Convict Candidate

It's been interesting watching Old Al Lipscomb ranting around town of late. Blowing smoke at Council meetings. Beating dead horses at Commissioners' Court. Anywhere there's a camera, you can bet the Old Crook is near.

DallasArena.com has been warning Old Al would not be able to resist the siren's song of running for office.

It was rumored that James Fantroy would use his health problems as an excuse for bowing out of a council race against Al Lipscomb, but he's hanging in there and standing up to the Old Crook. It looks like other African-American leaders have had enough of Old Al, too.

Before we get into current events, let's revisit a little Dallas history.   Once upon a time, there was a thriving Downtown Dallas with fancy movie theatres. One theatre even had a huge organ that came up from a hole in the floor. Dallas had fancy Downtown hotels with lounges and live acts that did not include naked women -- at least not in the lounge. The Downtown hotels had fancy restaurants with waiters who could get a guy a lot more than a pint of something to calm his nerves. Of course, Old Al Lipscomb could tell us more about all that.

Everything was buttoned up and buttoned down in Dallas.

When other cities were rioting, Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) paid Al Lipscomb to keep a lid on local hotheads who might want to imitate hooligans destroying property elsewhere. Old Al was paid to play the big mouth. It was a good arrangement for the ODB and very lucrative for Old Al.

There's a reason why I refuse to buy products from a local dairy producer.

We got through the racial unrest time pretty well in Dallas because Old Al earned his keep. In the 80's, it was common knowledge on the council that Old Al had a major benefactor.   That's not counting all the money Mayor Annette Straus admitted to "loaning" him.

When he had to leave the council due to term limits and supported Sandra Crenshaw to replace him, Old Al suddenly had nothing to offer his ODB benefactor(s). They must have cut his allowance. He tried his hand at a couple of businesses which he quickly drained dry. Old Al didn't quite understand the concept of profit and loss or paying his bills before taking a draw check. The entrepreneurial life was not for Old Al, and he wanted to get back on the city council to reclaim his ODB subsidy. Sandra Crenshaw probably knows how James Fantroy is feeling just now.

In his second go round at City Council, Old Al got greedy and careless. You might blame it on his health problems, but he was really in a shakedown mode. That's how he got caught by the Feds taking bribes from Curtis Richards (Yellow Cab) and Nick Rizos (Caligula XXX). It is galling to have Old Al calling people names when the guy confessed to taking bribes as a city councilman. Two men testified in federal court to bribing him. One of those bribe deals resulted in a travesty that still plagues the Bachman community.

12 Texans convicted Old Al Lipscomb of public corruption. His conviction was overturned on a technicality. He is not walking the streets because he is innocent. Does this convicted bribe taker really want to run for city council again, or is he just upping the ante from the ODB to put him back on their payroll?

Some talk about what a charmer the Old Crook can be, but I remember his anti-Semitic comments to Mayor Strauss. He was mean and nasty and cruel to her. It looks like he again has his sights set on "dealing with" another woman mayor who is also Jewish.

Lipscomb's not the retiring type
02/18/2003
By GROMER JEFFERS / The Dallas Morning News

   Seven months after an appeals court overturned his conviction on federal bribery charges, Al Lipscomb says he's considering running for mayor ? or more likely ? his old District 8 seat on the City Council.
   "I'm picking up some papers from the city," the former council member said. "I'm either running for mayor or District 8 council because no one has been proactive in dealing with [Mayor] Laura Miller.
. . . "We talked Christian man to Christian man, and he said he would not run against me," Mr. Fantroy said. "I can only go by what he told me."
    Mr. Fantroy said he would seek re-election May 3 even if Mr. Lipscomb runs against him.
. . . "It's an ugly situation," said political observer Rufus Shaw Jr. "Much of the black community will see Al as betraying Fantroy by doing this, and it will bitterly divide us.
. . .Carol Brandon, . . . I'm supporting Mr. Fantroy because he has an agenda for African-Americans in the district and has the tenacity to deal with Laura Miller."
    Businessman Corey Toney, . . . said a race between Mr. Fantroy and Mr. Lipscomb would disrupt the cohesion in District 8 politics by forcing voters to choose between the popular politicians. . . .   "Mr. Fantroy has been getting things done for the district and is one of the few vocal council members we have. Mr. Lipscomb is a legend, and if he runs, there's no doubt voters will recognize his name and the election will go his way."
. . .   Mr. Lipscomb said he was still working hard to get council member Mary Poss elected mayor,
. . . "Mr. Fantroy is a good man," Mr. Lipscomb said. "I know he's running again. I would have hoped that he would have talked to me about that before he made his decision. Mr. Fantroy has done a good job, but I have some initiatives that are important."
. . . "Nothing would destroy Lipscomb's legacy more than these two races," Mr. Shaw said. "If he runs for council, it will hurt him. If he runs for mayor, it will kill him."
   Mr. Lipscomb says that his services are needed and that he does not fear scrutiny from law enforcement officials and the news media.
   "If I do something wrong, they have the right to come after me," he said.

Mary Poss is not going to be Mayor, and I don't believe Old Al can beat James Fantroy. Old Al is even threatening to run for Commissioners' Court, and that would mean him running against John Wiley Price. Ha! Ha!

Dallas sign from segregated era decried
'Whites Only' should be removed, not covered, commissioners are told 02/19/2003 By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News

Above a water fountain on the second floor of the Dallas County Records Building, the faded remains of a "Whites Only" sign had become visible again.
. . .County officials responded by putting a metal plate over the affronting words, but that action was met this week with more protests . . .
"We are telling you that covering it is not sufficient," said Ofori Benson, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who spoke at Tuesday's meeting of the Commissioners Court. "We are still bothered as long as we know what lies behind the metal plate."
. . . making out the sign was an exercise in ocular focus, officials said. . . . "You could see the word 'Only' only if you knew what you were looking for."
. . . Some accused County Judge Margaret Keliher of being numb to the feelings of black constituents. . . . Al Lipscomb hollered, "You are so disrespectful!"
. . . Commissioner John Wiley Price, the only black member of the court, has said there are more pressing issues in county government to worry about. . . .

Commissioner Price knows when to pick his battles. When Ron Kirk annoyed some of his ODB keepers by bashing the Dallas Country Club, his good friend Commissioner Price stepped up to do those baby steps in front of Kirk's house to get Kirk back in the good graces of the ODB. When Laura Miller joined Donna Blumer in calling for an investigation of Police Chief Terrell Bolton's involvement with the bribe deal between Lipscomb and Rizos and the laying off of enforcement in the NW-Bachman sex clubs, Commissioner Price turned his gang out at her house. Commissioner Price does not appear to be amused by Old Al's histrionics at Commissioners' Court over a shadow of a sign from a by-gone era.

Commissioner Price grew up in this town and knows how Old Al subsidized his waiter job in another by-gone era.

In It Starts at the Top!, DallasArena.com asks why we haven't heard from Adelfa Callejo about the injustice done to those Mexican Nationals by Terrell Bolton and Ted Benavides. Now, we know she saves her angry voice to demonstrate only on behalf of rich and "connected" Hispanics, like Peter Aguire, formerly of the DFW Board and Chris Luna and Ted Benavides -- not helpless Mexican nationals.

Callejo, Aguire, Tom Lazos, etc. are part of the panel of "Hispanic leaders" the ODB always put on Boards and Commissions. The ODB don't know any other Hispanics, and Callejo, Aguire, Lazos, et al, don't want any other Hispanics to be known. They shut out any new faces so they can maintain their own power base.

Adelfa Callejo is the woman who told an Hispanic radio reporter (on tape, mind you) that Domingo Garcia's endorsement in last year's mayoral race would go for money. You saw how much Callejo's endorsement mattered in the runoff between Laura Miller and Tom Dunning. She has no following. She has no influence.

Dallas mayor's minority relations criticized
02/20/2003 By DOUG FOX / WFAA-TV

     Dallas Mayor Laura Miller came under heavy fire Wednesday from Latino leaders in the city.
     They accuse the mayor of being divisive, bigoted, and insensitive. The mayor calls it politics.
. . . "Our mayor has lost her senses in the manner that she basically has been insensitive, not only to Hispanics but to African-Americans of this community," said Hector Flores, LULAC national president.
   "The mayor is supposed to represent all of its citizens, and she is not representing us,? said Dallas attorney Adelfa Callejo. ?Our protest will be at the ballot box."
. . . A coalition of Hispanic and African-American organizations complain the mayor has gone after - or sharply criticized - minority officials, namely city manager Ted Benavides, former convention and visitors board chairman Chris Luna and police chief Terrell Bolton.
    "Say what you want to say, turn it upside down and sideways, it's quite obvious - this mayor is a bigot," said former council member Al Lipscomb.
. . .   Latinos complain Miller refuses to meet with them, yet she met with a group Tuesday and will meet with others on Thursday. . . .

You did not hear Councilman John Loza or Councilwoman Elba Garcia criticizing Mayor Miller for asking Chris Luna to resign as Chair of the Visitor's Bureau.

It is time for Ted Benavides to go. He may be a friend to rich Hispanics like Callejo, but he has not been helpful to the Hispanic community at large.

Al Lipscomb has never been short of audacity but for him to call anyone a bigot is just amazing when he is the biggest bigot and racist in Dallas.

Lipscomb is anti-women. That probably goes back to the days when he peddled young women to horny guys.

Lipscomb is anti-Semitic. That's only part of the reason he hates Laura Miller. She's the one who originally exposed him as not only being a crook, but being a stupid crook.

	Clueless BY LAURA MILLER dallasobserver.com \| originally published: May 30, 1996
For city Councilman Al Lipscomb, taking handouts from power brokers has become a way of life. Is there a problem?

A bunch of old timers who have made careers about of being the ODB's "go to" minority representatives are taking this stand as their version of the OK Corral.   They know Mayor Miller won her election without their help, and it just chaps their collective rears that Hispanic voters ignored them and voted for good government by supporting Laura Miller.

These old timers are the same self-anointed "Hispanic leaders" who will not let young Hispanics join the leadership circle. We have not heard a word from these so-called "Hispanic leaders" regarding the injustice done to those Mexican nationals by Terrell Bolton.

Because she has represented so many Mexican nationals in the past, Adelfa Callejo is a rich woman who lives in a wealthy neighborhood. She has the same attitude toward poor and middle class Hispanics as the ODB have toward working class Whites. We are to do as these self-anointed leaders tell us.

Things have changed in this town. The old timers are not keeping up.

It's one thing for the African-American community to stand behind Old Al when he was about to go to prison. After all, he's supposed to be a sick old man, and no one wanted him to die in jail. That does not mean the District 8 voters want a confessed bribe-taker to be making decisions for them.

Is Old Al Lipscomb shameless? Or is he a moron? Or is Old Al a shameless moron?

Folks in the Bachman-NW Hwy-Walnut Hill area will be calling in the Texas Rangers if Old Al is ever again in a position to do us harm.