Democracy in Action

 Democracy in action: Former Dallas City Council candidate P.D. Sterling, with help from political blogger Sharon Boyd, is preparing to file a complaint with the state claiming that pro-Trinity toll road folk broke some election rule in a mailer the group sent out telling people not to sign the petition for a new vote on the project.

Yeah, we know. Whatever. Exactly.

God love Boyd. You can almost picture her standing on a trapdoor, a noose around her neck, chattering away. "Subparagraph C, Section 1109, Title 12, of The Hangman's Code clearly states that the rope used shall be composed of 100 percent hemp. This rope is obviously ny...YAHHHH!"

KA-THUNK.

Nevertheless, the sleazy effort aimed at stopping the petition drive has given Buzz a greater appreciation of an acronym long-favored by Boyd on her Web site dallasarena.com: ODB, for "Our Downtown Betters." Vladimir Putin could learn a thing or two from these guys when it comes to orchestrating an effort to quash democracy. Short of having Pinkerton agents in bowler hats standing at petition sites with saps to club anyone daring to sign the thing, it's hard to imagine things getting much worse.

Our own Jim Schutze (see page 9) has written thousands of words about plans to put a high-speed toll road along the river and whether that's a good idea. Whatever you think about that, democratic government is the real reason you should sign the petition, even if come November you vote against its call for a low-speed parkway. Nine years ago the ODB (thanks, Sharon), with a huge assist from the media, conned voters into signing a check for an ambiguous Trinity project. Parks! Lakes! Sailboats! It was a bait-and-switch and a violation of the very purpose of referenda, which is to let the people paying the bills decide how their money will be spent. Now the same people are telling us suckers that we shouldn't even try to correct that mistake. They're even placing hired help at the polling places to try to persuade voters not to sign the petition.

Well, maybe you like being a patsy. Or maybe you're a traditionalist and would like to send a slug from a flintlock rifle winging toward their henchmen. That's probably against the law, but speech is still allowed, so Buzz has prepared two choice words, should we be lucky enough to bump into one of the "blockers." They rhyme with "duck cough." Feel free to use them yourself.