The Carter Avenue Rescue Operation Had A Good Day Today & So Did Steve Doeung

I am a bit exhausted. Up before 4. Downtown in chilly Fort Worth at 7. The Tarrant County Courthouse a half hour later.

Using telecommunicators, the Queen of Wink and I were able to match locations and coordinate the search for a parking spot.

With the parking spot secured, we took off, on foot, the Queen, Princess Annie and I, toward the Courthouse. Mid-way the Queen got a Royal Chill, so we had to find a Starbucks to get something hot.

With that need met, it was on to the Carter Street Rescue Rally. By the time we got there the bullhorn was already at full throttle, signs were waving, people were being noisy.

I was sort of wandering around taking pictures, so maybe I was not as actively listening as I should have been, but I believe Steve Doeung started off the proceedings, introducing someone who introduced someone else.

The speeches were brief and to the point, with a lot of shouted punctuations from the crowd, things like, "Chesapeake Sucks" "No Eminent Domain Abuse" "Aubrey McClendon Boo," stuff like that.

At one point, fresh, young firebrand, Glen Bucy, spoke. I asked one of the coordinators of this event to introduce me to Glen Bucy, because I admire his rhetoric, which reminds me so much of my own, but, for some reason, she did not.

That is Glen Bucy looking at me taking his picture, with Steve Doeung under the lower left hand corner of the "Hey Chesapeake Take this PIPELINE and SHOVE IT!" sign.

As the protest rally was going on, cars drove by honking horns of support. A lot of horn honkings of support.

After the Carter Avenue Rescue Project Rally was over it was time to head to the courtroom. There will be no pictures of the courtroom. It was forbidden. My group had trouble finding the courtroom. We exhausted all 4 floors before we found where we needed to be.

The last time Steve Doeung faced a judge and Cheseapeake Energy's legal team, he did it alone, with Don Young his sole support in the chamber. This time Steve Doeung was not alone. The courtroom was full of support.

The proceedings started off dull, with it seeming like Steve Doeung was in way over his head. And then, sort of like watching a Frank Capra movie, Steve seemed to grow stronger and stronger. Always polite, always articulate, always calm.
At one point the judge told Steve he was wrong on a point of law. One of the Chesapeake lawyers begged your honor's pardon to inform the judge that Steve was actually correct. I think the audience cheered. At least in the movie version.

At another point Steve was arguing the absurdity of a private citizen being put in the position of having to defend himself from a private business using eminent domain to try and take his property, asking that the judge even the playing field by appointing Steve legal counsel.

The judge explained that this was impossible. Steve suggested that if he kicked the Chesapeake lawyer, not that he was considering it, but, if he did, then legal counsel would be assigned. In other words, when you commit a crime, legal help is provided. But when you are the victim of what many believe to be a crime, you have to use your own resources to defend yourself.

In Steve Doeung's case, he may not be blessed with financial resources, but he is blessed with another powerful resource, as in he has a first rate mind, praised by the judge. And the Chesapeake lawyers.

At one point in the court proceeding a Texan with a cowboy hat came into the court, sat down, proceeded to pass his cowboy hat around to the courtwatchers, with people putting money in the hat, as if sitting in a pew at church.

When the bailiff saw this going on he escorted the cowboy out of church, I mean court. The cowboy was collecting money for Steve Doeung's defense. Later I was to see the amount of money that had been collected. It was not a small amount.

The King of Anti Eminent Domain Abuse, Billy Mitchell, is in one of the above pictures, speaking above the upper left corner of a "Chesapeake Sucks!" sign. I did not get a chance to meet Billy Mitchell. I don't think the opportunity presented itself.

That is DISH mayor Calvin Tillman on the right of the distinguished looking gentleman holding up what looks to be a very well-designed protest sign. And an American flag.

Okay, that is Part 1 of my day, today, in downtown Fort Worth. Part 2 took place at the Fort Worth Stockyards. I'll get to that after the break. I mean, after I take a break.