Educate the Portland Hilton

On Thursday, August 22nd, Bush will be in Portland and will stay at the Hilton Hotel. At approximately 4pm the rally will start.

I think it’s time the Hilton got an education on exactly who it is they are harboring in their luxury suites.

Who answers the Hilton phone calls? Who reads the emails? Not the CEOs, not millionaires, just regular everyday people who might like to know more but don't know where to look . . .

Idea 1.
For those of us who can’t make it to Portland, but would like to add to some luxury hotel confusion, mayhem, or simply honest hotel-worker education, we might start calling and asking some questions that we’d like passed on to the president during his visit . . . or maybe stating some opinions about the war on terror . . . or corporate crime . . . or 911 . . .

Or, just read some paragraphs, like this:
(or just go to this site and start reading from almost anywhere: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/dec2001_files/background_is_oil.html):

"The 2000 presidential election has been referred to as a coup, and there is good reason for this. Never mind the widespread corruption and voter fraud. Never mind the disenfranchisement of black voters and the outright destruction of untallied ballots in minority voting precincts. Never mind the manipulations of James Baker, Governor Jeb Bush and various other Florida officials. The Supreme Court decision was itself unheard of, and probably unconstitutional. The self-described job of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of constitutional law and set precedents. Yet in this one case and no other in the history of the US the Supreme Court stated that it was rendering a special decision which cannot be used as a precedent in any other case."

503-226-1611

Idea 2.
For the low-income long-distance protestor / educators, here’s the ‘contact us’ site for Hilton:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/feedback/index.jhtml;jsessionid=1BSLAGNIJ3ZZJJ31AOR2MPQ

Cut and paste this, or any other educational material, and mail it in:
(from http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/01.11F.Arms.Carlyle.htm)

"President George W. Bush's father works for Carlyle; so does former Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci, whose close friend Donald H. Rumsfeld now runs the Pentagon; and so does a stellar cast of retired generals and Cabinet secretaries, including former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

So when President Bush declared war on terrorism in September, few were better poised than Carlyle to know how and when to make money.

On a single day last month, Carlyle earned $237 million selling shares in United Defense Industries, the Army's fifth-largest contractor. The stock offering was well timed: Carlyle officials say they decided to take the company public only after the Sept. 11 attacks. The stock sale cashed in on increased congressional support for hefty defense spending, including one of United Defense's cornerstone weapon programs . . . "

Or,

Feb. 18, 2002 - The Financial Times reports that the estimated opium harvest in Afghanistan in the late-spring 2002 will reach a world record 4,500 metric tons.

Mid-April, 2002 - World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, at the opening of the World Bank's offices in Kabul, states he has held talks about financing the Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline. He confirms $100 million in new grants for the interim Afghani government. Wolfensohn also states that a number of companies have already expressed interest in the project. [Source: Alexander's Gas and oil Connections, citing an Agence France-Presse story]

May 13, 2002 - The BBC reports that Afghanistan is about to close a deal for construction of the $2 billion gas pipeline to run from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India. The story states, "work on the project will start after an agreement is expected to be struck" at a summit scheduled for the end of the month. Unocal will build the pipeline. [Source: BBC, May 13, 2002]

May, 2002 - A number of sources report progress on both oil and gas pipelines. Regional sources state that Unocal will re-emerge as a pipeline contender after withdrawing from the CentGas pipeline project in 1998. Unocal denies plans to revive the gas pipeline but curiously neglects to mention whether or not it has any interest in the oil pipeline, which local sources say is moving ahead. [Source: The Dawn Group of Newspapers, May 7, May 17, May 22, 2002]

May 30, 2002 - Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, Turkmenistan's President Niyazov, and Pakistani President Musharraf meet in Islamabad to sign a memorandum of understanding on the trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline project. The three leaders will meet for more talks on the project in October. The Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistani gas pipeline accord has been published and can be viewed at the following website: http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nts22622.htm. [Source: NewsBase, June 5, 2002]

May 16, 2002 Ç White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer states unequivocally that while President Bush had been warned of possible hijackings, "The president did not -- not -- receive information about the use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers." [Source: CBS News, May 15, 2002]
etc.

Welcome to Hilton Portland
921 SW Sixth Avenue, Portland, OR 97204
Tel: 1-503-226-1611 Fax: 1-503-220-2565
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=PDXPHHH
http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/protestbush/

Remember, this isn’t spamming or crank calling, these are legitimate concerns about the guests staying at the Hilton, and the consequent and necessary education of the Hilton staff.

Add your ideas here . . .