Adrian Murray John Basham Campaign Signs Disappearing

You're looking at one of the few remaining Adrian Murray/John Basham Tarrant Regional Water District Board campaign signs left standing.

I won't disclose the exact location of this sign so that it might escape being kidnapping by nefarious miscreants.

I learned of the nefarious miscreanting yesterday via the following....

The large 4' x 8' campaign signs for Adrian Murray and John Basham are quickly becoming collector items. Eager collectors have been snatching them up in the week prior to the election and the once abundant signs are disappearing from vacant lots and roadsides all across the district.

The most prominent and well-known collector is life-long Fort Worth native, heiress and well-known spinster Marty Leonard, who has personally gathered up 50 of the sought-after signs. Ms. Leonard, who coincidentally is the incumbent in the seat both Murray and Basham are seeking, said her actions in taking the signs should not be interpreted in any way as an attempt to interfere with their campaign.

"Quite the contrary," she explained when reached by phone at her $2.4 million mansion in Westover Hills. "It's plainly obvious that these young men are superbly qualified, certainly more so than either me or Jim Lane. Their victory in Saturday's election is a fait accompli and I'm merely trying to save them all that time next week picking up their campaign signs. This way they can get right to work cleaning up the mess we have made at the water board."

Ms. Leonard went on to explain that the large signs will make a shrewd investment. "May 8, 2010 will go down in history as the day corruption in this city finely began to be cleaned up and these are the men who will do it. Only 100 of these signs were ever produced and I've got 50 of them. They'll be worth a pile of money one day."

Asked if she had any concerns that removing an opponent's campaign signs before election day is illegal and ethically immoral, Leonard stated, "Practically everything we do at the water board is illegal and ethically immoral. It's a hard habit to break."

No Electricity Drives Me To Hiking The Tandy Hills

After a couple hours of no power I began to grow very agitated. No power really limits what you can do if what you do takes electricity.

I figured I'd hike the Tandy Hills til I got a call telling me the lights were back on.

As I hiked I pondered the worst case scenario, as in, what to do if the power does not come back on. I figured I'd put any perishables in Miss Puerto Rico's fridge for the duration.

But there was no need to go into doomsday mode, the power came back on.

I have no idea what today's Tandy Hills plant is. Is it a wildflower? A fruit? A vegetable? A lot of these things have been popping out in the past week.

Elsie Hotpepper just called, concerned that I'd gone absent from the blogging world. Elsie's quest to locate Ed Fitzgerald, by staking out Oscar's Pub, was to no avail.

I must get out of here again and go to the aforementioned Miss Puerto Rico's to help her do something with a valve. What, that means, I really have no idea.

TXU & Oncor Energy Service Sucks

Well, I had me a fine, fun Sunday morning. Sometime around 9 this morning my second computer monitor went blank just as I Googled "Bull Freeway" looking for a picture of the bull that terrorized my neighborhood yesterday, shutting down I-30 for an hour or so.

I thought my monitor had died. About 20 minutes later I noticed the little battery power icon was on. It was then I realized the power was out.

This was a bit unusual, as there was no storming going on, no wind, no lightning, nothing.

After about an hour I opened my latest TXU bill and called the number for reporting a power outage. After having a real fine time wading through the TXU auto phone tree deal that uses voice recognition, I finally came to the part where I was asked to say my Zip Code.

I say the Zip Code and am told that Oncor Energy takes care of outages in my area and that I needed to call them to report the outage.

Huh?

Would you not think that since it is TXU that I pay for my electricity that when I call TXU to tell them the power is out that TXU would take it from there? And notify Oncor if that is what is needed?

So, I called Oncor. Another auto phone tree thing. Only this time it said it did not recognize my phone number and to please enter my phone number or my EID number that can be found on my bill.

I hung up.

Then I looked at the bill til I found the EID number. It was very very small and about 30 digits.

I called Oncor back, got to the enter the EID number part and it told me to enter the last 7 digits.

I entered the 7 digits and was then told that the outage had been reported and that a crew was working on the problem.

By then it was around 11. I got out of here and headed to the Tandy Hills for some peaceful relaxation. It was chaos going through my neighborhood powerless traffic lights.

About an hour later I got a call telling me the power was back on.

Now, how did it come to pass that you don't call the business you are paying for your electricity, when that electricity is not being delivered?

Very annoying.

TXDOT APPROVES ALTERNATIVE TO PROPOSED CARTER AVENUE GAS PIPELINE

Sometime Friday I got my first message regarding the supposed resolution of the Carter Avenue Chesapeakegate Scandal. Kathleen Hicks was claiming Carter Avenue was celebrating.

Again.

Wendy Davis was trumpeting this victory and thanking, along with Kathleen Hicks, the great benevolence of Chesapeake Energy and TxDOT.

The thing is, I am of the opinion that it is scandalous and borderline criminal that the people who live on Carter Avenue were ever put in this sort of jeopardy by a private business and a city government in cahoots with that private business.

I am also of the opinion that this is not over until Chesapeake Energy drops its eminent domain case against Steve Doeung. The day that happens is the day I think a celebration is called for. Until then. I don't trust that this absurdity is really over.

Below is the "News Release" from the office of esteemed Fort Worth City Councilwoman, Kathleen Hicks....

FORT WORTH –There is much to celebrate on Carter Avenue as TxDOT confirmed today that the proposal by TMGS, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Midstream Partners, to install a portion of the Thomas-to-Hickman pipeline route along I-30 has been approved. This morning, TxDOT issued a permit for the installation of a gas line across and parallel to I-30 and Beach Street.

Chesapeake Energy has long sought to lay a gas pipeline under Carter Avenue in order to connect the Thomas and Hickman well sites. After several requests to Chesapeake Energy to delay their permit request and after several meetings on this issue, Chesapeake can now actively work to seek street crossing approvals from the City of Fort Worth. These approvals are necessary before the pipeline can be installed.

"For two years, I joined concerned residents in just saying no to this proposed pipeline,” said Council Member Kathleen Hicks. “Today's news is truly a victory for the neighborhoods and I thank TxDOT and Chesapeake. Most of all I thank Carter Avenue residents who have waited patiently for this day! With this victory for Carter Avenue, I expect other neighborhoods to utilize this victory in their own efforts.”

Chesapeake is optimistic that pipeline construction could begin as early as this fall, bringing long awaited royalties to hundreds of mineral owners. The proposed alternate route will travel west of Beach Street south of I-30 and enter TxDOT right-of-way and run latitudinally across north of I-30.

Ankle Biters Chasing Me On The Tandy Hills While Elsie Hotpepper Hangs Out In Oscar's Pub

You are looking at the newly renovated Tandy Highway, slicing through the heart of the Tandy Hills, from Tandy Falls to an end point I've not yet made it to.

I was erroneous, yesterday, in my assumption that the City of Fort Worth Roadbuilders had accessed the new road via the park's east entry by Tandy Tower. I'd assumed this due to seeing new wheel ruts leading down the south option at the intersection halfway down Mount Tandy.

So, it remains a mystery why trucks were going up and down that particular section. The crushed rock roadblock that I'd run into yesterday had been spread around on the new highway. I think. I may be making an erroneous assumption again.

I was chased be a pair of ankle biters today. Yapping little Terrier Terrorists. I had to alter my route to avoid a second encounter with the possibly rabid little monsters. I'd armed myself with a good whacking stick in the eventuality of another sneak attack.

It is an overcast day here, this Saturday in Fort Worth. 77 degrees at half past 3 in the afternoon. So, I have my windows open. I do not remember so many days when the windows could be open during times previous in my Texas exile.

I saw a new wildflower today. It may be my new favorite.

Til I hear different I am calling this one the Pink Puffball Gold-Tipped Wildflower.

It reminded me of the ball that sits atop Reunion Tower in Dallas. The Reunion Tower ball puts on a light show at night. Well, it used to and I'm assuming it still does.

I am working on trying to not make so many erroneous assumptions.

I have received some suggestions as to where to find the mysterious volunteer attorney who calls himself Ed Fitzgerald. One said Ed Fitzgerald could probably be found at Oscar's Pub on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth.

Another suggested that the correct name is Edmund Fitzgerald and that Edmund was currently busy with some matters in offshore Louisiana. I assume involving leaking oil. This person included a link to information about Edmund Fitzgerald that was not really all that helpful, due to the link being a list of Google search results about the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter that sank on Lake Superior back in the 1970s.

My therapist, Dr. L.C., has gone missing today. I assume she is off politicking. Elsie Hotpepper is hanging out at Oscar's Pub, hoping to find Ed Fitzgerald. Elsie will use just about any excuse to hang out in a pub.

I'm Having A May Day Hunt For Ed Fitzgerald In Texas

Time flies. Seems like just yesterday it was April Fool's Day and I was moving to Las Vegas with the Queen of Wink.

Now it's May Day and I am still in Fort Worth and the Queen is still in Wink.

I've got a mystery I would like to solve.

Does anyone out there in the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World, Tarrant County, Texas, know an attorney named Ed Fitzgerald?

If you Google for "Ed Fitzgerald Attorney" you find such a person in Massachusetts.

Why am I hunting for this mysterious lawyer? Well, this natural gas company named Chesapeake Energy has been abusing eminent domain in order to run a non-odorized, high pressure natural gas pipeline under homes in the east Fort Worth avenue named Carter.

One by one the people on Carter Avenue gave in to the pressure and signed away their property rights for a pittance.

Only one Carter Avenuer refused, he being Steve Doeung. Unbeknownst to Steve Doeung, court proceedings were initiated against him by Chesapeake Energy. Somehow an attorney, named Ed Fitzgerald, was representing Steve Doeung in these court proceedings.

To this day Steve Doeung has never spoken to Ed Fitzgerald. Steve Doeung has asked, repeatedly, for legal help and I'm sure he would love to have the help of the mysterious Ed Fitzgerald.

What I'd like to know is how it is that Ed Fitzgerald came to represent Steve Doeung?

Adding to the mystery, a few months ago FW Weekly had Steve Doeung on its cover and told the story of his battle against Chesapeake Energy. I think it was in that article I learned of the Gestapo-like intimidation tactics used by the City of Fort Worth against Steve Doeung, sending in goon squads to issue bogus citations.

I never saw any followup article in FW Weekly in which FW Weekly tried to find out who ordered the Gestapo raids on Steve Doeung. I think Woodward and Bernstein would have been all over that.

And then this morning one of my anonymous sources tells me that the FW Weekly reporter who wrote the article about Steve Doeung claims that someone who knows Ed Fitzgerald talked to the reporter and told him that Ed Fitzgerald had repeatedly tried to contact Steve Doeung, leaving messages, with no call back from Steve Doeung.

Now, this really sounds really hinky to me. First off, in my experience, Steve Doeung returns calls quickly. He would certainly be strongly motivated to return a call to the mysterious attorney he'd never met, never hired, never talked to.

I find it a bit surprising that the writer of the FW Weekly article somehow magically ran into someone who knew Ed Fitzgerald with somehow the conversation turning to this attorney's inablity to reach Steve Doeung.

Perhaps the writer of the FW Weekly article could put Steve Doeung in touch with the person who knows the mysterious Ed Fitzgerald, so that Steve Doeung might finally somehow meet the guy who has been representing him all this time.

I tell you, the way things operate in Texas really perplexes me at times.

Oh, and Happy May Day.

Hiking The Cloudy Tandy Hills With Fort Worth's Lone Ranger

As you can see we are a bit cloudy this Friday in my location in Texas. In the picture you are looking west from deep inside the Tandy Hills Natural Area, sometime around noon.

My favorite Cambodian-American, Fort Worth's Lone Ranger, also known as Steve, the Savior of Carter Avenue, did the Tandy Hills hiking with me today.

If you did not know Steve was not a native born Texan you'd never guess it by talking with him. He has a more refined Texas accent than native born Gar the Texan, with none of that nasal twang that Gar the Texan starts drawling when a case of the vapors is fast approaching.

The City of Fort Worth Water Boys were back on the Tandy Hills again today. This time with several trucks and a bulldozer.

Yesterday I saw that the Water Boys had entered the park via the east entry by Tandy Tower, going north at the first intersection. Today I could see they'd gone down the south option.

The access "trail" road that the Water Boys are using to work on fixing the storm drains is now a muddy mess, with a huge pile of crushed rock blocking the way.

We backtracked from the roadblock and went over a hill to get to the other side of the crushed rock block. I was surprised to see that some sort of vehicle had crossed Tandy Falls. I can only shudder to wonder what is in store for Tandy Falls.

Usually Tandy Falls and the pools of water on either side of the falls are very clear. Today the pools of water were very murky.

Murky water. That is sort of a metaphor for Fort Worth.

March In May To Liberate Marijuana In Texas

There are way too many Americans in jail due to various violations of the various laws that prohibit Marijuana. Criminalizing Marijuana, in my opinion, may be the stupidest thing the American Government does.

Producing and selling alcoholic beverages, that the government sanctions.

I live on the border between a wet and a dry zone. For you non-Texans, here in Texas the Prohibition period never totally went away. So, you have some areas where alcohol is totally banned, as in dry, others where it is totally allowed, as in wet, others where alcohol is partially allowed, as in damp. Within those parameters there are variations, like areas where a thing called a Unicard is required to get an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant.

I have no idea how much of the Mexican Drug Cartel's, currently waging war with each other, business is trafficking in Marijuana. I suspect Marijuana is a large part of the Mexican Drug Cartel's cash flow.

In my opinion Marijuana is far less dangerous then alcohol. If it were legalized, with the quality controlled to make a less powerful cannabis, it would seem like selling the stuff in liquor stores would be a good thing. All that money that now goes to Mexican Drug Cartels would stay in America. All those people in jail, taking up space and costing money, could be released and made whole again.

Farmers could openly grow the stuff, like in the days of yore, or currently in the backwoods of Northern California. Marijuana grows like a weed, hence one of its nicknames. Maybe part of the plant, since it is hemp, could be used as a bio-fuel.

We have had many of our national leaders, including presidents, admit to having experimented with Marijuana, though one claims to have experimented without inhaling. How can a president or other elected official at the federal level admit to the crime of being a Marijuana user and not be an ardent advocate of repealing the Marijuana Prohibition?

Several of the states and cities within states have greatly liberalized their Marijuana laws, to no great harm that I've heard about.

It's all very perplexing to me.

With Texas being the most progressive, liberal, forward thinking state in the American union, I really think Texas should lead the way and end the Texas Pot Prohibition and empty Texas jails of those incarcerated for Marijuana related offenses.

Texas needs to do a better job of putting real criminals, like Fort Worth's corrupt conflicts of interest-laden Mayor Mike Moncrief, behind bars, and free those who really have done nothing seriously wrong.

Good News On The Tandy Hills Today

On Monday I blogged about being appalled about the damage I'd found on the Tandy Hills, with the worst being a creek bed filled in to create a culvert-less bridge, that acted as a dam.

To build the "bridges" dirt had been gouged from the hills. It was not a pleasant thing to see.

But.

Today I was happy to see that the creek bed, that was running water and had been dammed, had been re-done, with a culvert now allowing the water to pass through.

The other creek bed, which is running no water, was also re-done, but no culvert was added.

The damaged areas, like the connection to a Tandy Hills Trail, had been smoothed over.

All in all, I was real pleased to see the fixes.

A City of Fort Worth crew was back working in the same spot I've seen them on 3 days previous. But near as I could tell, today, they had entered the work area via the entry to the park next to the Tandy Tower. I could see truck tracks going down the very steep, very bumpy trail that heads down Mount Tandy to the north.

I would not want to drive down or up that "trail".

Some Tarrant Regional Water Board Letters Make Sense Others Are Nonsense

I confess to being very socially irresponsible. Because I forgot to go Early Vote yesterday for Adrian Murray and John Basham to be members of the Tarrant Regional Water Board.

I will try to remember to vote today.

I am finding the Letters to the Editor, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, regarding the Tarrant Water Board election, to be interesting.

Interesting in a way I don't think some of the letter writers intend. On the one hand there are very real, very honest, very, I don't know, factual, maybe, type letters. Those would be the ones in support of Adrian Murray and John Basham.

And then you have the Letters to the Editor in support of the current Tarrant Water Board Regime. They all sound phony, contrived, cliche-ridden, like this line about Jim Lane..."he has worked to protect our environment, including the water that nourishes and cleans our families."

Or this line about Marty Leonard..."Her dedication to our well-being is far-ranging and monumental, but in no case more so than that of water: clean and sustainable water..."

And then you have the Letter to the Editor from Louis McBee, in support of Adrian Murray and John Basham. Mr. McBee's letter raises a real issue, unlike the other two letters, which to me, come across as the work of propaganda shills.

Three letters, first the "real" one from Louis McBee and then the 2 cliche-ridden, basically pointless, point-free letters from supposed supporters of Leonard and Lane....

Tarrant water board

I am not at all surprised to see the endorsement of the incumbents for the Tarrant Regional Water District in last Thursday's editorial. What is bewildering is that after all the pontificating about "open and responsible government" over the past few months in the Star-Telegram, you would now suggest that it is "acceptable" business as usual for Jim Lane and Marty Leonard to rubber-stamp staff recommendations with their constant "aye" votes because "the real work" is done in meetings outside of public view -- in committee discussions and (one could assume) at the golf course and over cocktails.

I endorse John Basham and Adrian Murray, citizens who care.

-- Louis McBee, Fort Worth

As a community, we have much to be thankful for: educational institutions, museums, stable business climate, parks and a river that runs through them. We also have individuals who have lived here all their lives and deeply care about our future.

Marty Leonard is the epitome of those who never lost their love of Fort Worth and its people. Her dedication to our well-being is far-ranging and monumental, but in no case more so than that of water: clean and sustainable water, coupled with a determination to ensure that we have sound conservation measures to better use what we have.

Re-elect Marty Leonard to the Tarrant Regional Water District board. Water is essential to our quality of life. Marty understands that. She will strive to make sure we don't take it for granted, abuse it or lose it.

-- Gretchen Denny and George Bristol, Fort Worth

On the Tarrant Regional Water District board, Jim Lane has worked to keep our water clean and plentiful. He has earned our vote. Lane is hard-working, practical, helpful to others and smart but not in a pointy headed way. Lane's record of public service, including service in our military and on the Fort Worth City Council, has been committed to protecting our way of life. And in public office, Jim has not been afraid to ask hard questions and change the way things are done when needed. Moreover, in public office, he has worked to protect our environment, including the water that nourishes and cleans our families.

Vote to keep our water clean and plentiful. Vote for a dedicated public servant: Jim Lane for Tarrant Water District Board.

-- Jason C.N. Smith, Fort Worth