Clower/Weinstein
                             

12/1/8  It's the Holiday Season -- Elected Officials are in the Party Mood!

Every news cast, local or national, starts with dire reports on the economy.  Reporters breathlessly interview shoppers who respond with tales of woe and shorter Christmas shopping lists.  You would have to be living in a Mormon cult as the 7th wife, cut off from the outside world, not to know that money's tight.  That is, unless you are an elected official for one of the myriad local government entities screwing up our lives, ruining our schools, neglecting our neighborhoods and wasting our tax dollars.

I have to confess lately it's hard for me to get fired up about local bureaucrats doing badly because the past election pretty much says that Dallas voters are stupid and partisan and don't care about honest government -- just control.  How else do you explain 4 more years of Lupe Valdez as Dallas County Sheriff?  How embarrassing!

Rather than trying to cut waste out of the city budget, most on our city council are only focused on making it illegal for barflies to light up.  Dallas oil man James Graham is all but waging a one-man war to stop this nannyism.  He's a non-smoker, like me.  He just thinks grownups have a choice of going or not going to a bar where people are very likely to smoke.  If there was a market demand for a smoke free bar, I guarantee you some little entrepreneur would start a chain (no pun intended) of them.

Jim Graham is one of those guys who thinks people read reports and studies.  He forgets that he lives in Dallas, which is in Dallas County, where voters just re-elected Lupe Valdez.  Of course, DallasArena.com readers do read stuff.  So, here's a link to an October, 2004 report by Terry L. Clower, Ph.D. & Bernard L. Weinstein, Ph.D. -- The Dallas Smoking Ordinance One Year Later, A Report on the Impacts of the City of Dallas Smoking Ban on Alcoholic Beverage Sales March 2003 to March 2004. 

It makes no sense for the Mayor and most of the council to deliberately reduce our sales tax revenue from bars, etc. by passing another law that we do not have the personnel to enforce, but will most certainly encourage Dallas barflies to leave our city limits to party hearty in our neighbor cities' bars.  But, hey -- that's sensible thinking by Dallas voters' standards.

Got to congratulate Councilmen Mitch Rasansky, Jerry Allen and Sheffie Kadane for opposing this ridiculous ordinance.  While the council is dragging us into debt for a convention center hotel, only these three men oppose an ordinance that will be the final nail in our all but deceased convention center business.

Sam Merten's Reserve Fund May Not Protect Taxpayers If Trouble Finds Dallas' Convention Center Hotel (DallasObserver.com, 11/19/8) is spooky reading, when you consider that our council is determined to kill our convention business.

Much to our reading pleasure, Jim Schutze has turned his attention to the mayhem at DISD.  Only a writer with his sense of humor can really put it all in perspective.  He has a lot of fun with the Board's decision to do a Hugo Chavez on stupid Dallas voters.  DISD Hits Bottom, Then Digs Deeper (DallasObserver.com, 11/26/8).  Why did they do this?  It was absolutely not necessary.  The chance stupid Dallas voters would kick out any of the board members is slim to none, except for Carla Ranger.

I don't know if she would have been up for re-election in May, but Carla Ranger is the only one who might have had a problem.  The ODB want her gone because she actually takes her office seriously.  Ms. Ranger has opposed all of the outrageous decisions coming from the DISD Board, futilely.  The ODB/Borg keep trying to assimilate her as they have the rest of the morons/Trustees.  She keeps resisting.

When Carla Ranger actually is up for re-election, the ODB will find some moron to put up against her and will spend whatever necessary to replace her.  Resistance is futile.

Jim Schutze gets paid for writing clever stuff about stupid politicians, but Citizen Extraordinare Allen Gwinn has been diligently exposing DISD wrongdoing for several years.  It was Allen -- not The Dallas Managed News -- who exposed the credit card corruption (P-card scandal).  Early on, Allen got snookered by Dr. Hinojosa and his PR staff until new information was made available to him.  He defended Dr. H for a long time, but he's finally come around to DallasArena.com's way thinking that Dr. H needs to go.

Allen's TD Industries - The Checkbook (Dallas.Org, 12/1/8) is typical of this sweet man.  He always gives people the benefit of the doubt.  He is struggling to separate School Board Jack Lowe from the questionable business his company, TDI does with the DISD.  Eventually, he will come around and want Mr. Lowe to hit the road with Dr. H, too.  Still, we could all use a dose of Allen Gwinn's perseverance and optimism.

The corruption, stupidity, insider deals make for fun reading and interesting conversation, but what real difference does any exposure of wrong doing make in this town?  Stupid Dallas voters don't care about corruption or incompetence.  They just go with whoever spends the most money.  There is no logic in 4 more years of Lupe Valdez mismanaging the Sheriff's Department.

Doesn't matter whether it's an issue campaign or a candidate race, stupid Dallas voters either go with the party line or the highest bidder.  Whether it's a sales tax to build an arena they can't afford to attend or a bond election to stick a toll road inside a river bed, you can count on stupid Dallas voters to come through for the ODB.  Our Downtown Betters can always come up with whatever they need to sell a con to stupid Dallas voters.

Happy Holidays and party hearty.  Local politicians are way ahead of you.

sb