A Tranquil Swim Thinking About Becoming A No Internet Apolitical Turtle Living On A Desert Island

The patio view of my pool is looking particularly tranquil on what is already the second Wednesday of May.

Tranquil and currently heated to 73 degrees.

I had myself a real fine time taking a real long swim in that tranquil turquoise pool this morning.

I needed some tranquility due to feeling a bit disgruntled, with the disgruntlement beginning last night when I came upon a bit of information that left me more than just a bit dismayed.

Dismayed because it seemed to me I was seeing people metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot, after making such good progress towards what I thought was a common goal.

The more disgruntled I became the more I began to realize I'd made some wrong assumptions and heard  what I wanted to hear when I asked for clarification about information I assumed to be false, which apparently turned out to be true.

Hence my disgruntlement.

When I first came upon the object of my disgruntlement I made image files of that which disgruntled me, intending to blog the specifics of that which disgruntled me.

But, this morning, after much disgruntled pondering, I decided to keep my opinion to myself, not wanting to risk doing possible damage to what may be the greater good, in the end, even if right now I'm feeling like turning into an apolitical turtle living on a desert island in the South Pacific with no Internet service and my head inside my shell...

TRWD Candidate John Austin Basham Addresses Campaign Finance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TRWD Candidate John Austin Basham addresses campaign finance

Fort Worth, Texas – May 7, 2013 – Over the past few days much has been made by political elites and media insiders about campaign finance during this Tarrant Regional Water Distric election. TRWD challenger and part of the Basham-Nold-Kelleher (BNK) slate couldn’t agree more.

“I absolutely agree campaign finance is an issue in this race,” says Basham, “I have been vigorously supported by an open government PAC and private land owners since day one.”

When asked about his opponents financial backing Mr. Basham had some serious questions.

“The current board members list of donors reads like a friends and family plan,” says Basham, “When I looked at their list I couldn’t believe 95% of the donors receive our tax money in contract awards.” Mr. Basham went on to say, “It’s no wonder they want to try to paint my private donors as evil, anything to take the focus off the fact that YOU the taxpayer are funding their campaign.”

A review of campaign finance reports called “8-day reports” do in fact show none of Mr. Basham’s donors receive any contracts or awards from the Tarrant Regional Water District. This cannot be said for the incumbent’s reports which show over 30 donors who are paid contractors or lobbyists for the Tarrant Regional Water District.

“It sickens me that these people get away with this every election,” says Basham, “They drag every opponent through the mud and take focus off the real issue.” Basham continued,” They are getting paybacks for the political decisions they make on the board in the form taxpayer cash laundered through contractors!”

Opponents of Mr. Basham and the BNK slate of challengers have been in quite a “tizzy” about donors from “out of town” donating to his campaign. Mr. Basham responded, “I have donors  who are affected by TRWD decisions across their 11 county service area, their only say in any election is by supporting open and honest challengers,” Basham continued, “My opponents have received donations from 4 different states from as far away as Arizona and Colorado. Voters should decide which is worse; out-of-state TRWD contractors giving kick-backs or normal land owners affected by TRWD decisions.”

Proof Timothy Nold Is Not A Tax Deadbeat While Marty Leonard Is A Lying Slanderess

The Dallas Observer article A Tarrant County Water Fight Descends into the Slop with the Help of a Dallas Hotel Magnate, in which I learned I am a rollerblading Fort Worth blogger, included the below paragraph.

The responses on behalf of the incumbents have run the gamut from cheery missives from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price to quasi-slanderous hit pieces.

I would say some of the incumbents' responses are out and out slanderous, not quasi-slanderous.

Like TRWD board member, Marty Leonard's hit piece where the self-entitled Dowager Heiress slandered TWRD board candidate, Timothy Nold, by claiming he was a tax deadbeat being sued by the TRWD.

Minutes ago I was emailed the document you see above, from Tarrant County Tax Assessor, Ron Wright, in which it rather clearly indicates that Timothy Nold owes no delinquent taxes.

How does one fix the damage done when a morally bankrupt person, like Marty Leonard, allows her name to be attached to lies and innuendo?

Well, you certainly do not re-elect them. And in the case of Marty Leonard, you publicly shame the disgraced person into resigning from the office she clearly is morally not fit to hold.

Has Marty Leonard apologized  for slandering Timothy Nold? If so, I withdraw my characterizing her as being morally bankrupt and unfit to hold office.

I Am Happy To Be A Rollerblading Fort Worth Blogger Making Reference To Incumbent Cockroaches

After lunch I woke up my computer to learn, via blog comments and emails, that I have become a "rollerblading Fort Worth blogger who makes references to cockroaches."

It is in an article in The Dallas Observer titled A Tarrant County Water Fight Descends into the Slop with the Help of a Dallas Hotel Magnate that I have been identified as being a rollerblading Fort Worth blogger.

I do still have rollerblades. I think.

My rollerblades may have been stolen back in October of 2010 when my bike was stolen. I do not recollect checking to make sure the rollerblades had not gone missing.

I gave up rollerblading at some point in time between 2006 and 2008, if I remember right.

I had a horrific fall that left me banged up on one arm, with my left buttock badly bloodied and bruised. Recovery was complete, with no scarring. Thank you for your concern.

Why am I not the mountain biking Fort Worth blogger? Or the hiking Fort Worth blogger? Or the cranky Fort Worth blogger? I still engage in those activities.

A Leaky Walk Around My Neighborhood Looking For The Lawn Whisperer & Chesapeake's Improved Landscaping

Someone call the Lawn Whisperer. We've sprung a leak.

The Lawn Whisperer is a Tarrant Regional Water District Board creation that creates the illusion that the TRWD is working hard on water conservation.

Meanwhile, despite the Lawn Whisperer, I somehow happen upon a surprising number of water leaks when I am out and about.

I had not taken a walk in my neighborhood for a week or two. When I walked from the Albertsons parking lot to the sidewalk on the south side of Boca Raton Boulevard I was instantly faced with a flood of water rendering the sidewalk and environs too wet for pleasant dry passage.

It would appear a pipe has sprung a leak and is spouting copious amounts of precious, scarce water through the Albertsons parking lot retaining wall.

On my walk, after the Albertsons leak, I came upon a much drier, much more pleasing site, that being what you see below.

Above you are looking at my neighborhood's landscaped Welcome to Woodhaven. Last year Chesapeake Energy temporarily destroyed this landscaped welcome during the process of laying some underground pipe through which Chesapeake flows non-odorized natural gas.

After the pipeline was installed Chesapeake rebuilt the landscaped welcome.  But not to the level of its former  glory.  It was soon a weedy eyesore. I blogged about the weedy eyesore.

The landscaped Welcome to Woodhaven has now been greatly improved, with no more weeds and with additional landscape elements, like big flagstones, installed.

I can't really clearly remember exactly what the Welcome to Woodhaven looked like before Chesapeake destroyed it, but I can say I think the latest version is just as good as the original.

Now with explosive potential...

The TRWD Incumbent Cockroaches Throw Some Mud While Hiding From The Light

Last  night I was pre-warned I would find a bizarre  mailer in my mailbox this morning from the apparently increasingly desperate TRWD Incumbents.

Even though I was pre-warned, seeing the oversized, would not fit in my scanner, mailer, and its outrageous Orwellian propaganda, left me with the feeling of not knowing where to start with verbalizing my disgust for these miscreants who clearly need to be removed from any position involving public trust.

"A controversial Dallas millionaire is using a child actor to spread lies and throw mud at our hardworking local water board."

"DON'T LET OUTSIDERS STEAL OUR WATER!"

Steal our water?

Can these idiots get any more irresponsible with the unsubstantiated nonsense they are spewing? The TRWD Board  must have a really low opinion of the intelligence of those who vote, thinking that throwing the "Big Bad  Dallas" card was a great bit of propaganda.

"Don't be misled by the DISHONEST DALLAS HOGWASH from his (the rich Dallas millionaire's) handpicked SLATE of Water Board candidates: John Austin Basham, Timothy Nold and Mary Kelleher --- one has recently been bankrupt and doesn't live in the district and another is being sued for being a tax deadbeat."

No Dallas millionaire hand-picked Basham, Nold & Kelleher to clean up the clearly corrupt TRWD Board.

In the blog post titled The TRWD Election Propaganda Spewings Of Self-Entitled Dowager Heiress Marty Leonard I already explained the reality behind John Basham's bankruptcy and the moral bankruptcy apparent in the fact that Marty Leonard and her co-conspirators in character assassination would sink this low. What I did not mention in that blog post, because at that point in time I did not know the details, was that Timothy Nold was late paying his taxes because the inept TRWD was sending his tax bill to a vacant lot.

Which had the morally bankrupt Marty Leonard characterizing Nold as a tax deadbeat being sued by the TRWD.

Why did this latest mailer fail to also mention the shocking claim that one of the candidates, Mary Kelleher, has a meager voting record? That claim had the TRWD member, dowager heiress, Marty Leonard, in full clutch her pearls mode.

"These dirty candidates should move to Dallas and leave our local WATER ALONE!"

I am actually more than a little embarrassed for the TRWD Board. How humiliatingly insipid to spew this type stuff, which clearly indicates they can not make any sort of case for re-election based on their sorry record.

We are in Malice in Wonderland territory here, folks. We are Through the Looking Glass, where yes is no, truth is lie, clean is dirty, hard working is do nothing, stupid is smart, good is bad. Well, you get the picture.

"Throwing mud at our hard working Tarrant Regional Water Board?"

Throwing mud? What mud? Claiming the TRWD Board bought a luxury helicopter with leather seats? And that the Board uses this aircraft to fly to some sort of private hunting preserve?  I notice that the TRWD propagandizers are not denying the existence of the private hunting preserve, or using the helicopter to fly there. Now, if I were to fly in a helicopter to a private hunting preserve, I would consider this a luxury. Yeah, that is really dirty mud to point out the TRWD flies their luxury helicopter to their private hunting preserve.

Claiming to be hard working is like claiming to be deep thinking. We need some proof.

Are there examples of this corrupt TRWD Board working hard to mitigate the flash flood dangers in Haltom City that have been a deadly menace for decades?

The answer to the above question is NO.

How come the TRWD Board Incumbents make no mention of the hard work they've done on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Is there no mention made because after well over a decade all we can see of the Vision is a pathetic, soon likely to go out of business Cowtown Wakepark and the first drive-in movie theater to open in America in decades?

How come the TRWD Incumbents make no mention of their hard work that brought the Woodshed Smokehouse to the banks of the Trinity River.

The Woodshed Smokehouse, for you who don't know, is a restaurant, brought about by behind closed doors, secret shenanigans of the TRWD Board, in cahoots with their lapdog, J.D. Granger.

Apparently, in the TRWD Board's hard working world, building a restaurant on the banks of a river is part of their flood control, water quality mandate.

While little girls drown in flash floods in the area of the TRWD's responsibility.

A few days ago a source I consider reliable emailed me some documents with the text of the email saying, among many other things....

"A little bird tells me that someone very high up at the TRWD is talking to the reporter and is looking to "get ahead" of what the "new board" will find once they start digging. Turns out the internal finger pointing about illegalities is now beginning. I can't wait to read what all he has found."

I never saw a cockroach til I moved to Texas. Let alone see a herd of cockroaches run for cover when the lights come on.

Methinks soon after May 11 we are going to be seeing some metaphoric TRWD cockroaches running from the light....

Seattle's 87 degrees HOTTER Today Than Phoenix & Dallas/Fort Worth

Taking a break from this blog's currently seeming 24/7 to be almost exclusively about the Tarrant Regional Water District Board election, this evening Spencer  Jack's dad sent me the above photo taken today on a Seattle beach.

Currently there are no beaches like you see above, in Fort Worth.  Some day, maybe, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle may have a beach around its little pond.

Spencer Jack's dad also sent me a video of Spencer Jack watersliding in his backyard after school today.

TRWD Board Wants To Charge John Basham $2,585.00 For Disclosure Of Public Records

On the left you are looking at page 1 of 3 that Tarrant Regional Water District Board candidate, John Basham, received today from lawyers representing the TRWD Board.

A few days ago John Basham emailed me 3 documents, with those documents being exchanges John Basham had with the TRWD Board's lawyers regarding John Basham's Texas Public Information Act (Open Records) Request.

One of the communications from the TRWD Board's lawyers asked Basham to narrow the scope of his Request.

The document John Basham received today from the TRWD Board's lawyer basically tells him if he wants to see the public records, that he is requesting to see, it will cost him $2,585.00.

I guess Freedom of Information is not free in Texas.

I can't help but wonder how much of the public's money the TRWD Board is spending on its lawyers to keep from giving John Basham the records he is requesting to see?

Today Mary Kelleher Yelled At Me Before I Voted For Her & Blogged About Why She Needs To Be On The TRWD Board

Mary Kelleher Making Sure I Voted For Her

A couple hours ago I blogged that I met a local political celebrity on my way to vote for Basham, Nold & Kelleher for the Tarrant Regional Water Board.

I arrived at my early voting Handley Community Center polling place to see a lot of signs and a lady standing by a pickup.

I got out of my motorized transport to soon find the lady yelling at me something about BNK.

Then I shouted the question are you B, N or K? Whilst knowing it could not be B or N. The lady hollered back that she was K.

So, I walked over and introduced myself to Mary Kelleher.

The last couple days I've mentioned a time or two my disdain for the smear tactics of the Water Board Incumbents' campaign, casting aspersions on the motives of those running to unseat 3 Water Boarders.

Mary Kelleher's motive?

“In my personal struggles with flooding, I had a lot of trouble getting anybody to help me. It seemed that the real public, people like myself, were under-represented. I want to be in a position where I can make some change.”

Mary and her neighbors have experienced flooding ever since a natural gas pipeline and a gas well site access road were constructed and started damming up floodwater on to her property.

Mary and her neighbors acknowledge that some flooding has always occurred  at their location in the Trinity River flood plain.

However, the flooding became much worse and occurred much more frequently after the pipeline and access road altered the landscape.

Mary turned to governmental agencies for help. To no avail.

Being a political neophyte Mary Kelleher did not realize that in Texas many government agencies responsible for protecting the public have been co-opted and corrupted by various entities, like Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers.

I don't know at what point in time Mary Kelleher realized the foxes had been put in charge of the henhouses, but when that  point in time came, Mary Kelleher decided she was going to do what she could to get some of those foxes out of the henhouses.

Hence, Mary Kelleher's motivation to seek a seat on the Tarrant Regional Water District Board where she can be the type advocate she was unable to find when she found her property being flooded, over and over again.

Walking With Wildflowers & Indian Ghosts After Voting For Basham, Nold & Kelleher

Prior to getting my daily aerobically induced endorphins I did my civic duty and voted for Basham, Nold & Kelleher for the Tarrant Regional Water District Board.

Prior to voting I met a local political celebrity. More on that in a subsequent blogging.

I do early voting at the Handley Community Center. Early voting uses these video game type voting machines. One would think I would remember how these video game type voting machines work, but I always seem to spend a second or two a bit bum puzzled.

This time the bum puzzlement came from the code entering part of the process that one must do before doing the voting. My code was 5099. But, I somehow read that as 5009. I caught my error before hitting the enter button.

The only other thing on the ballot, besides the Water Board, was two choices for City Council. Danny Scarth, I think that's how you spell the last name, and some guy I'd never heard of. I knew Danny Scarth is the incumbent and I knew I did not want to vote for him. Since I knew nothing about the other guy, I did not vote for a city councilman.

The ladies who run the early voting always seem to be having themselves a real fine time.

After doing my civic duty I drove to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to have myself a pleasant walk with the Native American Ghosts who haunt this location.

As you can see an orange yellow wildflower is now dominating the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Wildflower Area.