The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple

My one reader may remember how a time or two I took issue with some erroneous Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting.

It's been so long now I forget what the final straw was that caused me to cancel my subscription.

But, this morning reminded me of the type of thing that caused me to doubt pretty much anything I read in that paper, because over and over again when a Star-Telegram article was about something I had eye-witness knowledge of, I would spot bizarre errors.

Like over and over again touting a little lame collection of shops called the Sante Fe Rail Market as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and being the first public market in Texas. Soon I was to discover not only was it not the first public market in Texas, it was not even the first public market in Fort Worth!

Anyway, back to this morning's Star-Telegram.

In an article about yesterday's predictable dyeing the Trinity River Purple Boondoggle, titled "TCU fans are purple, even if the Trinity isn't" were a few odd pieces of information.

First off, please note the the title of the article accurately reported that the Trinity did not turn purple yesterday.

Yet in the article you read the following...

"We started this morning at 2 a.m., and we will go until it runs out," said Jim Oliver, water district general manager.

He said he didn’t know how long the river would remain purple, as the water district had never tried to dye it before.

"At least a day or two," he said.

They started what at 2am??? Nothing was sprayed into the Horned Frog River until Moncrief poured his glass of purple dye sometime after 10am. The Star-Telegram has this water district manager, Jim Oliver, saying he did not know how long the river would remain purple. And then in the next sentence he is saying it'll stay purple "At least a day or two."

The article has Moncrief saying he'd been a tad worried the past couple days about whether the Trinity River would really turn purple. I'll copy directly from the article...

Mayor Mike Moncrief admitted that he’s been a tad bit worried the past couple of days.

Would the Trinity River really turn purple?

"I did sleep with one eye open," Moncrief joked Friday morning while standing on the riverbank, where trucks were shooting purple dye into the water.

"But it is purple now, and it will be purple tomorrow."

Uh, it was not purple then and it certainly is not purple today. And trucks were not shooting purple dye into the water. It was one truck and it was spraying something into the air, not pumping anything into the river, as you can clearly see in the picture above.

I'd not heard Mayor Mike Moncrief speak before yesterday. I have had others tell me how embarrassing he can be. I totally get that now. He slept with one eye open? Due to worrying about dyeing a river? How does he sleep without worrying about getting indicted for corruption? How does he sleep without worrying about cutting back on library hours? How does he sleep without worrying about closing all the city pools?

Here's another Moncrief quote from the purple river article...

"To see people out here, in large numbers, young and old, with helicopters flying overhead, you can feel the energy in the air," he said. "There is nothing Fort Worth can’t do."

To which the article retorts, accurately, "Well, maybe one thing."

As in Fort Worth can't successfully dye a river purple. As for helicopters, in the plural, flying overhead, I saw one helicopter. It made one pass sometime after 10, but before the pseudo dye job began. The helicoptor was well gone before Moncrief finished with his mayoral decree and ceremonial dumping of his purple kool-aid into the former Trinity River.

To Moncrief's statement that the river will be purple tomorrow, the Star-Telegram said...

Well, maybe not. At 2 p.m. Friday, several hours after the dye briefly turned the river purple, the river looked the way it usually does — muddy brown.

Once more reporting that the river was turned "briefly" purple. It was not remotely purple, even briefly. I do not know how the river looked at 2pm, but at 10am it did not look brown or muddy. As I said yesterday, the river was looking a shade of purple. But not from any dye job.

I don't know if it is true or not (because I read it in the Star-Telegram) but the article about the failed dye attempt said the dye was donated by Streams & Valleys, with the Tarrant Regional Water District handling the details, "such as pumping dye into the river."

Again, I saw no pumping yesterday. I saw some material being sprayed from a truck, material that only altered the look of the river by causing a sort of white foam, which quickly dissipated. You can see that in the picture.

As another example of how brain dead dumb this operation was, make note of where the "dye" is being sprayed. On the blocked side of a dam-like structure, which has an opening in the middle that the river rushes through. Thus, whatever was being sprayed, yesterday, was quickly whooshed through that narrow funnel and sent merrily downstream, with no detectable purple left in its wake.

Except for the purple provided by Mother Nature.

One more thing. The dye was donated, but how much did the rest of this latest Fort Worth Boondoggle cost the city?

Off To See The Trinity (Horned Frog) River Turn Purple

I am heading to downtown Fort Worth's west side, to Trinity Park, in a bit to see if Mayor Mike Moncrief actually goes ahead with his plan to dye the Trinity River purple.

And rename it Horned Frog River.

All because a Fort Worth football team, called the TCU Horned Frog's, has won some games. And their school color is purple.

Too bad TCU's color wasn't brown instead of purple. Wouldn't have needed any dye if that were the case.

This has boondoggle written all over it. How much dye would have to be inserted into the river to color a section of it purple?

I'm hoping to get some good pictures. And maybe video. But I'm assuming this expedition will end up being a big dud.

On a totally unrelated, though wet note, it was 40 degrees when I tried to go swimming at 7:30 this morning. I lasted about 2 minutes in the icy water. Now, over 2 hours later I am still sort of shivering. Methinks my pooling may be over for awhile unless we get some warm days. I kept pooling last year til sometime in December.

Will this Global Warming thing I keep hearing about ever make it to Texas?

Blindsiding Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief

If you are a fan of Survivor you are also likely a fan of what is known as a blindside. That's when someone expecting to win is voted out of office, I mean, voted out of his tribe. A blindside is particularly satisfying if the one blindsided has been arrogant, cocky and way too sure of himself.

Fort Worth will soon have a mayoral election. Very very very few people vote in Fort Worth's mayoral elections. This basically leaves the decision as to who will be mayor up to the Ruling Junta, also known as the Fort Worth Oligarchy.

The current mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, is running for mayor again. The natural gas industry wants to keep him in office. Mayor Moncrief has vested interests in the various companies drilling for gas that the city tries to regulate. In other parts of America this is what is known as a conflict of interest. Such things can have a person in all sorts of trouble, elsewhere.

I'm currently reading a book called Honor Killing, by David Stannard. It's about the infamous "Massie Affair" that riveted America in the early days of the Great Depression. The "Massie Affair" brought out in the open all sorts of bad things that had become accepted in Hawaii, which was then pretty much an isolated outpost.

As I read the sad details of how the Oligarchy that ruled Hawaii, acting in their own selfish interests, to the detriment of the majority, who were all minorities, Native Hawaiians, Philipinos, Japanese and others, I thought of how things are done here in Fort Worth.

At one point the Honolulu Ruling Junta decided a place called Waikiki would make nice beachfront property. So, without a vote of the people, including the people who had built elaborate fisheries and farms on this land, a primitive method of eminent domain was used and a beach, now famous, was made.

In Fort Worth a primitive form of eminent domain is being used to take property to build a lake, some canals and an un-needed flood diversion channel in a project called the Trinity River Vision, that the people of Fort Worth have not been allowed to vote on.

Mike Moncrief has 2 men running against him in this election, Clyde Picht and Louis McBee. Because so few people vote, Moncrief is expected to win again. In 2004 McBee filed an ethics complaint against Moncrief, regarding the Cabelas Scandal, to no avail.

Moncrief did not attend a League of Women Voter's debate last week, saying he was too busy doing the city's business, like an hour later, being in the same building as the debate, to help open a remodeled gallery. It would seem that more pertinent city business would be being brave enough to participate in a candidate's debate.

I'm thinking it's time for the citizens of Fort Worth to act like they live in a grown up city and get out and vote to blindside Mike Moncrief. And then start demanding to be allowed to vote on whatever fool thing the Ruling Junta comes up with, be it a Santa Fe Rail Market or a fake lake or subsidizing a convention center hotel or a sporting goods store.

I'm voting for Clyde Picht.

The Good Works of Fort Worth's Ruling Junta

I'm reading a book where this guy tracks the route of Alexander the Great's conquests, some of which were in what later became part of the now gone Soviet Union. In this book the writer often makes note as to how Alexander's propagandist sent altered realities back to Greece for the consumption of the home front.

The Soviet Union used to have this propaganda tool called Pravda (Russian for Truth), which the Soviets used to manipulate their people with their lying spins on reality.

Why in the world am I talking about this? Well, here in Fort Worth we have what is known as a Ruling Junta. We really don't have what is known as a representative democracy. Some are trying to fix this, like Clyde Picht, who is trying to unseat Fort Worth's corrupt mayor, Mike Moncrief.

Fort Worth's Ruling Junta does not have Pravda, what they have is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram dispensing their version of the "TRUTH."

This was brought to mind a couple days ago when I was reading the letters to the editor in the Ruling Junta's online newspaper. It was a letter that was such a bad example of over the top propaganda I was appalled. Did the writer of this letter actually believe what he was writing? Or is he a mouthpiece/shill for the Ruling Junta? Who knows? Even though, apparently this guy is the mayor of North Richland Hills, he could still be a Ruling Junta shill. The Soviets used to plant people in their satellite states.

Anyway, here is the letter........

Thanks are due

Many thanks to the government leaders of Fort Worth for their continuing efforts to make the Dallas-Fort Worth region the best place to live in the United States. Mayor Mike Moncrief and the entire City Council work diligently for their residents to make Fort Worth the great place it is — and they still make time to help their neighbors improve the region.

Council members Jungus Jordan, Kathleen Hicks, Danny Scarth, Frank Moss, Carter Burdette, Sal Espino and Joel Burns are all active in the important regional issues we face. I often find them at many diverse functions pushing for a better quality of life for all residents in this area.

I personally thank the Fort Worth City Council for going above and beyond to work for a better life for all of us in North Texas.

— Oscar Trevino, mayor, North Richland Hills

How in the world is Fort Worth's Ruling Junta making an effort to make the D/FW region the best place to live in America? This is the best place to live in in America??? I've seen a lot of the rest of America. I beg to differ.

Mayor Mike and the entire city council work diligently to make Fort Worth the great city it is???

Examples, please, examples.

Is this guy talking about the boarding up of Heritage Park, it being where Fort Worth started and a monument to its heritage? Is this an example of the great work this city council is doing?

They still make time to help their neighbors improve the region??? Tell that to people who live along Fossil Creek in Haltom City.

An Iraqi Shoe For Bush? A Fort Worth Boot For Mayor Moncrief?

George W. getting shoes thrown at him at a Baghdad news conference made for one of the weirdest things I remember seeing in a long time. W.'s reflexes were quite quick. As was Iraqi leader Malicki's running interference on the incoming 2nd shoe.

The thrower of the shoe was quite good, too. Great aim and speed. A shoe is not the most aero-dynamic of items to be thrown. It's no baseball, football or frisbee. Yet the thrower hit a bullseye twice, or what would have been a bullseye were it not for George's deft ducking.

George handled it quite well, sort of turning the lemon into lemonade. I doubt many would want to drink George's lemonade, but it was a valiant effort, nonetheless, at off the cuff spin control. You can hear that and see the flying shoes in the video below.

Last night on MSNBC Keith Oberman was running and re-running over and over and over and over again the Bush Shoe Attack. With running commentary. It was sort of funny, in a sort of perverse way.

In the meantime, Don Young sent out an email that suggests that maybe this particular tactic might be used to get the attention of Fort Worth's corrupt Mayor Moncrief, he of the multi-conflicts of interest in the gas drilling business, with the Mayor owning interests in the companies seeking political favor in Moncrief's jurisdiction.