Another Cold Foggy Wet Day In Fort Worth Texas

It is not even winter yet and I've grown tired of that particular season this second Tuesday of December in Texas.

That is my balcony view when I returned from swimming around 8 this morning. The fog was so thick it was pretty much a drizzle getting everything soaking wet.

It is a relatively balmy 40 right now in foggy Fort Worth. I suspect the swimming water was a few degrees warmer.

My new swimming shock therapy method is to run into the pool til I'm in swim mode, swim to the end, swim back, run to the hot tub. When I get in the hot tub I feel no heat for a couple minutes. Then it gets feeling too hot. I then get back in the pool where it takes about 2 minutes to feel too cool again.

I heard from the Mad Texas Grandma a couple times last night, emailing from her cruise ship somewhere in either the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean. We still have not found out who actually owns A-AARLINGTON ABANDONED VEHICLE or how it is they tow cars from the Stadium Wal-Mart with Wal-Mart claiming they have no towing contract with the mysterious company.

It is going to be a long day.

The Blitzkrieg The Barnett Shale Gas Drillers Have Unleashed In Texas & The Coming D-Day

If my memory is serving me correctly, this afternoon, a time or two I have referred to the Fort Worth Police as the Fort Worth Gestapo, due to their, at times, heavy handed Storm Trooper like behavior.

A brutal bar raid here, a brutal tasering there, with little consequence for the bad behaviors.

Well, I got an email from Don Young, today, he being Fort Worth's Top Watch Dog as determined by those who determine who Fort Worth's Top Watch Dog is.

In the email DY makes an interesting analogy between North Texas in 2009 and Denmark and much of the rest of Europe in 1941.

I'll copy DY's email in its entirety below....

I saw a great movie yesterday called, Flame and Citron, a true story about a pair of heroic resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Denmark. It's WW2 and the Danish people have a mixture of fear and anger at the way the Nazi's have taken over their Motherland. The tag-line of the film is:

"Do you remember when they came?"

If my overburdened email INBOX is any indication, there are lots of people around the USA who are asking similar questions nearly 70 years after the Nazi's plundered Europe. Not to tarnish the meaning or memory of WW2, but the parallels to then and now - to Nazi's and gas drillers, are chilling.

Nearly every day I get a new message from a homeowner, a rancher, a mother with children or a distraught father asking what can be done. What can be done to stop gas drillers from poisoning their air and water? What can be done to stop the degradation of their property and the ruination of their investments? What can be done to stop the poisoning of their animals and wildlife?

As you might expect, the answers are complex and not easily resolved. The enemy is entrenched and seems unstoppable. Just like in WW2, gas drilling companies are aggressive, arrogant, in control of elected officials and the courts. They laugh at our laws and manufacture their own version of truth, as needed. But this is 2009 not 1941.

There are signs of growing resistance to the blitzkrieg that gas drillers have unleashed. Activists are being created every time a driller bulldozes a fence, dumps poison near our drinking water, sets up a pad-site next to a school or releases a cloud of toxic gas in the name of profit.

For some of us, patriotism is gaining new meaning. But this is NOT about radical political ideology. This is about fundamental rights to clean air and water. The stakes are getting higher every day. What is your tipping point?

"A patriot must always be ready to defend her city against her government."

-Edward Abbey

DY

December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Day's Diminishing Infamy

I opened an email from Don Young a few minutes ago, subject line "December 7, Do you remember..." which I assumed was going to be about today being the day in 1941 when Japan sneak attacked America at Pearl Harbor.

But DY's email was not about Pearl Harbor and that particular day of infamy, which seems to have faded in its level of infamy judging by how little note seems to being made in the various media I've looked at today, such as CNN online, which does have an article making note of the fact that tomorrow is the 29th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. Seems sort of shocking that that was that long ago.

Is there anyone reading this who was alive and paying attention on December 7, 1941? How does the shock of that day compare with the shock of September 11, 2001? There would have been no live television coverage from Pearl Harbor on 12/7, like what happened on 9/11. But I believe the nation was glued to their radio way back in 1941.

I suppose Americans were already in a bit of state of shock on 12/7 due to all the nasty stuff the Nazis had been doing in Europe for a couple years.

Speaking of those nasty Nazis. Nazi's are sort of what Don Young's Pearl Harbor Day email was about. I think I'll share that in another blogging.

Foggy Fosdic Lake In Fort Worth With Swirling Flocks Of Ducks

I went to Oakland Lake Park at noon to walk around Fosdic Lake. As I walked the temperature seemed to drop, and then a light drizzle. By the time I was back driving a thick, dense fog had settled in. I got back here to see the temperature had dropped. It was 41 when I left. 37 now.

Texas weather is so different than what I grew up knowing in Washington.

Does anyone know why ducks flock together and move in a circle when it's cold? In the picture you see 2 flocks of circling ducks. There were two additional flocks of circlers to the right.

Apparently 'circlers' is not a word because it just got flagged red, indicating it's a misspelling. Well, I think it should be a word, so I'm leaving it alone.

In the second picture you are looking north on Bridge Street. When Bridge Street crosses the 820 freeway it becomes John T. White Street. I don't know why they change street names like that here in Texas. It's confusing.

You can see it's quite dark here at 1pm, headlights on, low visibility. I imagine this fog is causing some problems at the airport.

Buzzer is buzzing. That means sweet potatoes have been turned into baked sweet potatoes fries for lunch, to go along with turkey kielbasa and tomato salad. You are going to need to be here in 10 minutes, or so, if you want lunch.

Downwinders At Risk Throwing A Big Arlington Party For Dr. Al Armendariz

You are looking at Dr. Al Armendariz. To the surprise and delight of a lot of people he was appointed EPA Regional 6 Administrator.

Downwinders at Risk is throwing a party to celebrate the new EPA Administrator, appointed to a post that most likely, previously, would have gone to someone in cahoots with the polluters and environment damagers.

The Downwinders Party takes place Thursday, December 10 from 7:30pm til 9pm in The Private Room at J. Gilligan's Bar & Grill at 400 E. Abram in Arlington.

Remarks by Dr. Armenadariz at 8:15

A cash bar and snacks

RSVP

Directions to Gilligan's Bar

The Mad Texas Grandma Hears From Dallas Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart Regarding The Dozens Of Auto Thefts

I have heard from the Mad Texas Grandma again. You may remember me telling you about the dozens of grand theft auto thefts that occurred on October 21 at the Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart in Arlington.

In that blogging I said I was not sure I remembered the facts correctly that MTG had told me over the phone and that I was awaiting confirmation. Turns out I was mostly right. MTG says it was at least 50 cars stolen, the taxi to the stolen car was a $10 ride and the troll toll to get the stolen car back was $244.00.

I did make one glaring error. I said MTG had her 5 year old grandson with her. When in fact it was MTG's 6 year old granddaughter. I'm feeling as factually challenged as a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter right about now.

Yesterday I told you that MTG had had no luck reaching the Stadium Wal-Mart's manager. So, she called Wal-Mart corporate headquarters. Headquarters told the local manager to call MTG. MTG had learned that the Wal-Mart local manager's name was Matt.

But it was a woman who called MTG and identified herself as the manager of Wal-Mart. MTG told the woman she couldn't be the manager because he was a man named Matt.

The woman then said she was Matt's co-manager. MTG asked where is Matt? He is not here today was the reply. This was the same reply MTG has gotten every time she has called the Stadium Wal-Mart trying to speak with Matt.

Matt's co-manager denied that Wal-Mart has a towing contract with A-Arlington.

MTG told Matt's co-manager that she'd found 3 different names listed as owners of A-Arlington.

At that point Matt's co-manager, who had denied that Wal-Mart had a towing contract with A-Arlington, told MTG that the City of Arlington owns the towing company!

MTG asked Matt's co-manager how the taxis knew to be sitting and waiting for the grand theft auto victims. She said the taxis don't sit and wait.

Matt's co-manager told MTG that Wal-Mart's towing signs were legal and that Wal-Mart had never lost an appeal in court.

Speaking of court dates, MTG's is December 21 at 1pm. I'll get more details in case you'd like to attend.

Regarding Wal-Mart's sign. They say "NO EVENT PARKING VEHICLES MAY BE TOWED AT OWNER'S EXPENSE."

Texas Occupations Code 2308.301(b)(5) stipulates that the following precise verbiage must appear on the sign...

"Unauthorized Vehicles Will Be Towed at Owner's or Operator's Expense"

Go here for more details about Texas towing laws and the crimes committed by those violating them.

Now, from what I've read about Texas towing issues, the parking lot owner, which is Wal-Mart, has to have contract with a towing company. Yet Matt's co-manager says Wal-Mart has no such contract. A towing company can not randomly show up on someone's property and start towing cars. Someone, somewhere had to authorize it. Was it the City of Arlington monitoring Wal-Mart's parking lot?

Why does Wal-Mart not sell parking spaces like virtually all the other business in the stadium area do during events? I've never seen the Stadium Wal-Mart's parking lot anywhere near full.

Why is the Stadium Wal-Mart totally barricaded, with no entry possible, during a Dallas Cowboy home game? What is the agreement between Jerry Jones, Wal-Mart and the city of Arlington that makes the closure happen?

It's all a perplexing mystery.

North Texas Shaken By Another Earthquake

The earth moved unexpectedly, again, in formerly earthquake-free North Texas, on Friday, about a half hour before midnight.

The latest North Texas earthly rocking and rolling was epicentered in the town of Mountain Creek in Ellis County.

This was a 2.8 magnitude quake, felt as far as Fort Worth, 54 miles from the epicenter.

I was in Fort Worth at a half hour before midnight on Friday and I did not feel the earth move that night.

Cleburne is still trying to figure out why that town was hit with numerous quakes this year.

Meanwhile Barnett Shale natural gas drillers continue to poke holes in North Texas, followed by squirting a watery chemical stew into the holes which causes the fracturing of a layer of the earth above the molten lava zone.

I don't see how any reasonable person could possibly think there might be a connection between fracturing a layer of the earth's crust and the earth starting to quake a bit where previously no quaking took place. The quakes must be being caused by something else. The increase in the number of obese Texans perhaps?

It Is A Cold, Drizzling Sunday In Fort Worth With Hummus

You are looking east at the noon view of John T. White Road in east Fort Worth, Texas. It looks a bit forlorn and ghost townish. It looks that way because it is a bit forlorn and ghost townish.

I've been up since before 5. I jumped in and out of the freezing pool at lightning speed this morning.

When I left here at noon, intending to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake, I did not realize that, in addition to the biting cold, a drizzle was falling.

Walking around in a freezing cold wind with drizzle did not sound like fun to me. And so, the change of direction to head east to Wal-Mart to load up a cart with heavy stuff and get my aerobic exercise up and down the aisles chasing chubby people out of the way.

I have not heard from my Mad Texas Grandma (MTG) this morning. I knew she was heading out of town for a few days, but I'd hoped she would check in and confirm some information. And send me some pictures of some perps in action.

I learned something this morning that brought back to me how much I dislike the Pacific Northwest (Shop). I tell you, I shall never deal with doddering old fools ever again. Unless the doddering old fools wave a lot of money in front of me.

Just heard the rice cooker ring its rice is done bell. Time for burgers, rice, hummus and a celery red pepper salad I cooked up this morning. I am such a Top Chef.

Dozens Of Cars Stolen From Dallas Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart In The Middle Of The Night

You are looking at a blocked off entrance to the Wal-Mart Supercenter across from the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium on Randol Mill Road in Arlington, Texas during a Dallas Cowboy game on November 22, 2009.

All entries to the Wal-Mart were blocked, thus closing Wal-Mart.

There were cars parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The parking lot was maybe a third full.

Unlike most of the other possible parking lots in the area around the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, Wal-Mart puts up no "Event Parking $60" sign. One would think they would, if they are going to close the store, with their lot being so conveniently located.

So, what I am curious about is how did it come to be that Wal-Mart is shut down during Dallas Cowboy games? How is Wal-Mart compensated for this? In an area where Jerry Jones is charging up to $60 for parking one would think Wal-Mart's compensation must be hefty.

I was also at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium the day before, to take pictures of the Dallas Cowboy Outhouses. On that day, November 21, high school football playoff games were taking place in the stadium. On that day the Wal-Mart Supercenter was open.

So, I parked on the Stadium Wal-Mart's parking lot. I saw a few signs that said something like "No Event Parking. Violators May Be Towed." I now know these were not warning signs that meet the criteria for such signs as defined by Texas law.

When I was parked at that parking lot it was maybe 1/2 to 2/3's full. The store was extremely busy. I saw people walking from the parking lot across the street to the stadium.

There were no security type people that I detected watching the Wal-Mart lot.

The last of the football games finished a bit past midnight. I have asked my source to confirm the numbers, but have yet to get that confirmation. But, I believe around 50 people exited the stadium and walked to the Wal-Mart parking lot to find their vehicles missing.

A line of taxi cabs was waiting for the people with the missing cars, offering to take them the short distance to where their vehicles had been impounded. I believe the fee was in the $10 zone.

When the people arrived at the impoundment place they were told it would take 20 minutes to process each vehicle. And cost something like $240 to get back in their vehicle.

My source, a Grandma who was with her 5 year old grandson and the grandson's pregnant mother, was able to persuade the impounder to process her quickly. She made it home sometime after 2 in the morning.

According to Texas State Law a vehicle can not be impounded unless specific verbiage, on easily seen signs, is installed on the parking lot. An impounder taking a vehicle from a lot without the proper signage is considered to have committed auto theft. The victim can recover any losses and have any damage to their vehicle paid for by the improper impounder.

What we are trying to find out is who really owns the auto impounder, Straw K, Inc. doing business as A-AARLINGTON ABANDONED VEHICLE. The property manager, that is Wal-Mart, had to have entered into an agreement with the towing company. Was this done on the local level? Or from Arkansas?

What is the arrangement with the taxi cab company? Who calls them and tells them there will be some distressed people looking for their vehicles?

If there were 50 towed vehicles that Saturday night, at $240 each, that's $12,000. Who gets that money? The towing company? Wal-Mart? The local Wal-Mart manager? Jerry Jones? Who?

The Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, Wal-Mart & Arlington Should Not Mess With A Texas Grandma

Yes. I know, the parking lot scams and crimes have made a bit of news in Texas for awhile now. In Dallas, at the State Fair of Texas, the parking lot scams were particularly nefarious.

Today I learned we've got some nefarious parking lot scamming going on in Arlington. Courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys, Wal-Mart, with the ringleader possibly being Jerry Jones.

Earlier today I blogged this....

On a totally unrelated note, I just got email from an Arlington Grandma who wants my help in solving a mystery involving Jerry Jones, Wal-Mart and an Arlington Storage Facility. Sounds intriguing. She gave me 2 numbers to call. She says she has done some digging and has uncovered some good stuff. But she needs help writing it all out.

I was erroneous in indicating this was an Arlington Grandma who contacted me. It was a Grandma from some other Dallas suburb.

I called Grandma this afternoon. She quickly told me the short version of her issue. Car towed from Wal-Mart parking lot while attending high school play-off game in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

I'm thinking, well there are signs suggesting event attendees not park there. And I say so to Grandma.

And that's when it got interesting. See, this particular Grandma is a real firecracker. She kept layering on the points of her issue til she had me totally getting it.

It is now pretty clear to me that Wal-Mart is pretty much breaking the law as defined by the State of Texas. That's serious business in these parts. You do not Mess with Texas. It's in our constitution.

According to Occupations Code 2308.301(b)(5) if you were towed from any parking lot without your consent and the parking lot's signage failed to contain the exact correct legalese, then you were illegally towed. Towing companies face stiff administrative fines for towing with illegal signs posted, but get away with it, everyday, because victims (motorists) fail to file a complaint.

Wal-Mart's signs are clearly not up to code.

There is a lot more to this Wal-Mart Illegal Towing/Dallas Cowboys Stadium Parking Scandal.

Jerry Jones may have a hand in what seems to be, well, a bit of racketeering. There is the appearance of some fresh dirty dealing.

Minimally there are some questions that are going to be asked that are going to need some answers.

More details to follow, as one very annoyed Grandma takes on Wal-Mart, Arlington, the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones.