Pondering In Texas About No Condemnation Without Representation No Eminent Domain For Private Gain

I'd been stuck at the computer til 2, or thereabouts. I had need to do some pondering. Pondering works best, for me, while wandering. So, I wandered around Village Creek Natural Historic Area, while I pondered.

What has me pondering is all the eminent domain abuse taking place in Texas. Well, actually an element of the abuse, which only recently was pointed out to me.

I was barely moved to Texas when I was shocked by my first exposure to eminent domain abuse, that being the taking of Hurst citizen's homes so the Northeast Mall could expand its parking lot.

The next abuse of eminent domain happened in Fort Worth when hundreds of low income citizens were booted out of the Ripley Arnold apartments so that Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters it could not afford and which is now a branch of Tarrant County Community College.

Next up was the dislocation of over 1,000 people, the taking of dozens of homes, apartment complexes and businesses, so Jerry Jones could build a new football stadium in Arlington. At least out of that worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history the mayor of Arlington, Chuck Cluck, wised up and said there'd be no more use of eminent domain, by the city, in cahoots with Jones.

And then it's back to Fort Worth, where eminent domain is being abused to take homes, businesses and land for something that goes by various names, Trinity River Vision, Trinity Uptown Project, or Fort Worth's Biggest Boondoggle. This use of eminent domain for a project ostensibly for the greater public good, has not been voted on by the public.

And then we stay in Fort Worth for what I think is the worst abuse of eminent domain yet. The scale may be smaller, but the abuse is greater. Courtesy of Chesapeake Energy and the City of Fort Worth.

The Steve Doeung & Carter Avenue versus Chesapeake Energy and Fort Worth case.

This is the one that has me pondering.

Chesapeake Energy has evoked eminent domain to take Steve Doeung's home. Steve decided to fight this in court. As is his right.

So, how is it right that a private company, like Chesapeake Energy, can put a private citizen, like Steve Doeung, in harm's way, via the installation of a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under his land, using the legal system to do so?

A citizen is thus forced into the position of having to defend himself, from this assault on his right to peace in his own home. And this defense is at his expense. How is that right? It is as if you are being metaphorically raped, by the very government that is supposed to protect you, and while you are being metaphorically raped you can not get any legal help to stop the metaphorical rape.

I would think it only common sense that if a private company wants to put a private citizen in harm's way, via the use of eminent domain to take their property, well that private company should have to provide funds so that the victim of their metaphorical rape at least has a fighting chance.

I don't know, for example, Chesapeake Energy files whatever legal documents they file to initiate eminent domain. As part of that filing Chesapeake puts up a bond of some amount sufficient to cover the legal help for the victim they are metaphorically raping.

I can not imagine how violated I would feel, suddenly having my home under assault by a corrupted city and a company the city is in cahoots with. And then to find that there is no mechanism in place to balance the playing field, to make it fair, to make certain the little guy does not get squashed by the big evil guy.

Just a couple days ago, or was it just yesterday, someone added a famous quote to a comment. The famous quote that goes something like "All it takes for Evil to prevail in the world, is for the Good people to do nothing."

I'm getting the sense that there is a rapidly increasing number of good people in the Fort Worth zone who are soon going to be prevailing against the evil in our midst. I'm often very intuitive about matters like this.

Texan & Canadian Is A State Of Mind That Few Can Understand

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a really good editorial cartoonist named David Horsey. He has been doing his cartooning from Vancouver during the Winter Olympics. This morning's Horsey had a Texas punchline that I felt compelled to share. And some amusing comments that I'll stick below the Texas punchline, including one from WA_REDNCK verbalizing a sentiment I've heard innumerable times since I've been in Texas....





Posted by glaucomis sabrinus

Possibly one of the dumbest cartoons Ive seen, even by Horsey's low standards. pretty sad, Dave... surely you can come up with something that at least makes sense??

Posted by Blarney

Heh! Anyone else ever been to Vancouver on Canada Day? They're a lot WORSE than Texans!

Posted by TobyGadd

Hey glaucomis sabrinus, you might not get this one because you aren't too familiar with your northern neighbours. As a dual citizen (US & Canada), I think that it's a hilarious cartoon. Horsey nailed the Canadian and Texan worldviews pretty well--and succeeded in poking good-natured fun at both at the same time. Nice!

Posted by WA_REDNCK

Being a 7th Generation Texan myself it's clear you have NO CLUE.

Texans need NO special event to be proud.... and ...... YES....ARROGANT!!!!!

TEXAN is a State of mind that few others understand. And just moving there don't make you Texan. TEXAN takes at least 2 generations. It takes that long to GET IT!!!!

And for the record, comments such as this don't belittle us, it just makes it apparent how jealous some people are that THEY aren't the REAL DEAL!!!!

It Is Snowing Again In Fort Worth Texas Possibly Setting A New Winter Snow Total Record

You are looking at the view out my patio window some time after 9 this morning.

When the sun lit up the place I saw a few flakes falling, of the tiny sort that makes for what is called powder snow in the northwest

I don't know if it's called powder snow in Texas.

By the time I was in the pool, for a short duration, the powder had turned to big fluffy flakes. Coming up on 10 the snow has switched back to powder.

It is 32 degrees, right now, but the ground is not freezing, so the flakes that hit the ground melt before another one lands on top of it. In other words, it is not white out there.

Snow is predicted to fall all day, but not to add up to much, but, if more than a couple inches piles up, it will break the record for total snowfall in a Dallas/Fort Worth winter. So far we have had 15.7 inches of snow this winter. The record is 17.6 inches in the winter of 1977-78.

I can not remember when I have ever been more ready for a winter to turn into spring.

Steve Doeung & The Carter Avenue Rescue Operation On Facebook

The Queen of Wink has started a Facebook Cause Page as part of ongoing efforts to save Carter Avenue and Steve Doeung from the corrupt City Government of Fort Worth and the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Companies who are running roughshod over the Victims of the Shale, abusing eminent domain, endangering citizens, polluting the air, and the water.

The cause is called CARO. CARTER AVENUE RESCUE OPERATION.

Steve Doeung is back in court in downtown Fort Worth on Thursday, March 4 at the Old Courthouse at 100 West Weatherford and Main Street, across the street from the Heritage Park eyesore.

If you can think of any way to help Steve Doeung in his battle to save his home from Chesapeake Energy and its lapdog, the City of Fort Worth, you can email him.

Winter Weather Advisory, Again, For North Texas With Snow & Cold Ducks

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for North Texas, from 3am tomorrow morning, til 9:45pm, Tuesday.

How does the National Weather Service come up with such a precise time for the end of the bad weather?

As you can, in the middle of Monday afternoon it is only 4.2 degrees above freezing in Arctic Fort Worth, Texas.

Winter in Texas used to be cycles of a few cold days followed by days in the 70s and 80s.

Did Mother Nature not get the memo about Global Warming?

When my stir crazy neurosis kicked in, today at noon, I again went to my default walking location, Oakland Lake Park, to walk around Fosdic Lake.

It was windy and too cold. I was not having myself a fine time communing with nature. Though the birds were being interesting. I saw 2 huge herons, but they would not cooperate in posing for a picture.

The Fosdic Ducks did not seem to be liking the cold water, unlike me, this morning, when the pool was way warmer than the air. A big herd of Fosdic Ducks were out of the water and waddling on land.

I also saw a pair of Canadian Geese. The Canadians are aggressive geese, just like the people they are named after. I was chased and bitten by a Canadian Goose once. It hurt. Really bad.

I actually was also bitten by a Canadian once. And that also hurt. Not as bad as getting bit by a Canadian Goose, though.

If you see a Canadian Goose acting at all aggressive, as in coming towards you, well, you'll want to back off real quick.

The Fosdic Canadian Geese just maintained their position, they did not move at all. But, they did not take their evil Canadian Geese eyes off me.

I am venturing out into the cold again in a bit, going to Miss Puerto Rico's to fix her computer. Hopefully.

Fort Worth's Amon Carter IV's Voluntary Branding Not A Crime

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was founded by a guy named Amon G. Carter. Even way back early in the last century there was a strange rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas, which continues to this day, which is totally one-sided, with Dallas not knowing there is a rivalry.

If Amon Carter had to do business in Dallas, he would pack a lunch, so that he did not need to go to a restaurant and leave some of his Fort Worth money in Dallas.

Last month Amon Carter's great-grandson, Amon Carter IV, who goes by the name of Chance, was in the news due to a bizarre incident that happened during a ski trip to Breckinridge, Colorado with a group of his fellow Texas Christian University fraternity and sorority members, who had rented a house.

While about a dozen TCU students watched, with one videotaping, Amon Carter had the Greek symbols of his fraternity and a sorority branded on his butt.

The branding went badly, with Chance needing surgery for second and third degree burns. Chance will need more surgery to restore his butt to its pre-branding state.

Some versions of the story have Chance passed out while the branding took place. Alcohol had been consumed.

On Thursday Breckinridge authorities decided Chance participated in the branding of his buttocks willingly and no charges would be filed.

Chance told a local TV news guy that he consented to the branding, but not to what eventually happened.

That does not make a lot of sense to me.

So, why am I even telling this story? Well, I'm telling this story because I found it interesting that I did not read it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that being Amon Carter IV's great granddaddy's newspaper. I read it this morning in my old local newspaper, online, the Skagit Valley Herald.

Now, it's likely the Star-Telegram did print the story of the branding. I did not see it online. And when I Googled "Amon Carter branding" no Star-Telegram article came up. So, maybe they did not tell their readers what happened to Chance.

The Carter family was quite upset. Chance's dad, Amon Carter III, had a lawyer make sure the branding was investigated.

Chance said, ""Somewhere, somebody has to say this is not OK. My family doesn't think it's OK, and I am angry."

I'm not quite sure what Chance is angry about. Is he angry that he agreed to have his butt branded?

I had a roller blade fall once that ended up with an injury that looked similar to Chance's. It hurt real bad. And I was really angry about it. I didn't need surgery though and had a full recovery.

Talking & Walking With The Queen Of Wink With A Ripped Swimsuit

It is 60 out there, right now, at 3 in the afternoon, on a semi-sunny Sunday, in balmy Fort Worth. As you can see, in the forecast, this return to the Texas of my memory will not last. Freezing returns tonight, with snow on Tuesday.

The high, so far today, has been 67. Clouds blot out the sun for a few minutes sending the temperature plummeting. And then the clouds move on and the temperature soars.

I have my windows open.

This morning I stayed in the pool the longest of 2010. But my pool time turned slightly unpleasant when I somehow managed to rip half my swimming suit off as I jumped into the pool. I knew the material was deteriorating, due to the ravages of time and sun, but I did not think it would catastrophically fail like that.

I should put the swimming suit back on and take a picture. I'll be right back, wearing my ripped up, wet swimming suit. It is a sad day. This was my favorite swimming suit. Now I have no favorite swimming suit. Well, there is my birthday suit.

My escape from here, today, was my current default escape, walking around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park. I talked to Tootsie Tonasket on the way to the park.

When I parked at the park and exited my vehicle I was surprised at how much warmer it was than the 5 minutes earlier when I had entered my vehicle.

I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. I was way over dressed. I walked as I talked to Tootsie for about a minute when the phone made the incoming call noise. I never remember what button to push to switch calls. Eventually I hit a button that caused a call back, I think that's what happened.

Anyway, I heard someone saying hello, so I knew I'd hit the correct button. It was the Queen of Wink. I proceeded to talk to the Queen as I walked. The walking and talking went way longer than my usual walking and talking.

I overheated as I walked and talked. I believe this was the first time this year I have had beads of sweat form on my forehead in an outdoor venue. I'm pretty sure the beads of sweat were temperature related and not the result of having the Queen of Wink in my ear.

The Queen of Wink is amusing to talk to. She listens to my long-winded stories and laughs at the appropriate moment, indicating she's actually listening. Laughing at the appropriate moment gets big points with me.

I continued talking to the Queen when I entered the air-conditioned comfort of my vehicle to drive back to my abode. The Queen talk made lunch late. Which was fine, because I was not all that hungry.

Can anyone sew up my swimming suit for me?

Carter Avenue's Steve Doeung & Abuse Of Power In Fort Worth Texas

I have written about the Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper Raid on Steve Doeung's home on Carter Avenue, more than once.

It crossed my mind, ever so slightly, that I might be being slightly hyperbolic referring to Fort Worth's code compliance and police officers as Gestapo Stormtroopers.

This morning I learned new information regarding the details of the Gestapo Stormtrooper raid that turned it into an even more Nazi-like fascist intimidation abuse of power outrage.

To protest the Chesapeake Energy plan to run a pipeline under Carter Avenue Steve Doeung installed a visual protest in front of his house.

The visual protest was a 2 foot long green 16 inch pipeline on which 2 laminated signs were attached, saying "Stop the Carter Avenue Pipeline." That's Steve in his visual protest in the picture.

Steve Doeung was exercising his American Right to Free Speech.

On 3 occasions, in late November and early December, of 2009, within 1 to 3 days of Steve's visual protest appearing in some media form, such as in FW Weekly, the City of Fort Worth sent in its stormtroopers, on a raid, to write up citations regarding Steve's visual protest, with the citations saying Steve had committed a code violation by having a "discarded item in public view."

Each of the citations carry fines ranging from $250 to $2,000.

You reading this in non-Texas America. Aren't you proud to have Fort Worth in our country?

Or are you ashamed that a city like this is in America?

Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh. It's not really Fort Worth that's the problem. It's Fort Worth's corrupt city government, led by a mayor, Mike Moncrief, elected in a 70% landslide by the 6% of voters who bothered to vote. Fort Worth's corrupt mayor makes over $600,000 a year from the gas drilling companies poking holes in his town.

The City of Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper intimidation raids on Steve Doeung's home are an example of the bad things that can happen when you have a Conflicts of Interest laden mayor who is a lapdog of an industry doing business in his town.

Can't someone somewhere follow the chain of orders that led to the raids on Steve Doeung?

Can't someone somewhere see that the Gestapo Stormtrooper raids on Steve Doeung are a criminal abuse of power?

Can't someone somewhere in this town of Fort Worth, besides me and a few others, see how wrong it is that Mike Moncrief is on the take from the gas drillers, while he makes decisions regarding that gas drilling?

Like the decision to run raids on Steve Doeung. On 3 occasions.

Who ordered that all the celebratory American flags be removed from Carter Avenue? Remember those flags that were celebrating Chesapeake Energy saying there was an alternative route for the non-odorized natural gas pipeline?

This was another expression of free speech stifled by Fort Worth's fascists.

Think I'm wrong to refer to the city government that ordered the raids on Steve Doeung as fascists?

Well, from Wikipedia, "Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement."

You know, like how Mike Moncrief runs his city council meetings. Or how he won't speak to Fort Worth Weekly. Or put himself in any situation where he can be asked hard questions. Like a courtroom.

Suppress opposition to the state? Like taking down American flags, and fining a man for protesting a plan to run, what he believes to be a potentially dangerous pipeline, under his home.

The people of Fort Worth need to start doing some heavy duty rabble rousing and protesting and opposing and run the fascists out of this other-wise fine town.

Fossil Fuels. They're A Gas: Teaching Children How To Sell Out In Fort Worth

Interesting incoming from Don Young about yet one more Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Industry Texas Takeover....

The cute, new eye-catching billboard, located along I-30 near downtown Fort Worth, appears harmless at first glance. What could be more benign that a little green, cartoon dinosaur with a puff of gas coming out its, um, tailpipe?

Ah, there's the rub. The message brought to you by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is not really about dinosaurs or fossil hunting or even most fossil fuels. It is about natural gas. It's about convincing citizens of shale that natural gas is nothing to fear. More than that-

The message on the billboard is a symbol of the rot at the core of this fabled Fort Worth institution.

In an effort to satisfy the demands of their new oil and gas benefactors, the FWMoS&H, has dabbed a little cartoon lipstick on the filthy fuel that is poisoning the air, land and water of north Texas. They have used dirty energy bucks to create an ad campaign that rewrites and distorts history.

Among the victims of this perversion are the children of the shale whose still-growing lungs, brains and endocrine systems are more impacted by the significant pollutants coming from thousands of gas well facilities in north Texas.

How is it possible that one of Fort Worth's most trusted institutions could stoop to this level? Why did they sell out the children of the shale? The answer lies in the list of corporate donors who contributed to the construction of the recently completed FWMoS&H building. Meet the REAL owners of the museum:

-XTO Energy
-Encana Oil & Gas
-Dale Resources
-Devon Energy
-Enron Oil & Gas
-Exxon-Mobil

The museum's Board of Directors was infiltrated and or influenced by these energy companies. The Energy Blast exhibit, a fawning glorification of natural gas in the Barnett Shale would never have happened without them. Representatives of these companies wormed their way onto the board with promises of big bucks to make big dreams come true. But there would be strings attached to this faux-philanthropy.

You are looking at one of those strings.

DY

A Saturday Fosdic Lake Bird Buffet With A Human Cancer

It has been a gray Saturday in Texas. A balmy high nearing 60.

Around noon I took off for Town Talk with a stop at Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake. I am such a pathetic creature of habit.

As you can see in the picture the Fosdic Birds were having themselves a fine time today, with a lot of feeding going on. The Fosdic Birds make quite a loud racket when they are all happy about getting fed.

As I walked today I found myself being quietly contemplative. There really was no other option than to be quiet. I was dwelling on Human Cancers and Toxic People. I don't mean cancer of the sort that attacks humans. I'm talking about Humans who are like Cancers.

I used to know an extremely Toxic Person. I did not realize til I removed the Toxicity that dealing with the Toxic Person was like having a Human Cancer being a tumor on my good humor. It was not long after a good dose of radiation, chemo therapy and bitch slapping, that I found myself in full remission.

Getting rid of a Human Cancer is a smart move. I recommend it if you have any such tumor bugging you.

And then a couple days ago, out of the blue, the Human Cancer was back, as Toxic as ever, invading in new areas.

But, the Human Cancer was found early and I zapped it with an extremely strong dose of my own personal brand of radiation. I am prepared to increase the dosage, should the Human Cancer re-appear.

I suspect I am Human Cancer free again. I can only hope.

Tootsie Tonasket, aka Princess Thunderumper of the Tonasket Tribe, called today. Princess Thunderumper was being rather amusing. I don't get how she stays in such a good state of mind with all the soap opera that swirls about her in her little Eastern Washington town.

So, that's been my exciting Saturday, so far. Up really early, FTP nightmare solved, actually managed to stay in the pool for the longest time of the new year, Fosdic Lake walking, Human Cancer treatments.

And now I am heading into Saturday night, which if anyone ever pays any attention, notice might have been made that I rarely make mention of anything that happens after 5pm. My no mentioning things in the blog time zone is from 5pm until 4am. I rarely violate that rule.