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Monday Roundup: It’s Worse than You Think. It Usually Is.

April 13, 2009 By Trey Garrison Leave a Comment

The city of Dallas’ budget deficit for next year? It’s worse than you think. Worse than the $100 million they thought. But the mayor has a cunning plan: a $500 million hotel no one wants that will provide a few hundred minimum wage jobs making beds and slinging drinks.

Oh, and this deficit and monument building stuff comes against a backdrop of the city of Dallas (and county) trying to sabotage the South Dallas inland port and the thousands of professional jobs it could bring by pushing for an unneeded master plan so that local pols can shake down potential investors and ensure that family boss John Wiley Price and his capos get a cut. (Welcome to Dallas, prospective business relocation. Pay no attention to our suburbs.) My solution from months ago? Here.

Oh, almost forgot: John Wiley Price is a shakedown artist.

What’s wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center, a centralized, double-secret “what the hell is a civil right?” melding of politics, Big Brother, law enforcement, and secret police tactics disguised as anti-terrorism? Here’s what, courtesy the Collin County Observer.

I was pleasantly surprised by how local students are connecting the dots between FDR’s failed New Deal policies and Mr. Obama’s epic fail stimulus programs.

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Creepy Guys in the Park, Liberty, Politics, Porkulus, The DFW

Scenes From the Capitalist Tea Party — Atlas Shrugs in Dallas

February 27, 2009 By Trey Garrison 4 Comments

The first thing I thought was amazing when I pulled up to Victory Arena at 11 a.m. was that there were about 250 people. Given that the thing was only announced three days ago, on Twitter of all places, and with no local organizational muscle behind it — I expected a smaller turnout on a weekday. Because let’s be honest — lefties always have good turnout at their rallies because, well, lefties don’t have jobs. Ones that matter, anyhow.

The second thing I noticed was the three banners flying high — the Gadsden flag. My favorite. Here it is.

The rally was inspired by Rick Santelli’s now famous rant from the stock floor on CNBC. I was there with Glenn Hunter, editor of the mighty, mighty D CEO Magazine, the pro-business pub put out by D. And Glenn’s hair. It’s amazing.

“I’ve never been to a protest in my life,” said one of the local organizers, Phillip Dennis, who is not affiliated with any group or party. He said Obama’s stimulus plan, the object of the rally’s disdain, was “taxation without deliberative representation” since not one of the House members who voted for it read the 800-plus pages of handouts, pork, and Democrat party whims.

“This is citizen activism 101,” said James Dickey, one of the other grassroots organizers.

What really warmed the cockles of my cold, unreconstructed capitalist heart was that this was simply an uprising against the socialist designs laid out in Obama’s trillion dollar spending and entitlement plan. It was a pro free market rally. The message was exactly what my friend from Portland wrote for my blog earlier this week.

Ralliers dunked pages of the stimulus plan in a vat of tea, shades of Boston 1773. Loved it.

Jump for more photos.

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Filed Under Capitalist Superheroes, Porkulus, The DFW

Wednesday Roundup: Lousy Sex Ed, Wifebeaters, Tax on Stupidity & More

February 25, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments
  • Now at the UT Arlington campus — where friends of many colors come together, if only through Photoshop — they’re hosting the “Human Race Machine” which shows you how you’d look if you were another race. Or, as I like to call it, Photoshop.
  • First Lesson: You can’t win a lottery you didn’t enter. (Second Lesson: You can’t win the lottery.)
  • OK, I’ll host the thing. Don’t like the company’s message; hate busybody scolds even more, though.

Filed Under Culture, Life, Media, Politics, Porkulus, The DFW

Stimulus: Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There

February 24, 2009 By Trey Garrison 2 Comments

I try to keep this blog focused on The DFW — as we hip folks call it — but a friend of mine who’s a strategic marketing consultant in Portland sent me this, and it was just too good to pass up.

Times are tough. Some banks made some stupid loans. More than a generation of poor business practices are finally sinking the Detroit auto industry. And everyone is nervous.

Today on a plane, completely unannounced and for no reason whatsoever, as we were coming in to land, the stewardess handed out $20 gift certificates to McCormick & Schmick’s Steakhouse. This is the third McCormick & Schmick’s gift certificate I’ve gotten in under 2 months. It got me thinking:

Because people aren’t spending, merchants are dropping their prices to lure in customers. Falling prices encourage spending and restart the economy. However not every business can afford to cut prices. The ones that can’t, fail. But that’s OK, because then the ones that didn’t go out of business can pick up their assets at bargain prices, allowing them to grow and get stronger while helping pull us out of this nosedive.

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Filed Under Capitalist Superheroes, Porkulus, The Market, Zombies

Mark Cuban Raps

February 20, 2009 By Trey Garrison 1 Comment

(Via a friend.)

Filed Under Capitalist Superheroes, Porkulus

Friday Roundup: DART Still Losing Money, Unsafer Dallas & More

February 20, 2009 By Trey Garrison 1 Comment
  • Dallas SWAT are cooling their heels at President Bush’s new house. Which means poker games, neighbors of people with warrants, small-time pot smokers, and barking dogs won’t be getting shot up.
  • There’s money to be made in banning cell phones while driving. So you know the Texas Lege is all over it like a hostage on a ham sandwich.

Filed Under Guns, Liberty, Life, Police, Politics, Porkulus, The DFW, Zombies

Thursday Roundup: Damn the Torpedoes, RepubliCon Governor, God Isn’t His Co-Pilot? & More

February 19, 2009 By Trey Garrison 4 Comments
  • I’m not saying it’s not odd to have a 22-year-old in a class with 13-year-olds. Clearly it is. But why the reflex assumption that an adult in a classroom with teenagers is automatically creepy? Seems an unwarranted swipe at DISD.
  • Hero North Texas pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger didn’t get all God-dy enough for this guy. Should he have mentioned that God sent those birds into the plane’s engines? Ugh.
  • What exactly is smart about pumping air into a deflating bubble, rewarding the irresponsible, and punishing people who bought homes within their means and who make their payments on time?

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Creepy Guys in the Park, DISD, Media, Porkulus, The DFW, The Market, Zombies

Friday Roundup: Gub’mint Cheese, Naked Dudes in Parks, Kwame Lands & Happy Valentine’s Day

February 13, 2009 By Trey Garrison 2 Comments
  • Is it something in the water? Still, it gives us the quote of the week: “It’s so lovely, even with naked terracotta men.”
  • Say, if you’re an investor in Covisint, or an employee, or a client, I don’t want to worry you, but — RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
  • Finally, from Cracked.com, the card I’m getting the missus:

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Humor, Porkulus, The DFW