Still voting for a RINO?

WHY?

Check out Dave Robinson. .

For whom the road tolls...

A few days after Terri Hall spoke at several events around town, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram actually said something about toll roads. 

Don't be fooled by all the highway construction you see around you in Tarrant County. Texas roads are in bad shape, and there's not enough money to fix them or build all the new ones needed.

Wasn't it just today Mayor Price was thanking lucky stars that we're going to start construction on I35 next year?  From Fort Worth to the airport...torn up and tolled. 

 The three big highway projects in Tarrant County -- the DFW Connector in Grapevine, the North Tarrant Express along Northeast Loop 820 and the Airport Freeway in Hurst, Euless and Bedford, and the Chisholm Trail Parkway from near downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne -- all have been made possible because they will be a toll road or include toll lanes.

Tolls on the North Tarrant Express will go to the private company that put up money to help build it. The North Texas Tollway Authority will collect the tolls from the Chisholm Trail Parkway. Only for the DFW Connector will the Texas Department of Transportation receive the tolls.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/05/4315213/the-rising-cost-of-bad-roads-in.html#storylink=cpyThe three big highway projects in Tarrant County -- the DFW Connector in Grapevine, the North Tarrant Express along Northeast Loop 820 and the Airport Freeway in Hurst, Euless and Bedford, and the Chisholm Trail Parkway from near downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne -- all have been made possible because they will be a toll road or include toll lanes.
Tolls on the North Tarrant Express will go to the private company that put up money to help build it. The North Texas Tollway Authority will collect the tolls from the Chisholm Trail Parkway. Only for the DFW Connector will the Texas Department of Transportation receive the tolls.

The Doctor is in.

"An election based on merit?"

Not in Texas.

But a letter writer to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram gets it.  It's good to know someone does.

As a physician in Tarrant County for more than 30 years, I'm embarrassed by the attack on Sen. Wendy Davis by a colleague from my profession. The accusation of corruption against her and the prestigious law firm where she works is absurd. Why now? Must be losing! When are we ever going to have an election based on merit? I am tired of electing go-along, party-line representatives. I will vote for Wendy Davis!

-- Lee S. Anderson, Fort Worth

When will 820 be complete?

Better yet, what's it going to cost YOU?

Those lanes in the center of the picture above are what the new "managed lanes" will look like.  What is a "managed lane"?  Read it and weep...

Managed lanes are toll lanes in the middle of an existing freeway, unlike traditional turnpikes that are brand new roads where every lane is tolled. Congestion pricing is where the toll rate varies based on the level of traffic using the road. If the speed of traffic slows below 50 MPH, Cintra can hike the toll rates for the purpose of bumping cars out of the lanes in order to guarantee a speed of 50 MPH. So the price of the toll varies based on the time of day.

Since it costs so much to drive in those lanes, people can't afford it.  So what is the Spanish company that owns them doing?  Partnering with people like the NCTCOG to use taxpayer dollars and make commercials.  Not to worry, they say it's "educational". 

Where does Texas rank in schools again?

Pay attention, people. 

See the article on the Cintra commercials here.  And here's a good take on the Terri Hall meeting from last week. 

Notice the names of the players never change. 

TxDOT and the North Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG) and its Regional Transportation Council have been promoting the contest using taxpayer resources. Amanda Wilson, Communications Supervisor for the Transportation Division of the NTCOG said the contest is also “an educational effort, not just naming the lanes.”

Still don't believe it?  Check out the North Tarrant Express site.  Read between the lines.  You'll see it.

WHO is Eleanor Fairchild?

She's the 78 year old Texas grandma who was arrested, with actress Daryl Hannah, for trying to protect her own land.  In Texas...

We know some Texas grandma's like that. 

Tell us, what would YOU do if they came to take your land?

Better call grandma.  Or Hannah. 

"I was peacefully protesting the unwanted advances of Trans Canada on Eleanor Fairchild's land. She has stated very clearly that she doesn't want them there and they insist on bullying her and taking away her land through eminent domain," Hannah explained to KLTV, adding, "We just sort of stood in front of them and held our hands in a stop motion. I'm holding my wrist because there was this private security guard hired by TransCanada and he injured my wrist."

For the scoop on the pipeline from those in the know, click here.

A "culture of deviance"

Sound familiar? 

These are the boys up north, in Canada, that are taking land from Texans.  They sound like the ones that are already here...


Occupy Canada

October 1st - A TransCanada pipeline engineer, the man responsible for ensuring that pipelines were constructed safely, has come forward with shocking information about TransCanada’s unscrupulous safety practices. In his own words: "Someone is going die and they just don't know it yet."

"Drawing on examples from the records of Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, Vokes is going public with his concerns about an industry facing unprecedented growth and what even the National Energy Board (NEB) describes as "an increased trend in the number and the severity" of pipeline incidents.

Vokes has stellar company. In particular, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accused Enbridge, a Canadian company jointly regulated by the NEB and the U.S. Pipeline Hazardous Materials Standard Administration (PHMSA), of nurturing a "culture of deviance" on safety and integrity issues after a dramatic Michigan pipeline rupture in 2010. That debacle caused the largest and most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In addition to "multiple findings of non-compliance and non-conformance" with regulations, the NEB also documented that Enbridge didn't have a process for "defining and evaluating the level of qualification and competence of contractors and consultants."

The company also didn't know how valid and effective its assessments of corrosion and cracking were in its pipeline safety program."
 http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/10/01/Cracks-In-Pipeline-System/

-- Kris

What does PBS stand for?

We thought it was 'public'...

After the exchange in the Dallas Observer between KERA and John Jay Myers, one has to wonder.

John Jay Myers, Texas' Libertarian Senate Hopeful, Barred from KERA's Debate.

Sooner or later...

All bubbles burst

Special Report: The casualties of Chesapeake's "land grab" across America.

Fracking Texas

Oh wait, that's North Dakota.

Same story, different state.

The drillers dump their stuff into creeks and waterways, or private land.

Those that oversee are elected or appointed by the industry. 

Therefore, it's YOUR problem. 

"It's happening often enough that we see it as a significant problem," he said. "What's the solution? Catching them. What's the problem? Catching them."

Stupid is as stupid does...

This guy gets it.  You better.  It's here.

We've witnessed it in Fort Worth and the surrounding cities.

- As a side note, Texas Lone Star does not agree with all points below and we are not endorsing a national candidate.  This email was forwarded and posted due to it's content concerning what is happening locally and the need for you to be paying attention, no matter your political affiliation.

If you don't think Agenda 21 is real, or it's a "theory", you might want to think again. (Here's another crash course for you, called the U.N. Conquers Texas)

By the way, WHO is telling you that?  The media?  Really??  Have we taught you nothing?

 Stupid Ideas Require Lots of Money

 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

The love of money, the Bible says, is the root of all evil, and we say the coming lack of money may be our salvation when applied to an environmentally delusional government.

 

The soothsayers of “sustainability,” the gurus of “green,” and the sages of “smart growth,” the Chicken Littles of global warming, all claim the way we live our lives isn’t “sustainable.”

 

So what, according to them, is not sustainable?

•Cars (need to switch to foot power and bicycles)
•Fossil fuel use (convert to renewable)
•Air conditioning (wastes too much energy and unfair to nations that lack it)
•Homes with lawns (replace with lower carbon-footprint apartments)
•Golf courses (use too much water and are elitist)
•Eating beef (cow flatulence adds to global warming, etc.)
•Urban living (we need to be concentrated in hive cities and return the land to nature)
•The ownership of private property (government can manage the land better than you or I)
•Pets (have no place in government-run apartment cities envisioned by 2050)

 

What’s to prevent government, including our own city government, from pushing these silly notions?  The answer is lack of money—national bankruptcy.  It takes money to fund good plans.  It takes a lot more money to get people to do stupid stuff—in this case more money than there is in the world.

 

But reality never slows down those who never bother to think. The federal government, Austin, AND our own city government, have been dumping money into environmental-driven insanity for some years now.

 

We’ve all seen examples. Locally, Arlington’s $61 million bike plan, curb side recycling, and the aborted effort to needlessly abridge citizen rights with permanent water restrictions, all are elements of what comes under the catch phrase Agenda 21.  And Arlington just happens to have possibly the most restrictive pet ordinance in the nation.

 

Agenda 21 is not only real, it is real stupid.

 

It doesn’t take much reading (plenty of information on the internet) to see how impossible and unnecessary hysterical environmentalism is, but people who believe these absurdities can be sold the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

In approving the $61 million bike plan, Mayor Cluck and his cronies—none of whom bothered to read the bike plan—did indeed buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

Why on God’s green earth would Mayor Cluck want to line every street in Arlington with bicycle lanes?  After the $61 million plan passed, he complained that it still wasn’t big enough!

 

Two answers suggest themselves, one based on stupidity, the other on greed.

 

The answer is stupidity if our City Council really believes we’ll soon be walking or riding bicycles instead of driving cars.

 

But if Mayor Cluck and his cronies don’t believe that nonsense, then why are they spending $61 million on bicycle lanes when street lane repair is $426 million behind schedule?

 

Greed is the answer.  We attended a City Council meeting where Mayor Cluck talked about going to a meeting of mayors where he learned that other cities were raking in big federal grants for bike lanes. “So I came back and said, why aren’t we getting any of that money?”  And so the bike plan was born, not out of stupidity—at least not entirely—but mainly out of raw lust for federal funding.

 

In Gastonia, Georgia, we have a friend and fellow opponent of bad governance. I recently told that friend that the wasteful insanity at large in every level of government would be brought to heel by a thing called reality.  In the end, it simply isn’t possible to keep spending money that doesn’t exist and expect no consequences.

 

We here at Opinion Arlington are not smart enough to predict how and when the crash will come, but we’re not dumb enough to think it won’t happen.  And when the crash comes, no level of government will have a dime left for foolishness.

 

In response to my comments, Cheryl said, “I'm not so sure about money drying up....the feds have the printing press and just keep borrowing and printing, so they will keep coming at us.  I wish I thought it would eventually dry up, but thinking we are way past that point with $16 Trillion debt.  Plus, the more broke the cities and counties get...the easier it is to bribe them with Fed money.  Just drives me crazy.

 

“Here in Gastonia, the city manager, county manager, and full time planners + MPO + UDO...all of them spend every waking moment looking for grant money from the state and the feds to implement all of this that we do NOT want. 

 

Maybe Romney and Ryan can pull off a miracle and get some of this out of our lives.  Fingers crossed....but not counting chickens.  We'll see.”

 

Yes, we’ll see, but our money is on the people of this nation, in Arlington, in Gastonia, everywhere.  We have the vote and with it we can take out the idiots wherever we find them, and put in their place men and women of sound and sober judgment.

 

Sincerely,

Buddy Saunders

Publisher - Opinion Arlington

buddy@opinionarlington.com