Political Pow-wur

A letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks volumes about the Arlington City Council meeting where citizens that went to be heard were instead, thrown out.

Pow-wur shift

Some Arlington citizens -- you know, common folk who pay taxes, fees and inconsequential things like that -- want to talk about a controversial and divisive thoroughfare plan.

But the mayor says not so fast. Only 20 minutes' discussion collectively for the pros, 20 minutes for the cons. No matter how many citizens want to speak to the council.

The mayor proclaims he has the pow-wur. He invokes the pow-wur. Shush little citizens. Go sit in the corner. Play the quiet game.

So he borrows the Dallas County Commissioners Court's muzzle.

What do the mayor's fellow council members say about this virtual shutoff of debate? What's that, council members? Couldn't hear you. Must be bad acoustics, huh?

But a stadium builder, gas well drillers and out-of-town apartment builders get a city hall full of 20 minutes. But Arlington residents? Who do you think you are?

An entrenched incumbent came ever-so-close to biting the political dust in Saturday's runoff election. Could be a not-so-subtle message there and it might embolden residents. While quietly being obedient, corner-sitting little people, maybe they'll conclude that in coming elections, why, they just might invoke the pow-wur, too.

-- Roger Summers, Arlington

Money and Education

Good letters to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. 

Our guess is the politicians think if we spend less on education, it will be easier to take the citizens for a ride, while picking their pockets.  Educate yourself.  Someone has to protect our kids. Otherwise they are going to grow up broke, uneducated with no air to breathe and no water to drink.

We the people have disappointed God and our children. We build billion-dollar stadiums, and now we cannot pay for our schools. We worship rock stars and athletes and allow politicians and the media to demonize our educators.

We give tax breaks to the wealthy, and yet we begrudge our educators wanting an income level decent enough to house our families and provide a college education for our children.

Republicans promised us jobs, but they never told us they were going to do away with our jobs. Instead of talking cuts and what we are going to do without, can't we figure out a way to save our jobs, our education system and our middle class?

-- Joyce A. Powell, Bedford

A fee is a tax

I would like to see a law that says whenever anyone in government announces that the government is "investing" in anything, they will be subject to a $1,000 fine.

The government never invests our money; it spends it. Investing requires a return above the investment. The government never has a return on money spent.

Same goes with fees. When the government requires you to pay a fee, it's a tax, plain and simple.

I wonder if people would finally realize how much they actually pay in taxes if they saw the word "tax" instead of "fee." Same thing, but "fee" sounds so much nicer.

-- Brent Beal, Keller

Karma...

All roads lead to...

The Superbowl.  Many complaints from many folks that while their roads are iced over, there is no ice around Jerry's dome. 

We wonder, with all the rolling blackouts in Texas today, will Cowboys Stadium go without power?

Cowboys Stadium Drilling

Leave it to Mel...

Council member Mel LeBlanc said the more than 1,400 form letter e-mails he had received by early Monday afternoon would play no role in his decision on whether to grant the permit.

Aren't councilmembers supposed to use the citizens input in their decision making process?

Be there Tuesday, remind him.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

If the permit is approved, Chesapeake has agreed to hold off drilling until after Super Bowl XLV, which will be held at Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6. Drilling would not occur under the stadium.

Gas Drilling and the Dallas Cowboys

Read about it on Change.org.

Property Values Continue to fall in Tarrant & Wise Counties

...unless of course, you own a stadium.

What happens when all the property is a fraction of what it was once worth?

Read more about it on FWCANDO.

Previously we told you how there was to be NO drilling under the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, did someone bend their own rules? 

We received this email today -

Did you guys know they are drilling under the stadium? A friend in the oil and gas industry told me about this. Apparently Dallas never had a shot at the Stadium and it had nothing to do with football. Jerry bought up a ton of land on the Barnett Shale (where the new stadium is), then got the city of Arlington to subsidize $600MM to build the stadium. The one catch was Jerry has to split the oil and gass money 50/50 with the city. He sold out the city of Dallas.



Why do you never hear about this stuff until its done. Here I am a die hard Cowboy fan upset that the team, isn't in Dallas and thought it was Laura Miller's fault. Its not- Jerry wanted to drill for oil or gas or whatever.

This video of a previous WFAA report raises more questions.
WHY would a city council vote against its PEOPLE and its Planning and Zoning Commission?  When you notify "property owners" (NOT renters) are they referring to surface or mineral? 

Mel Leblanc says it's the "will of the people".  Isn't  he the same politician who made up things Senator Wendy Davis said and made a tasteless joke of the drilling situation last month?  Do YOU believe him?

So WHERE are they drilling in Arlington?  And do wells go where they state they will?  Not in Ohio.

Durango and Dale

If you didn't see Dale Hansen talk about Jerry Jones bar video, check it out on Durango. 

We like what he had to say about the "news" these days. 

More Cleburne Earthquakes

Another quake rocked Cleburne this morning.

Let's hope the SMU study is speeding right along.

Yesterday Durango was out hiking in his favorite location, he took an interesting picture and as usual asks good questions.

"Yesterday I read that the Dallas Cowboys, well Jerry Jones, somehow got Barnett Shale gas drilling banned for some area around the new stadium. The reason being that the stadium is very heavy and drilling under it might wreak havoc.

Different type concerns were unable to stop Chesapeake Energy from drilling off Carter Avenue at the west end of the Tandy Hills Natural Area.Today, around noon, I did my regular Thursday inspection of the Tandy Hills. I noticed large earthquake-like fissures have appeared. Is the ground rumbling under the Tandy Hills?"

Anywhere but here, Part 2

So what do the Cowboys have that the kids on Carter don't?

Money
Attorney's
Media Attention

WHO's Next?

Anywhere but here...

Where can you drill in Texas? Just about anywhere, except under the 8th Wonder of the World, known as the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

How is it safe enough to run pipelines through yards and drill in residential neighborhoods but not where the Cowboys play?

You can read the entire article from WFAA.com here. We'll give you the highlights...

City Attorney Jay Doegey said that standard language in contracts with the Dallas Cowboys probably would prohibit drilling under the team's new stadium. He said there are concerns – although they are remote – that drilling could affect the building's structural integrity.

"We don't want the ground to give and cause it to crack or sink," Doegey said about the rock beneath the stadium.

The language was put in the contracts long before five small earthquakes shook Cleburne in a single week in early June. Researchers are looking into whether those and many others recently were the result of extensive gas drilling in the underground Barnett Shale formation.
Earthquakes have been rare in North Texas until recently. Thousands of wells have been drilled in the western areas of North Texas in recent years.
Doegey said the city hasn't conducted any research to calculate potential dangers of drilling underneath a megastructure like Cowboys Stadium. But he said there has to be a concern about drilling beneath a structure that expensive ($1.15 billion) and that heavy (more than 805 million pounds).

Doegey said that when he lived in Southern California, oil extraction had caused some surface collapses and seawater had to be injected into the rock to mitigate that.

While gathering the land needed for the stadium, Arlington bought some property and condemned other tracts. Instead of taking the straightforward route, the city dropped its eminent domain cases against Sodd's clients. He then had a portion of the mineral rights deeded to a company owned by his law firm, according to county records.