Mayor Tom Is, Again, Inflating the Truth

Angela Hunt has been doing some research. Mayor Tom keeps saying the cost of the Trinity River toll road has more than tripled because of inflation. So Hunt put together a table showing what effect the Department of Labor’s inflation index would have had on the cost of the road…

Digging for Toll Road Facts

Wait a minute. Think about this. The main argument for keeping the toll road inside the park downtown is that it can’t go anywhere else because of the cost. I just looked at files in the offices of the people who would build the road. It’s flat-out untrue. This is…

Multiculti

Dear Mexican: How do I go to the Mexican grocery store and bakery to buy supplies for our Día de los Muertos party without looking like I’m doing the kitschy-goofy thing I’m doing? I walk up to the register and smile ingratiatingly, saying “Gracias” as usual—but a basketful of sugar…

The Holy Land Foundation and the Case of the Crunchy Con

Rod Dreher, always one to point out Hamas-lovers at every turn. This is what I do on Sunday mornings: With one hand I grab my Dallas Morning News Points section, so I can read the latest drivel from right-wing editorialisto Rod Dreher, as though I were clutching up a big…

SMU Has Had Its Phil

In July, SMU debuted its new ad campaign — that danged “Pony Up!” nonsense cooked up by the Richards Group for a what-the-fuh $750,000. (Over at SMU’s official Mustang Musings site, run by the university’s athletics department, folks either loved the campaign or hated it upon its debut. Loved it,…

Clearly, Tracy Rowlett Is Not Spending His Retirement Years Wisely

Tracy Rowlett and Jim Schutze — man, it’s like an episode of Iconoclasts, only without the piano. Wow. Legendary Dallas newsman-anchor Tracy Rowlett just left Unfair Park HQ after spending an hour here with a camera crew. Also with him was John Sparks, KTVT-Channel 11’s executive producer for investigations and…

Tom Leppert Keeps Delivering One Shocker After Another

Please, Mommy, when I grow up, don’t let me turn into Bruce Tomaso. Wow. In today’s Dallas Morning News, Tomaso offers us yet another chapter in his serialized book about the Trinity River toll road referendum: Big Fat Lies I Would Like Very Much for You to Accept as Total…

Just Say Yes to the Trinity Toll Road?

Months of debate. Endless hours of colorful accusation, innuendo, inference and implication. More hydrological data than a soul can handle. And what does it all come down to? Yes, we have no bananas. In next month’s Trinity River toll road referendum, do you vote yes for no toll road? Or…

Hot for Hombres

Dear Mexican: Why do so many of my peers assume I must have low self-esteem just because I’m dating a Mexican guy? I finally found someone with my same values and who treats me way better than any gringo I ever dated. The same women who complain about “sleazy” Mexican…

Ask The Polemicist

One thing that’s so wrong with blogging is that you have to do it so fast. I am literally grabbing a cup of coffee between appointments today, but I can’t let George Rodrigue’s new post on The Dallas Morning News’ Web site go unanswered until tomorrow. Many things to get…

The Polemicist

Moments ago on The Dallas Morning News’ Web page, the paper’s managing editor, George Rodrigue, posted a long criticism of my work in which he accuses me repeatedly of being a polemicist. According to my copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, that would make me a writer of controversial,…

Ask A Mexican

Dear Mexican: What is it with the Mexican hang-up on body parts? When General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was struck by a cannon ball at the knee in one of his 8,000 wars, his right leg was removed from the knee down. When he returned to Mexico City, he…

Hey, Blow, We’re So Done Doing Your Homework

I swore to myself Tuesday I wasn’t going to get into any more intimate blog-a-logs with Steve Blow at The Dallas Morning News. I’ve had enough; you probably have too. But I guess I can’t ignore this. Again. I have the cover story in this week’s paper version of Unfair…

Steve, Blow It Out Your Ass

I wrote an item for Unfair Park yesterday in which I pointed out that The Dallas Morning News had done a poor job of informing its readers about post-Katrina critiques of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I cited the work of Professor Robert Bea, mentioned in 365 newspaper accounts…

“Flooded with Misinformation”? Damn Right.

When will it end? Yesterday The Dallas Morning News belched out two more platefuls of tripe in its endless buffet of Trinity River toll road propaganda. The first was a story about ownership of the land along the Trinity, the headline of which should have been “Not Us.” You had…

Lies My Mayor Told Me

The Vote No! Save the Trinity campaign sent a mailer to my house — so I assume it went everywhere else, including your house — with a picture of Tom Leppert on the front and a headline that read, “Don’t let Angela Hunt send a billion dollars down the river.”…

Ask a Mexican

Dear Mexican: We were in a restaurant the other day eating some refried beans and green chili when I overheard some gringos in the next booth making fun of Mexicans. One thing they said that really made me mad was, “Why do Mexicans REFRY their beans? Stupid Mexicans! Don’t they…

Politicians Uniting Behind the Trinity Toll Road

How about that amazing line-up of politicians and business groups put together by Carol Reed, the political guru running the Vote No! campaign for the November toll road referendum? The entire city council except for Angela Hunt. The entire county commissioners court. The entire congressional delegation. The United Brotherhood of…