Wikipedia Did Not Explain The Fort Worth Way To Me

A few days ago writing a blogging titled Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle caused me to read Wikipedia article's about the Fort Worth Way.

The paragraph below is from the Fort Worth Way article....

The Fort Worth Process or Fort Worth Way is a term stemming from the political procedure in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, and to a lesser extent other cities and the Texas state government. The term has no strict definition but refers to the pervasively slow process of dialog, deliberation, participation, and municipal introspection before making any decision and the time it takes to enact any policy. An early definition came from a 1983 editorial in the Fort Worth Weekly, "the usual Fort Worth process of seeking consensus through exhaustion." In its positive connotation the Fort Worth Way values popular participation, transparent process and meaningful debate. 

Okay, you're right, the above does not sound anything like the infamous Fort Worth Way. Transparent process? Popular participation? Meaningful debate? Municipal Introspection?

Well, the truth of the matter is there is no Wikipedia article about the Fort Worth Way. The above was gleaned from the Wikipedia article about what is known as the Seattle Process, also known as the Seattle Way.

I came upon the link to the Seattle Way when reading the Wikipedia article about Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel.

Read the article about the Alaskan Way Replacement Tunnel and you will read a detailed example of the way things get done in Seattle, King County and most of Washington. A whole lot of talking and various proposals considered before anything gets done. Some think this leads to dithering and projects taking too long to come to fruition. Others think the transparent debating of various points of view leads to an eventual better result.

For those living in the Seattle, or Western Washington zone, who think the Seattle Way is a bad thing, visit Fort Worth and Tarrant County and you will see the results of what you get with the opposite of the Seattle Way, known as the Fort Worth Way, where an Oligarchy of a good ol' boy and girl network makes decisions for the town and foists them on the public as done deals, with no transparency, no debate and usually no vote.

Come to Fort Worth and check out the Trinity River Vision. A public works boondoggle which has been boondoggling along for well over a decade, currently building Three Bridges Over Nothing, to connect to an imaginary island, with a future ditch dug to address imaginary flood control issues.

All foisted on the public with no debate, no public input, no public vote.

The most recent example of the Fort Worth Way of foisting a public works project on the public is the new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena, presented to the public as a fait accompli. An almost half billion dollar teeny arena which only holds around 14,000 ticket buyers, with the public allowed to vote on a bizarre funding mechanism in the form of Three Propositions, voting on things like charging a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall.

No, you who live with the Seattle Way, where you voted five times on whether or not to extend the Seattle Monorail, I am not making this up. The voters of Fort Worth were actually asked to vote on whether or not to charge a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in their new multi-purpose arena.

I wonder if the Fort Worth Way morphed into being like the Seattle Way what might result.

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to build sidewalks along side Fort Worth's roads?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to add modern facilities, like restrooms and running water, to the town's parks?

Would Fort Worth (and Tarrant County) voters be willing to tax themselves to improve public transit, such as light rail links to the airport and Arlington's Entertainment District?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to actually fund the Trinity River Vision? Could the voters be convinced that The Boondoggle is a worthwhile project worthy of public support?

I remember way back when I first moved to Texas, trying to understand why so many things seemed so different to me than what I was used to up north, when I had the Fort Worth Way explained to me it made it both easier to understand, yet even more perplexing....

Good Grief Moncrief Says Shoresjim Among Other Things About Corrupt Cronies

Way back on May 12 apparently I blogged about Lying & Deceiving being the Fort Worth Way, along with the Fort Worth Culture of Corruption.

I'd sort of given up on anything being done about the obvious criminal level of conflicts of interest ethics violations committed by Fort Worth's #1 un-indicted perpetrator of shady dealing, that being the Mayor of Fort Worth, with his conflict of interest breaching of the public trust, with His Dis-Honor having made millions of dollars from the various Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers who have poked an awful lot of holes in the ground of the town of which Mike is Mayor.

In other parts of America, that are not under the Crime is Good Bubble, that Fort Worth is under, an elected official who profited from rulings made in his official capacity, would be in trouble.

I do hear other voices every once in awhile who seem to find Moncrief's various shenanigans to be beyond acceptable. But there remains no Federal investigation, that I am aware of. Am I remembering wrong, or didn't the FBI do some big investigation of Dallas city officials for some bad deeds?

How does the Fort Worth Criminal Protective Bubble work? Does it go back to the days of Butch and Sundance? With those bad boys knowing they could hang out in Fort Worth, safely, and have themselves a real good time with no trouble from the law? With the town eventually naming their downtown parking lots after one of the pair.

Anyway, today I got a comment to that blogging I reference above. It is a funny comment. I particularly like the phrase "Good grief, Moncrief."

The commenter sees trials ahead for some of Fort Worth's current criminal conspirators.

Below is what the commenter, "shoresjim," had to say....

"Good grief Moncrief, the Smellygram is over and so are you. This is not a damned oilagarky and you are letting the NWO Chemtrail the smart, good look'n folks (do'n the right thing) of Ft. Worth has made us mad as hell and we are going to retire you. We will then investigate you and your corrupt cronies who profited from our taxes.The CAFR ( Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) abuse will result in several being tried for their crimes."

I also like the word "oilgarky" that shoresjim used. I assume "Smellygram" refers to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I have no idea what "NWO Chemtrail" is. Or the "CAFR." I am very ignorant about a lot of things. I'm okay with that.

Lying & Deceiving The Fort Worth Way About Adrian Murray & John Basham

I am fairly certain I've mentioned, previously, my disgust regarding the Culture of Corruption, also known as "The Fort Worth Way," that runs rampant in Fort Worth, Texas,

The Fort Worth Way: The Definition---

A city run by an Oligarchy controlled by a Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network, in cahoots with a propaganda purveyor, to the benefit of the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's cronies and themselves.

A good example of The Fort Worth Way occurred during the recent Tarrant Regional Water District Board elections.

Two fine, upstanding, good citizens of Fort Worth, John Basham and Adrian Murray, ran against the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's puppets, Marty Leonard and Jim Lane.

As it often does, the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's propaganda shill, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, worked as a purveyor of misinformation for the Ruling Oligarchy, to the benefit of the Leonard/Lane Cabal.

The Star-Telegram told you John Basham had filed personal bankruptcy. The disinformation purveyors told you that John Basham lost his house and was given property in Fort Worth, by Clyde Picht, so that John Basham could run for election to the Water Board.

What you did not get told was that John Basham was injured while on active duty. Yes. He was a soldier. A Combat Medic with the Army National Guard. Didn't read that in your local newspaper of mis-record, did you? He was hit with a severe spinal injury when coming to the rescue of a fellow soldier.

John Basham was treated in a military hospital. The Army did not pay his bills. John Basham was forced to file personal bankruptcy.

The local newspaper of record slandered and smeared John Basham, dishonoring an injured Veteran who had served his country at great sacrifice, giving John Basham absolutely no chance to respond to the misleading charges leveled by the corrupt opposition and its mouthpiece, the Star-Telegram.

The professional political hacks, employed by Marty Leonard and Jim Lane, slammed their smears into mailboxes across the district, knowing they could get away with it, knowing the propaganda shill, that being the Star-Telegram, would not counter their misinformation with the truth.

And now let's move on to the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's smear of Adrian Murray.

The Smear: A Marty Leonard/Jim Lane Dirty Tricks mailing stated "Murray moved here a few years ago, leaving behind a long list of County Tax Liens for unpaid taxes."

The Truth: Adrian Murray returned to Fort Worth in 1998 after spending 10 years in California. Murray was transferred to California in 1988 and returned to Fort Worth and Texas as soon as he could. In California, Adrian Murray bought a boat. When he moved back to Texas he moved his boat to Lake Eagle Mountain. A few years later Adrian Murray learned that California was still taxing his boat, despite it no longer being registered in California. He flew to California and took care of the matter. Clerical errors were admitted, with all liens being released as invalid.

Did you read any of that in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram? No. You did not. Did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram know the truth? Yes. It did. Propaganda shills are not interested in the truth. They serve to further the interests of the Oligarchy, of which they are an integral part.

How did the Marty Leonard/Jim Lane Dirty Tricksters come to know about Adrian Murray's California woes? What sort of Black Bag operation were (are) they running?

The topper, to all this corruption, lying, deceit and Alice in Blunderland type black is white, white is black, up is down, down is up, wrongness, is, in the end, after the election, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram actually printed the Marty Leonard/Jim Lane campaign's assertion that Adrian Murray and John Basham had mislead the voters! Hence their loss!

Can we all say Raw Gall together? Just when I think my contempt for The Fort Worth Way can not sink any lower, lower it goes.

It perplexes me very much.

Crazy Talk AKA The Fort Worth Way From Mayor Mike Moncrief

That is Fort Worth's corrupt goofball Mayor Mike Moncrief shooting up downtown Fort Worth, like a celebrating Iraqi in downtown Baghdad.

Yesterday one of my sources emailed me about a Fort Worth City Council meeting where, apparently, Mike Moncrief nakedly exposed bare the corruption that is at the heart of what is not quite right with how way too much operates in Fort Worth.

Currently there is some controversy in Fort Worth over the predatory behavior of Pawn Shops, taking advantage of the desperate, while charging usurious interest rates.

Cash America is the biggest of the Pawn Shops. The headquarters of Cash America is located on 7th Avenue, due east of the Trinity River.

Recently, the Cash America Pawn Shop, out of the goodness of its corporate heart, donated a strip of land to the city for the expansion of the Trinity River Bridge. Mayor Mike Moncrief, when questioned by WFAA-TV, said the strip of land, that Cash America gave the city, was valued at around $2 million.

At the recent Fort Worth City Council meeting Moncrief was grilled about the Cash America Land Deal. He then backtracked regarding the value of the strip of land, saying it was a figure he made up to illustrate a point. Moncrief did not explain what point he was illustrating by making up a figure.

According to the public appraisal records, the 2.5 acre strip of land is valued at $3.4 million an acre, which, according to my rudimentary math skills, would make this land donation, by the Cash America Pawn Shop, worth $8.5 million.

Fort Worth's corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief went on to say there was nothing unseemly or untoward about the generous donation from Cash America. That it was simply doing business "The Fort Worth Way."

You out there in the parts of America that don't do business the Fort Worth Way, allow me to explain. Oh, and by the way, the City Council did not act to put any restrictions on the Pawn Shops. What is the term for that? Quid pro quo? I am not sure. I never learned Latin. But I do know that quid pro quo is The Fort Worth Way.

In Fort Worth, civic corruption is the status quo. For example, Mayor Mike Moncrief is on the take from the gas drilling companies, poking holes all over his town, to the tune of over $600,000 a year. In other parts of America this is what is known as a very serious conflict of interest, which would land a politician in jail. In Fort Worth it is called The Fort Worth Way.

In Fort Worth a company comes to town, like Cabela's, sells the city a bill of goods about building a sporting goods store that will become the top tourist attraction in Texas. The City of Fort Worth gives Cabela's all sorts of concessions. A short time later Cabela's announces another store in Texas, down by Austin, thus making obvious the degree to which the City of Fort Worth was snookered. No one is held accountable, no one even admits they were snookered. The City just moves on to its next boondoggle. This is The Fort Worth Way.

Radio Shack wants a new corporate headquarters. A headquarters that would obliterate what was, really, the only thing in downtown Fort Worth that was something no other big city had, as in, huge, free parking lots, with a subway to take parkers to the heart of downtown. Eminent domain was abused to remove a big public housing project, the headquarters was built, Radio Shack could not afford it. And now the Radio Shack campus is the campus of a new branch of Tarrant County College. Boondoggle. It's The Fort Worth Way.

A business wants to run a non-odorized, high pressure natural gas pipeline down an avenue in Fort Worth called Carter. The City of Fort Worth does not act to protect its citizens, instead it helps the business, Chesapeake Energy, abuse eminent domain, including the City of Fort Worth ordering City of Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper Raids on the home of the last holdout on Carter Avenue, Steve Doeung. In the rest of America a city, doing such a thing, would be considered a criminal act. In Fort Worth it is just The Fort Worth Way.

Anyway, enough about the Fort Worth Way. It's all very perplexing to me. When is the FBI ever going to find the time to investigate all the nefarious shenanigans that go on in these parts?