Sunday, January 21, 2007

WAR Launches Operation: Helter Skelter - Day 2

Demo #1 - William Ford III, CEO of General Atlantic Partners & Director of NYSE

The frigid temperatures on Saturday were repeated again on Sunday. A half dozen intrepid demonstrators gathered to deliver our message to William Ford. Ford serves not only as a Director of the New York Stock Exchange, he also serves as President and CEO of the NYSE’s third largest investor, General Atlantic which holds over 8 million shares of NYSE stock. Ford lives in a prime NYC location on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street in a luxury hi-rise building overlooking Central Park.

Proximity to Central Park ensures excellent pedestrian traffic and we were able to distribute hundreds of flyers to Ford’s neighbors. “500 animals died today, William Ford is to blame” rang the strong voices of the activists gathered close to William Ford’s door. The restraining order requirement that we be 25’ away from the door once again served us well as this put us closer to pedestrian traffic and in a much more highly visible location close to Fifth Avenue. Thanks HLS!

Demo #2 - Per Lofberg, President & CEO of Merck Capital Ventures

Just a short walk from Ford’s hi-rise brought us to the quaint brownstone home of Per Lofberg. Per is CEO of Merck Capital Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck drug company. We took this opportunity to let Lofberg’s neighbors know that Merck was a partner in the bloody business of Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Once again, we took the opportunity to educate Lofberg’s neighbors about the recent history of Merck and their failed products, the most notorious of which has got to be Vioxx. We spoke out about the on-going lawsuits and about Merck’s connection to the animal abusers at Huntingdon Life Sciences. One of Lofberg’s neighbors was kind enough to come out into the cold to tell us that Per Lofberg is not with Merck Capital Ventures. How many times have we heard this before? Too many to count.

Look here if you have any doubts: http://www.merckcapitalventures.com/about/about3.html

Demo #3 - Catherine Kinney, President – NYSE

Despite our exhaustion from two days of battling the blustery winds and frigid temperatures, we saved our most important protest for last. We visited the posh Fifth Avenue digs of New York Stock Exchange President Catherine Kinney. Catherine is the one who delivered the message to HLS executives about the postponement of the LSRI listing back in September 2005. At the time, we believed that Mrs. Kinney was acting in good conscience and in defense of investors everywhere. She undoubtedly had to listen to the whining and carping of Cass and Baker that day. Now she and the NYSE have cut a deal to avoid threatened litigation.

We distributed flyers to Catherine’s neighbors telling about the lack of financial transparency at HLS, about their phony listed CPA, their staggering debt and last but certainly not least, about their history of animal cruelty and abuse. We had thought that the financial aspects would be of most interest to the upscale Upper Eastsiders. What we found was that they were most horrified by the NYSE listing of a company that kills 500 animals every day. Once again, this area is chock full of animal lovers. Many of Catherine’s neighbors expressed support for our cause and promised to contact her.