Dallas Settles Legal Pipeline Fight With Imaginary Bogeyman Monty Bennett

Shocking news, shocking I tell you, today in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Dallas settles legal fight with Monty Bennett over East Texas pipeline

Didn't Dallas get the memo that Monty Bennett is a notorious evil bogeyman hotel magnate who owns downtown Fort Worth's Hilton and Ashton  hotels?

For years the Dallas partner in water acquisition, Fort Worth's Tarrant Regional Water District, has fought the imaginary Dallas bogeyman who the TRWD scared voters with shameless propaganda spewed claiming Monty Bennett was wanting to steal Fort Worth's water.

When what Monty Bennett was actually doing was trying to convince the TRWD and its Dallas water partner, not to install a pipeline across his East Texas ranch.

God forbid someone in Texas is protective of their property and uses whatever resources are at their disposal to do so.

The Dallas City Council approved settling their fight with Monty Bennett, with one Dallas Councilwoman, Sandy Greyson objecting, opinionizing "it’s just infuriating that if you are rich enough, you can hold the city hostage for years and then get what you want. There’s something really wrong with that.”

Imagine that. If one has the resources one can fight, successfully, to prevent someone from impacting their property.

Usually this is a hopeless battle in the eminent  domain abuse capital of the world.

We have blogged about Tarrant County's chronic eminent domain abuse dozens of times.

Such as in a blogging from a couple months ago about The Fort Worth Way With RICO Racketeering in which we heard from one of Fort Worth's victims of eminent domain abuse, with that instance of abuse executed by what is now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, which took this victim's business in ordter to dig a ditch and a bridge over the ditch, neither of which has been dug or built, long after this victim's property was bulldozed.

Bulldozed before the victim, unlike Monty Bennett, had had his day in a legitimate court system of the sort which does not exist in the eminent domain abuse capital of the world. Hence the taking and destruction of property before a legal settlement had been reached.

So, I don't understand how or why Dallas Councilwoman Greyson finds it infuriating that someone has the legal resources to protect his property from something he did not want to see happen to his property.

To do so, such as Monty Bennett did, is pretty much what used to be known as the American Way, where the courts protected citizen's property from seizure unless a clear case could be made that such a seizure was in the public's interest, with no alternative to the seizure, such as re-routing a pipeline.

To take a person's property, with that person having no legal recourse, other than trying to fight the seizure in a Kangaroo Court, well, that is how the Soviet Union used to operate.

Operating like the Soviet Union used to operate is not the American Way.

Sadly though, operating like the Soviet Union used to operate is, in many ways, is the Fort Worth Way...

Elsie Hotpepper Sent Me A Big Message From Monty Bennett About Jim Lane's Lies

Earlier this afternoon in a blogging about my dad getting a pacemaker today I said the following....

So, what had been a lemon turned into lemonade and now I now know how to look at those little things Elsie Hotpepper sends to my phone. The most recent instance of that had me pathetically trying to figure out what Elsie sent me by using a magnifying glass, which did not magnify enough to make readable.

I am guessing Elsie Hotpepper read the above, because shortly after I hit the publish button on the blogging, what you see here arrived in my email from Elsie Hotpepper, only this time it was not too small to read, this time it was so BIG it overfilled by big computer screen.

I then shrunk it to the size you see here.

Anyway. if you have not read Monty Bennett's factual response to Jim Lane's despicable slander claiming Monty Bennett was burying World War II veterans on his property to block the TRWD pipeline, well, read it here.

And then go vote for anyone other than Marty Leonard and Jim Lane, preferably voting for Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner.

Mayday Warning From Monty Bennett About The TRWD Board Election

A few minutes ago that which you see here arrived in my email.

This is the message from Monty Bennett which appeared in yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, on the same day TRWD Board Incumbent, Jim Lane, launched his now infamous attack ad on the man who has become popularly known as the Dallas Billionaire Businessman Bogeyman.

In his message to those few who are allowed to vote in the May 9 TRWD board election, Monty Bennett has a message for you.

It is a coherent message, free of propaganda, free of vitriol, free of lies.

In other words Monty Bennett's message bears no resemblance to the propaganda nonsense which the Jim Lane/Martha Leonard campaign spews.

I worked my typing fingers to the bone, and was eventually able to copy the entire Monty Bennett message for your reading enlightenment...

Why May 9th Really is Mayday
By Monty J. Bennett

Mayday is the term used to request immediate help when facing danger. Mayday! Your help is needed! Fort Worth voters must vote responsibly in the critical election on May 9th. Early voting has already started. Citizens of Tarrant County will decide whether a vitally important but largely invisible governmental entity should be transparent and accountable.

Decisions of the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) will affect residents of Fort Worth now and for many years to come. We cannot exist without water: clean, reasonably-priced, dependable water. The TRWD’s initial core mission was to provide what’s called “raw” water and flood control. (TRWD sells water to municipalities, and they sell it to you.) This is a vital responsibility. However, the TRWD is a poster child for “mission creep.” The powerful agency holds taxing, spending and eminent domain powers. It argued that flood control required it to fund levies but then changed to funding “economic development.” Today, the TRWD’s discretionary fund spends 250 percent more on private development than on providing safe water for public use and they have increased your water rates 64 percent over the last decade. A more accurate name for the TRWD is the “Tarrant Regional Private Development Piggy Bank.”

Demands for greater transparency are growing and your vote is the best way to be heard. Director Mary Kelleher was elected in 2013 and pledged to pull back the curtain on the TRWD’s dealings. Although she is a sitting director, she has been denied access to official records and was censured for having opinions different from her colleagues. Two commissioners, Marty Leonard and Jim Lane, should have stood for election last year. Article XVI, Section 30 of the Texas Constitution plainly and unambiguously provides that no TRWD Director may serve a term in excess of four years. The directors arbitrarily extended their own terms in office (under cover of a bill in the legislature ostensibly saying that elections should be “moved” to be in odd numbered years). How would you feel if your own city council member arbitrarily decided he or she didn’t want to face the voters and just moved his or her election to the next year?

The TRWD has attacked me, claiming I am only upset because they propose to use their powers of eminent domain to put a pipeline through property belonging to my mother. It’s true, that got my attention – and has largely been resolved in my favor, but as I’ve scrutinized their operations, I have become appalled. They have labeled me as a “Dallas businessman” and conveniently fail to acknowledge the fact that my company owns the downtown Hilton Hotel and the Ashton Hotel, so I have been paying taxes in Fort Worth for 20 years. They claim I want to ‘control your water.’ What on earth would I do with a bunch of water? All that’s just silly. The TRWD has run over citizens for decades; I just happen to be blessed with the resources to be able to fight back.

Moreover, I am committed to Fort Worth. I love Fort Worth, and I put my money where my mouth is. Interestingly, they never mention the five, yes FIVE, Dallas billionaires who are financing their campaigns. To my knowledge, I’m the only Dallas resident supporting the challengers.

I am calling “Mayday!” to encourage voters to learn what the issues and stakes are, and to compare the two incumbent directors with the independent, civic-minded challengers, Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner. These candidates have publicly promised to bring more transparency to the TRWD’s proceedings and to actually listen to the citizens of Fort Worth. I ask the citizens of the TRWD’s service area to call their friends who are eligible to vote and ask them to support the reform candidates. Shout “Mayday!” spread the word and be heard by exercising your constitutional right to vote for change and reform.

Monty Bennett

Time To Pull The Curtain Back On Some More TRWD Propaganda Before Monty Bennett Comes To Fort Worth Tonight

I tell you this TRWD Chinatown Board Election is exhausting. This morning it was a despicable full page Jim Lane attack ad in the Star-Telegram. This afternoon it was another poster size Jim Lane/Marty Leonard attack ad in my mailbox.

The attack ad in my mailbox shared some of the same propaganda as this morning's newspaper attack ad, that being the accusation that Monty Bennett was digging up and re-burying veterans, and others, in his fake, pipeline blocking cemetery.

However, the TRWD incumbent's attack ad in my mailbox outdoes the despicability of this morning's Star-Telegram ad.

Before I get to saying anything more about this afternoon's despicable attack ad, just as I was getting ready to take a photo of it, due to it being too big to fit on my scanner, my phone rang with an un-recognized 817 number. I answered to find myself being told that the evil Dallas businessman, that nefarious bogeyman puppeteer, Monty Bennett, will be in Fort Worth in a couple hours, attending the Fort Worth Business Press TRWD Board Election Forum  at 5:30 pm at the Central Library  in downtown Fort Worth, 500 W. Third St. (corner of Third and Lamar, two blocks from the Tarrant County Courthouse).

I have also been told that Jim Lane has chickened out of attending this forum. Student that I am of psychology, it surprises me not that Lane would not want to face those against whom he has launched today's despicable attacks. It is a symptom of Little Man Syndrome to be all brave bluster when one is a safe distance from the tall object of ones faux brave bluster.

Now back to the piece of despicability I found in my mailbox. One quarter of the huge mailing is taken up with BIG white text in front of a red curtain saying "It's time to pull the curtain back on Dallas businessman Monty Bennett and his puppet slate of Water Board candidates".

When we pull back the curtain, or open the poster, we see the depiction of Monty Bennett you see above, being the evil Dallas puppeteer.

And what is that 'truth' behind the curtain?

Well, it is truly shocking stuff, way more shocking than Jim Lane funneling millions of TRWD money to his bankrupt friend.

I shall translate the shocking revelations to be closer to the truth than the TRWD propagandist's muckraking.

For instance Michele Von Luckner was recently ordered to pay an overdue, disputed bill. Von Luckner has someone working on her campaign who once changed his name and was once arrested for something like jaywalking in San Angelo. This highly suspect person is the treasurer of a PAC. Von Luckner has never voted in a Tarrant County election and has been known to use her maiden name (shouldn't she be doing hard time for this?). Von Luckner's political consultant is Monty Bennett's business partner. (Now that really is shocking, I know I'm shocked. Aren't you?)

And then there is the nefarious Craig Bickley. You can tell just by looking at his menacing face that he is probably up to no good.

Well, get ready to be shocked. Bickley can not vote for himself. And he also is involved with someone who changed his name to hide his criminal past in San Angelo. (methinks San Angelo must be a hotbed of crime) This criminal also is a treasurer in a PAC. (I wonder if this is the same bad man that is on the notorious Von Luckner campaign?) Bickley's political consultant is also Monty Bennett's business partner. (I tell you it is a vast criminal conspiracy)

And the most shocking of the TRWD incumbent's behind the curtain Bickley revelations? Craig Bickley failed to win a previous race in a Republican primary. And not only that, for this current TRWD election Bickley baldfacedly declared that his residence was outside of the extremely gerrymandered TRWD voting district.

Craig Bickley failed to win a previous race? Only one? How many times has Jim Lane lost a race? I think the only time he's ever won is election to the TRWD board. If I am remembering right Jim Lane has lost mayor, city council, congressional, senate and dog catcher races.

So, yes, Craig Bickley is way behind Jim Lane in number of races lost.

Will Fort Worth's SWAT team be on site to deal with the evil Dallas businessman coming to town? What with it being so widely known that Monty Bennett is behind a vast conspiracy to take over Fort Worth's water supply I suspect a massive police presence will be in play.....

How Despicable Is The TRWD's Cowboy Napoleon Jim Lane?

A few minutes ago someone from the TRWD incumbent's side, who is disgusted with the TRWD incumbent's low blow campaign, emailed photos of TRWD incumbent, Jim Lane's, advertisement which appeared in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The top of the ad is that which you see here, the ad also included an equally large letter from Jim Lane, full of phony umbrage and propaganda twisting of the truth.

Shortly ago I hiked up to Albertsons hoping to acquire this week's Fort Worth Weekly and see the sleazy Jim Lane ad myself.

Well, no FW Weekly yet, and apparently the Cowboy Napoleon ad is not in Star-Telegram editions sent to the east side of town. That or I missed it, which seems as if it would be hard to do, what with it appearing to be a full page ad.

At the bottom of the top part of the ad I can make out it says "An open letter from U.S. Army Veteran and Tarrant Regional Water District Board Member, Jim Lane". Below is the letter....

In the letter the Cowboy Napoleon is full of outrage over the alleged "ruthless" relocation of a World War II veteran and an elderly woman.

Of Monty Bennett, Lane despicably spews "How despicable of you to hunt for dead bodies to bury in the path of the pipeline!"

I have been told that Monty Bennett provided a burial location for a WWII veteran with whom Mr. Bennett was acquainted and who Mr. Bennett knew had no funds for a proper burial.

And regarding the burial of the WWII veteran the despicable Jim Lane says, "And how dishonest of you to do this AFTER receiving formal notice of the water pipeline crossing an uninhabited portion of your weekend ranch. You used those dead bodies only as "props" in your failed injunction to stop the water pipeline."

Lane huffs and puffs that Monty Bennett has committed some sort of cowardly act for which he needs to apologize, saying...

"So, Mr. Bennett, I am asking you and your well-financed slate of candidates (Mr. Bickley and Ms. Von Luckner) to publicly apologize, and to pledge to the voters in the Tarrant Regional Water District to never disrespect our veterans again."

Lane ends his letter by saying of his apology demand that "It is the right thing to do."

Sincerely,
Jim Lane
Vietnam Veteran

Okay, Mr. Lane, I think what actually is the right thing to do is for you to apologize to Monty Bennett, Mr.Bickley and Ms. Von Luckner for your slanderous despicable desperate attack ad. I think Craig Bickley should bring this up at first opportunity at tonight's Fort Worth Business Press TRWD Election Forum in the downtown Fort Worth Central Library.

And does anyone know in what capacity Jim Lane served in Vietnam? I have seen Jim Lane in person a couple times. It is not easy to picture him in uniform. I guess army uniforms must come in all sizes....

Twisted Star-Telegram Editorial Endorses Lane & Leonard For Not Doing Things The Right Way

What you are looking at here is a screen cap of the "Keep Lane, Leonard for water district" headline in a bizarre endorsement editorial in Fort Worth's Pravda, also known as the Star-Telegram.

The entire editorial is senseless, but even before you get to that senselessness, the headline and sub-headline are equally senseless.

Endorse Lane and Leonard for re-election, while at the same time saying change is needed because the TRWD does not always do things the right way?

Not the right way? Like when Jim Lane finagled a TRWD rescue for his bankrupt friend by getting the TRWD to pay far above market value for the bankrupt friend's land on which the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century was built?

Of course the Star-Telegram follows the 7th Street Gang's party line by bringing up the Dallas businessman bogeyman, while doing so very hypocritically. In the editorial we read the following paragraph....

Countering the big-dollar financial support for their challengers, Leonard and Lane are backed by a political action committee that had raised almost $500,000 as of early April from well-known Dallas and Fort Worth business leaders including Ed Bass, Ross Perot Jr. and Alice Walton.

Followed a few paragraphs later by this....

More than 97 percent of their financing, a total of almost $100,000 in the first report April 9, is from Dallas hotel executive Monty Bennett, who is also suing TRWD to redirect the pipeline while campaigning against what he calls a “heavy-handed” agency.

So, in the Star-Telegram's corrupt way of looking at the local world it is okay for the TRWD incumbents to get over a half million dollars from Dallas businessmen who have vested interests in keeping the TRWD's crony capitalism un-disturbed. While it is somehow an outrage that a Fort Worth hotel owner, who also does business in Dallas, and who does not want the TRWD to take some of his land, has donated less than 100,000 dollars to the TRWD opponent's campaign.

And let me add that that 97 percent figure the Star-Telegram cites is deceptive. Why not cite the most recent financial report, instead of the first one? Because the percentage would no longer be 97, due to the flood of donations from the fed up public to the Bickley/Von Luckner campaign.

And then there is this editorial gem...

Lane and Leonard also want to continue work on Panther Island, a different $900-million-plus downtown project repairing worn-out levees while adding retail shops, restaurants and apartments on the river’s north bank.

It amuses me how the locals who follow the party line, like sheep, jumped right on board with the ridiculous Panther Island new name for The Boondoggle. One would have thought they learned their lesson after their Sundance Square embarrassment, where for decades Fort Worth's few out of town tourists were confused as to where the square was that the Sundance Square signs pointed to. Usually a helpful local would point to the big parking lots, where, ironically, an actually square was finally built, goofily named Sundance Square Plaza.

And now we have Panther Island, where there is no island, where that which is referred to as an island will only be somewhat surrounded by water only if a ditch is dug to divert some Trinity River water under three little bridges currently being built in slow motion over dry land.

The Star-Telegram thinks Lane and Leonard want to continue working on the imaginary island? Does the Star-Telegram not hold the TRWD board at all responsible for the fact that the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision has become America's Biggest Boondoggle? With very little to show for well over a decade of boondoggling?

And then there is this shoddy cheap shot...

Both Bickley and Von Luckner question project spending and describe TRWD as secretive and crony-riddled. But neither seems familiar with basic state and regional water plans or prepared for the board’s primary task.

Really? Upon what does the Star-Telegram base claiming that Bickley and Von Lucker are unfamiliar with basic state and regional water plans and are not prepared for the board's primary task?

Oh, I forget to mention the stupidest item in that paragraph about Panther Island....

"Panther Island, a different $900-million-plus downtown project repairing worn-out levees."

Worn out levees? This is the first time I have read that those levees which have kept the downtown Fort Worth zone flood-free, for well over half a century, as being worn out.  Exactly in what way does the Star-Telegram think those massive levees are worn out?

And then the Star-Telegram ends its endorsement editorial with....

With their legacy of community leadership, they are best-positioned to help reshape a more responsive board. The Star-Telegram Editorial Board recommends Jim Lane and Martha “Marty” Leonard for the Tarrant Regional Water District board.

Their legacy of community leadership? That legacy is what should get them fired by the voters, and not endorsed by Fort Worth's sad excuse for a local newspaper.

Community leadership? Leading Fort Worth to the distinction of currently hosting America's Biggest Boondoggle?

They are best positioned to help shape a more responsive board? They have been on that un-responsive board the entire time it has been un-responsive. In other words they are responsible for the board being un-responsive.

Legacy? Like the legacy of finagling shady deals using taxpayer funds to rescue a bankrupt friend?

I don't know how the Star-Telegram editorial board can spew this nonsense without being embarrassed by it. 

The 7th Street Gang Is Not Happy With The Fort Worth Business Press For Telling The Truth About Monty Bennett

Way back in late March I blogged The Raw Galling Hypopcritical Hubris Of TRWD Propaganda Is Appalling in which I verbalized the disgust I felt at the TRWD propaganda demonizing Monty Bennett as an evil Dallas businessman trying to take over Fort Worth's water.

What prompted that blogging on that particular day was the fact that I was a bit surprised that the Fort Worth Business Press had printed a fair and unbiased article about Monty Bennett and his issues with the TRWD titled Monty Bennett: Businessman, water district activist.

I was surprised at this article because previously the Fort Worth Business Press had seemed to be onboard with the 7th Street Gang's Good Ol' Boys and Girls and their propaganda campaign to spew falsehoods about Monty Bennett.

Well, apparently the Fort Worth Business Press took some flack from the 7th Street Gang for not following the party line.

This led Fort Worth Business Press publisher, Richard Connor, to write an editorial titled Love him or hate him, Monty Bennett is a newsmaker in which Connor let's us know that the 7th Street Gang did not like that he had gone off the reservation and printed facts, rather than their patented propaganda.

You can read the entire editorial, but I will just share the paragraph which contains the bit about the Good Ol' Boy and Girls being upset that Connor and the FW Business Press were not following the Fort Worth Way script....

What has surprised us at the Fort Worth Business Press is the consternation expressed by local businessmen that we would profile the water district’s leading critic and nemesis, Monty Bennett, a Dallas hotelier. Bennett has been fighting the water board for several years, trying to prevent it from running a water pipeline through his 1,300 acre ranch in Henderson County. While he cloaks his disdain – dare we say hatred? – for the water board in criticism of its lack of transparency, alleged violations of open meetings laws and nepotism, his real source of anger is parochial.

By the end of that paragraph Mr. Connor seems to be back towing the 7th Street Gang party line.

One of my favorite Fort Worth seasoned citizens, Clyde Picht, commented on the FWBP editorial with a comment filled with the sort of facts that make Fort Worth's Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network so uncomfortable.

Below is Clyde Picht's comment in its entirety....

Monty Bennett obviously has an ax to grind over the threat of eminent domain being used to take part of his property for a pipeline that according to the TRWD's own study will bring water to Fort Worth only in an emergency and if Dallas doesn't need the water.

But if TRWD is so quick to use eminent domain to get land, why didn't they use it to get Carl Bell's 37.679 acres near La Grave field? A 50 acre parcel, rife with environmental pollution, was appraised at $12,000,000. It's probably worth less than that but in a moment of charity the TRWD paid Bell $16,000,000 for the 37+ acres.

Bell had shut down the CATS ball team and was reportedly near or in bankruptcy. One might wonder why TRWD is so generous with their money. The reason is that it's not their money (which is really taxpayers' money) that's being spent. The $4,000,000 largesse comes right out of the pockets of Fort Worth taxpayers.

In comments published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 12, 2005, Jim Oliver, the TRWD Director stated that "backers (of Trinity Uptown) might seek more local money" and planner James Toal stated "The taxpayers will not be left holding the bag." That was when Trinity River Vision was projected to cost $435M. (Also see a S-T editorial, "Tax money flows to the river" July 19, 2009)

And then there is the comment from the man who probably had enough votes to join Mary Kelleher on the TRWD Board, but, you know, stuff happens, like trouble counting votes. Below is the comment from John Basham in its entirety....

Richard, Simply put; You are experiencing "The Fort Worth Way", as the former Mayor would say. You must understand that the 7th Street Downtown Croney Crew are used to the 'News' printed by the Startled Gram. Or as I like to call it; "PRAVDA Fort Worth". How DARE the FWBP print an article containing NOTHING but truth. It doesn't matter that the story was both fair to both sides as well as truthful. You MUST Carry the Water (I couldn't resist either) for the 7SB Cronies or else they shoot the messenger. Chin up, there was a time when 'JOURNALISTS' gauged the accuracy and fairness of their stories by how much it inflamed each side. But alas Ft Worth does NOT have a daily Newspaper any longer, instead they have a public relations arm for 'The Fort Worth Way'.... Hold the line. Kudos to Marice Richter and yourself for a job well done.

________________________________________________

I wish Monty Bennett really was trying to take over Fort Worth. Think of the damage he could do if he bought the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I know Mr. Bennett is a successful businessman, so it is unlikely he'd want to buy a money losing sinking operation like the Star-Telegram.

Then again, maybe Monty Bennett would like the challenge of turning the Star-Telegram into a real newspaper. He could maybe become a Texas version of Citizen Kane....

Embarrassingly Idiotic TRWD Election Propaganda Finally Showed Up In My Mailbox

This morning, finally, some of the more than a half million dollars non-evil Dallas businessmen have funneled to the re-election campaigns of TRWD board incumbents, Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, showed up in my mailbox.

Showed up in the form of a slick poster-sized piece of embarrassing propaganda, which I had already seen in other forms, but never face to face in all its demented glory.

The poster was too big for my scanner, so I laid it on the floor so as to snap a picture.

No, that is not my hand appearing to have an unseemly hold on a shaft of water.

I assume that hand represents the evil hand of the evil Dallas businessman, Monty Bennett, and his nefarious plot to take over Fort Worth and its vulnerable water supply.

Are these unscrupulous TRWD incumbents actually going to continue to run on this embarrassing Stop the Dallas businessman idiocy?

Either these TRWD incumbents and their campaign advisers are incredibly stupid and actually believe this is a legit accusation to be making.

Or these TRWD incumbents think the voters or so stupid they will buy in to this idiotic scare tactic.

Maybe it is a combo of both.

Isn't it interesting that the TRWD incumbent's propaganda makes no mention of the wonders their management has brought to the Fort Worth, Tarrant County and North Texas water and flood control needs?

No mention is made of the millions of dollars wasted trying to use the courts to take water from Oklahoma, wasted til the Supreme Court told the TRWD to knock it off.

No mention made of the current Biggest Boondoggle in America, boondoggling along now for well over a decade, with little to show for the money spent.

Well, there are those three little bridges supposedly currently under construction, due to be ready to carry traffic from the mainland to an imaginary island in about four years.

I can't imagine why the TRWD incumbents don't trumpet all that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has accomplished.

Why isn't TRWD incumbent, Jim Lane, sharing with the voters how he helped finagle spending almost $20 million of taxpayer TRWD money to buy a chunk of land from a bankrupt friend? Land valued at far less than what the TRWD paid for it.

Land on which then was built the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

How is that Coyote Drive-In working out? About as successful as the TRWD/TRV Boondoggle's world premiere urban wakeboard park?

I know the TRWD election is stacked in favor of the good ol' boy and girl network who run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way.

Just the bizarre gerrymandering determining what areas in the "district" get to actually vote is yet one more symptom of the corruption which is the TRWD. Why would not all the voters who live in areas which buy their water from the TRWD get to vote in a TRWD  election? How did this bizarre usurpation of voter's rights come to be? Why is it allowed to continue?

So much is so perplexing about Texas. I should blog about a conversation I had with a Washingtonian who was perplexed about the TRWD Scandals, after reading about it on my blog, and filtering it through his Washington sensibility, where the local water utility is totally non-controversial, does not involve itself in economic development, does not abuse eminent domain to take property, does not own private hunting preserves, does not build slow motion bridges over nothing or organize inner tube float beer parties in the totally un-polluted Skagit River.

I told the Washingtonian he had no concept of how twisted the government is in Texas, that it is way worse than the really embarrassing stuff that gets national attention.

I asked the Washingtonian what he thought the Texas Railroad Commission did.

Uh, regulate the state's railroads?

Yeah, that's what a logical person might think, said I, but logic and the way things are done in Texas often are not in the same room.....

The Complex Imaginary Dallas Plot To Take Control Of Fort Worth & Tarrant County

Some eye opening, jaw dropping J.D. Granger information fell into my lap yesterday. I figured I would blog about the J.D. Granger material today. But then I found myself needing to make a fix to almost 400 webpages, so I will be postponing sharing the eye opening, jaw dropping J.D. Granger information til I get done with the webpage fixing.

However, this morning in the midst of doing that webpage fixing a blog comment arrived which I thought to be share worthy in its inadvertent amusing embarrassing imbicilicness, to coin a new word that needed coining to describe much of what I witness at my current location on the planet.

The blog comment....

Ed Jackson has left a new comment on your post "More TRWD Election Propaganda Lies From Jim Lane, Marty Leonard, Betsy Price & Mike Moncrief": 

Monty Bennett does have a horse in this TRWD race. It is at least an eminent domain issue about a ranch he owns. Mr. Bennett is not a resident of Tarrant County, nor is he a customer of the TRWD. He does what a lot of Dallas business people do, attempt to gain control of Fort Worth and Tarrant County by filling political positions with people who will owe favors to him, and to the democrat party. 

The facts are Marty Leonard and Jim Lane have been on the TRWD Board for some 10 years, and vast improvements to access water and manage resources have been made in that 10 years. Mayor Betsy Price is a great Mayor, and Mike Moncrief was a good Mayor. Both have lead Fort Worth to prosperity in most areas of the city. 

Mr. Bennett, OTOH, also tried to gain control of the TRWD back in 2013. when the other 3 board members were up for reelection. He got one candidate to win, Mary Kelleher, who has no engineering. business, or legal background. She is a school psychologist, a worthy background, but not a qualification to manage and plan a water district. If Mr. Bennett gets his two candidates onto the TRWD Board in this election, he will control the board. Have you noticed his two 2015 candidates have not listed any qualifications, except for "former president of the Tarrant County democrat party"?

After these last 6 years, I don't want any democrat running anything, much less than something that costs billions of dollars and affects millions of people. 

The current make up of the TRWD Board is 2 engineers, 1 Lawyer, 1 small business owner (that understands water use and conservation because they are golf courses), and 1 school psychologist. Let's not put two more political hacks on the board. 

______________________________________

A business owner who understands conservation and water use because they are golf courses? That sounds like Charlton Heston exclaiming Soylent Green is People.

Is Marty Leonard the owner of the golf courses being referred to?

Monty Bennett has a horse in this race, because it is an eminent domain issue about a ranch he owns?

Does this Jackson guy even know what eminent domain is? Or that the issue as it pertains to Monty Bennett is he feels the way the TRWD has gone about trying to take his property is what is known as eminent domain abuse? Or that Monty Bennett is not alone as a property owner believing himself to be a victim of what they believe to be eminent domain abuse by the TRWD? Ask the business owners whose property was taken for the TRWD's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's ditch and little bridges being built in slow motion over dry land to connect to an imaginary island, what they think of the TRWD's use of eminent domain.

What does it have to do with anything that Monty Bennett is not a resident of Tarrant County? He owns two hotels in downtown Fort Worth. If he was a resident of one of those hotels would it change anything to do with his fight to keep the TRWD off his property?

I am fairly certain Monty Bennett is a customer of the TRWD. Unless he somehow pipes water to his Fort Worth hotels via a pipeline from Dallas.

A lot of Dallas business people try to gain control of Fort Worth and Tarrant County? Really? And who would they be and why would they want to control Fort Worth and Tarrant County? A messianic dream of modernizing the town and pulling it into the current century?

A Dallas football team owner moved his team to a new football stadium in Tarrant County. Was that the result of an evil Dallas businessman's evil plotting to take over Tarrant County?

Mary Kelleher has no engineering background? And so she is not qualified to manage a water district? Remind me again what exactly J.D. Granger's qualifications were to manage a water redevelopment project? J.D. Granger has been paid over $110,000 a year for almost 10 years to ramrod what is currently the biggest boodoggle in America.

Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner are political hacks? Implying also that Mary Kelleher is a political hack?

I tell you, the TRWD Scandal is the weirdest Alice Through the Looking Glass thing I have ever observed up close.

A backwards Looking Glass where right is wrong, wrong is right, qualified is unqualified, unqualified is qualified, smart is stupid, stupid is smart, world class is no class, no class is world class, public good is public bad.

And taking four years to build three little bridges over dry land saves money and makes engineering sense....

UPDATE: On Facebook TRWD board candidate, Craig Bickley, had the following to say about the above comments from Ed Jackson....

Craig Bickley likes this.

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  Craig Bickley For the record (to your commenter), the former director of the Democratic party mentioned is the 5th candidate, not Michele or I. He seems like a nice person, but got a very late start, and hasn't gained much traction. He would be great to watch in two years. Also, I have an engineering degree from Texas A&M and have been in the field of engineering and project/personnel management for over 15 years...

Flood Of Conflict Of Vested Interest Dollars Pollute TRWD Incumbents Lane & Leonard's Re-Election Scheme

I saw that which you see here on Facebook this morning. It came to Facebook from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram via an article about the over half million dollars the TRWD board incumbents have collected from those with a vested interest in making sure the incumbents get re-elected and thus keep that TRWD money flowing to those with the vested interests who are financing the Lane/Leonard campaigns.

The link to the Star-Telegram's TRWD board race brings in big money from big names article seems to be working, allowing you to read all about the "big money" being funneled to the TRWD incumbents, with some of that money coming from evil Dallas, but not that evil Dallas businessman, Monty Bennett.

One of the evil Dallas businessmen funneling funds to Lane and Leonard has the familiar last name of Perot.

Why is it okay in the TRWD apologist's shady eyes for Ross Perot Jr. to donate money to support TRWD candidates, without Perot being accused of trying to take over the board, or making the donation so as to continue currying favor with the TRWD? What is Perot's vested interest?

The over half million dollars funneled to the campaigns of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard dwarf the dollars that Monty Bennett has donated to the worthy cause of electing Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner.

Below are some voter's comments from the Facebook TRWD Big Money posting....

2 shares

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  Bob Horton Wow! Over $550,000!

  13 hrs · Like
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  Miki Hojnacki Von Luckner Dallas money?!?! Well how dare they let those yucky, evil Dallas folks put money in this campaign. Tsk tsk... Pot calling kettle....

  13 hrs · Like · 1
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  Mary Kelleher Anyone want to guess why those 2 seats are worth so much to the people identified in the story?

  12 hrs · Like
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  Melissa McAdoo-McDougall That's exactly what I noticed Miki. Looks like the FW rich are trying to keep the rich, rich.

  12 hrs · Edited · Like
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  Melissa McAdoo-McDougall What ticks me off is how they mention in the article all the ritzy neighborhoods as being in the voting district and once again do not recognize the Eastside of FW. I think we need to show them how many votes the Eastside can produce and vote for Bickley and Von Luckner!

  12 hrs · Edited · Like · 2
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  Bob Horton Lots and lots of votes matter!

  12 hrs · Like
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  Mary Kelleher Our eastside is underestimated.....time to show the good ole boys what the eastside can do together!

  12 hrs · Like · 3
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  Norma Mascorro Keyser Why only part of River Oaks gets a vote?

  5 hrs · Like
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  Brian Henry Tell me who to vote for.

  4 hrs · Like · 1
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  Jayne Marshall So now we see who is "buying" the Board. Looks to me like the incumbents are being bought by the big Ft. Worth $$$$ !!!