So, which one are YOU?

Truitt campaign spokesman Bryan Eppstein said critics of the Legislature's budget-balancing "fall into the camp of the people that want to support raising taxes or they fall into the group of people that don't know what they're talking about."

So if you didn't agree with the unbalanced budget, you wanted to raise taxes or you don't know what you're talking about?  Says WHO?

Read more on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford not to.

Empower Texans, an influential conservative group, published a blog post recently, "Fix the Gimmicks."

"Rather than rearrange the furniture, Texans deserve the opportunity to clean up our fiscal house beginning with an honest budget free from smoke, mirrors, gimmicks and tricks," President Michael Quinn Sullivan wrote.

Read More

Name that Tune - Part 2

A column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a familiar ring to it.

See if you can name the economic development boondoggle being discussed.  Don't they all start to sound the same?

Add this to the list: the failure of ________.

That was the proposal for a ____-billion dollar development between ________ and _____. Since the _____ was built in the early 1990s, ______ and city leaders dreamed of a town center with shopping, entertainment, hotels and high-rise condos -- an upscale money generator to justify the taxpayer subsidies that went into the ______.

That fantastic notion turned out to be a fantasy, at least for the first two decades. But the proposals also sucked all the retail oxygen out of north _____. In spring 2008, ____ -- a development pushed by former _______ -- was officially scrapped, and not long after, downtown began to emerge with a style all its own just a mile-and-a-half away.

Read More

Coming Soon!

Wow.

Greedy Lying Bastards.  The movie. 

YOU can't afford to miss it.

It was filmed in several countries by a US filmmaker.  Why are we reading about it in news from another country? Hats off to the Guardian, again.

Read More

"Did not return call for comment"

That line was used several times in the Denton Record Chronicle article, Into Hostile territory.

It's a good overview on gas drilling PR tactics on "insurgents" and how municipalities are dealing with it, or not.  All those that usually spin the BS, we mean PR, "did not return call for comment".

We mentioned rich bullies buying elections in an early post.  WHAT is it going to end up costing YOU?  Remember, sheep need water and air, too.

She and other Barnett Shale area residents have seen the tactics that blur the line between information and influence in local governance.

When neighbor is pitted against neighbor, it manifests not only in heated shouting matches but also in a long-simmering distrust. As homeowners grow fearful of diminishing values, they try to hang on to their property rights, only to see the mineral rights taken away through a twist of state law. Local governance battles go in remission only to re-emerge with the next concession the industry needs to stay profitable.

Cities frequently revise ordinances with little direct participation of those affected.

However, when area residents have asked for tougher review and regulations of the natural gas industry, industry representatives offer to assist city councils or their appointees to draft such regulations, an offer many city officials seem reticent to refuse.

Denton started work on an ordinance overhaul in 2009 amid public anger over the City Council’s vote to let Range Resources drill inside the Rayzor Ranch development near homes, a city park and a hospital. Some council members said they opposed drilling at the location but feared the company would follow through on a threat to sue if they denied it.

It was Range Resources’ director of corporate communications and public affairs, Matt Pitzarella, who told fellow conferees of his company’s discovery that psy-ops veterans were well-suited for local community work. Pitzarella did not return a call for comment.

City leaders have treaded carefully ever since the legal threat, inviting industry-related representatives to serve alongside city staff and residents on a drilling task force to help write a new code.

“I find it ironic,” Jellison said. “They are the outsiders coming in, going against the local municipality — the established government people are living with. They don’t have any permanent business here. Anyone like that is deemed, by definition, an insurgent.”

Keystone Exploration wrote a letter to its royalty owners endorsing the incumbents in April 2010. The company characterized residents like Vajda and Jellison as anti-drilling activists who would do all they could to limit the industry.

During a Town Council meeting, a sitting council member told them he would run them out of town for their stance on property rights.

Read More

WHO owns America?

The answer should be WE, THE PEOPLE.

But reading through emails and articles today, it seems the correct answer is Rich Bullies.

And it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on.  It's happening to all of us.  Even those in the middle.  Pay attention to WHO is buying YOU.  Pay attention to WHO is buying the elections in your towns, state and country.  If YOU don't, you'll be sheep.

On the Guardian, you have a head gas industry lobbyist threatening the President over the Keystone Pipeline.

The head of the US's biggest oil and gas lobbying group said on Wednesday that the Obama administration will face serious political consequences if it rejects a Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline that has been opposed by environmental groups.

Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, said TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline would definitely play a role in this year's national elections.

On the AP, you have billionaires trying to buy the President's seat.

As we've said before - those with the most campaign advertising, only means they've spent the most money.  WHAT do you think they'll do with YOUR money once in office?  They have favors to repay, you know.

It perplexes us that THE PEOPLE complain about how their representatives vote and spend.  But those very same representatives spend the most on their campaigns and THE PEOPLE vote for them again.  Does doing the same thing and expecting different results make you sheep?

Read More

3 LLC's and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Earlier this year, the Fort Worth Weekly had an article on the dealings of the Haltom City Economic Development Corporation and the LLC it created.  It was smartly titled, A High Priced Can of Worms. 

Today, on Reuters.com there is another telling article about an LLC, this one a Chesapeake affair.  
Seems when the folks in Michigan wanted to collect their signing bonuses they were promised, they couldn't find out WHO to collect from.  WHY?

In fact, the company issuing the rejections wasn't much of a business at all. It was a shell company - a paper-only firm with no real operations - called Northern Michigan Exploration LLC.
Northern has voided hundreds of land deals, and was indeed a facade - a shell company created so that one of America's largest energy companies could conceal its role in the leasing spree, a Reuters investigation has found. Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK.N), the nation's second-largest gas driller, was behind the entire operation.

Chesapeake had created one shell company that set up another, Northern Michigan Exploration.

So, WHO will step up to the plate and protect the taxpayers from the newly formed Trinity Vision Partners LLC that just purchased the Fort Worth Cats?  Wouldn't you love to know WHO all is involved in that shell game?

Ask.

Read More

Everything is right,

The Lone Star's shining bright,
It's a Texas Christmas tonight.

Merry Christmas to all our friends, supporters, and contributors.
A special Merry Christmas to our troops serving both near and far.

YOU are all stars.

May the New Year bring you all many blessings and an end to the Culture of Corruption.

Anything is possible, if YOU believe.

Peace,
Texas Lone Star

Read More

Well?

Read the Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Campaign contract

What we need is a law that says elected officials are legally bound by their campaign promises, and if they break them, they can be sued for breach of contract. If they are found guilty, they would be immediately removed from office and never eligible to run for elected office again. I don't want to be "governed," I want to be "represented," but how can I vote for the right candidate if they are all allowed to lie with impunity during the election and then do whatever they want to once they're elected?

-- Ben Bruce, Arlington

Read More

Well said -

A letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells you how to fix this mess our politicians have made.

Voting strength

It seems to be the common belief among most citizens that this country is gradually sinking into nothingness. It also seems to be common knowledge that the main reason behind our decline is the arguing and bickering among elected members of our do-nothing Congress.

It seems that the only way to get this country moving again is for all voters to, for once, forget party loyalty and vote out the slackers, regardless of party affiliation, who do nothing but draw their pay check and sign ridiculous pledges.

The way I see it, for us to thrive again and rebuild our recognition as the number-one economy in the world is try our best to rid Washington of all the greed and self-preservation of our selfish representatives. Yes, it can be accomplished at polling places!

-- Ed Huddleston, Fort Worth

Read More

More "so-called" Visions

For Downtown Fort Worth.  Does downtown know there is an entire city out there?  How does a non-profit "oversee" downtown?

We can't wait to hear WHO will be donating their time to head the committee, receiving nothing in return.

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, be sure and read the comments from THE PEOPLE.  Some made us laugh, this being one of them:

The "vision" is the continued looting of the taxpayers for the financial benefit of a few fat cats and politicians.  How about a vision of I-35W that doesn't look like a two lane parking lot?

In January, hundreds of "visionaries" will begin the yearlong process of designing the fourth, 10-year master plan for downtown Fort Worth.

Downtown residents, business and property owners, civic and government leaders and representatives from surrounding neighborhoods will be asked to participate in so-called visioning sessions conducted by Downtown Fort Worth Inc.

The process has worked well in the past, so Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit advocacy group that oversees downtown, decided to continue it.

Read More

Hitting the nail on the head

Is what the New York Times keeps doing.

(This story, "As Thailand Floods Spread, Experts Blame Officials, Not Rains", originally appeared in The New York Times.)

On the other side of the world, yet it sounds so familiar...

As some of Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century bears down on Bangkok — submerging cities, industrial parks and ancient temples as it comes — experts in water management are blaming human activity for turning an unusually heavy monsoon season into a disaster.

The main factors, they say, are deforestation, overbuilding in catchment areas, the damming and diversion of natural waterways, urban sprawl, and the filling-in of canals, combined with bad planning. Warnings to the authorities, they say, have been in vain.

Those who tried to warn them have been called crazy.

Ain't so crazy now, is it?

Read More

WHO to the rescue?

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells you how things are run in Tarrant County.  Don't be mistaken, it ain't just Richland Hills.

If a Texes hero shows up, they are going to be busy. 

Rescue Richland Hills

Richland Hills has ceased to function as a city, and there's no Superman to rescue us. We have a city charter that is old and outdated but is the current, legal policy voted in by our citizens. It is the law.

Or is it? Various members of the City Council are routinely violating the city charter but there's no way to hold them accountable since they abolished the city's Ethics Review Board. The city manager, who has won numerous awards for management of the city, is under siege by the council. Each week more City Council actions are being hidden in "executive session." Residents loyal to certain councilmen are allowed to misbehave during council and board meetings and are creating a hostile workplace for volunteers and city employees. Councilmen are ordering the replacement of opposing board members without following due process.

Richland Hills has become a Wild West town run by thugs and bullies. We need an intervention! I have contacted various elected officials within Tarrant County and my state representative but so far no one seems able or willing to step in, call this obviously unethical behavior into question and save Richland Hills.

-- Ralph Smith, Richland Hills

Read More

Did we read that right??

Did Railroad Commissioners just stand up for THE PEOPLE and their property?

Against the industry?  Against their money??

Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU won't believe it.

The Railroad Commission has shown some spine.

Last week, on Chesapeake Energy's request to "force pool" some residential properties for drilling in the Glen Garden neighborhood of southeast Fort Worth, commissioners Barry Smitherman and David Porter politely but decidedly beat up on the big local company and its attorneys for belligerent behavior.

One of the arguments that Chesapeake's offer was not fair and reasonable was that it asked property owners who had not signed mineral leases to take a "working interest" in the well, under which they would share in the profits but would pay twice their share of the well's costs. It gave them 14 days in which to decide, and they were told they would be given a written copy of the agreement after they said they wanted to go that route.

Under questioning from Jones, hearing examiner James Doherty said, "To me, it just seems unfair on its face to expect somebody to commit to enter into an agreement that they've never been given the opportunity to see."

Since that didn't work, he said, he joined Porter in making the vote 2-1 to deny the company's pooling application.

The commission moved to a case in which Chesapeake asked for a "Rule 37 exception" that would give it more flexibility in drilling on 182 acres in Crowley.

"In the nine months I've been here," Porter said, "this may be the poorest fact case I've seen on a Rule 37 request."

It wasn't Chesapeake's day. The commission unanimously denied that request.

Read More

Look what THEY did...

This woman is unstoppable. We like her.

Teri Hall just held TURF's Stars of Texas Awards, they were given to State Rep's & a Commissioner that actually did their jobs and protected THE PEOPLE of Texas. Want to know what THEY had to say?

Kolkhorst teared up as she listened to Hall recount the stories that lead up to the repeal of the TTC. As she accepted her award she remarked, "How could we even think of selling off our infrastructure to foreign companies? Shame on us, shame on us for thinking about it. I will fight any Republican, any Democrat, anyone who wants to take our state from us."

I don't know how you did it. The deck was so stacked against you...You inspire me, you will inspire other generations. God bless Texas and may it always stand as a free and sovereign nation," Kolkhorst concluded at the end of her emotional speech.

Simpson in typical form, brought a hush over the room as he spoke, "Civil government has destroyed many lives. What is fundamental to property or to working is the movement of our bodies, in a sense, transportation. I'm encouraged by the people who are waking up and listening who are holding coffees, holding town hall meetings, looking at voting records."

Leibowitz praised the grassroots who worked together toward a common goal to slay the TTC, "This really is a very special group you have put together. Many different political philosophies, different walks of life, urban, rural, people that have come together for a common cause. People that come forward and work together to get something accomplished, they do end up, in fact, literally moving mountains."

Dunnam said the "danger we have today in all levels of our government is that certain people 'own' it...the people stood up and stopped these toll roads in my district. It was all about the money, all about money for private interests making money off the government."
He went on to assert that elected officials are afraid to stand up to the money, "but, fortunately, they're also afraid of y'all" (pointing to Hall).

Our hats off to Teri, TURF and friends.

If you haven't seen Molina's -  Truth Be Tolled, you should.  YOU don't know what you're missing...

Read More

Nothing ever happens...

Till it happens to you.

Guess WHAT?  It's happening.  All around you. Pay attention.

Read the letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It was only a matter of time until the ugly side of natural gas finally reared its head in my neighborhood. Just when I was getting used to the natural gas wells dotting the landscape, now the lords of natural gas want to put a compressor station several hundred feet from my front door along a bucolic stretch of Randol Mill Road in east Fort Worth.

You might not think much about the barnlike structure if you saw it. But the fact that this compressor station requires a zoning exception should tell you a lot. Not only is there the potential for a lot of noise, but these installations also emit benzene and formaldehyde, two compounds sure to dampen interest in buying a house in my neighborhood.

It's my understanding that ZC-11-098 is still under review. But if this is approved, it leads to one conclusion: The powers that be have decided a little collateral damage for the greater good is perfectly acceptable. That's all fine and good -- until you're the collateral damage.

-- Keith Sternberg, Fort Worth

Read More

Same story

Another story from Texas with all the same factors - gas drilling, floods, politicians, tributaries, FEMA, mortgage, insurance...Any of this sound familiar?

Read about it in the Fort Worth Weekly.  WHO's next?

The first change occurred just four months after they moved in, when Devon Energy built a gas well pad next to their fence line, ruining the view for months and sending toxic residue into their backyard every time it rained (“Paradise Lost”,  June 18, 2008).
 
One month after the pad appeared, said Annette, “We got slammed by a flash flood that nearly entered the house. A neighbor called to ask if we were all right, and then she told us we might be in a flood plain.”

The flood plain question “had come up once — that some of the land but not the house was in a flood plain” during discussions before the sale, Annette said, “but when it did, the realtors produced several reports showing that the property was not in the flood plain.”

“We never would have purchased the house if there were any flood issues,” said Michael. The couple did know that runoff from heavy rains had washed into their pool and come close to the house.
People involved in the sale of the property to the couple disagree. They later maintained in court that the Daniels were or should have been aware that the property they were purchasing was in a flood plain.

After the neighbor’s comment, the Daniels began to look into the issue and eventually got in touch with Parker County flood plain director Kirk Fuqua.

“He told us that he didn’t understand why the house was sold as not being in a flood plain when it had always been in the FEMA 100-year flood plain,” said Annette. Fuqua confirmed that information for Fort Worth Weekly and said his records showed no remedial action that would have removed the house from the flood plain.

“Not only that, but it turned out our house was built right on top of a drainage easement, a platted stream,” said Michael. The unnamed stream is a tributary of nearby Silver Creek.

Worse was coming. In 2008, a new FEMA study came out, again showing the Daniels’ house in the middle of a flood plain. As usual, FEMA alerted lenders, and three months after the first flash flood, Chase Home Mortgage Finance LLC, wrote to tell the Daniels they would need to acquire flood insurance.

The insurance added $500 a month to a steep mortgage that was already beginning to pinch, as the recession slowed the income from their travel business.

Unfortunately, the couple soon discovered that the Parker County appraiser had reduced the appraised value of their home to zero after the new FEMA study, and you can’t refinance a house valued at zero. Their land dropped in value from $75,000 to $25,000.

“So we owed $300,000 on a house that was valued at zero,” said Annette. “And with business slowing down we couldn’t even get at our equity. Who could have dreamt this was going to happen?”

Read More

"Town Hall's are for rookies"

Maybe the term was freshman, but you get the drift.

WHO works for WHO, exactly?

Read it in the Fort Worth Weekly.

Normally in August, lawmakers go back to their districts to make nice with constituents. This year, though, an estimated 40 to 60 percent of members — from both parties and both houses — are planning none of the town hall meetings usual for the season.

When they skip recess, you know they must have dropped the Dippity-Do in a bad, bad place.

Here in U.S. Rep. Kay Granger’s district, for instance, we expected her to come home, press the flesh, be seen, answer questions, just be available.

But Granger is nowhere to be found. I and others have tried to find out when she will make an appearance. We called her office. We checked everywhere we could think of for events she might attend. No luck.

It reminds me of the “Where’s Waldo?” game. She isn’t in her office. Staffers said she had no town halls scheduled, though they did say she would be doing some “by phone.” Her workers let folks concerned over the budget/debt fiasco sign a sheet in her office.

Then there are those public servants who have the audacity to charge voters for the privilege of  attending a town hall. U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s only public recess meeting will be with the Rotarians, where the fee (“for food”) is  $15 to ask questions of the House Budget Committee chairman. 

Granger’s folks said they didn’t know when that telephonic town hall would be scheduled. Then last week I received a notice of an “Alzheimer’s Association Town Hall Meeting,” set for Aug.31 at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. It listed Granger among the distinguished guests. Those who attend will have the “opportunity to ... give your input” regarding the disease.

Read More

THE PEOPLE get it

WHY don't the "leaders"?  Oh yes, greed.

Another good Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Water shell game

Public Relations 101, courtesy of the Barnett Shale industry: The issue should not be that we're quite frankly poisoning your water, but more that we welcome every opportunity to discuss air quality.

It's not that we're matter-of-factly poisoning your water, it's that we're paying people -- creating jobs -- to do it.

It's not that we are giving briefcases of cash to your politicians to feint laughable regulation, it's just that, by the time you wake up, we'll have scattered and be back selling you the greatest commodity in history: potable water.

-- Scott Krauza, Bedford

Read More

Affordable Education?

Not.

One of our favorite letter writers is back, read the letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  THE PEOPLE get it.  You know, the ones paying for it.

TCC priorities

The Star-Telegram reported that Tarrant County College trustees are contemplating raising tuition and their portion of the property tax rate in order to help build three additional buildings.

Watch your wallets! The last building TCC constructed cost about $700 per square foot, roughly four times the average cost of similar community college buildings.

In other words, they could have put up the existing building plus these three additional ones for what we paid for that Berlin bunker, an East Belknap Street underpass and a hole in the ground that we are assured will be nice to visit "when the weather is nice."

Where are the letters to the editor?

Millions for scholarships and teacher salaries and not one dime more for monuments to greed and bad taste.

-- Guelma B. Hopkins, Fort Worth

Read More

More Texas Political Gerrymandering...

Read what THE PEOPLE the gerrymandering affects have to say in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Did anyone ask THE PEOPLE??

Want a good example of Texas district gerrymandering?  Try reading a Tarrant Regional Water District voting area map. 

Redistricting map

Tarrant County voters should be outraged at the congressional districts drawn by Republicans in Austin. There is no excuse for this type of gerrymandering.

This county deserves to have its own congressional representative, not divided up by four different ones. I don't know why voters even considered voting for those people in Austin in the first place.

There is a sure way for voters to put an end to such ridiculous practices and that is to vote out every politician who has served more than two terms.

-- Edward Lindsay, Fort Worth

Read More