The Dallas Morning News finally says something about the developing scandal at City Hall that Jim Schutze over that The Observer has been covering for weeks. Apparently, things are getting very serious down in Austin regarding the rampant corruption here in our fine metropolis. The article notes:
- The House General Investigating and Ethics Committee said Wednesday that it will hold public hearings on whether the city and police officers used public-nuisance abatement laws to intimidate and shake down businesses.
The city has most certainly done that and bad things are going to happen to those people who allowed it to happen. City Hall is completely dysfunctional and needs a good overhaul.
Of course, Miller and crew all say things are A-OK but if you”ve paid any attention to the scene, you know things are definitely not A-OK. I predict people are going to go down and go down hard over this. Probably lots of people and I for one think it”s great. Of course, one of our champion politicians seems to think the legislature ought to keep its nose out of Dallas” corrupt business:
- Rep. Will Hartnett, a Dallas Republican who is not on the committee, called the decision “unprecedented, in my experience.””Personally, I have not heard of anything egregious enough to justify this kind of legislative involvement with municipal management,” Mr. Hartnett said. “I always become very concerned when committees inject themselves into things that are not of a typical legislative nature.”
I”m not sure what “things. . .of a typical legislative nature” Mr. Hartnett is referring to but I would argue that when a City Hall takes it upon itself to egregiously ignore the meaning AND the spirit of the law in an attempt to shakedown the politically unconnected in South Dallas, it is most certainly a legislative nature.
Apparently, the small town bubba mentality still pervades our fine city council as even Mitchell Rasansky gets in on the act saying: some “liberal person” in Austin is “trying to make a name. Let them come down here. I really don”t care,” he said. “We do everything we can to try and protect our citizens. I can”t believe they”re coming down here to see what good they can unravel.”
Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell, I”m surprised at you for not doing your research. There are five members on said committee, 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. That hardly sounds like some sort of liberal vendetta against Dallas. On top of that, the Speaker of the House must ok this and he”s likely to do that. That”s Tom Craddick, who I”m sure would be offended at the accusation he”s a liberal trying to make a name for himself. He is the Speaker of the House and all.
But most importantly, the bill that changed how the public nuisiance law was interpreted passed both the House and the Senate overwhelmingly (though how overwhelmingly we”ll never know since the Texas Legislature doesn”t record how its members voted which is a serious problem but one for another day). Overwhelmingly means that lots of people voted for it, not just the liberals that Rasansky disparages. You can read Representative Keel”s words here and I highly recommend you do if you”re thinking I may be exaggerating the truth. I was going to quote some of it but it”s all so damning, so utterly terrifying that you really need to read it all to get the understanding of the level of corruption we”re talking about here.
When issues like this are going on in a government, you”d think that the local media would be all over it like stink on shit. Pulitzer prizes and all. However, by the DMN”s own count, there have been 6 articles about this issue dating back to December of last year, including the one today that fell off the front page of the web by around 5 PM. Schutze has done 8 articles ON HIS OWN in the last two months! It”s no wonder no one trusts the mass media anymore. This is a story that will not go away, regardless of how long the DMN ignores it. It”s going to only get bigger and I for one can”t wait. When the FBI, the IRS, the Texas Legislature and God knows who else starts asking questions, you know something fun is about to happen.