It takes an Idiot. . .

Curiosity killed a kitty cat -- but I just could not resist listening to the council meeting -- expecting to hear some gloating about Saturday's election results. Not much gloating, but there was a lot going on -- what with the Truancy Courts, the Non-Discrimination Ordinance and the Palladium Extortion Soap Opera.

Council dealt with the Truancy Courts early, and Brain-Dead Maxine Thornton-Reese certainly lived up to her nickname. She constantly refers to herself as an educator -- how scary is that? She wanted to delay approval of the Truancy Courts for 6 weeks so we could study the issue and "think about it". At one point, she said -- "Just think about it? What would be so wrong about taking some time to think about it? Don't you think we should think about it?" That is very close to verbatim, and T-Reese is very close to being the most complete moron in Dallas who is able to walk unassisted.

Rad Field:

Great piece! It's difficult to find humor on the radio anymore since Amos and Andy have moved on, but we do have the 101.1 FM City Council Meetings to cause us to laugh all day long.

I guess that Mr. Hopkins (who speaks frequently at the meetings) must be some form of M.C. for the proceedings. He does not get too frustrated that he gets no answers from the Council. He just loves to talk to himself and keep the clock rolling. I got to laugh through lunch and dinner this week.

I think your articles should be "deep-linked" into Belo's political humor section. You know, that section that they write just to the left of the "Letters" section of the first section. Belo really wants Palladium to succeed to enable more newspapers to be read in the Victory sidewalk cafes.

Great work, Sharon

How will they know when it is time for Brain-Dead to move to an assisted living facility when she is obviously in desperate need of assistance now?

To understand Brain-Dead's obsession with these Truancy Courts, you need to be aware the County Commissioners have eliminated several JP positions. Until these new Truancy Courts are staffed, JP's will continue to hear truancy cases. JP's love truancy cases because they hold power over the parents and over the truant. JP's get to play Head Chief of the Tribe, doling out punishment or leniency dependent on whatever mood they are in that day.

Commissioner John Wiley Price has been very active in reducing the number of JP's and getting these Truancy Courts up and running. He has taken the lead in going after a couple of Black JP's who have histories of running kangaroo courts and not tracking their deposits accurately. If anyone else but Commissioner Price was doing this, there would be screams of racism all over the place.   He's doing the right thing, no matter how you feel about Price personally.

Last year when he went after Laura and her family, I just hated it! Price put himself in a no win situation. He was foolish and looked like a fool. He had no business defending Terrell Bolton because Bolton is just as bad a Police Chief as Cleo Steele is a JP.

But, the real basis for Brain-Dead's tirades about the Truancy Courts is that she is pals with the JP's who are going to have to get jobs out in the real world. She kept asking if the DISD went to the City requesting assistance with the Truancy Courts, or if the County went to the City after the DISD went to them. She admitted it would make no difference, but she wanted a "straight" answer. It was embarrassing to hear on the radio and must have been much worse for the people in the chamber with her. Can you imagine trying to keep a straight face?

T-Reese is loonier than those street guys who walk around pulling things out of the air.

Only Beat that Indictment Fantroy agreed with Brain-Dead, and his explanation went something like -- how come we aren't including the 3 or 4 other school districts that dissect his District 8? I was in my car and couldn't take careful notes -- but that's pretty close to what he said. Not that you would want to pay too much attention to anything Fantroy would ever say -- even if you could understand him. Later in the day he was telling any rich people listening how much he loved rich people and wanted them to come spend money in his district because he's a poor man and needs a new car. Honest to Goodness!

I missed most of the discussion on the Non-Discrimination Ordinance, but what I heard was all milk and cookies. It passed on a 13-2 vote.

The meeting was pretty mundane until the council idiots got to the Palladium tax abatement issue. Clearly, Don Hill has got his cut because he is on the side of the robber barons. You do know that they are going to be redistributing the wealth with this tax abatement. To get Shakedown Chaney, Fantroy, Hill and T-Reese on board, hunks of the proceeds from the tax abatements are going to be designated for and distributed to their 4 districts.

It's going to be interesting to see whether Hill and Poss and Loza turn on each other as they each try to be the biggest supporter of the robber barons.

Princess Velveeta continues to claim these tax abatements are not really drains on the city budget, even though she opposes this particular tax abatement. She is still trying to resurrect that private park that was to be illegally funded from the State-Thomas TIF.

One more time -- if part of what should be tax revenue from an improved property is not going into the general budget, it is a drain on the city budget. A vacant lot needs little or no police or fire protection. Put a building on it -- it starts draining city resources. If the building is taxed at its full value, it puts as much or more back into the community kitty as it takes out. If the building owner gets to keep the increased value tax to spend on his property or the streets next to his property, you are getting ripped off. You do not get to keep any of your property tax to spend as you want. You have to wait in line for improvements just like everyone else -- except the robber barons.

The council idiots will approve the robber barons' 3rd tax abatement.

The same jerks who poised for the picture opposing competitive pay for our police and firefighters are going to vote for a $43 Million tax abatement to the robber barons with Mayor PreTend Poss leading the charge.

Why is Poss even allowed to be in the discussion on this issue with her husband's connections to Perot?

MPT Poss was on a kick today of telling us how grateful we should be that the likes of Ray Hunt, Ross, Jr. and Tom Hicks picked our town to exploit. She is such a suck up. You could almost hear her pleading with the big boys to notice how she is there for them. Poss has given up her smarmy, sweet routine of the Kirk era. She is just downright nasty now. A couple of times during the council meeting, she made snaps at Mayor Miller. Her snaps were not funny or effective -- just nasty and petty.

When a real estate expert told the council that Palladium's numbers for their prospects for success and job creation were way out of whack with reality and the project would be a death knell for Downtown, MPT Poss tried to get in his face and belittle him. The guy was on another level than Poss -- not the least bit rattled by her.

Poss failed to rattle the Mayor, either.

Somebody said "it takes a village to raise a child".   Baloney, it takes a family to raise a child. What that person should have said is "it takes a bunch of idiots to raise a village". When the gang at City Hall are done, there may not be much left of our town to salvage.

I was all for Mayor Miller's suggestion that briefing days at council be broadcast. After today's meeting, it became clear we need two full weeks to recover before we have to hear more from the likes of Beat that Indictment Fantroy. It was just a terrible day at City Hall. When you realize the likes of Poss, Loza, T-Reese, Fantroy and Hill are in positions of decision-making, it seems pretty hopeless.