Battening Down My North Texas Hatches Before Incoming Weather Drama

I acquired the North Texas storm forecast you see screen capped here via Facebook this morning from my favorite North Texas Meteorologist, John Basham.

The forecast for tomorrow's Tandy Hills Prairie Fest is for a cloud free sky with no tornado, strong winds, lightning, downpour or hail threat.

The same can not be said for the hours leading up to tomorrow's Prairie Fest. I suspect today's and tonight's storming may wreak havoc with getting the Prairie Fest assembled.

Below is the John Basham Facebook forecast in its entirety....

METEOROLOGIST NOTES - 300AM FRIDAY APRIL 24, 2015 - If you live in North Texas YOU MUST pay attention to the weather later this afternoon and this evening. Not only is there a potential for extremely large hail, but the potential exists for a few devastating Tornadoes across North Central Texas and the Dalls/Fort Worth Metroplex. Devastating Tornadoes are defined as Tornadoes with an Enhanced Fujita Scale of EF2 or greater. That would mean Tornadoes with winds of 111mph to over 200mph. While we must wait to see what early morning storms leave us in the way of surface boundaries and what kind of afternoon heating is in place before we know for sure our total risk. With all available data we have right now we need to issue an alert as early as possible for preparedness. We'll be issuing forecasts throughout the day today and updates as needed. Official forecasts are available from the National Weather Service or Storm Prediction Center websites. For rapid alerts and warnings a battery operated NOAA Weather Radio is your most reliable source for real-time warning information. THIS IS NOT AN NWS PRODUCT. Meteorologist John Austin Basham Storm Spotter

Watch Fort Worth's Cowboy Napoleon Get Waterlooed By Craig Bickley & Michele Von Luckner

What you are looking at here is the five candidates running for a position on the Tarrant Regional Water District board, at a recent forum, debate type of public meeting.

The man holding the microphone is Jim Lane, also known as the Cowboy Napoleon. To the left of the Cowboy Napoleon is Marty Leonard.

The Cowboy Napoleon and Marty Leonard are the TRWD board incumbents. That would make candidates Craig Bickley, Michele Von Luckner and an Annis, whose first name I am not remembering right now, on the other side of Jim Lane.

Below you can watch a YouTube video of this forum. The video is filmed in what I think is known as the cinéma vérité style. That or it was recorded using a phone.

The video is about 48 minutes long. There is a sort of Mayberry RFD feel to it. Mayberry RFD was America's #1 sitcom back in the late 1960s. Mayberry RFD was part of what were known as the CBS rural hayseed comedies, all of which were cancelled early in the 70s when CBS decided to become more urban.

I digress.

However, regarding Mayberry RFD, that first came to my mind when I heard the charming southern twang of Marty Leonard, followed by the Cowboy Napoleon's twang. With the other three sounding more urban, with no twang.

The moderator of this forum seemed just a bit inept. The questions also seemed just a bit inept, for the most part.

However, at about 37 minutes into the video Craig Bickley gets a bit pointed about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and a couple other points.

Craig Bickley getting pointed was followed by the Cowboy Napoleon sounding just a bit nuts. I don't know if this moment would be the Cowboy Napoleon's Waterloo if it were to be widely seen. I have also been told this was not the first time Jim Lane has come across as a bit wackydoodle at one of these type events.

During his goofy rant, while attacking the bonafides of Craig Bickley, Jim Lane actually said that the TRWD has won every award in the nation.

What?

Every award in the nation? The Oscar for Best Boondoggle? The Emmy for Best Beer Party? The Grammy for Best Music Festival?

The only award I can think of that has gotten national recognition for the TRWD is having the TRWD's Trinity River Vision Panther Island Uptown Central City Project widely known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

At another point in Jim Lane's rant he opined that if Craig Bickley actually lived in Fort Worth he might be aware of the thousands of people floating in the Trinity River on Thursday nights.

The Cowboy Napoleon thinks thousands of people float in the Trinity River on Thursday nights? Has he actually been to one of J.D. Granger's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats?

After Jim Lane finished with his embarrassing rant, which included ranting the boilerplate TRWD incumbent's evil Dallas businessman, Monty Bennett, TRWD takeover plot accusation, Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner retorted rather well.

One would have thought they were the lawyers in the room.

If Jim Lane and Marty Leonard and their crony co-horts truly believe the Trinity River is a good thing to immerse people in, why don't they lead by example and join those thousands of imaginary river dunkers when Rockin' the River starts up again in a couple months?

Anyway, for your voting enlightenment, the aforementioned YouTube video....

A Happy Tandy Hills Earth Day With Fort Worth's Beatnik Loving Mayor

Fort Worth Mayor, Tom McCann signing
"National Beatnik Week" proclamation, 1960. (from LIFE magazine)

Or as the Tandy Hills Godfather, Don Young, put it today in an email's subject line:

Happy Triple bEarthday to Tandy Hills 2015.

According to Olive the Prairie Dog's parental unit, way back on this current day of April 22, in 1960, Fort Worth's beatnik-loving mayor, Tom McCann, and the Fort Worth City Council made the momentous decision to spend $138,250 for the 160 acre chunk of land now known as the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

As for the other parts of the triple part of today's bEarthday and the Tandy Hills.

Ten years after Fort Worth's beatnik-loving major decided to buy the Tandy Hills the first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970.

And then, 40 years later, on April 22, 2010, the Friends of the Tandy Hills Natural Area began a partnership deal with the City of Fort Worth where the city joined in the efforts to protect and restore the Tandy Hills.

The most interesting, to me, part of today's Earth Day Tandy Hills information is the fact that, apparently, way back in the 1960s, Fort Worth had itself a progressive mayor who liked the precursors of hippies, that being beatniks.

How did Fort Worth go from having a progressive beatnik-loving mayor to the era of mayor entities like Kay Granger, Mike Moncrief and Betsy Price? Can you picture any of those three signing a "National Beatnik Week" proclamation?

Well, okay, to be totally fair, which I always am, I guess I can see Betsy Price signing such a proclamation. There is something about Mayor Betsy that makes me think she could easily have been an active hippie during the hippie era. It would not shock me to learn that Mayor Betsy was at Woodstock being a Grateful Dead groupie.

Then again, I am not at all sure the Grateful Dead were at Woodstock....

A Long Walk To Albertsons Under An Ominous Sky Thinking About Prairie Fest Chicks

Today as I hiked up the hill that leads to my neighborhood Albertsons, as you can see, I was walking under a very ominous looking sky.

In the photo I am looking east towards Dallas, about to turn south onto the Albertsons parking lot.

One of Fort Worth's lonely little public transit buses waits at the Albertsons bus stop, hoping to pick up a passenger.

The Fort Worth bus is that little white thing on the right side of the road in the mid-distance.

The forecast today is for some raining and thunder booming. With louder booming and more rain on the menu for tomorrow and Thursday. By Saturday, that being the day of the 10th annual Tandy Hills Prairie Fest, blue sky is scheduled to return with no thunder booming on the current horizon.

I do not know how I am going to work in both the Prairie Fest and my regularly scheduled Town Talk treasure hunt on Saturday. I'll likely figure it out.

I heard from a fairly reliable source that Mary, who has a little farm, will be at the Prairie Fest towing a wagon full of chicks. I am fairly certain these chicks are of the baby poultry type, not the performs nightly at Baby Dolls type chicks.

But, I won't know for sure til I eye witness the Prairie Fest chicks on Saturday...

A Suggestion To Vote Out The TRWD Crony Capitalist Gang

Well, the mystery is over as to who the TRWD board candidate who got Al Gore-ed in the last TRWD board election, John Basham, is voting for in the upcoming TRWD board election.

I learned via Facebook, this morning, the not too surprising news that John Basham is supporting Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner as the ONLY choices deserving a vote.

The Facebook John Basham TRWD voting announcement in its entirety....

TRWD Update: Okay, I've been quiet on this election this year (publicly), but I've been inundated with questions about who I am supporting. I'll make it simple, the ONLY choices for the TRWD board are Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner! These two people represent the very finest of citizen servants who will work for YOU rather than the crony capitalist gang who are getting the contracts, kick-backs, and jobs right now. YOU MUST vote for these two to make a difference. AND, YOUR VOTE REALLY DOES MATTER! After the thousands of votes were recounted in my last TRWD election, I missed beating Board President Vic Henderson by 81 votes! 81!.... It really does matter. Craig and MIchele will hit the ground running day one and help Mary Kelleher finish the incredible work she has started in trying bring open, honest, and responsive government to the TRWD. Early voting starts Monday.... Please go vote and make a real change in your government.

An Actual Signature Bridge Built A Short Distance From Fort Worth

No, what you are looking at here is not a hyper-realistic, super saturated Brian Luenseresque type artist's rendering of what one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges might look like if the bridges ever are able to carry traffic from the mainland to the imaginary island.

The water under the bridge probably was a good clue that this was not one of Fort Worth's Boondoggle's "dry" bridges.

What you are looking at is a Panoramio photo by Salaticco of an actual signature bridge built this century in a town near Fort Worth called Dallas.

That would make this the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. This bridge, built over a body of water known as the Trinity River, began to be built in the spring of 2007. The bridge was completed and open for traffic in March of 2012.

One year longer than four after construction began.

Fort Worth's infamous Boondoggle is scheduled to take four years to build three non-signature, simple, small bridges over dry land.

Both town's bridges are part of their "river visions". Both town's "river visions" have funding woes. The Dallas "river vision", just like Fort Worth's, sees three bridges, but Dallas has fallen short of the funds needed to build the other two signature bridges.

While Fort Worth, with worse funding problems, dropped the idea of building actual interesting, signature bridges, and opted instead to build three very ordinary bridges, in slow motion.

I suspect Dallas will see a completion of its "river vision" long before Fort Worth nears such a milestone.

No unqualified local congresswoman's son was hired to oversee the Dallas "river vision"......

The 7th Street Gang Is Not Happy With The Fort Worth Business Press For Telling The Truth About Monty Bennett

Way back in late March I blogged The Raw Galling Hypopcritical Hubris Of TRWD Propaganda Is Appalling in which I verbalized the disgust I felt at the TRWD propaganda demonizing Monty Bennett as an evil Dallas businessman trying to take over Fort Worth's water.

What prompted that blogging on that particular day was the fact that I was a bit surprised that the Fort Worth Business Press had printed a fair and unbiased article about Monty Bennett and his issues with the TRWD titled Monty Bennett: Businessman, water district activist.

I was surprised at this article because previously the Fort Worth Business Press had seemed to be onboard with the 7th Street Gang's Good Ol' Boys and Girls and their propaganda campaign to spew falsehoods about Monty Bennett.

Well, apparently the Fort Worth Business Press took some flack from the 7th Street Gang for not following the party line.

This led Fort Worth Business Press publisher, Richard Connor, to write an editorial titled Love him or hate him, Monty Bennett is a newsmaker in which Connor let's us know that the 7th Street Gang did not like that he had gone off the reservation and printed facts, rather than their patented propaganda.

You can read the entire editorial, but I will just share the paragraph which contains the bit about the Good Ol' Boy and Girls being upset that Connor and the FW Business Press were not following the Fort Worth Way script....

What has surprised us at the Fort Worth Business Press is the consternation expressed by local businessmen that we would profile the water district’s leading critic and nemesis, Monty Bennett, a Dallas hotelier. Bennett has been fighting the water board for several years, trying to prevent it from running a water pipeline through his 1,300 acre ranch in Henderson County. While he cloaks his disdain – dare we say hatred? – for the water board in criticism of its lack of transparency, alleged violations of open meetings laws and nepotism, his real source of anger is parochial.

By the end of that paragraph Mr. Connor seems to be back towing the 7th Street Gang party line.

One of my favorite Fort Worth seasoned citizens, Clyde Picht, commented on the FWBP editorial with a comment filled with the sort of facts that make Fort Worth's Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network so uncomfortable.

Below is Clyde Picht's comment in its entirety....

Monty Bennett obviously has an ax to grind over the threat of eminent domain being used to take part of his property for a pipeline that according to the TRWD's own study will bring water to Fort Worth only in an emergency and if Dallas doesn't need the water.

But if TRWD is so quick to use eminent domain to get land, why didn't they use it to get Carl Bell's 37.679 acres near La Grave field? A 50 acre parcel, rife with environmental pollution, was appraised at $12,000,000. It's probably worth less than that but in a moment of charity the TRWD paid Bell $16,000,000 for the 37+ acres.

Bell had shut down the CATS ball team and was reportedly near or in bankruptcy. One might wonder why TRWD is so generous with their money. The reason is that it's not their money (which is really taxpayers' money) that's being spent. The $4,000,000 largesse comes right out of the pockets of Fort Worth taxpayers.

In comments published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 12, 2005, Jim Oliver, the TRWD Director stated that "backers (of Trinity Uptown) might seek more local money" and planner James Toal stated "The taxpayers will not be left holding the bag." That was when Trinity River Vision was projected to cost $435M. (Also see a S-T editorial, "Tax money flows to the river" July 19, 2009)

And then there is the comment from the man who probably had enough votes to join Mary Kelleher on the TRWD Board, but, you know, stuff happens, like trouble counting votes. Below is the comment from John Basham in its entirety....

Richard, Simply put; You are experiencing "The Fort Worth Way", as the former Mayor would say. You must understand that the 7th Street Downtown Croney Crew are used to the 'News' printed by the Startled Gram. Or as I like to call it; "PRAVDA Fort Worth". How DARE the FWBP print an article containing NOTHING but truth. It doesn't matter that the story was both fair to both sides as well as truthful. You MUST Carry the Water (I couldn't resist either) for the 7SB Cronies or else they shoot the messenger. Chin up, there was a time when 'JOURNALISTS' gauged the accuracy and fairness of their stories by how much it inflamed each side. But alas Ft Worth does NOT have a daily Newspaper any longer, instead they have a public relations arm for 'The Fort Worth Way'.... Hold the line. Kudos to Marice Richter and yourself for a job well done.

________________________________________________

I wish Monty Bennett really was trying to take over Fort Worth. Think of the damage he could do if he bought the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I know Mr. Bennett is a successful businessman, so it is unlikely he'd want to buy a money losing sinking operation like the Star-Telegram.

Then again, maybe Monty Bennett would like the challenge of turning the Star-Telegram into a real newspaper. He could maybe become a Texas version of Citizen Kane....

A Last Minute BBQ Invite Has Me Heading To Washington This Afternoon If I Can Book A Flight

Early on this next to last Saturday afternoon of April I was in the midst of the preparations needed in order for me to make the trek northwest from my current location to Lake Eagle Mountain, to the boat formerly known as Laurderdale's on the Lake, now known as Boondocks, when I got a text message from Spencer Jack's dad with an invitation that has me making a change of plans and heading further northwest than Lake Eagle Mountain.

Apparently this afternoon my favorite nephews, Joey and Jason, are throwing an impromptu BBQ potluck celebrating their parental units 40th wedding anniversary, extending the invite all the members of the original wedding party.

If I catch a plane by two I should be in Mount Vernon in plenty of time, what with moving back in time a couple hours by heading to the Pacific time zone.

I don't know what I can do about that bringing a favorite dish part of the invite.

I remember that original wedding quite clearly. My brother was annoyed at me because I made it at the last minute, not making it home the day before for the rehearsal. I got in my wedding tuxedo about an hour before the event. Only a couple of us in the wedding party successfully fit into our tuxedos.

I wonder if Jason and Joey know that the best man at their parental unit's wedding totally split open his pants right before the wedding started. That's right boys, Steve Mueller's tux tail covered his pants, which were split wide open.

I do not know if my brother and his first wife will be at this 40th wedding anniversary BBQ. I guess time will tell....

Another Comment From A TRWD Propaganda Shill With A Pathological Liar Feel To It

Earlier this month I blogged about A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu.

The referenced comment was made on  a blogging from way back in February.

Something seemed fake about that comment, like it was the work of the propaganda team trying to re-elect the TRWD hacks who call themselves Jim Lane and Marty Leonard.

Well, now another comment has arrived to the same February blog post, and this comment also seems fake and the work of the TRWD propagandists. First the comment and then we will see what I have to say about it...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Tarrant Regional Water District Corruption: The Website":

I hope the other candidates are better than Mrs Michele Von Luckner and Mr Craig Bickley. Just to give you a little background...I have tried to cut back on the flood of telemarketing calls I have been getting, I have signed up on every "do not call" list there is (Local, State and National). But guess what happened today? Yep, Mr Bickley and Mrs Von Luckner are using telemarketers to bother people at home. Apparently, they feel their need to get people to vote for them is more important than my wish for a quiet night at home. When I contacted Mrs Von Luckner she seemed to think it was my fault and that she had no idea who in her campaign could be hiring the telemarketers or how they got my number. I asked for the person in her campaign who was in charge of the telemarketing and either she didn't know who that person was, or choose to lie and say she didn't know. I don't know who the incumbents or other candidates are in this election, but considering the tactics these two wish to employ against the voters of this area, my vote will be for anyone but them.

MSG_Grumpy@yahoo.com

This comment maker is Anonymous, yet leaves a supposed email address?

So, we are to believe this person has been bombarded by telemarketing calls. And claims not to know who the incumbents are. Or who the candidates are.

Yet.

Somehow this person knows how to spell the names of Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner?

Including knowing that Ms. Von Luckner spells her first name with only one 'l'?

Grumpy Anonymous somehow found Michele Von Luckner's phone number and called her? Only to be treated rudely by Ms. Von Luckner? Who claimed not to know who was in charge of her telemarketing? And then suggests Ms. Von Luckner is a liar?

Well, someone in this scenario is a liar and it ain't Michele Von Luckner.

Years ago I knew a humongous pathological liar whose lies usually contained at least one fatal mistake that made it obvious she was once again making something up.

This comment from Grumpy Anonymous has that same feel to it.

I think it is a bit obvious that this comment came from somewhere in the TRWD incumbent's campaign operation.

I think it is also a bit obvious that it is more than a little stupid to be making this type comment on my blog. And then to make a follow up comment to the same old blog post is even stupider........

The 2014 TRWD Annual Propaganda Report Does Not Mention America's Biggest Boondoggle

I have been asked more than once if I have received the eagerly anticipated TRWD Tarrant Regional Water District Annual Report, usually timed to arrive a few weeks before an election.

Well, I have yet to receive the eagerly anticipated report, in hard copy form, nor has anyone else I know who lives on the east side of the Berlin Wall, also known as I-35, that being the freeway which divides Fort Worth into West Fort Worth and East Fort Worth.

Methinks the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network, also known as The 7th Street Gang, which continues to try and run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way, realizes they have lost East Fort Worth and thus are not wasting any of their half million dollar plus war chest on sending any of their propaganda to the opposition side of town.

Or maybe the mail is just late and the eagerly anticipated TRWD Annual Report will soon arrive.

Even though a hard copy has not shown up in my mailbox, I did receive a digital copy, sent from a mole inside the opposition's camp in West Fort Worth.

Reading the digital copy I think I can tell why this propaganda has not yet arrived in the opposition side of town, due to this latest TRWD Annual Report being a bit embarrassing in both its lapses and its claims.

I think the oddest thing I read in the TRWD Annual Report is the claim that due to the TRWD's conservation efforts they have managed to save 31 billion gallons of water.

Really?

And how do they manage to measure this water they claim to have saved?

For about a month a massive leak has been spouting from the TRWD's water tank on Bridge Street in the aforementioned East Fort Worth. Does that leaking water get deducted from the amount claimed to have been conserved?

In the ten pages of TRWD Annual Report propaganda there is absolutely no mention made of America's Biggest Boondoggle, a boondoggle for which the TRWD is totally responsible.

There is no mention made of The Boondoggle's three little bridges now, supposedly, under construction, with an absurd four year project construction timeline for three simple little bridges being built over dry land, connecting the mainland to an imaginary island.

There is no mention made of The Boondoggle's latest name for itself.

Panther Island.

I can't imagine why the TRWD Annual Report would not want to make mention of an imaginary island or the bridges being built in slow motion to connect to that imaginary island.

There is no mention made in the TRWD's Annual Report of the huge success of the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River.

Or the multiple beer festivals, with music, taking place at the TRWD's tacky Panther Island Pavilion venue, where there is no island or pavilion, but there are world class outhouses the likes of which likely exist in no other big city in America.

There is no mention made, in the TRWD's Annual Report, of the success of the Coyote Drive-In. That being the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, brought about by TRWD board incumbent Jim Lane's good-natured finagling which used TRWD funds to rescue a bankrupt friend by paying twice the market value, with TRWD public funds, for the land on which the Coyote Drive-In was built.

There is no mention made in the TRWD Annual Report of their foray into the restaurant business in partnership with Fort Worth celebrity chef, Tim Love.

In the section of the TRWD Annual Report about all the recreational wonders the TRWD has delivered to the people, there is no mention made of the TRWD's Cowtown Wakepark, that being the world's premiere urban wakeboard park, according to delusional propaganda spewed by The Boondoggle's #1 spewer, J.D. Granger.

Also in the TRWD Annual Report's recreational wonders section there is no mention made of Panther Ice, the being the ice rink that shows up for a few weeks in winter in the Coyote Drive-In complex.

There is no mention in the TRWD Annual Report of the lawsuit the TRWD lost, and spent millions losing, in a goofy attempt to take water from Oklahoma.

What you will read in the TRWD Annual Report is a lot of puffed up propaganda and self-serving spin.

And where in the TRWD Annual Report were the details of the board's proudest moment of 2014, that being the censuring of Mary Kelleher?

One would have thought there would have been at least one photo of the army of protesters who attended that censure meeting, in support of Mary Kelleher, both inside the meeting room, and outside, because that one meeting pretty much defined what is wrong with the current majority of the TRWD board....