Wow......you HAVE been payin' attention ~
Hey Bubba...Houston Area Texans is still a active group and you are welcome to get your arse to a meeting.
Posted on 11/25/2002 3:11:57 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
The following memo was accidentally posted on the Houston Chronicle website last Thursday morning for a couple of hours. It is an internal memo between the editorial page writers instructing a massive year long propaganda campaign to push a light rail referendum through next november. The memo was removed upon discovery but not before many people read it. The Houston Chronicle also printed a correction stating it had been accidentally posted, but not what it was about. This document is genuine and was copied from the Chronicle website in the hour or two it was online by somebody and has been circulated by email ever since. Rest assured, it IS genuine. I've verified it independently with three different people who read it on the site while it was up there during the same time. Here is the memo's full text as it appeared on Thursday night:
A Houston odyssey: DeLay, Lanier and light rail
Posted to HoustonChronicle.com Nov. 20,2002
Next November, voters in the city and across the Metropolitan Transit Authority service area will cast a truly important vote: They will decide whether Metro should be permitted to expand our rail rail system beyond the 7-mile South Main line.
There isn't a more critical issue on the horizon. I propose a series of editorials, editorial cartoons and Sounding Board columns leading up to the rail referendum, with this specific objective: Continuing our long standing efforts to make rail a permanent part of the transit mix here.
The timing, language and approach of the paper's editorials would, of course, be the decision of the Editorial Board. But I suggest that they could be built upon and informed by a news-feature package with an equally specific focus: Telling the story of rail here by examining the long term relationship of the two key players in the local transit wars -- Rep. Tom DeLay and former Mayor Bob Lanier. For better or worse, (mostly worse, I would argue) no two have had a more significant impact on transit decisions here. Our readers deserve to know how they've operated to fund and promote an anti-rail agenda for the past two decades. This would be vital information for voters as they come to their decision on rail. It would also be highly entertaining read.
We in Houston have our own version of the "Chinatown" story of the early 20th century Los Angeles, when the currency of power was water: Who controlled it; who received it; where it came from; and where it went at what price. Since World War II, Houston's currency has bee concrete-- millions of cubic yards poured for freeways.
DeLay and Lanier have been the two central characters in our local drama. This urban-suburban, Republican-Democrat odd couple is bound by the belief highways and poured concrete are the path to a profitable future for this area, and its converse--the belief that mass transit must be stopped in its tracks.
The broad elements of the news/features package could include:
? The story of how the Lanier-DeLay relationship began (in the early 1980's when Lanier was chairman of the state Hiway Commission and DeLay was a young congressman)
?Lanier the land man: Through his privately held Landar Corp., Lanier has long shown his prescience in purchasing land where roads would ultimately go. Where are his holdings? Specifically , where are his holdings along the Grand Parkway? How has he benefitted by the building of roads.
?DeLay's steady rise to power in Congress. How it come about and, more importantly, how it was funded (by the highway lobby).
?Lanier's rise to political power. His rift with former Mayor Kathy Whitmire that turned into a determination to run her off (he did and she was never heard from again); his controversial shifting of transit funds into the city budget in the much discussed "Metro transfer."
?Bob Lanier, public kingmaker. For almost a decade, the path to public office in Houston has wound through Lanier's den. Mayoral and City Council hopefuls, congressional candidates, would-be Texas Texas legislators and county commissioners--all come to kiss the great man's ring and bid for his approval. What is protocol? Who makes introductions? What is the quid-pro-quo? And, the $64 question: How has Lanier managed to promote himself as the patron saint of inner city Houston while working with DeLay to promote a relentlessly suburban/freeway/anti-rail funding agenda at all levels of government?
?Ground zero for November: The campaign led by DeLay and Lenier to defeat rail expansion. Who is doing the funding? What is the history of the San Antonio-based think tank doing the the research to discredit rail?
Any number of sidebar topics also come to mind:
?The Fort Bend mayors who are bucking DeLay and Lanier to bring commuter rail to the thousands of Fort Bend residents who work in the Medical Center.
?Laniers involvement in the lawsuit brought by former Houston Councilman Robb Todd to hold up the South Main light rail project.
?Elyse Lanier: From jewelry salesperson to Houston political insider.
?The Greater Houston Partnership and the clean-air saga. When the Environmental Protection Agency put clean-air deadlines on the Houston region in the early 1990's, the Partnership resisted mightily. The thinking was: We have the political connections in Washington--from George Bush and Bill Archer to DeLay and Lloyd Bentson-- to stall and stonewall until this all goes away. What went wrong? What was the Chronicle's role in supporting this approach?
?A primer on highway building, Houston style: Why the Southwest Freeway turned south and west rather than continuing due west (developer Frank Sharp had a hand in this).
?Why Texas highways have frontage roads (a key to economic development) in the first place. Sam Rayburn added them to the language in President Eisenhower's landmark legislation creating the Interstate Highway System in the 1950's. At whose bidding?
This is a story in urgent need of telling, and an editorial position of equal urgency. Voters deserve to know the history of how Houston came to be a city of freeways well before they decide about rail's future next November. They need to know who has wielded the power to pour concrete, who still wields it and to what lengths the concrete pourers will go in order to stop rail.
A hilarious bump. Caught red-handed in the act. So much for objective reporting. What slimes.
Sounds more to me like they intend to do some "investigative reporting" on the issue.
I see nothing wrong with that,
get the information out and let the public decide.
Seems to me that you just don't like what they intend to report.
Wow......you HAVE been payin' attention ~
Hey Bubba...Houston Area Texans is still a active group and you are welcome to get your arse to a meeting.
The little choo-choo's route is 7.5 miles, and has 16 stops. The train's average speed will be a WHOPPING 15 MPH.
DO THE MATH: This comes to approx $47 MILLION per MILE IF the official estimate comes true, which it won't.
TXDOT's own mobility studies indicate that Mayor Brown's Trolley will take only 55 vehicles off the streets annually.
Houston/Harris County area taxpayers will subsidize EACH RIDER's FARE to the tune of $12+ per ride. All fares will be paid on the "honor system" ROFL!!
And then, sadly, there are all those business/restaurant owners along Main Street who are being systematically put OUT of BUSINESS during this excruciatingly lengthy construction period.
The whole thing STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN.
If this "leaked" Memo is genuine, the Chronicle wishes to influence that vote.
One of a policy maker's primary responsibility is to vote to allocate limited resources to those areas of greatest benefit to the taxpayers/voters (the primary one is to keep taxes as low as possible).
What DeLay is trying to do is to get the facts to the taxpayers/voters on the true cost of light rail, the benefits and problems brought about by light rail and let the taxpayers/voters decide.
A newspaper, if it is truly serving its readers, should print both sides of an issue so to inform the public.
What much of the media does today is decide what is best for all of us and then slant the news to accomplish that end.
A local newspaper in Fort Bend County (the base of DeLay’s District to the southwest of Houston - actually Houston is the third largest city in Fort Bend) admits in print that it "smears" a local politician that it does not like and works to remove from office. Thank God for "New York Times v. Sullivan" Supreme Court Decision, right?
Last week a former Mayor of Sugar Land sued one of the columnist of that paper for libel. The yelling about the "First Amendment" rights of newspapers could be heard all the way in Austin.
Thanks for posting this. Rest assured that Jon/Mike/Pat/Edd won't let this die out, nor will their callers. Unfortunately, for the most part, that's preaching to the choir.
The Chronicle let its mask slip.
LOL 'caus its all so obviously true.
That wouldn't happen to be the Fort Bend Star, would it?
Being a native Houstonian.....that moved to Ft. Bend County in 1973.....and now in HTown again....I do appreciate your statement...
Well, I don't appreciate it, I see the irony of growth vs. greed.
How 'bout you and H Curmudgeon (if ya'll are still friends).....lol.....(W...I have NO idea) bring your arses to a Houston Area Texans (local FReeRepublic chapter) meeting!!!
Ken Lay was a part of the downtown establishment and a major player in the ballteam. People wonder how the Comical missed the Enron story that developed in their own backyard. They had a gentleman's agreement not to even look into foul deeds. A partenership of common goals.
I don't expect any better motivation behind them steamrolling this town with a rail system that is half assed.
I can write to Tom (as a grateful citizen of Houston) but unfortunately Chris Bell got elected in my district (the only upside I see is that he won't be our next mayor).
rich.connelly@houstonpress.com
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