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?

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Bullies Beware

The Fort Worth Weekly is coming for you.

Read the latest on the FWISD fiasco.  WHO's next?

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Trinity River Vision Unraveling

First, in Dallas.

And a man being threatened with his livelihood for telling the truth and saving lives.  Hey Fort Worth, any of this sound familiar yet?  Wait till they start asking questions on this end of the Trinity River.

Read, Drowning the Whistleblower on the Doomed Trinity River Wave in the Dallas Observer. 

Again, you can't make this stuff up.

For two weeks I have been trying to get someone at City Hall to tell me who is responsible for the unbelievably screwed-up man-made kayaking rapids in the river.

And then the money. The thing started out at a planned cost of $1.5 million. The city now has invested more than $4 million. The park board voted last week to spend another $76,000 to pay an engineering firm to find out what's wrong with it. Then I assume we'll have to pay some more to fix it.

 "The design was a team approach with various civil, structural, and hydraulic designers as well as planners and landscape architects, local and out of state."

Now what we have is a mess that can't be used, from which the public is barred, at a cost already four times the original estimate, with the cost of litigation about to be added to the tab.

The week before the wave was to be opened to the public, I wrote a column quoting Allen. I suspect the appearance of that column had a lot to do with the city's very belated decision to close the wave to the public the same day they held the dedication ceremony.

Since then, Allen, who earns his living renting out canoes and guiding, has been the target of what I can only describe as a City Hall vendetta. The city attorney recently notified Allen by letter that he will be arrested if he enters the park area around the Dallas Wave in order to launch canoeing parties downriver from a place below the wave.

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Fort Worth Bullies

Fort Worth Weekly does a good job reporting on the bullies in the Fort Worth School District.  It doesn't stop there either, Fort Worth is full of bullies from the classroom, to the ISD, from City Hall to Capitol Hill.

Is there a law against that?

Read the article here.  Don't miss the comments, those in the know tell you many things if you listen.

Kudos to the Weekly for racking up awards in Houston and New Orleans!  Keep up the good work!

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Arlington Arrogance

The citizens who attended the meeting in Arlington this week must have felt like they were in Fort Worth.  Read the Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Good question. 

No speaking allowed

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck is choosing to use his position as a bully pulpit.

The Tuesday council meeting was a short 90 minutes, yet Cluck refused to let a number of reasonable residents speak about the transportation development plan before the council voted.

He announced he plans to do the same thing for the hike-and-bike public hearing on June 28. Two 30-year plans -- and the mayor will only allow 20 minutes for each side?

How can residents be part of the public process and go on record if they are not allowed to address the council?

-- Kimberly Frankland, Arlington

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