Mary Explains
Mike Perry
                             

08/01/02  Tom Hicks is about to high stick another town.

This past week, the DMN did an extensive story on the success of the Hicks/Perot arena. 

'Spectacular year' for American Airlines Center New arena not without its controversy 07/28/2002  By RICHARD ALM / The Dallas Morning News

. . .The American Airlines Center's first year had something for just about everyone ? Mavericks' basketball, Stars' hockey, Desperados' football, skating, college hoops, rodeos, concerts and children's shows.   For its sports team tenants, the arena appeared to deliver on its promise as a cash generator that could pay for all-star rosters.   And for its critics, it left enough issues unresolved to keep alive the long-running questions over whether the city of Dallas got a good deal.   . . . As a redevelopment tool, the arena is a work in progress. A year after opening, the building sits on 65 acres of largely undeveloped land on the northwest corner of downtown. The empty spaces will someday be filled with hotels, offices, shops and residences ? or at least that's the promise.

It was ironic that the Robber Barons would dump Reunion back in our lap almost on the anniversary date of their arena kick off.  Since the Robber Barons are so much smarter than we peasants who pay their bills, you know it had to be intentional.

How in the heck are we supposed to pay for Reunion's upkeep when the Robber Barons will prohibit us from adequately marketing the arena?  Thanks to Ron Kirk, we have to beg Tommy Hicks and his co-horts to use a facility that we own (and still owe money on).  About the only thing we can do without their permission is to tear it down, but we don't have the money to do that.

There's a new twist.  Looks like Tommy Hicks is going to buy enough crooked politicians in Cedar Park to get taxpayers down there to build him another business facility for his farm team.  What would this guy do if he had to make it on his own?

From the July 26, 2002 print edition Cedar Park residents may be approached to approve funding for project Mary Alice Kaspar   Austin Business Journal Staff

Cedar Park voters could have ultimate say on a proposed professional sports complex in their city to be built partially with tax revenue.    The parent organization of the Dallas Stars National Hockey League and Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers is negotiating with Cedar Park officials on a sports complex -- with retail space and two ice rinks, one of which could be home to a minor-league hockey team -- in the area northwest of Austin.

Those poor people in Cedar Park are going to go through the motion of a campaign, only to vote in an election that will be as rigged as the arena sales tax election, the Trinity Bond-doogle election and both of the elections in District 4 between Brain Dead and Larry Duncan.  Tommy Hicks probably already has Ron Kirk's Large White Shadow and Kathy Nealy down there buying up vote harvesters and preachers.  It won't take as much money because it's a small town as compared to Dallas.  Those Cedar Park people may have never even heard of vote harvesters.  Don't you long for the good old days when you didn't know that stuff went on?

Is it just me or does all this just make you a bit queasy?  It's not funny anymore.  These Robber Barons are out of control -- but they are in control of our elected officials, our public monies and apparently our lives.  When did this happen? 

You should stop here and read the long excuse Mayor PreTend Poss wrote for her vote on Palladium (which has changed its name to "Related Urban Development").  I scanned in her actual mailing, so there could be no issue of my having changed her wording.  I did insert my responses between pages.  Mary Poss is a complete nut case.  Whoever is advising her and writing her stuff really needs to be taken out and shot.  What was going through her mind when she sent out that mailer for Brain Dead Thornton-Reese?

My favorite line in MPT's mailer for T-Reese:




This would be amusing if it were happening somewhere else.  But, in Dallas, the inmates are running the asylum.  Speaking of inmates, Tom Korosec asks some important questions in this week's Dallas Observer:

Inquiring Minds Why is ignorance such bliss for so many when it comes to Al Lipscomb? BY THOMAS KOROSEC

Dallas' daily has been singing an odd refrain lately. Dallas Morning News writers have been insisting that the city shouldn't worry its little head about a retrial of Al Lipscomb now that an appeals court has overturned the former city council member's federal bribery and conspiracy conviction on technical grounds. Columnist Jacquielynn Floyd . . . says a retrial should be avoided.  . . .  the editorial page expressed similar views a day earlier, writing, "It's hard to see the good gained from pursuing an aging, ailing man." . . .  James Ragland, who thinks noise from Lipscomb loyalists is reason enough to let things drop. . . .   Journalists of a more curious bent, elected officials, would-be witnesses and others who have followed the details of the whole sordid matter wonder why the News is in such a hurry to put the Lipscomb story to bed when there's so much left to learn.   At present, there are two major questions that the federal government's corruption investigation has left unanswered.. . .  "Why did so many wealthy, white Dallas business leaders stuff Lipscomb's pockets with money?"  There is a second pending question as well.    Cindy Schoelen, former secretary to Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton, . . .  and Dallas Police Lieutenant John Sullivan say they testified to a grand jury that Bolton ordered Sullivan to a meeting in 1993 with Lipscomb and Nick Rizos, owner of the Caligula XXI topless club. The purpose was to discuss what Rizos considered "police harassment" of the club, which he wanted stopped.

Which brings us back to Mayor PreTend Mary Poss.  It's a stretch, but don't forget Old Al supports MPT Poss for Mayor.

	Lipscomb says no to politics   With legal fate unclear, ex-council member says he's weighing 4 job offers 07/16/2002  By TODD BENSMAN and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
. . . Mr. Lipscomb said Monday that he was entertaining four job offers ? from Schepps Dairy, the Minyard grocery chain, former City Manager Richard Knight and one he would not reveal.    He said he still plans to be politically active, supporting candidates such as council members Maxine Thornton-Reese and Mary Poss, who has been mentioned as a potential mayoral candidate.

What is it we are missing?  Why would any sane human with an ounce of integrity want Mary Poss to be Mayor of Dallas?  I didn't ask why would Old Al want her -- I asked why anyone with an ounce of integrity would consider supporting her.  Help me here.  I am seriously asking all DallasArena.com readers to give me just one reason to vote for Mary Poss for class reunion president, much less anything more significant.  Now -- some people who are regular DA readers do so to stay up on current events, but they don't like what they read here.  You know who you are.  I want to hear from you, too.  Give us one reason to support Mary Poss.

But, back to Tommy Hicks "sticking" it to poor little Cedar Park.  Isn't "sticking" a no-no in hockey?  It's been several years since I've been to a hockey game.  Wasn't that team at Fair Park the Black Hawks -- or some other politically incorrect team name?  If I'm not mistaken and "sticking" is an penalty offense in a sport that is pretty wild and violent, shouldn't Tommy Hicks get some kind of penalty for "sticking" it to Cedar Park?  

Cedar Park must be a pretty rich town to be able to afford another sports castle for Tommy Hicks.  They may not know about that grinning good old boy's extravagant tastes.  He must have been pretty annoyed about that Strait Lane monstrosity getting all that publicity.  Now, he has time to get his mansion done and move into it before the Strait Lane thing can get rebuilt.  

In her Palladium dissertation, MPT made a veiled comparison between the largess of the Bass Family in Ft. Worth to their community with the rape and pillaging by Tom Hicks and his fellow Robber Barons in Dallas.  

Mary Poss and 7 other council crooks gave Palladium/Related Urban Development $43 million in abated property taxes and continue to tell us it's for our own good.  That sounds like "high sticking" to me.  Now, the City MisManager proposes to raise your and my property taxes by 5% and cut the hours at libraries and rec centers.  That means only the Downtown street bums will be able to use the main library because the rest of us will be working (to pay our taxes) when it's open and it will be closed when we get off work -- but we still get to pay for it.  

	Five percent tax hike possible in '03 Revenue shortfall, pay boosts drive city's $83 million deficit 08/01/2002  By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas City Manager Ted Benavides probably will propose a 2003 budget that would raise the average homeowner's tax bill $40 a year, require as many as 200 layoffs and cut operational hours at libraries and recreational centers.

That's sort of like the Hicks/Perot arena.  It's not a place most of us can afford to go, but we have to pay for it.  Soon, those folks in Cedar Park can know the joy of big city life.  They will get to pay for another Tom Hicks business facility out of their taxes, and then get another "sticking" when and if they buy a ticket to a "city owned building" over which Tommy Hicks will have complete control.  

What a deal!  He gets another free building.  He gets to keep all the revenue.  He pays no property taxes since it's city owned.  Best of all, when some other community builds him a better play pen, he just leaves Cedar Park with a facility that will be out of date weeks after it's grand opening.

Robber Barons Rule -- but the peasants are getting restive.