Corruption Crusader Asks If You Can Believe That Mike Moncrief Quote About James Hill

A few minutes ago that which you see here arrived at my location, sent by someone calling him or herself "Corruption Crusader".

The only text in the message said...

Can you believe that quote?

The only quote quoted on that which you see here is...

"Don't let a Dallas businessman control our water. Support James and the local water team!"

 -Rosie & Mike Moncrief

______________

The James referred to by Rosie & Mike is James Hill, he being one of the Favored Trio, along with Leah King and Jack Stevens, favored by the Oligarchy Gang which runs Fort Worth like a Medieval Fiefdom.

The Favored Trio are the three TRWD Board candidates, favored by the aforementioned Oligarchy Gang, in tomorrow's election, with the Oligarchy Gang helping the Favored Trio with thousands of dollars, many of which were donated by Dallas donors, which renders the Rosie & Mike quote ironically hypocritical.

Ironically hypocritical, what with all that money buying a massive propaganda campaign full of deceptions and lies, playing on irrational fears, much of which has targeted senior citizens.

There is no Dallas businessman trying to control Fort Worth water. There is a man who owns businesses in Fort Worth and Dallas who has helped with a relatively puny amount of money, the campaign of Mary Kelleher, the current TRWD Board Member who the Oligarchy Gang desperately wants off what they think of as "their" TRWD Board.

I have no way of knowing if this James Hill guy is a willing dupe, fully aware of the defamatory deceptions the Oligarchy Gang has been spewing regarding the imaginary Dallas bogeyman, or if this James Hill guy is just a naive, relatively young man, relatively clueless about the corruption he is now involved in.

Don't let the corrupt Oligarchy Gang win tomorrow. Vote for Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.

Wondering Why There Are No Plans To Build Fort Worth A New Skyscraper

This blogging is a variant of my popular series of bloggings about something I see in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, that I would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The variant is that this particular blogging is about something I regularly see in the Seattle Times which I rarely see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That being the announcement of some new big construction project.

Seems like hardly a week goes by without reading of some new construction project in downtown Seattle. Pike Place expansion. Residential towers. Mixed use towers. And projects like this skyscraper you see  here.

I've seen no new skyscrapers scrape the sky in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas. I think Dallas has added one or two.

I read yesterday that the Seattle area is currently the fastest growing zone in America, with the economy back in boom mode.

A booming economy would explain all the building projects, I suppose.

But, I thought I've read in the Star-Telegram that Fort Worth is growing fast. I don't think I've read that the local economy is booming though. Is that the reason for the static skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth?

The only semi-tall building I've seen constructed in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas is the Convention Center Hotel. That project did not come about via private enterprise building a hotel to accommodate all the tourists and convention goers flocking to Fort Worth. Due to the paucity of both, no private entity was interested in making that type hotel investment, so the local voters were snookered into helping pay for the hotel.

Since I have been in Texas I have witnessed several large construction projects in downtown Fort Worth.

Such as the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters. To build that building eminent domain was abused to remove a public housing development. Due to building the Radio Shack Headquarters the big free Tandy parking lots were no longer usable. The world's shortest subway line was closed, making access to downtown Fort Worth no longer the easy thing it was prior to this debacle. The lack of easy parking has greatly reduced the number of times I have visited downtown Fort Worth ever since.

A short distance from the Radio Shack debacle we had the downtown campus of Tarrant County College debacle, a grandiose project, with an interesting design, thwarted in mid construction. In the midst of the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle Radio Shack found it could no longer afford its new corporate headquarters. So, in a deal which made no sense to me, Tarrant County College, which had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their mangled downtown campus, then paid a few hundred more million to buy space in the Radio Shack building to use as their downtown campus, in a building which was not designed to be a school.

I tell you, Fort Worth has to be the "Boondoggle Capital  of the Free World".

That should be the town's catchy slogan, not "Where the West  Begins".

Adding to the roll of boondoggles, we have the Pier One Imports Corporate Headquarters. A beautiful building built on the spot where buildings were destroyed by a tornado. I don't remember how long Pier One Imports occupied their new headquarters before they, like Radio Shack, found out they could not afford it. The building was then sold to Chesapeake Energy to use as their satellite corporate headquarters from whence they ran their shadow Fort Worth city government during the reign of gas industry lackey, Mike Moncrief.

I don't know who owns the former Pier One Imports building now that Chesapeake Energy has taken the Walk of Shame out of Fort Worth.

If Fort Worth's economy is doing as well as the Star-Telegram propaganda-izes, how come we don't see more evidence of such?

We have America's Biggest Boondoggle currently stalled in slow motion, taking four years to build three little simple bridges from the mainland to an imaginary island, but not much else, except for an extensive music festival schedule taking place in, and beside, the Trinity River, a river which other parts of America would call the Trinity Slough, with no one thinking it a good idea to use as an inner tubing venue.

I'm sure some local would point to the West 7th area as evidence of Fort Worth's booming economy. Well, what I have seen in that area is extremely poor planning, with the area turning into a flooded lake when too much rain falls. The sidewalks are too narrow on West 7th, creating a canyon like effect that is not pleasant.

There is a lot of highway construction underway. Is that a sign of a booming local economy? Or one more sign of bad planning? The I-35 drive north from downtown Fort Worth has turned into an extremely unpleasant experience, particularly when you get past I-820.

I know there has been some effort to have some sort of train transit running from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine, and, I think, the north entry to D/FW International. But, that project seems to be a lot of talk and little action.

If Fort Worth ever does actually have itself a booming economy do you think maybe sidewalks could be added to more of the city's streets? And maybe get rid of all the outhouses in all the parks and install modern restroom facilities with running water to replace the outhouses?

We have all recently witnessed how fast the South can change when properly motivated. Could not the Fort Worth outhouses go as quickly as the Confederate flag? We can only hope....

A Happy Tandy Hills Earth Day With Fort Worth's Beatnik Loving Mayor

Fort Worth Mayor, Tom McCann signing
"National Beatnik Week" proclamation, 1960. (from LIFE magazine)

Or as the Tandy Hills Godfather, Don Young, put it today in an email's subject line:

Happy Triple bEarthday to Tandy Hills 2015.

According to Olive the Prairie Dog's parental unit, way back on this current day of April 22, in 1960, Fort Worth's beatnik-loving mayor, Tom McCann, and the Fort Worth City Council made the momentous decision to spend $138,250 for the 160 acre chunk of land now known as the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

As for the other parts of the triple part of today's bEarthday and the Tandy Hills.

Ten years after Fort Worth's beatnik-loving major decided to buy the Tandy Hills the first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970.

And then, 40 years later, on April 22, 2010, the Friends of the Tandy Hills Natural Area began a partnership deal with the City of Fort Worth where the city joined in the efforts to protect and restore the Tandy Hills.

The most interesting, to me, part of today's Earth Day Tandy Hills information is the fact that, apparently, way back in the 1960s, Fort Worth had itself a progressive mayor who liked the precursors of hippies, that being beatniks.

How did Fort Worth go from having a progressive beatnik-loving mayor to the era of mayor entities like Kay Granger, Mike Moncrief and Betsy Price? Can you picture any of those three signing a "National Beatnik Week" proclamation?

Well, okay, to be totally fair, which I always am, I guess I can see Betsy Price signing such a proclamation. There is something about Mayor Betsy that makes me think she could easily have been an active hippie during the hippie era. It would not shock me to learn that Mayor Betsy was at Woodstock being a Grateful Dead groupie.

Then again, I am not at all sure the Grateful Dead were at Woodstock....

Our Water Our Future Ironically Delivered By Fort Worth's Former Mayor & Rosie

This morning in the incoming email I found a blog comment commenting on a blogging from the day before yesterday....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu":

Check out the horrible photo editing around the heads of Mayor Betsy & Mayor Mike. Photochop indeed.

http://www.owof.info/

I clicked on the Anonymous link, with no clue what "owof" might be, to find that which you see above, a smiling couple, Betsy Price and Mike Moncrief.

Eventually, I figured out what "owof" is via the copyright blurb at the bottom of the website's one and only page....

© 2015 Our Water, Our Future. Pol. Adv. paid for by Our Water, Our Future PAC. Treasurers: Mike & Rosie Moncrief.

Our Water, Our Future, brought to you by Fort Worth's former mayor and his wife.

The political advertisement paid for by the Our Future PAC is yet one more shameless, shameful propaganda piece raising the bogus specter of Dallas businessman boogeyman, Monty Bennett's, devious, nefarious plot to take over Fort Worth's water by spending millions of dollars.

The propaganda actually cites the equally shameless, shameful Star-Telegram, as if that newspaper is a legitimate news source saying, "As has been extensively reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mr. Bennett wants to take control of our local water board and has already spent an estimated $4 million in election, lobbying and legal costs trying to get control of our local water board."

Extensively reported in the Star-Telegram?

Nothing is extensively reported in the Star-Telegram. And the Star-Telegram's reporting regarding the TRWD board's shenanigans has been particularly weak and one-sided.

Apparently the TRWD board incumbents can not run on their record. And so the Dallas straw man is needed as a bogus issue. The TRWD board incumbents' public relations propaganda people must have done research that has shown them that using the Dallas boogeyman will have traction with those few voters who will bother to vote in the upcoming election.

From the TRWD board incumbents we hear about the evil Dallas businessman spending millions to take control of Fort Worth's water, forcing the TRWD to spend millions to defend itself from the myriad lawsuits filed against them by the evil Dallas businessman.

But, we hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents about the millions of dollars they caused to be spent suing Oklahoma in a ridiculous attempt to take water from the north side of the Red River.

We hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents, particularly Jim Lane, about the millions of TRWD dollars spent to buy land from a bankrupt friend of Jim Lane's, with the millions paid being double the market value of the land, some of which was turned into the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

We hear nothing from the TRWD board incumbents about the lack of progress of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

How about an explanation from the TRWD board incumbents as to how three simple little bridges being built over dry land can take an amazing four years to build?

Those are just a few examples of the TRWD board incumbents' real record, and that real record is what the voters should be talking about and focused on, rather than giving any credence to propaganda about a Dallas businessman trying to take control of the TRWD board and Fort Worth's water.

Below I will copy all the propaganda from the Our Water, Our Future website for your perusal. See how many lies and ridiculous items of extreme exaggeration you can spot in the following Orwellian propaganda....

WATER IS OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE
This May’s Tarrant Regional Water Board election is probably one of the most important elections in the history of our city, our region, our future and for generations to come. Truly, our water is our future.

While the rest of Texas has struggled through the sustained drought, our local residents and businesses have benefited from TRWD’s prudent planning and management of our local water supply. In fact, TRWD now owns 4 lakes and has water rights in another 3 lakes across North and East Texas.

HOWEVER, A DALLAS BUSINESSMAN WANTS TO CONTROL OUR LOCAL WATER
Two of TRWD’S Board members are up for re-election this May: Marty Leonard and Jim Lane. Marty and Jim are being opposed by a slate of candidates financed by a Dallas businessman (Monty Bennett).

As has been extensively reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mr. Bennett wants to take control of our local water board and has already spent an estimated $4 million in election, lobbying and legal costs trying to get control of our local water board.

VOTER BEWARE
You may have received some inaccurate information about the Water Board, please know this FALSE information was paid for by Mr. Bennett.

VOTE TO SAVE OUR WATER
Vote FOR Marty Leonard and Jim Lane in the Tarrant Regional Water Board Election on May 9th. Your vote will keep Tarrant County’s water supply safe and secure for current and future generations.

If we let this Dallas businessman get control, our future water supply will be jeopardized.

© 2015 Our Water, Our Future. Pol. Adv. paid for by Our Water, Our Future PAC. 
Treasurers: Mike & Rosie Moncrief.

A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu

A blog comment arrived today commenting on a blogging from way back in February, which, when I read it, had me thinking this feels like deja vu, all over again.

First the blog comment and then what had me thinking deja vu, all over again....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Tarrant Regional Water District Corruption: The Website": 

You might want to dig a little more on this campaign. I find it odd that the other two candidates running (Luckner/Bickley) are receiving very generous amounts of money from a business man in Dallas named Monty Bennett who has sued the board 7 times costing us (taxpayers) millions of dollars, all because he does not want piping to cross his ranch. Sounds like if Luckner and Bickley win, this business man will control the water board since he also funded Kelleher in the last election. Sounds like Monty Bennett is buying politicians to me.

Something about the ham-handed verbiage in this comment seemed familiar to me. And then I remembered back early in the Chesapeake Energy invasion of the Barnett Shale if I blogged about some Chesapeake bad behavior I would see my stats light up from Oklahoma City, followed by ham-handed propaganda attacking my antiquated Archie Bunker type horse and buggy thinking.

Or something like  that.

I recollect I started referring to the senders as Chesapeake shills when re-posting some of the more memorable pieces of propaganda. And then, at some point in time, Texas Sharon informed me that everyone who was talking about Chesapeake's bad deeds was getting the same boiler plate spewage from the Chesapeake shills.

After Chesapeake realized its propaganda was backfiring on them and that it made them appear foolish, as well as ham-handed, it ceased.

At the peak of its Barnett Shale domination Chesapeake Energy basically controlled Fort Worth's city government, with Mayor Mike Moncrief acting as their stooge, a role he is now playing for the TRWD incumbents.

How ironic, these few short years later, that those who found fault with Chesapeake's bad behavior turned out to be right, with Chesapeake ending up being sued all over the Barnett Shale, including sued by D/FW Airport, the City of Fort Worth and many others of those who early on signed on to the Chesapeake invasion, such as the Bass brothers.

Am I remembering correctly when thinking that the same public relations firm that ran the shady Chesapeake Energy propaganda operation are the same shady operators who ran the propaganda operation for the TRWD incumbents the last election?

Is that why this blog comment about Monty Bennett, the evil Dallas businessman, seems so familiar to me?

Regarding that Anonymous comment....

Anonymous suggests I dig a little more on this campaign. Anonymous must not actually read my blog or Anonymous would know I am totally aware of who Monty Bennett is and that I think it is yet one more telling sign of the corruption of much of what the TRWD board does that this propaganda is being spewed over and over and over again.

How dare Monty Bennett use whatever resources he has at his disposal to defend his land. Where does he think he lives? In America? The land of the free? Where one has the right to protect ones property?

Monty Bennett has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars?

The TRWD board would not have had to defend itself if it had worked with Monty Bennett in an aboveboard, honest and transparent manner.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer dollars the TRWD board wasted in a fruitless attempt to sue Oklahoma to get access to Oklahoma water.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer's dollars TRWD incumbent, Jim Lane, finagled to funnel to a bankrupt friend who gave up some land worth something like $9 million, in exchange for a rescue from bankruptcy for a sum about twice that amount. With that land then used, in part, for the location of the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

The TRWD incumbents, in using their attack the evil Dallas businessman tactic, over and over again, seem to me to indicate desperation. They can not address the real issues which have voters aggravated, so they raise the specter of a Dallas boogeyman engaged in an imaginary plot to control the TRWD board.

It is the bad behavior of the TRWD board which has gotten them frying on the sizzling HOT seat. Being on that sizzling HOT seat has nothing to do with a Texas businessman trying to protect his East Texas ranch.

And one more thing, you Anonymous TRWD shills, it is Von Luckner, Michele Von Luckner. At least get that right.....

More TRWD Election Propaganda Lies From Jim Lane, Marty Leonard, Betsy Price & Mike Moncrief

On Friday I blogged a blogging titled TRWD Propaganda Targeting Seniors With Evil Dallas Boogeyman Taking Over Fort Worth Scare Tactic in which I verbalized being appalled to learn that the TRWD board election incumbents were actually continuing to use the claim that a Dallas businessman was attempting to take over the Fort Worth water supply by taking over the TRWD board, spreading this propaganda in an apparent attempt to scare senior citizens into voting for the senior citizens who are already on the board.

I learned of this TRWD bogus Dallas boogeyman tactic via Elsie Hotpepper's Great Aunt Hannah Hotpepper who emailed samples of the propaganda that had been showing up in senior citizen's mailboxes.

And then this morning Aunt Hannah's Great Niece, Elsie, emailed me scans of propaganda that has been showing up on some non-senior citizen's doors in the past 48 hours.

Just like with the mailings targeting senior citizens these latest mailings also use as mouthpieces two of Fort Worth's most infamous senior sitizens, Betsy Price and Mike Moncrief.

Do these ethically challenged TRWD  corruptees actually have so little respect for the critical faculties of those who vote that they don't realize most voters will see through the absurdity of raising the false specter of a Dallas boogeyman businessman?

Particularly when serious charges that are actually fact and reality based can be directed at some of the TRWD board members. Coyote Drive-In, anyone?

Currently the Fort Worth Business Press has an article about the Dallas Boogeyman that is based on fact, you know, the truth, of the sort you won't be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the imaginary evil Dallas Business Boogeyman, Monty Bennett.

I may blog more about the Fort Worth Business Press article later, but prior to that, if Facts, Truth and the American Way matter to you, read Monty Bennett: Businessman, water district activist.

What Rank Does Betsy Price Hold In The Fort Worth Army?

That is the honorable mayor of Fort Worth, Betsy Price, you are looking at here, looking very stern and serious, with that stern and serious look being totally appropriate, what with the explosive military-like operation Betsy is overlooking.

Yesterday, after I blogged about the TRWD bragging about enabling people to jump in the Trinity River, someone named Anonymous made a blog comment which soon had me watching Betsy Price watching what looked to me like a military operation.

In plain clothes.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Thanks To The TRWD Fort Worth Is The Only Town In Texas Where You Can Jump In A River":

Off topic, but thought you would enjoy seeing our local leaders having a BLAST! Our City, Our Firearms! I guess it raises more $ than a bake sale.

The Anonymous blog comment included a link to a YouTube video which you can watch below.

The local leaders having a BLAST, to which Anonymous refers, in addition to Betsy Price, includes Betsy's predecessor, Chesapeake Energy's puppet,  Mike Moncrief.

In the video Betsy and Mike sing the praises of Fort Worth's army, I mean, SWAT team, which they, of course, believe to be the very best in the nation.

In the video there is some lamenting about the SWAT team being underfunded and needing money. I think this event must  have been some sort of fund raiser, which explains the "bake sale" part of the Anonymous comment.

Don't bullets and bombs cost a lot of money? There are a lot of guns being fired a lot of times during the course of this explosive video.

Does Fort Worth have a big need for a SWAT team army? The only horrific incident I can remember since I've been in Texas which would seem to have been SWAT team worthy was the Wedgewood Baptist Church murder of 7 young people, with an additional 7 injured before the killer Larry Gene Ashbrook killed himself.

The Wikipedia article about this tragedy makes no mention of Fort Worth's SWAT team being involved.

How much does Fort Worth spend on this little army, I can't help but wonder?

I also can't help but wonder if other town's SWAT teams engage in events of the sort you will witness in the video below?

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price Has No Comment About 30 Day Evictions Of 100s In Her Town

Earlier today I blogged about the shocking evictions of 100s of Fort Worth residents who were given only 30 days to vacate the premises they called home.

Soon after hitting the publish button on that blogging there was an incoming comment from someone named Anonymous...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fort Worth Shrugs Its Shoulders While Hundreds Of Citizens Are Given 30 Day Eviction Notices": 

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price has no comment:

http://fwtx.com/snapshots/wild-game-dinner/93380/3871 

I clicked the link included in the comment from Anonymous to find, just like Anonymous indicated, no comment from Betsy Price, just the above photo.

I am not 100% certain, but I think that is Betsy Price's predecessor, former Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, standing next to Fort Worth's current mayor.

Fort Worth Really Is Where The Jest Begins As The Funniest Big City In America

Last night Elsie Hotpepper emailed me a link with the message in the email saying "Apparently they didn't factor in our politicians...."

The link was to an article in Texas Monthly titled Where the Jest Begins.

Apparently an in depth scientific study was made by a group of some university's scientists to determine the answer to the important question everyone has always wondered about, as in, which big city in America is the funniest.

And so a Top 50 Funny City List was compiled using a complex calculation method factoring in the number of comedy clubs, comedians and how often a town's people visit funny websites.

The computer went to work and eventually figured out that Chicago is America's funniest town.

The Texas Monthly article has a paragraph about how Texas fared, funny-wise....

Texas cities, however, mostly tanked. Austin, at number 14, was the state’s only reasonably funny locale. Dallas and Houston came in at 36 and 37, respectively; Arlington was 46; and San Antonio was 47. Scroll down to the very bottom of the list and there, at number 50, you’ll find Fort Worth—the unfunniest city in America, according to science.

Well, even though I totally respect the scientific method used to determine that Fort Worth is the least funny of the Top 50 biggest towns in America, methinks, like Elsie Hotpepper thought, that the data used to determine a town's funniness was not broad enough.

Methinks things like Kay Granger being Fort Worth's Congresswoman should have been factored in.  Along with Kay's son being given a nepotistic job for which he had zero qualifications, as in running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean Panther Island Boondoggle. (I just can not get used to the funny, goofy new name for the Boondoggle)

Which is just another funny Fort Worth factor. How many towns on this Top 50 Funny List  have anything as goofy as the Panther Island Boondoggle going on in their town? How many towns on this Top 50 Funny List are building three bridges over an imaginary flood bypass channel for which no money has been secured to dig an un-needed flood bypass channel?

How many other towns in this Top 50 Funny List have something as funny as the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats going on in a polluted river running past their downtowns?

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List have done something as goofy and funny as open the 21st century's first drive-in movie theater?

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List has done something as goofy as naming their downtown zone "Sundance Square" and then after decades of there being no square in Sundance Square, finally building a square, but then do something funny like name the new square "Sundance Square Plaza?"

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List have had a mayor like former Fort Worth mayor Mike Moncrief, who would do something as funny as pour grape kool-aid in their town's river thinking it would turn the river purple, and do so in some sort of odd homage to a local school's colors?

I really believe a broader funny city scientific survey would have placed Fort Worth in its proper place on a list of the Top 50 Funniest Cities in America, with that proper place being Fort Worth is clearly the #1 Funniest City in America.

Mayor Betsy Price Thinks The Late Nancy Bass & Her Four Sons Made Fort Worth One Of The Greatest Cities In The World

In the picture you are looking at a campaign ad for Betsy Price from the mayoral election that installed Betsy Price as Fort Worth's replacement for Mayor Mike Moncrief.

I don't know if it is some sort of tradition that Fort Worth mayors say and do goofy things, or what. I think I've only experienced two Fort Worth mayors, those being Moncrief and Price. I don't remember who was mayor before Moncrief.

Moncrief did really goofy things, such as dying the Trinity River purple and having a downtown Fort Worth shoot out with Texas Governor Rick Perry. Moncrief also said memorably goofy things which I am currently not remembering, so I guess the memorably goofy things were not all that memorable.

Last month Fort Worth's Mayor, Betsy Price, said a memorably goofy thing about Fort Worth being the Envy of the Nation due to a new Police & Firefighter Training Center. Mr. Galtex pointed me to this mayoral goofiness, which had me blogging about it in Mayor Betsy Price Thinks Fort Worth Will Once Again Be The Envy Of The Nation.

Last night, on his way to Lisbon, Portugal, for lunch, with Mrs. Galtex, I heard from Mr. Galtex again, with some new goofiness from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

Speaking about the recent passing of Fort Worth notable, Nancy Bass, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said, "She left an indelible mark in our community as a compassionate leader and as a mother of four boys who would become instrumental in defining Fort Worth's reputation as one of the greatest cities in the world."

I guess it is important for a town's mayor to be a cheerleader for their town. But, when the cheerleading becomes sort of delusional, it becomes a tad worrisome.

There is methodology where the world's cities are analyzed by their importance to the global economic system. New York City and London are at the top of all the various rankings of this sort. A City which has reached a certain level of importance to the global economic system is known as Global City.

From Wikipedia a blurb about what a Global City is...

A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center) is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

Go to the Wikipedia Global City article and you will find several lists listing Global Cities by various criteria.

Fort Worth is not on any of the Global City lists. Dallas is. Austin is. Houston is. San Antonio is. But, Fort Worth is not. Many other cities in America are on the various lists, like Seattle. But not Fort Worth.

So, one can not help but wonder by what criteria it is that Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price determines that Fort Worth has a reputation as one of the greatest cities in the world?

Very, very perplexing....

Taking It Easy In The Shady Jungle Of Village Creek Natural Historic Area Thinking About Mike Moncrief's Legacy Of Greed & Deception

Today is my therapist prescribed Day of Taking it Easy. Days of Taking it Easy are timed to coincide with when my pool is being treated and not swimmable.

I decided to escape confinement by going to the Village Creek Natural Historic Area, again, to be one, again, with the spirits of all the Indians who were murdered here.

That and enjoy a nice walk in a shaded jungle of green, blocked from the blistering rays of the relentless sun which is currently in heavy duty wilting mode.

With no incoming rain it will not be long before North Texas turns from its nice shade of green to a pleasant shade of brown. Brown is my favorite color, so I am okay with seeing brown everywhere I go.

I just a long email from Don Young with the subject being "Mike Moncrief's Legacy of Greed & Deception." I wonder if now that Fort Worth is finally rid of its corrupt mayor if the FBI, currently busy in Dallas, might turn some federal racketeering attention on Fort Worth?

I suspect not.

Instead of worrying about Fort Worth racketeering, I am going to have lunch now.

Betsy Price & Jim Lane In A Race For Mayor In The Fort Worth Stockyards

One of Jim Lane's ex-girl friends sent me this picture of her ex in a horse race with Betsy Price at some location in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

It appears, in the picture, that Jim Lane has a slight lead over Betsy Price. I don't know if that is currently the case in their horse race to become Mike Moncrief's replacement as mayor of Fort Worth.

Betsy Price is the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy's choice to be mayor. Jim Lane is also a member of the FWRO. But not the chosen one.

In the May 14 election that eliminated the non-FWRO candidates, Betsy got 43.3% of the vote, while Jim got 26.3%. Together, Betsy and Jim got 69.6% of the vote.

In the last mayoral election Mike Moncrief won by getting 70% of the 6% of the votes of the voters who bothered to vote. In the May 14 election more than 10% of the voters bothered to vote. With the percentage of votes going to the FWRO candidates virtually at the same 70% level as when only 6% voted.

This would seem to negate the theory that the way to overturn the FWRO is to get people to vote. If there was a 50% turnout would the FWRO still get around 70% of the vote? It would be interesting to find out. But, sadly, it will never happen.

There are too many fun things to do on a Saturday in Fort Worth, competing with voting, like going wakeboarding on the world's premiere wakeboard lake, for example.

Even though he is a charter member of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy, I'm voting for Jim Lane. I think he may make an amusingly goofy replacement for the amusingly goofy Mike Moncrief.

Jim Lane has a Facebook page for his mayoral campaign. I gleaned a few good comments that I will share below...

 Best quote of the day regarding supporting Jim Lane for Mayor:

"It's time to coalesce around a real leader for Fort Worth. Besides, Best Buy wants their logo back."

--Todd Hill, Democratic Activist

Fort Worth has taken the wrong path of leadership for years, it's time to "Get in the right Lane" besides; "The Price ain't Right"

---Joycia Sunshyne Johnson

I wish I lived in Fort Worth for this election. Betsy Price is a great lady, but there is nothing in her resume that qualifies her for mayor. Mayors have to think forward and VOTE ON MATTERS concerning: public safety, parks and recreation, setting property tax rates, street maintenance, water and sewer system maintenance, libraries, bond issues, employee salaries and benefits, long-range planning, attracting new businesses and on and on. So...Who talked Betsy Price into giving up a nice salary and why?

---Joe Forsythe

The gas drilling industry perhaps? Fort Worth needs a mayor that will regulate the excesses and public abuse caused by the gas drilling industry. I agree that Betsy Price is in no position to afford any protection or review of regulation to protect the Fort Worth public. I was looking to Cathy Hirt for that. I can only hope that Jim Lane is in a position to protect Fort Worth and it's residents should he be elected.

---Paul Philip Holt

____________________________________________________

A lot of people seem to be wondering why Betsy Price is willing to give up a job that pays over $100,000 a year for one that pays considerably less.

I have asked if maybe Betsy Price is independently wealthy so the change in income is meaningless. Or maybe she is married to someone who makes a lot of money, rendering the change in income meaningless.

Mayor Mike Moncrief made millions during his tenure as mayor from the gas companies poking holes all over his town. Maybe Betsy Price has figured out her own way of getting money from the gas drillers. I understand she is very good at handling large amounts of money.

When asked why she was running for mayor, Betsy Price said she was doing so because the Queen of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy, Kay Granger, asked her to. Maybe Kay also promised to make up the income difference after Betsy's installation as mayor.

No One Remembered To Tell Jim Lane That The Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy Has Picked Betsy Price For Mayor

Another Boss Hogg, I mean, Jim Lane for Fort Worth mayor mailing showed up in my mailbox this morning.

Why is Jim Lane still spending money on campaigning?

Didn't Jim Lane get the memo that the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy had made its choice for mayor and had announced its choice via the Editorial Board of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a few days ago?

Now, I wish the FWRO had picked Jim Lane, so that we could continue having a goofy mayor in Fort Worth.

Just look at the picture of Jim Lane I took from today's mailer. Does Jim Lane not look like the physical personification of Fort Worth? And look how that little girl towers over Jim Lane. How can you not like that?

I've been told, by those who should know, that Jim Lane is a much nicer guy than Mike Moncrief. And that, unlike Mike Moncrief, Jim Lane has a good sense of humor.

So, with Jim Lane we'd get a very short, amusing, nice guy who looks like Fort Worth and is proud to wear a cowboy hat.

I must remember to go do the early voting thing.

I Think Jim Lane May Be Fort Worth's Best Hope For A New Goofy Mayor

For the second Saturday in a row I opened my mailbox to find a political campaign mailing from Jim Lane that is too big for my scanner, so I can only scan part of the political campaign mailing.

Jim Lane is one of the dozens of candidates hoping to replace Fort Worth's goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief.

After years of living under the goofy Moncrief regime I have grown to become a big fan of having a goofy mayor.

Of those running, near as I can tell, Jim Lane shows the best potential to give Fort Worth a new goofy mayor.

My scanner cut off the bottom of Jim Lane's latest ad.

At the bottom it says "A Mayor who will fight for all Fort Worth families!"

And then, under that inspiring slogan...

"It takes a fighter to know a fighter...that's why I'm supporting Jim for Mayor." Signed by "Paulie Ayala, Former Two-Time World Champion."

Now that explains why Jim Lane is in a goofy pugilist pose in the picture.

Since I blogged about last week's Jim Lane mailer I've learned I was erroneous in assuming Jim Lane is the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy's pick for mayor, thus guaranteeing him a win with 70% of the 6% of Fort Worth voters who bother to vote.

Apparently the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy's pick for mayor is Tarrant County tax assessor and collector, Betsy Price.

I have received nothing in the mail from Betsy Price. But if I remember right, she is following me on Twitter. That is slightly goofy, following me on Twitter.

But, I'd like to know both Betsy Price's and Jim Lane's positions on shooting guns in downtown Fort Worth, dyeing the Trinity River unnatural colors and rappelling down Fort Worth skyscrapers.

Just looking at pictures of him I get the idea Jim Lane has a high goofiness quotient. I have read that he is quite amusing with an actual sense of humor. I don't think Fort Worth's current goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief has an actual sense of humor, but he makes up for that by being accidentally amusing, like when he rappelled upside down a Fort Worth skyscraper.

A Confederacy Of Fort Worth Dunces Keeps Seeing Imaginary Purple Rivers

This morning a couple things brought the phrase "Confederacy of Dunces" to mind. Great book, by the way.

The infallible sign of genius quote is one of Jonathon Swift's better known epigraphs.

The first thing this morning that brought a Confederacy of Dunces to mind was a comment made to yesterday's blogging about the Star-Telegram's confused description of the attempt to dye the Trinity River purple.

The commenter, the ubiquitous Anonymous, apparently drank the purple Kool-Aid and saw the magic water 19 hours after the Star-Telegram report said the water (that had been turned ever so slightly purple, through their reporter's, apparently, lavender-colored glasses) had returned to its usual muddy brown.

Below is what Anonymous had to say....

I was there on Saturday early around 7 am when they were pumping and it was purple I commend their effort and spirit!

The attempt to turn the Trinity River purple occurred at 10am Friday morning. Not Saturday. And there was no purple and no pumping.

Anonymous commends their imaginary effort and spirit???? I've seen some effort and spirit displays in my time on the planet. What I saw Friday morning was a pretty lame effort that resulted in rather subdued spirits.

Moving on to the other thing that brought a Confederacy of Dunces to mind this morning.

It is a YouTube video of Americans being interviewed while waiting to see Sarah Palin at one of her book signing events for her Going Rogue best seller, that apparently goes quite wildly rogue with a lot of erroneous bits of information.

We've all run in to people like you'll see in the video. People who say some ridiculous thing where you instantly realize they have not the slightest clue about what they are talking about. So, you ask a follow up question and they either get upset because once more they've been caught in the "stupid" trap. Or they get that deer in the headlights look and admit they don't know anything about what they'd just made a strident comment about.

I really think a test similar to the citizenship test given to new Americans should be passed before an American is given their license to vote. When you have a Confederacy of Dunces voting you end up with results like Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief, re-elected in a 70% landslide of 6% of Fort Worth's eligible voters.....

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple

I have watched a strange thing or two over the years in Texas and Fort Worth. I don't know, for sure, if this morning's attempt to dye the Trinity River purple was the strangest, but I am sure it is in the Top 10 Strangest Things I've Seen in Texas.

There was quite a large crowd assembled in Trinity Park to witness the spectacle of turning the Trinity River purple.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief read an extremely long proclamation that ended with him decreeing that the purple section of the Trinity River was re-named Horned Frog River.

Before Moncrief's proclamation another politician spoke. A female. I've no idea who she was.

In the picture you are looking at Moncrief pouring a glass of purple dye that looked like grape Kool-Aid into the newly christened Horned Frog River.

Now, this was a bit of a pep assembly, so Moncrief's hyperbole could be forgiven. I guess. This was the first time I've seen Mike Moncrief up close and heard him speak, at length. I wish I'd thought to whip out my video camera and record the entire speech. Some of Moncrief's verbiage was shockingly ironic. I can't quote it exactly from memory, but he said something very Jesus-like, about Fort Worth looking out for the least among us. And being the #1 city in America. Or was it the world? Darn, I wish I'd turned on the camcorder.

As you can see, Moncrief is bookended by two TCU Cheerleaders. You can also see the Trinity River behind Moncrief. At this point in the proclamation he had not yet re-named the river. You can also see that it already looks sort of purple. When I first saw the river I thought it had already been dyed, plus there was a white froth on the banks that I thought might be dye related. When the actual dyeing did begin there was pretty much a collective rolling of the eyes watching. It was that bizarre.

Soon after Moncrief emptied his glass of purple dye into Horned Frog River a tanker truck on the other bank started spraying what looked like water. This was the dye. People started muttering. The tanker sprayed for maybe 5 minutes before there was no more dye to spray. The only change to the river was the effect of the spray as it landed. When the spraying stopped I could detect no color.

I asked a couple people if they saw any purple. They didn't. One lady told me her husband told her there was no way they could turn the river purple.

The crowd of hopeful purple river watchers quickly melted away after the tanker spraying stopped. The only purple I saw, besides on TCU people's clothes and the cheerleader's sign, was "GO FROGS" painted on the Trinity, I mean, Horned Frog River Levee.

Okay, now I've got to tell you the really weird thing that happened. Someone came up and asked me if I was Durango Texas. That has never happened to me before. Not in Texas. I've had it happen in Washington. I've sort of slightly had it cross my mind that this might happen and that the person might be cranky about something I'd said about their, I mean, my, beloved Fort Worth.

I asked the questioner why she thought I was Durango Texas. She said she read my blog, read what I wrote about the plan to dye the river purple and that I looked like the pictures on the blog. So, I confessed that I was the culprit. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then I wandered off taking more pictures.

A couple minutes later I sat on the river bank to listen to Moncrief. I was slightly paranoid, noticing a few people looking at me and not at the mayor. Maybe it was something behind me they were looking at. Like I said, I was slightly paranoid.

Anyway, I'm glad I watched the purple river spectacle this morning. I found it entertaining. And more so than before I'm appalled that 70% of 6% of Fort Worth's eligible voters voted that man to be their mayor. Like I said. Bizarre.

Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple

Okay, I admit I am not much of a spectator sports fan. I've watched a game or two over the years, but it is not something I regularly do. I prefer to play, rather than sit and watch others play.

So, I don't pay all that much attention to who wins what. This can leave me woefully ignorant of who is doing well in whatever sport.

As in, I had no idea that Fort Worth had a football team that is ranked #4 and is undefeated, that being Texas Christian University, aka TCU. Apparently TCU has never been in a BCS bowl game and due to their ranking they likely will get their first invite.

I did not know that 2 weeks ago Fort Worth initiated a "Go Purple" campaign. Evidently purple is TCU's school color. TCU's team mascot is something called a Horned Frog.

Now here is where it gets really weird.

Fort Worth's corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief, a man who loves to help people pollute, announced on Wednesday that a section of the Trinity River that runs through Trinity Park will be dyed purple Friday morning.

And the Trinity River will be renamed "Horned Frog River" for the duration of the football season.

The wondrous powers of being a Fascist Dictator. You can order the arbitrary coloring and renaming of a river.

Tarrant Regional Water District and Streams and Valleys employees have been working on a non-toxic purple dye that will not affect water quality or harm fish, turtles or birds.

Huh?

Isn't just the act of turning river water purple harming the quality of the water?

And, how are we to trust that this purple dye is totally non-toxic? Are these not sort of the same people who used to claim the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling was non-toxic til proven otherwise?

It would seem there are better ways of showing support for the local football team than turning an already troubled river into the River Purple.

The Texas Blahs Caused By Twitter & Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Pollution

It is a beautiful blue sky day, 72 degrees HOT, windows open, here in the little Texas burg that calls itself Fort Worth.

I should be in a good mood, all things considered. Instead I have an overarching case of the BLAHs.

I believed this case of the BLAHs was brought on by spending too much time with Twitter the past 3 days. I have been in experimenting mode with Twitter, to see if I really could make use of it.

This morning I pretty much decided, for the most part, that Twitter is useless. Or maybe my limited comprehension abilities render it impossible for me to make use of what may actually be useful about Twitter.

One of my Tarrant County co-horts is off on a secret mission this morning. I know no details, except it is a secret mission. This is not the first secret mission she has gone on. I hope it's not some sort of eco-terrorist thing. Then again, Texas could use a little eco-terrorism. There are way too many evil-doers getting away with doing dirty deeds here.

Wyatt Earp needs to come to town and bring law and order with him.

Arresting Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief would probably be a good start. I keep thinking the feds are going to arrest the man and charge him with racketeering, or whatever the proper charge is for benefiting monetarily from decisions made due to your political position. I don't see what the difference is between accepting bribes, for favors done, and having vested interests in the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling companies, giving the mayor a motivation to agree to every fool thing the gas drillers ask for.

You want the drilling distance restriction reduced? No problem. You can drill 300 feet from someone's house. You need water? No problem. Just stick a pipeline anywhere you want. You say it'd cost too much to put vapor containment equipment on the drilling sites? No problem, we can live with a little air pollution, no matter how bad study after study indicates it is. You want to run a pipeline under Fort Worth citizen's homes and pump non-odorized gas. Not a problem. We'll help you get the job done by using eminent domain, if that helps.

Maybe I am feeling BLAH due to the air that I breathe. The windows are open. I'm about 600 feet from a Barnett Shale natural gas well. It's either Twitter or the Barnett Shale that is making me BLAH. Maybe a combo of both.

Fort Worth's Corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief's Re-Election Is A Sign Of The Apocalypse

I do not know how I missed this gem in Fort Worth Weekly's Best of 2009 issue about Fort Worth's notoriously corrupt mayor, Mike Moncrief.

I previously noticed and blogged about another Best of 2009 mention of Fort Worth's un-esteemed mayor, that being him being Fort Worth Weekly's pick as "The Politician Most Likely to Sell Grandma to the Highest Bidder."

But, I somehow missed the other Mayor Mike Moncrief Best of 2009 mention. That being "Sign of the Apocalypse."

The Reader's Choice was the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle.

The Critic's Choice for "Sign of the Apocalypse" was Mayor Mike Moncrief's landslide re-election.

About that particular election travesty, where only 6% of Fort Worth's registered voters voted and gave the insufferably corrupt mayor a landslide 70% victory, FW Weekly Critics said...

"Fort Worth voters elected this former senator as mayor in 2003. Since then, millions of dollars have gone unaccounted for at city hall but nobody got fired, the budget is in turmoil. Moncrief's gas drilling buddies are degrading the city's quality of life, and the mayor likes to bully and badger people who try to speak out at city council meetings. The apocalypse might almost be an improvement."

Don Young Fort Worth Weekly's Best Of 2009 Pick For Watchdog, Mayor Mikey Moncrief Politician Most Likely To Sell Grandma To Highest Bidder

I was looking for a photo of Don Young, he being Fort Worth and Tarrant County's #1 community activist, protector of the Tandy Hills Natural Area and fighter for cleaner Fort Worth air, but I could find no Don Young photo.

But there were plenty of photos of Alaska's congressmen named Don Young. Alaska's Don Young is not a citizen activist fighting big oil polluters. Alaska's Don Young is one of those corrupt politico types who activists fight.

Meanwhile, here in Fort Worth, dubbed "Dirty ol' Town" by our local Don Young, in it's annual Best Of issue, Fort Worth Weekly's Critics picked Don Young as the Best of 2009 Watchdog, saying...

The old phrase "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" applies perfectly to community activist Don Young, a small guy with a lot of fight in him. Young has been looking over the shoulder of the gas drillers in Tarrant County since they first arrived, constantly letting news media and the public know what's going on. He's tireless in his efforts to protect Fort Worth from the negative aspects of urban drilling. The town could use more like him.

Meanwhile in the category Politician Most Likely to Sell Grandma to the Highest Bidder both the Reader's and Critic's Choice was Fort Worth's extremely corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief, with the critics saying...

Let's face it, Mayor Mikey is the call on this one. Why not some city council member? Because Mayor Mike tells them what to do. Why not a Tarrant County politician? Because none of them wield the power that the mayor does. Nope, Mike's it. He's it because he is selling this city down the drain to gas developers. He's spent nearly his entire time in office courting big business and pushing big deals while letting the best things about Fort Worth waste away. Just imagine what he'd do with a grandma he didn't like.