Ellis County rabble-rouser stirs up south suburban Dallas

While there were many fine, upstanding residents of Cedar Hill and various Ellis County cities at the special hearing on Loop 9 in Cedar Hill April 23, there was more than a small scattering of people bringing some baggage to the event.

Let me put it this way.

When you get the normally mild-mannered, low-key Cedar Hill Mayor Rob Franke so riled up he shows his anger to you, and tells you that you need to learn some respect ... (that said, years later, we've learned that Rob Franke's public persona is full of shit; background to that here).

If you know Rob, you know you've crossed a line. If you don't, you need to learn.

Other than that, we had, in my guesstimate, about two dozen of the 225 or so attendees who stayed for much of the Texas Department of Transporation presentation who regularly talked over TxDOT representatives attempts to answer their questions.

We had other people broaching conspiracy theories, like the person who got Franke upset in part by claiming local officials were nothing but "moles," or pawns under the control of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

So "congratulations" to the Ellis Countian now in New Hampshire, Joey Dauben, for stirring up some of these people.

And all for a road that, as Cedar Hill ISD Boardmember Valerie Banks noted, won't be built for several years. (If it's built at all.)

As for the Trans Texas Corridor tie-in, it's true that TxDOT still has TTC -style concepts for some local toll roads. But, Loop 9, as one of those toll roads, was proposed long before the TTC was around. And, given that Loop 9 is, in essence, the southern parallel to the Bush Turnpike, if it is built, and built as a toll road, it could well be run by the North Texas Tollway Authority, if anybody.

If you want a better target for your anger, tell Gov. Perry and the Lege to stop diverting gas tax money to the general fund. And tell both of them to do more with long-term bond indebtedness rather than toll roads.


That said, it was interesting to see Dallas County Judge Jim Foster in south suburban Dallas in the flesh for pretty much the first time since he got elected.

Try us, you might like us, judge.

It was just as interesting, if not more so, to see him and his nemesis, County Commissioner John Wiley Price, at the same table.

(Note: Original post corrected here, to reflect that Giddings was NOT at meeting. Between being far enough away from the front, and a bit nearsighted, I made a mistake.)

Speaking of that, I've asked Dauben on several of his blogs (which are not going to get linked here) if he wouldn't like to own up to any mistakes in any of his coverage, or "angles" he has, and so far, the sound has been...

Crickets! (No surprise there, though. And that's why none of his blogs are being linked here.)

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Update, Aug. 22, 2021: Besides "Sunflower" and his other groupies who trailed him, at the Ellis County Observer, Dauben had as one of his flunkies a guy named Ali Akbar, who also allegedly was working on the Texas effort for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Today, you know him as "Stop the Steal" thief Ali Alexander. Dauben, per this piece, back then thought Akbar (already then a convicted felon) was shady as shit, claiming that Akbar/Alexander had talked back then of ways to rig an elelection. And, if Joey Dauben thought that ...