York Time, thousands of unemployed workers gathered
in the streets of New York in symbolic protest.
They gathered along Broadway, in single file line, stretching
some three miles from Wall Street to 31st Street, just shy
of Madison Square Garden, site of the Republican National
Convention. Each participant held aloft a pink slip of paper,
warning, quote, "the next pink slip might be yours."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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