HAVING A GAS ATTACK?

Taking Bean-O or Gas-X won't help in this case. The problem is in the City Council rather than your digestive tract. Those champions of the gas industry are absolutely certain that gas drilling right here in Trinity River City is perfectly safe, environmental friendly and loved by all. How do they know that? Chesapeake, XTO, and others probably gave them a note of assurance along with their campaign contributions. A campaign contribution is better than a thousand words, as the old saying goes.

At a public meeting sponsored by the League of Neighborhoods Association, a month or so ago, two startling revelations were apparent. The first was that the mayor of Dish TX (population under 200) and a private citizen from Westworth Village did more to precipitate an environmental investigation of the effects of gas drilling on air quality than the City of Fort Worth (population over 700,000), its city council, and environmental department. The resident of Westworth Village had concerns about the effects of fumes, from equipment ancillary to drilling and producing gas, on goats. Not tin can eating goats, mind you, but goats that produce milk for cheese. High end cheese, no doubt. 

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) sent a toxicologist out to see what was up with that and apparently he found a situation of contaminated air. My best information is that goats breathe the same air as humans but as long as humans are not falling down in the streets we won't expect much out of our city council. Frankly I'm not too worried about the effects on humans. After all, we smoke, drive cars, work around heavy equipment, pass our own gas, and it doesn't seem to stunt anyone's growth, so why worry? On the other hand, if it affects goats then it might affect other small critters and even bees and other insects. That might not be too good in the long run. Of course that's pretty heavy for politicians. They don't deal in relatives they deal in certainties. Like where's that next campaign contribution coming from?

The second revelation was that the gas reserves may not be all they've been cracked up to be. That is they may be consumed much quicker than the 20-30 years that have been bandied about. That being the case, it might take more wells than previously thought to pay off the capital costs of pressure stations, pipelines, etc., and thus we may have far more wells in the Barnett Shale than we ever expected. No big deal? Well maybe. When Tarrant County is criss-crossed with pipelines and every block has a compressor station and explosians and fires become an everyday occurrence, we might wonder if it had all been worth it.

There are a few people who are concerned. They have formed the North Central Texas Communities Alliance. Since local governments are typically non-responsive until the sky is actually falling, the NCTCA is banding small towns and neighborhood groups together to bring pressure on government to be proactive in investigating the environmental and safety issues related to gas drilling. We thank the gas industry and local government for painting the busses with slogans and turning out propaganda favorable to the drilling guys, but we're just not buying it. There are too many incidents on record of death and damage to persons and property to sit idley by any longer.     

Say buddy, can you spare a dime?

The Mayor and Council in Fort Worth have been looking for every extra dime they can get their hands on. The reason, of course, is the recession and loss of revenue from taxes and fees (taxes by another name). Many services, including street repairs, have been cut and some layoffs have reportedly occured.

But, thank goodness, the financial situation isn't so bad that city council members can't take a few junkets to Europe and Africa. Even though the city cut its gift to the Sister Cities program from $350,000 down to $50,000 (Star-Telelgram, Sep 17, 2009), two Sister Cities trips went off on schedule. Councilman Joel Burns went to sister city, Reggio Emilia, IT, and council members Frank Moss and Kathleen Hicks jetted off to Mbabane, Swaziland.

Kathleen Hicks reportedly voted against the 2009-2010 budget because it had been "'balanced on the backs' of laid-off workers and the city's vulnerable residents," according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Sep18, 2009). Well what was it the queen said? Let them eat cake? Ms Hicks was further quoted as saying it's "not about tourism", it's "about AIDS..." Is she taking some over or bringing some back? Ms. Hick's travel is costing taxpayers $5,250. That's about two months work for a lower level (laid off) city employee. 

Frank Moss is on the same soire`but his tab is $6,410. He's taking in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Going to give a little advice on animal control, no doubt. There's another couple of months work for someone.

Joel Burns must be some kind of cheepskate. His trip only cost us $2,275. He took a little vacation in conjunction with his trip to Italy but in the process he missed the most intense budget discussions. Shucks, if he'd been here he might have been inspired to add another $4,000 to his trip. But, alas, it's still another month pay for the laid off worker.

The Star-Telegram did the issue justice in some good reporting and a critical editorial. What's more, I was quoted in the article and the editorial agreed with that position. I had a flashback to when I was on City Council and made a symbolic vote against a city contribution to a childrens abuse group. I was roundly criticized by the council and by the Star-Telegram. I picked the wrong group to vote against but the point was that the city gives a lot of money to non-profits - too much, I thought. At times we gave money they didn't even ask for.

Good old taxpayer. Always willing to spare another dime.

9-12, Obamacare, and national defense.

I had the good fortune to hobnob with all those strange people who attended the Fort Worth 9-12 celebration and march. They are indeed a strange bunch. They want all those things that epitomize good government: fiscal responsilitlity, limited intrusion into their lives, strong national defense, control of immigration, and basically a return to the vision of our founders - a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. They want to give a heave ho to the hokum about the constitution being a living document. It's not.

The 9-12 attendees were all pretty well mannered, run-of-the-mill folks. They represented most segments of our society. They have a common distrust for politicians of both major parties. Many are newcomers to the political scene but all are bent on going to the polls in future elections and making their voices heard. They sound and act like real Americans.

There were a lot of people downtown for the 9-12 march. The Star-Telegram estimated "over a thousand." The march organizers felt it was closer to 25,000. I don't really know but there were a bunch more than 1000 and I don't know why the media insists on minimizing the numbers and conduct when it comes to groups with a conservative bent. The same was true in Washington DC. Somebody said 60,000. Looking at the photos, it must have been over a million.

President Obama gave a speech to the joint houses of congress and as everyone is aware, Congressman Joe Wilson called Obama a liar over the health care provisions regarding illegals. Wilson was wrong in the fact that there is no provision in the house bill for giving health care to illegals. Wilson was right in the fact that provisions to enforce denial of health care to illegals were voted down by Democrats (twice).

Wilson violated the rules of the House and was rebuked. But what of the President's constant referral to his bill and what was in it? No-one has seen the Obama bill. We know what is in the House bill since it has been the only one available to the public. It is difficult to understand what's in the House bill but the Obama bill is a disingenuous charade and we certainly don't know whether any of Obama's provisions will make the final legislation let alone what all the provisions might be.

In a stunning move to weaken this country's national defense, President Obama pulled the anti-ballistic missile system off the table. Bad news for the Czech Republic and Poland, both of which had defied Russia to support the US system. Good news for Russia, Iran, and any terrorist state bent on dominating or destroying the US. To add insult to injury, Obama made the announcement on the 70th anniversary of the Russian takeover of those Eastern European countries.

Perhaps Obama has forgotten that it was Islamic extremist terrorists that destroyed the World Trade Center twin towers. Perhaps he was ignorant of the series of terrorist attacks on embassies, ships, US military facilities, and a prior attack on the World Trade Center, all leading us into two wars. Obama's policy of smiles and concessions is leading us down a path that could destroy our Republic. Teddy Roosevelt said "walk softly but carry a big stick." In other words, be diplomatic but be prepared to use military action to preserve the Republic.

Early this year the Air Force requested $2 billion to procure an additional dozen advanced F-22 fighters. The administration chose to end F-22 production in favor of other, lesser weapons systems. He has done the same with the strategic missile warning system. Ironically, while the F-22 shut down will cost jobs as well as strong defense, Obama has given trillions in bailout, stimulus, and junk cars programs that have done little to cure the effects of a severe recession. Financial institutions gave $32 billion of the bailout money for bonuses to executives who had previously lost $81 billion. We will reward incompetence in lieu of maintaining what Roosevelt called the big stick. Do we have a bunch of geniuses in government or what?