05/30/02  With council crooks changing uniforms and positions,

how are we supposed to know who's who or what team's up if this foolishness continues?

Ed Oakley who fought a mail-in vote scam effort against him, but now has Kathy Neely (the Queen of ballot harvesting scams) as a host of his fundraiser? Is she his secret weapon to beat Housewright?

Citizen 2:  I'm glad you're taking aim at Ed.  There needs to be a concerted effort to get dead wood like him off the council.  Friendships don't cut it when friends get their hands on our rights and property.  I always considered Ed a friend, too, despite our philosophical differences, but he is not a leader and certainly not any kind of a statesman.  Pretty old fashioned to expect leadership and statesmanship from a council member, but we can dream, can't we?

What's happening when John Loza goes against roads inside the proposed Trinity levees when the ODB so desperately want the Trinity Project just like they designed it?

Duh Alan Walne is now pretending he cares about the will of the voters in the Trinity Project.  Is he now the ODB's chief flunkie?

When one of the best City Managers stabs the Mayor in the back at the 11th hour, is that ACM taking her cues from the ODB?

These are serious questions and inquiring minds want to know.

Kathy Neely and her mail-in ballot scam just will not go away.   Gromer Jeffers reports that Commissioner John Wiley Price says the Democrats must use mail-in ballot harvesting:

Gromer Jeffers Jr. 5/28/02 Mail votes on the minds of party officials

"Mail-in ballots will be an important part of our arsenal in going forward," said Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price at a rally at Oak Cliff's Top of the Cliff Club. . . .    The process often involves campaign operatives who target the elderly and infirm as potential voters. Many of these operatives help prospective voters fill out applications for mail ballots, then return days later to pick up the completed ballots. . . .    Mr. Price, who operates a political organization in the city's southern sector, said Democrats couldn't let the media chase them away from a November mail ballot campaign.

Most of the Commissioner's closest compadres are in the sleazy business of harvesting mail-in ballots, but his relationship with Kathy Neely is surprising.  They split on the last District 6 vote between Oakley and Caraway.  Looks like they are back together since they and old Con Jerk are all hosts for Oakley's fundraiser.  

Were a bunch of us who worked in Ed's campaign duped?  Terrence Gore swears Oakley knew what Gore and his mother were doing with mail-in ballots from their home.  I sure bought Oakley's story at the time, but his new ties with Kathy Neely makes me wonder.

Jim Schutze has been all over the place on the mail-in ballot issue and its impact on the District 6 election.  He is still trying to come to closure on whether its OK for thugs to ASSIST old people OUT of their ballots.

Schutze License to Scam Is anything actually against the law in Texas elections? BY JIM SCHUTZE

In all of this, the crucial bottom line is the sanctity of the vote. This might never have become a political issue had experienced operatives not learned how to peddle the bundled votes of elderly African-Americans to rich white developers seeking city tax subsidies. The lesson there is that if you allow people to manipulate and sell votes, those votes eventually will find their way to the highest bidder. That's basically why we decided to go with democracy instead of feudalism.

Like most aging White Hippie Liberals, Schutze just can't believe bad guys can come in any other color than white.  If he actually locks in on a bad guy or gal with pigmentation, they usually are just the tool of a bad white guy or were unduly influenced because they are so weak.

One of the two most shocking things to come out of the council's Trinity Project briefing was John Loza breaking ranks with Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) and opposing roads (fast or slow) inside the proposed levees.  When I saw a TV clip with him making that statement, I thought it was an hallucination, but here it is again in Victoria Hicks' report:

	Council no closer to tollway decision; 8-hour discussion of Trinity project raises more questions 05/30/2002 by VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News
"If we fumble this opportunity, it will take generations of Dallasites to undo what we have done," said council member John Loza, who said he wants to keep the highway outside the levees.

The John Loza who used to be my friend would have taken that position.  He was really a sweet little guy who I first met at a townhall meeting (at my church) back when Oak Lawn had big townhall meetings.  We were trying to determine what form we wanted for our local government.  Dallas citizens overwhelmingly voted to approve 10-4-1, but Judge Buchmeyer has never approved of mob rule (Democracy) and imposed 14-1 on us.  Ray Hutchinson and former councilmen Jerry Rucker and Old Al Lipscomb were the panelists taking community comments.  The most interesting suggestion of the entire evening was Loza's proposal of a 1-4-12 system, with 4 super districts and 12 single member districts.  That's just 2 more council members than we have now.

Several Hispanic speakers voiced concern about having only 1 representative if you were at odds with that person.  Back then, if you did not get along with your district rep, you could always call on one of the two AT LARGE council members.  You had 4 people seeking your vote -- the Mayor, 2 at large members and your district rep.  Under Loza's plan, you would have 3, but that was better than 1 person making all the rules in your district.  Those people were prophetic about what would happen under 14-1 single member districts.  We now have fiefdoms and corruption and shakedown artists like Leo Chaney.

Is Loza getting tired of being the lackey for the ODB?  Probably not, but I hope his position on any roads inside the levees and his change of heart on Cadillac Heights is sincere and not just an attempt to up the ante from the people behind Donna Halstead or Bill and Mary Ceverha.

Asst. City MisManager Jill Jordan's bombshell at the meeting was the 2nd big stunner.  The Mayor has been talking for weeks about having all lanes of any tollway/freeway on the Downtown side of the Trinity, with the lake and recreation areas on the Oak Cliff side.  She even asked Jordan privately during the briefing if there was anything new Miller needed to know before she wrapped up the briefing.  Jordan assured her everything was just ducky.  At the end of the meeting when the road on the Downtown side was the only thing the council agreed on, Jordan piped up to say historic preservation issues would likely prevent that.

Council no closer to tollway decision; 8-hour discussion of Trinity project raises more questions 05/30/2002 by VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News

Ms. Miller was surprised to learn at 6 p.m. that ? for complex bureaucratic reasons ? her desire to keep the highway on the downtown side could get squelched by the state's historic preservation authorities.    "Why didn't we know this before now?" Ms. Miller demanded of Assistant City Attorney Jill Jordan. Before Ms. Jordan could finish her explanation, the mayor snapped, "Give us a memo," followed by: "And with that, we're adjourned."

Excuse me?  If 4 lanes on 1 side of the river would not trigger the historic preservation debates, why would 8 lanes?  It's not like the lanes are going East of the Trinity, they are going to shove the river West.  Before a freeway/tollway could impact anything historic, it would have to jump Stemmons (I-35) or Thornton (I-30).  

Unless Jordan is talking about our historic viaducts?

If the viaducts are the historic elements that must be preserved -- and we should -- then channeling the Trinity won't fly for the same reason.  That plan just wipes them out completely!

Looks like Asst. City MisManager Jordan was getting cues from Halstead or one of the Ceverha's, who were connected to cell phones linked to their ODB puppet masters.  This was a dishonest and stupid stunt, and it is a tragedy that Jill Jordan was the perpetrator. 

Another point of confusion is Duh Alan Walne pretending he cares one whit about whether voters were told something in a campaign different from the reality.  Duh Walne was out there with other council crooks under Con Jerk's (former Mayor Ron Kirk) lead telling voters the $125 million sales tax from car rentals and hotel/motel rentals would be the only money we would be out for the Hicks/Perot arena.  The tax would only hit tourists -- unless your car got hit by a tourist or some local and you needed to rent a car.

It did not bother him to immediately turn around a few months later and vote for a $23 Million tax abatement to Hicks and Perot to stimulate development at Victory when he was part of the gang who promised us their arena was going to stimulate development on its own.  He was very proud to vote them another $43 Million tax giveaway last week, which certainly did not jive with what arena voters were told in the 1998 election.  

The Trinity Project campaign was an even bigger lie to Dallas voters.  They put out brochures with a lake big enough for sail boats and healthy enough for swans.  They did not tell us the boats were miniatures and the swans were plastic.  I don't remember being told the proposed toll ways would be high speed.  Seems to me they were supposed to be lovely boulevards, but then it was Con Jerk and his Large White Shadow Carol Reed doing the telling.  Duh Walne is just stupid, but Kirk and Reed are big fat liars.

Council no closer to tollway decision; 8-hour discussion of Trinity project raises more questions 05/30/2002 by VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News

To choose any option substantially different from the one described to voters in the $246 million 1998 Trinity bond election could kill the project by forcing a return to the ballot box, some council members warned.   "If you rip the Trinity Parkway out, this bond issue collapses," said council member Alan Walne.    And, because all the Trinity improvements ? the highway, the lake, flood control elements, the Great Trinity Forest ? were wrapped into one bond measure, to ditch one is to ditch them all, he and others said.

The reality is that everything about the current Trinity Project is different from the package sold to Dallas voters.  We were not told the proposed channeling of the Trinity would make the water run so fast and hard that it would wipe out our historic and functioning and DEBT FREE viaducts forcing us to pay for 3 or 4 span bridges that belong in Spain -- not in Dallas.  

We were not told the truth by the proponents.

Those lies did not bother Duh Walne in 1998.  Nor was he bothered that both the arena and Trinity Project elections passed by less than 1% -- hardly a mandate for either project.  It has not seemed to bother him that both margins of victory were probably from Kathy Neely's mail-in ballot scam.  The ODB were so happy with her efforts and results that Neely has her own suite at the Hicks/Perot arena -- in the really, really expensive section.

It apparently does not bother one council member to have that evil woman as a host for his fundraiser. 

Girl Scout Jill Jordan and Ed Oakley have gone to the dark side.
Duh Walne is now the ODB's primary flunkie with MPT Poss has been reduced to a vote.
John Loza is exhibiting flashes of integrity.

How can we tell which team they are on from week to week?