Perplexed By The Star-Telegram's Dallas Boogey Man Fixation Along With Why Bud Kennedy Thinks Mary Kelleher Got Elected

Saturday, July 19, 2014, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an article titled Dallas businessman donated more than $235,000 to Tarrant Regional Water District candidates.

The first four paragraphs of the article....

In a 2011 letter to the Tarrant Regional Water District, Dallas businessman Monty Bennett vowed to “vigorously fight” a TRWD pipeline from going across his East Texas ranch.

The latest TRWD campaign finance reports show he is continuing to back up that pledge with his checkbook.

Bennett, chairman and chief executive of Dallas-based Ashford Hospitality Trust and Ashford Hospitality Prime, has contributed more than $235,000 to board member Mary Kelleher and two other candidates.

Bennett, who has sued the water district and fought eminent domain proceedings, has tried to compel the water district to reroute the $2.3 billion integrated pipeline around his East Texas ranch in Henderson County. The pipeline is designed to bring more water for Tarrant Regional and the city of Dallas. TRWD has said rerouting the pipeline would cost $6 million to $8 million.

Over and over and over again the Star-Telegram brings up the fact that Monty Bennett made large contributions to TRWD candidates trying to oust existing TRWD board members.

Why is the fact that Monty Bennett primarily does his business in Dallas at all relevant? Why must the specter of a Dallas Boogey Man be raised?

Mr. Bennett did not want a pipeline crossing his property. Apparently he has the resources to fight eminent domain and make contributions to candidates. Why does the Star-Telegram attempt to scandalize this, particularly when there are so many things about the Tarrant Regional Water District board's various shenanigans which the Star-Telegram ignores?

Where can I read that in depth Star-Telegram investigation into how it was that Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., was hired by the TRWD to run the Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle?

I learned that the Star-Telegram had once again brought up the Dallas Boogey Man via Facebook, from Bud Kennedy.

When I used to be a hard copy subscriber to the Star-Telegram Bud Kennedy was one of their columnists. The Star-Telegram has cut way back on its staff. I don't know at what level of activity Bud Kennedy is still employed by the Star-Telegram, but he seems to have quite an active career on Facebook, diligently monitoring multiple threads, deleting comments, scolding commenters for being off-topic.

So, regarding the Bud Kennedy Facebook post that was about the latest Star-Telegram Dallas Boogey Man article, Bud Kennedy made a comment in response to one of his "Friends" comments which is most unfortunate. That is a screencap of the exchange above. I'll copy the exchange verbatim below...

Stuart Langley: Politicians taking money from vested interests? Oh my, when did that start happening? It seems this knock comes along every time that Mary tries to hold the board accountable to the public. 

Could the Star-Telegram please explain why the board continually fights (with the tax payers money Mary's efforts to see TRWD records?) Is there a good reason why these should be kept from an elected board member? And why shouldn't the public be upset when the board can skip an election when the public has been clamoring for years for more public accountability?

I guess those are tough and embarrassing questions. Lets try one more course of the "Dallas Businessman donates..."

Bud Kennedy: Stuart Langley, please review editorials on the topic. The Star-Telegram has criticized the board's records handling. More than a dozen local agencies skipped elections for a year under a state law changing the dates. The public has not clamored for anything. Kelleher was the only challenger elected last time and only because she was the only woman on a ballot with 7 men. One man could not buy the election.

Oh, this is not going to go well, Bud Kennedy claiming "Kelleher was the only challenger elected last time and only because she was the only woman on a ballot with 7 men."

Mary Kelleher got more votes than any other TRWD board candidate has ever received.

I know the name might make one think she is not a woman, but I am almost 100% certain TRWD board member, Marty Leonard, is indeed a woman. And has been the only woman on the ballot. And yet has not received votes at the number level of Mary Kelleher.

Is Bud Kennedy's Mary only won because she's a woman assertion what is known as a sexist remark? I don't know. What I do know is this remark seems to me to be a very wrongheaded, inappropriate thing to be saying.

Is an apology forthcoming....

A 105 Degree HOT Walk Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake

In the picture you are standing on the bridge over the very dry Fosdick Falls, looking southeast across Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

Swimming this morning, early, was quite refreshing. Walking around Fosdick Lake, not so much.

While the temperature whilst walking was a relatively cool 89 degrees, the extreme humidity had that 89 degrees really feeling like 105, which you can see documented via the graphic I gleaned from my computer based temperature monitoring device.

A slightly cooling breeze blew across Fosdick Dam, providing a momentary bit of heat relief which lasted only whilst I was on the dam.

As you can see below, via the aforementioned gleaned graphic our brief bout of frigid temperatures is over, likely not to return til fall returns.

I made a HOT video in the shade while standing on the west side of Fosdick Lake. Some ducks seemed to think I was there to give them something tasty to eat.

Speaking of something tasty to eat, it is time I make myself some lunch...

Searching For Local Oddballs Like Those In David Byrne's True Stories About Texas

On the left you are looking at a screen cap of a YouTube video of the intro to David Bryne's movie, True Stories.

True Stories is the best movie I've seen about Texas. And the funniest. With the best music.

In the intro you will hear reference made to the wiping out of the Caddo Confederacy.

Indians who were members of tribes which were in the Caddo Confederacy are some of the Indian Ghosts I am often mentioning walking with in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Below is part of the Google description of True Stories which one sees when one Googles "David Byrne True Stories"....

Director David Byrne (of Talking Heads) takes an outside-looking-in glance at Texas and Texans in True Stories. Casting himself as the protagonist/narrator, Byrne adopts what he thinks is standard western garb and drives his red convertible into the small town of Virgil. Here he observes the town's preparations for celebrating Texas' sesquicentennial, taking time out to introduce us to several of the local oddballs.

I have never met any local oddballs in Texas like the local oddballs in True Stories. I wish I'd meet some funny local oddballs.

Below is the aforementioned YouTube video.........

The Next To Last Sunday Of July Trying To Not Let The Door Hit Me Where The Good Lord Split Me

On the left you are looking at a screen cap of my blog from January 12, 2008.

The "America's Team" blogging was my 16th blog post.

In the picture in the screencap I am laying on the floor of my living room, reading the Seattle P-I, with my cat  Hortense reading the paper with me.

Hortense moved to Texas in November of 1998. Hortense made the move by flying. I made the move by surface transport. Hortense had a stroke and died before the turn of the century and is buried in a pasture in Haslet, a little burg at the far north end of Fort Worth.

Now, why in the world am I bringing up this blogging from way back when, now, you may be wondering.

Well, this morning this particular blogging generated a blog comment from someone named Matt. I found Matt's comment to be quite amusing. I used to get these Matt type comments quite frequently, but, in recent years, not so much.

First the Matt comment and them some more commenting from me.

Matt has left a new comment on your post "America's Team":

Let me get this straight: You think everything is just oh so much better up in Seattle, yet YOU went out of YOUR way to move down HERE in Texas, Fort Worth no less. I was wondering where all this influx of rude drivers and rude customer service workers were coming from. Should've known it was trash talking blowhards from up north. Nobody held a gun to your head and told you that you had to move here. If you hate it so much, then get the hell out, and don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

I read the above and wondered to what Matt was reacting. I was a bit surprised to click the link to learn Matt was reacting to a blogging from over six years ago.

I read the post and was further perplexed. Not that I have not compared this or that in my Pacific Northwest experience to something in my Texas experience, or some aspect of Seattle to some aspect of Fort Worth. I recollect maybe saying things like in Seattle when something is called a square, such as Pioneer Square, there actually is a square, while, until recently, in Fort Worth you can call something a square, such as a collection of parking lots known as Sundance Square, where there is no actual square. And then when Fort Worth finally adds a square to Sundance Square it is goofily named Sundance Square Plaza.

I don't  know why Seattle does not follow the Fort Worth lead and rename Pioneer Square as Pioneer Square Plaza, other than that being goofy and likely the object of ridicule.

The blog post to which Matt commented was pretty much making fun of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I did not realize til reading this post from 2008 that I'd been engaging in that sport for so long.

The only comparison between Fort Worth and Seattle in the blog post were the following sentences in the first paragraph....

When I lived in Washington my morning paper was the Seattle P-I. In Fort Worth it is the Star-Telegram. To be blunt and to the point, Washington has a much higher high school graduation rate, much higher number of college graduates, Seattle leads the nation in number of book readers and I'll just say that the quality of the P-I reflects the quality of its readers. And so does the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Okay, the above may be ever so slightly rude. But everything I opined is true.

The Seattle P-I or Seattle Times could not get away with verbiage along the line that this that or the other thing in Seattle was making the rest of the world green with envy. Until a few years ago this type verbiage was chronic in the Star-Telegram.

Eventually I made a webpage of examples of the unfortunate Star-Telegram verbiage and titled it Green With Envy.

How does Matt know that no one held a gun to my head and told me I had to move to Texas? Because that is exactly how I came to be here, well, the gun part may be a slight exaggeration.....

The Trinity River Vision Committee's Sane Correspondence About The Boondoggle

Friday night in my email inbox I found several PDFs, part of one you see screencapped on the left.

The PDFs were documents from Don Woodard's Committee of Correspondence, that being, according to several of the documents, a Committee with Malice Toward None, with Charity for All.

The subject that was being discussed in the documents is the extremely controversial Fort Worth pseudo public works project known at the Trinity River Panther Island Vision, or simply "The Boondoggle".

Reading through Don Woodard's words of wisdom regarding the forlorn TRPIVB, and the comments, got me thinking a thing or two.

First the thing or two I was thinking and then some of the comments.

One of the issues which vex a lot of people regarding this shady vision boondoggle is the fact that this public works project has never been voted on by the public, hence it is not funded fully, hence there is no project timeline, hence oddball things like building bridges to nowhere over an imaginary flood diversion channel.

I remember soon after my arrival in Texas, late in the last century, learning of the Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision. Soon thereafter I recollect being astonished by a HUGE headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram proclaiming "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH."

Being a Pacific Northwest boy who frequented Vancouver, when I lived in the vicinity, I was totally baffled.

As in what could Fort Worth possibly do that would be like anything in Vancouver? Build an amazing Chinatown, like Vancouver's? Build an amazing Skytrain like Vancouver's? Build an amazing downtown park like Vancouver's Stanley Park? I was totally bumpuzzled.

And then I read it was a version of Vancouver's False Creek development that Fort Worth was going to copy.

False Creek?

I remember trying to remember what False Creek was. Was that the area renovated by Expo 86? Or were we talking about Granville Island? I had no idea. I still don't.

The claim that this project was going to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South was quickly dropped. This was before I had learned to not trust what I read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Well before the Star-Telegram claimed an ultra lame little food court type deal called the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe.

The Santa Fe Rail Market mistake quickly failed. I expected the Trinity Uptown/Trinity River Vision/Panther Island debacle to meet the same fate.

And yet this project to nowhere keeps on chugging along, with no end in sight and little to show for over a decade of looking for a vision.

This got me thinking of other public works projects that have come to be in the same time frame as Fort Worth's supposedly vitally important flood control project which seems to have the urgency of repairing a dripping faucet.

In 2010 construction began in the Grapevine zone of the D/FW Connector, an over $1 billion project which rebuilt the junction of several freeways. The project was open to traffic in 2014.

The Chisholm Trail Parkway began constructing a tollway from Fort Worth to Cleburne, also in 2010. That project cost $1.4 billion and also opened to traffic in 2014.

Part of the Dallas Trinity River Vision, an actual signature bridge called the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, began getting built in 2007, opened in 2012 and cost $93 million.

In Arlington the Dallas Cowboy Stadium destruction and construction got underway in 2006 and opened to football in 2009 at a cost of $1.1 billion.

And then we have the Trinity River Vision, now renamed the Panther Island Vision, rightly known by many as simply "The Boondoggle" never voted on by the public, not fully funded, no project timeline, foisted on the Fort Worth public on a bogus premise, that being that it was needed for flood control, to control floods where no flood has flooded for well over a half a century, due to massive levees built in the 1950s to contain a flood in the downtown Fort worth zone.

Very perplexing.

And now for some of the comments from the Committee of Correspondence.....

Don Woodard said--- From stealthy step to stealthy step the boondoggle's promoters have refused to put the issue to a public vote. Some in authority smile and say, "That ship has sailed!" What if the White Star owners of the unsinkable Titanic had called her back as she was clearing the port at South Hampton?

Which had Stan Hiett saying--- Call back the ship.

And Carl R. Sanders saying--- Don, you are right! It is time to blur the Trinity vision, turning it into a bad memory which came from a bad idea, promulgated by the Supreme Court which corrupted the Constitutional concept of eminent domain. It should be stopped, buried and smoothed over as well as we can, limiting our economic loss to a minimum.

While William Wright said--- There is little doubt in my mind that one of the principal beneficiaries has been and will be Kay Granger. She has already profited from campaign contributions to get this snowball rolling and by securing a sinecure for her son, who has scant qualifications to head an enterprise of this magnitude. Rest assured she will reap huge rewards for many years if she is successful in logrolling congress for the money to complete this behemoth.

Winston Barney opined--- The bright side for you and me is that we'll both be gone before it ever comes to fruition. As for my children, they don't live in Tarrant County. I firmly believe that the word "boondoggle" is far too inappropriate for this serious level of public deception. "Scam", "rip-off", "swindle", and "con" all seem more befitting.

Which had Mike Braun commenting--- Slick new bridges?!? It's all about Fort Worth keeping up with Dallas, don't you understand? I'm laughing out loud at this fantasy: " A higher and more constant water level would be created with a HYDRAULIC DAM at the north edge of the project and a 33-acre urban lake would be formed." You clodhoppers need to go and ask the city of Waco about its low-water dam fiasco on the Brazos River over the last three decades. NOTE: Hydraulics and a dirty river - whether it's the Brazos or the Trinity  - don't get along very well. And how 'bout this lie?  [The urban waterfront will generate] "more than $600 million in economic activity the first decade alone."  LIE, LIE, LIE. The so-called "economic activity" will demand and be rewarded by tax abatement's and refunds, decreasing the city's tax base again and again, which will require the net difference to be paid by the homeowner/taxpayer, 'cause we're the last line.

And finally, from Jack Raskopf,  regarding the civic efforts of Don Woodard--- Thanks so much Don, for all the good work you are doing on behalf of all of us. I wish your themes on these totally wasteful projects would be projected to every individual citizen-voter... and powerful enough to make them protest. I think you are making some headway. Enough? Who knows. Thanks again.

____________________________________

There you have it. How in the world does this bizarre boondoggle continue to boggle on with no adult intervention????

Finding No Indian Ghosts In Fort Worth's Quanah Parker Park Before Treasure Hunting At Town Talk

No, that is not one of my regular Saturday pre-Town Talk locations you are looking at on the left.

There is a good reason this location looks very similar to my favorite photo op in on Gateway Park's mountain bike trail, because the location we are looking at here is just a mile or two east of Gateway Park.

In other words, in the picture you are at the Quanah  Parker Park overlook looking over the Trinity River.

Due to recent deluging I opted out of rolling my wheels over what would likely be mud in Gateway Park. A quiet walk in Quanah Parker Park seemed to be just what the doctor prescribed.

I don't know if any Indian Ghosts haunt Quanah Parker Park. The location of this park, as far as I know, has nothing to do with being the site of a battle or a massacre.

Years ago I edited the Wikipedia article about Quanah Parker in the section about memorials to Quanah Parker. I added Quanah Parker Park in Fort Worth and Parker County in Texas. I later learned that Parker County is not named after Quanah, but is instead named after one of Quanah's uncles. I  do not know if that particular uncle is one of Quanah's mother, Cynthia Ann's, brothers.

Cynthia Ann was kidnapped by raiding Comanches and in a sort of Patty Hearst type deal of a different century, ended up joining the tribe, then marrying the Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, after which she birthed Quanah and Quanah's little sister, Prairie Flower. Eventually Cynthia Ann And Prairie Flower were captured by Americans and returned to what the Americans thought to be civilization. Both died soon thereafter, with Quanah never seeing his mom or little sister ever again.

I just checked the Quanah Parker Wikipedia article and am pleased to see someone fixed my Parker County mistake.

After enjoying the chilling fall-like temperature for a suitable duration I was off to Town Talk where I got a lot of fresh broccoli, onions, extra sharp cheese, corn tortillas, brown rice, celery, tomatoes and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

And right now I am off to have myself a salubrious lunch, part of which will be consisting of broccoli.

Finding Fungus With Arlington's Village Creek Indian Ghosts While Walking Across The Dam Bridge With Litter

No, that is not a piece of Chihuly glass art you are looking at on the left.

What that is is a piece of Mother Nature art you are looking at, sprouting from a log in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I assume this is a fungus of some sort feeding on the fallen log.

I like the color of this fungus. I want a t-shirt this color.

With the temperature barely above 60, or barely below 70, and with gusts of wind blowing, thus creating that dreaded wind chill effect, I feared I might soon be shivering when I went walking with the Indian Ghosts.

That fear turned out to be totally unfounded. While I did not get HOT, I also did not get cold and ended up having myself a mighty fine time enjoying the fall like temporary respite from summer.

I heard via the radio, on the drive to Arlington, that we should be returning to the 100 degree zone in a couple days, along with high humidity.

In the meantime, walk with me across the Village Creek Dam Bridge.........

Shivering This Morning With A Record Breaking Texas Low Of 66

The last time it was this cold on this date at my current location was way back in the last century, in 1945, with this morning being one degree cooler than that day in 1945, thus breaking the record.

Before getting horizontal last night I made sure the A/C was turned off. But I left the ceiling fan spinning.

At some point in the middle of the night I woke up feeling icily cold, as if the A/C was on and set way too low. I then turned the ceiling fan off and got some relief from the chill without having to resort to firing up the furnace.

The pool was way warmer than the air this morning.

Normally my attire is minimalist this time of year whilst sitting in front of my computer screen. Currently I am covered top and bottom, all the way to the ultra top, with my usually only in winter wool cap installed.

And still I shiver.

I have not been this cold this time of year since I spent a miserable month in Washington, July 20 til August 20, 2008. I shivered pretty much that entire month, and not entirely just from being way too cold.

I recollect flying out of Love Field in a Sunday afternoon with the air heated to something like 107. I landed in Seattle and exited the airport to the outdoor air to find it cooled to something like our Texas air is cooled to today, as in in the 60s.

This just ain't normal to go from 101 a couple days ago to only 34 degrees above freezing.

I do not know what I am going to do for my regularly scheduled bout of outdoor endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation today. Maybe I will see if Village Creek went into flash flood mode, closing the park entrance. I could use a thing or two from ALDI....

Jim Lane And His TRWD Cronies Cast Phony Stones At Mary Kelleher While Ignoring Their Own Real Wrongdoing

A couple minutes ago a Press Release from Mary Kelleher showed up in my email inbox.

Two days ago Mary Kelleher released to the press the news that she would not be attending TRWD board meetings until the board complies with a judge's ruling regarding releasing public documents to the public.

You can read that Press Release by going to TRWD BOARD IGNORES JUDGE’S ORDER: Director Kelleher To Not Attend Meetings Until Board Complies.

Reading today's Press Release from Mary Kelleher I am guessing some unfair, unfounded flack has been thrown her way by one or more of her fellow board members.....

Press Release

July 17, 2014
Fort Worth, Texas

Sadly, the TRWD and Director Jim Lane seem to be more concerned about anything and everything other than their own abuses of power such as spending $18 million for a worthless superfund site that will cost millions to remediate for a boondoggle of project disguised as flood control which abuses eminent domain for economic development.

My in-kind contributions went to lawyers I needed to assist me in my request for records, to defend my right to express my individual board opinions, and to protect me against TRWD attacks.
 
I don’t have the bank roll the TRWD does and I gladly accept contributions from anyone who shares my passion for transparency and accountability.

Mary Kelleher
TRWD Board Member

Dodging Deluges While Hunting Tea Bobbers At Walmart & Target

In the stormy view on the left you are sitting with me in the driver's seat, looking west over the steering wheel at a stormy sky and a wet Target parking lot.

Apparently I mis-read the weather menu. I thought rain, along with thunder, was scheduled to arrive from the west sometime after midnight tonight.

Instead, soon after I was done getting wet in the pool this morning, drippage from above began to drop.

The drippage has pretty much been dropping ever since.

With all my hiking and biking locations rendered wet I opted to go to Walmart to hunt for Mary Ann's friend, Ginger, and a new tea bobber thing to make Ginger tea in.

I was able to find Ginger at Walmart but the only tea bobber thing Walmart had was the same type one which malfunctioned when last I bobbed it.

So, I went across the street, well, freeway, to Target to continue my tea bobber thing search.

I could not find a tea bobber thing at Target.

When a Target employed deduced I was looking for something she was of no use when I said I was looking for a tea bobber thing.

Tea bobber thing is likely not the correct name for that which I sought.....