John Jay getting jacked?

When people ask why more people don't run for office, this is a good example.  Seems WFAA doesn't want to include other candidates in their debate.  WHY? 

Number 5 is our favorite.  Good luck to the real candidates out there.  If you ain't got money, you're going to need luck.

WHO decides an election?  How can you vote for a candidate you don't know exists?

I sent an email to WFAA in regards to why I am not included in their debate, in return we got a form letter which listed 5 criteria that they use to judge whether I should be included. This is my reply to that:

I believe the main thing to consider is, am I a valid candidate, with valid issues, running a real campaign, who has ballot access? The answer to those four is yes. I would ask you how do you believe the public hears about a candidate? You can google Paul Sadler right now, if you don't include coverage of simply the fact that he is the Democratic nominee and that the news has made it a contest between him and Cruz, I am wildly more popular. Do the same thing with our Youtube channels. If I were mentioned anywhere near as much as Sadler I would be polling at 40%.

Here is your criteria with my numbered response:

 · Receives significant levels of public support in independent public opinion polls (e.g. 15 percent, which is the minimum used by the Commission on Presidential Debates).

1. Can you list the polls that you are using that have included my name? Obviously if my name is not included in the polls it's pretty hard to get a sense of where I stand.

· Has received substantial campaign contributions from varied sources.

2. We have received over $11,000 in campaign contributions most of it in $20-50 increments, from all over Texas. As you know, this also means that we have met the FEC threshold.

· Has received a substantial level of votes in prior elections for the same or comparable office.

3. I don't believe I have ran for a comparable office. I also do not believe that during any other election the media has ever mentioned my name.

· Expected to be reported by news agencies in election night returns.

4. This criteria doesn't make sense, this is more like the news... making the news. You should just cover candidates.

· Has received significant news coverage from a wide range of media outlets.

5. Kind of self fulfilling prophecy here isn't it? The media ignores you and then tells you that they ignore you because you don't get enough media. The media tells you that you do not poll well enough, but does not include you in the polls.

But I would suggest we have gotten coverage. We didn't start our campaign until after the primaries so we wouldn't have to combat the media hype with our limited resources, little did we know that the media outlets would consider the election over after the primaries. We did a tour of Texas last week with our staff, and had a reasonable amount of coverage. I imagine if the media mentioned my name every once in a while most of the criteria you have listed would be met.

Here is some press from last week: http://johnjaymyers.com/press/

Thank you for this list, it will be helpful with our filing with the FCC.

The media should not be in the game of political manipulation. I would imagine both Cruz and Sadler have already appeared independently on your channel, probably numerous times.

If you understood how hard it is just to achieve ballot access, and then how hard it is to run a campaign when the media ignores you, you might be more sympathetic. You have set up a system where there can be no winning, not without millions of dollars. I do not believe that is the foundation this country was based on.

I do understand having reasonable criteria for a candidate to be considered. I believe I have met standards that would be considered reasonable by any stretch of the imagination.

 As a news source you can not say "Do they have a chance of winning?", you must say "Do the people of Texas deserve to know about all of the valid candidates in the race" it is your job to inform about elections, not determine them.

Paul Sadler does not inspire the Democrats, my anti-war, pro civil liberties message does. Ted Cruz only fires up the hard core right, I will win over the Ron Paul people and the independents. I make this race interesting, otherwise you are just handing it to Cruz.

Thank you,
John Jay Myers

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SInking Ship?

The FW Weekly tells you about the staff jumping ship from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

We wonder if Mitch's first column will be about the Trinity River?

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s edition of the Star-Telegram misspelled “education” on the front page.

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Really??

North Richland Hills is one of the many cities planning to raise their tax rate.  How many people spoke about it at the council meeting?

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram -

ZERO.

Nice work, NRH. 

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WHO??

WHO actually thought the Republican National Convention would be any different than the cluster recently held in Fort Worth?

While we have contributors from all political parties, even some of our R's think it's BS. 

That sound you hear is folks jumping ship.

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We never agree with Bud

But today, he made us laugh.

(And finally, someone else takes notice of where a lot of comments around town come from.)

Although he made us laugh, we have to ask, isn't he part of the problem? Does he not make up part of the Editorial Board that tells you to vote for the same "idiosyncrasies" over and over again? 

See, it's funny.

Unsigned, from a Yahoo.com e-mail address:

"Why don't you just leave? You seem so convinced that everything about our state makes us laughingstocks.

"Every state has its own idiosyncrasies."

(Yes, but in Texas we re-elect our idiosyncrasies.)

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How much do they cost YOU?

Think Cabela's is the only sporting goods store costing YOU? Think Fort Worth is the only city that bought it hook, line and sinker?

Not even. 

Remember those average citizens who tried to stop the madness of giving them millions of YOUR tax dollars?  Remember they were ignored by the ones supposed to protect your tax dollars?

Don't miss this article about government financed businesses, YOU can't afford to.

An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.

"Retail is not economic development. People don’t suddenly have more money to spend on hip waders because a new Bass Pro or Cabela’s comes to town," says Greg Leroy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a non-partisan economic development watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. "All that happens is that money spent at local mom and pop retailers shifts to these big box retailers. When government gives these big box stores tax dollars, they are effectively picking who the winners and losers are going to be."

Typically, these stores are financed through familiar economic development schemes like tax increment financing districts. Basically, a city borrows money by selling bonds on Wall Street and then pays off the debt with the increase in property or sales taxes generated in that TIF district.

After analyzing the development agreements, state audits, bond issues, development studies and local news accounts the Franklin Center found:

• Cabela’s has received $551 million in local and state assistance during the past 15 years.
• Bass Pro Shops received $1.3 billion in local and state assistance during the same period.
• The federal government helped ensure liquidity for Cabela's' credit card division by providing $400 million in financing for the purchase of the company’s securitized debt.

For example, state and local taxpayers borrowed $60 million to build a Cabela's store and its supporting infrastructure in Buda, Texas. For that amount, every household in the 7,600-person community could have purchased a new 2012 Lexus CT Hybrid.

The Buda City Council even agreed to take the town's name off its water tower and replace it with the word "Cabela's." But government largess didn’t end there. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission provided Guadalupe bass, the official state fish, for the store's massive aquarium at no charge to the retailer.

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Conservatives with their hands out...

So according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, we need that money our politicians earmarked (such a conservative thing to do, right?) to fix our crumbling infrastructure. By the end of the story, it's a different story.  According to the City (M&C below), we need it to relocate infrastructure.  Pesky stuff, is expensive and in their way.

"There are a lot of crumbling roads, crumbling bridges, crumbling transit projects. We're ready to put the money to work now," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said during a news conference call. "There is pent up demand to fix infrastructure."

Mendez also said he spent part of Friday morning talking with officials in the office of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, about transportation needs related to the Trinity River Vision project.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/17/4188412/texas-risks-losing-31-million.html#storylink=cpy9. M&C C-25554 - Authorize Execution of Change Order No. 1 to City
Secretary Contract No. 42360 with Conatser Construction
TX, LP, in the Amount of $115,630.00 for a Total Contract
Amount of $1,365,227.00 for Water and Sanitary Sewer
Main Relocations for the Trinity River Vision - Central City
Project and the Trinity Uptown Service Area Phase 1 -
Bridge and Channel Relocations, Part 1 Henderson Street
Bridge Water and Sanitary Sewer Relocations (COUNCIL
DISTRICTS 2 and 9)

(Earmarks are a strategy often used by members of Congress to push pet projects forward. Often, it involves inserting a sentence or two of language into a bill that may or may not have anything to do with the bill's main purpose.)

9. M&C C-25554 - Authorize Execution of Change Order No. 1 to City
Secretary Contract No. 42360 with Conatser Construction
TX, LP, in the Amount of $115,630.00 for a Total Contract
Amount of $1,365,227.00 for Water and Sanitary Sewer
Main Relocations for the Trinity River Vision - Central City
Project and the Trinity Uptown Service Area Phase 1 -
Bridge and Channel Relocations, Part 1 Henderson Street
Bridge Water and Sanitary Sewer Relocations (COUNCIL

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