Cranky Greg's View

Those Chickenshit Cowboys!

The Dallas Cowboys played the New York Giants tonight in the "Dallas Palace"  ....er...the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.  And they were defeated by the Giants who were led by Eli Manning, who didn't choke under pressure and throw three interceptions in the biggest party in the land.

The Giants kicked the winning field goal as time expired - but no, WAIT!  Coach Cupcake called a time out one sliver of a second before the foot hit the ball!

Cupcake tried to ice the kicker.  A chickenshit move by a chickenshit coach owned by a chickenshit owner, all of whom are desperate. 

As you would be, too, if you owned and managed a team that hasn't even won a playoff game in over a dozen years.

Jerry Jones has ruined the Dallas Cowboys, but everyone only sees stars now.  If the Cowboys don't play better than this, this stadium won't be setting any attendance records any time soon.

During the first year, people will pay to see Jerry's tribute to obscene opulence, but then his star will eventually fade and the City of Arlington will regret doing business with Mr. Jones.

The only reason anyone even gives a damn about Jerry Jones is because he owns the Cowboys.  Jerry can thank Tom Landry and Tex Schramm for that.  And even Jimmy Johnson.

But since Jimmy left, it's been Jerry's show, with no one to blame but Jerry himself.

As they say, you can put lipstick on a pig, but you still have a pig.

A Free Look at the Cowboys Stadium Ripoff

Billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, formerly known as "America's Team" back in the days when the Cowboys regularly won playoff games, Jerry Jones, threw a bone to the citizens of Arlington, Texas who helped pay for the billionaire's latest Golden Goose.

He let Arlington citizens visit the stadium - For Free!!

Yeee haaaw!

Too bad there wasn't anything going on.

Oh well.  If the Cowboys have a thirteenth consecutive season without a playoff victory, Jerry might be letting in people for free out of necessity.

Tom Hicks is a Deadbeat, Leach and A Pig; Arlington Voters are Suckers!!

Tom Hicks owns the Texas Rangers, the perennial cellar-dwellers of the American League West.  The Rangers play in that stadium in Arlington next to Jerry World.

When George W. Bush was running the Rangers and scamming the City of Arlington by getting Arlington to foot much of the bill for building the stadium that then made millions for George W and his cronies, the argument for the stadium was that it would spur development in North Arlington and the money would start flowing in and there would be new jobs and restaurants and Arlington would transform itself from an unknown suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth into its own damn City of Nirvana.  It was an "investment."

Well, that didn't happen.  If it had, there wouldn't have been room for Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones' stadium that is being built, thanks in large part to the taxpayers of Arlington, just southwest of the Ranger's home.

But Tom Hicks, who bought the Texas Rangers from George W. and his friends, tried to get things going and hired some architectural firms do draw some plans for Arlington Nirvana.  There were gonna be restaurants and high-end shops and parking lots and condos for all the happy people spending their money in Arlington.

And then Tom Hicks wanted some more money so he sold the naming rights to the stadium to Ameriquest, the sleazy mortgage people, and after Ameriquest and their pals ruined the economy, Tom changed the name and his wallet got a little lighter.

Tom's wallet is so light now that he stiffed an architectural firm he hired to design Arlington Nirvana!!

ANd now Tom Hicks says he doesn't owe the money and won't pay it.

What a pig.  Tom Hicks is a leach making money from the taxpayers of Arlington while stiffing private companies for work they did for his failed vision.

Tom Hicks is a creep of the lowest order.

When will politicians learn that using taxpayer money to fund games for rich guys is bad public policy?

It's A Slow Go in Arlington and Other Cowboy Updates

This is Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas.  It was the home of the Dallas Cowboys since 1971.  Next year, the Cowboys will move to Arlington.

One can see that there is not a lot of development around Texas Stadium.  (Other photos here.)  But when Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones went to the City of Arlington begging for money for his new Ego Stadium, which many call "Jerry World," he promised that Arlington would be transformed from Just Another Suburb into Urban Nirvana.  There would be restaurants, there would be condos, there would be shopping, there would be concerts, there would be fun, there would be Super Bowls and Final Fours and Beatle Reunions and streams of money and jobs flowing into Arlington!

Praise Jerry!  The City fathers cried as they lied to the taxpayers seeking subsidies for a billionaire's toy!

Well, the deal was done, and now there are problems with Jerry's Dream.  (Not the least of which is his team itself - The Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in 12 years!!)  [Which readers of this blog know because that's all that Cranky Greg ever talks about.]

A few years ago, the City of Dallas was hoodwinked into helping fund the AAC - aka The American Airlines Center, which is now the home of the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars and the former home of the defunct (Thank God!) Dallas Desperados.  (One of the most hideous experiences of Cranky Greg's lifetime other than enduring 4 years of Jimmy Carter was enduring an eon-like 4 hours at a Desperados game!  "That's another Miller Lite First Down!  Another Dr. Lasik Holding Penalty!  Wow!  Another Countrywide Field Goal!")

Anyhoo, there was supposed to be massive excitement and development around the AAC.  Ross Perot, the little one with big ears and a bigger mouth who might have been right about that Big Sucking Sound, has a son named Ross Perot, Jr., of all things.  Little Ross had his daddy's money, and connections, and just enough mean weirdness and lawyers to get some taxpayers assistance for his dream - Victory Park.  Perot promised the same old things that Jerry did to Arlington.

Well, Victory Park was built, and is now dying a slow death.  It's not the place to hang out.  All the stores and restaurants are high-end, silliness in this era.  And the taxpayers helped pay for this bright idea!  It appears as if Victory Park is defeated.

And back when George W. fooled the taxpayers in Arlington to fund the Ballpark in Arlington, home of the hapless Texas Rangers, similar promises were made.  And there was no development around the Ameriquest Field.  (After the stadium was named for Arlington as a bone thrown to the taxpayers, Tom Hicks, who was dumb enough to buy the Rangers, took a bunch of money from the now defunct Ameriquest Mortgage - a company accused of fraud in the mortgage mania days leading up to our current financial crisis.)

The only development around whatever the name of the stadium is now where the Rangers "play" is that big-ass Darth Vader looking monstrosity that Welfare Queen Jones is building next door!!  Also funded by the taxpayers, as Cranky Greg continually points out.

This article discusses the lack of development around Jerry World in Arlington.

Is this really a surprise?

WQ Jones did have stars in his eyes counting that taxpayer money and watching his monument rise from the former property of homeowners who were forced off their land and their homes razed by the government so that the land could be turned over to another private party so that an ugly billionaire could try to make even more money.

And now, not even the Great Marketer Himself, WQ Jones, can even find a buyer for the naming rights of his Ego Monument!!

All is not well in Cowboy Land.  The City of Arlington has been laying off workers and can't even fill in potholes.  The economy is tanking and Tony Romo's still hanging with Jessica and T.O. is still on the team and now WQ Jones has instilled a Gag Order on his "coaches."  That includes Doughboy himself!

The experience of Arlington and Dallas should be a lesson for you fools who think that government should subsidize sports.  Especially in these troubled times.

The often derided former Dallas mayor Laura Miller is definitely looking better every day.

Believe It or Not!!!

What an unbelievable day!  Consider these items:

A-Fraud* says his cousin injected him with a substance imported from the Dominican Republic that was not Tic-Tacs but that he didn't know was steroids.

Oil prices fall below $35 a barrel, yet gas prices continue to rise, because refineries are not working at full capacity.  Here's Cranky Greg's stimulus plan - tell Big Oil to start refining or we're gonna nationalize the Awl Bidness on the Hugo Chavez model!

Some in Australia propose that the fine folks in Perth be taxed for every flush of their toilets.  Americans could raise enough revenue to solve their financial problems with a similar tax on all the verbal sewage streaming out of Washington, D.C.

Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones announced today that Wade "Doughboy" Phillips, the head "coach" of the Dallas Cowboys, has an additional title:  Defensive Coordinator.  Looks like Dumb and Dumber just keep getting dumb and dumber.

President Obama signed his new "stimulus" bill into law today and was greeted with a 300-point stock market slide.

Once deriding the idea of a surge as "looney," President Obama is sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan in an effort wo beat the terrorists.

Arlington's Financial Problems

 Cranky Greg's hometown of Arlington, Texas is experiencing financial problems.  In fact, the City of Arlington recently laid off a bunch of municipal employees, including some health inspectors that were responsible for inspecting Arlington restaurants.

This is despite the fact that Mayor Bob Cluck and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones promised that the new Ego Stadium for Jerry Jones would result in riches to the City the likes of which have never been seen or imagined before!

Mayor Cluck crowed that Arlington's hotels restaurants would be full of happy football, basketball and concert fans and that the City's coffers would overflow with money and the roads would be fixed, the police department could hire more cops and the sun would perpetually shine on Jerry's Chosen City!

Well, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Arlington is going broke, and the restaurants the fans were to flock to will be uninspected restaurants and the Dallas Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in over a decade and will probably suck again next year and the stadium's name hasn't yet been bought by some big-ass corporation because all the big-ass corporations are going broke and who wants to hitch their name with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys anyway?

The problems are just starting in Arlinton.  Cranky's critics will e-mail Cranky and tell him that he is full of it, because the games haven't started in Arlington, yet.

Well, Cranky thinks the games started about 5 years ago when Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones came to Arlington begging after Dallas' wise mayor, Laura Miller, told Jerry to beg elsewhere.

The stadium will be the biggest financial boondoggle ever in the history of Arlington, Texas.  You just watch.

Arlington Suffers While Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones Laughs All the Way to the Bank!

Cranky Greg's been complaining for years about the deal the City of Arlington, Texas made with the Devil Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones over that fancy stadium that is being built for the Dallas Cowboys and WQ Jones' ego.

This deal was bad for the City of Arlington, but WQ Jones sweet-talked Mayor Cluck and those little politicians in Arlington who were looking for their 15 minutes of fame and to be seen on TV with WQ Jones!  Hell, Cranky Greg bets they even got autographed footballs from Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach!

So the local pols campaigned for a city tax to help WQ Jones, a billionaire, build a stadium so that WQ Jones could get richer.  And even though WQ Jones could afford to build the stadium all by himself, why should he if some dumb local yokels were willing to pay for a lot of it themselves?

The local Arlington pols had stars in their eyes, and then went out and lied to the citizens of Arlington by portraying this deal as a benefit to the City.  The pols said that the City's coffers would overflow with cash.  New jobs would be created.  There would be a Super Bowl in Arlington!  The Texas-OU game might move to Arlington!  The Lord might come to Arlington!

WQ Jones spent tons of money on that election, but stayed out of the fray and off the TV.  After all, he's a smart guy, and he'd rather let the local guys do the talkin', along with Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.

Despite the fact that the ballpark in which the Texas Rangers play (the name has changed so many times that Cranky Greg can't keep up) has not done much for Arlington, there were promises that the Cowboys stadium would transform the City into an Urban Nirvana that would make the good citizens of Dallas and Fort Worth and even Grand Prairie green with envy every time they made the trek to Arlington to worship at the altar of Jerry Jones.

But it seems as if there is a problem.  Mayor Cluck and WQ Jones got their way, and the construction of the new stadium is underway.  And guess what?  It's turning out not to be such a good deal for Arlington.

According to this story from WFAA, the City of Arlington is losing about $500,000 per month as a result of the stadium construction!!  And the genius politicians who supported the transfer of wealth from the citizens of Arlington to WQ Jones don't have any idea how to stop the bleeding.

The chickens are coming home to roost, and the citizens of Arlington should throw out the politicians who led them down the road to financial ruin.

Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller's looking pretty smart right now.  She stood up to WQ Jones and told him that the citizens of Dallas were not going to subsidize Jerry's ego stadium since he could afford to build it himself.  The Establishment said that Laura Miller was just a rebel who "couldn't get anything done in a Can-Do city like Dallas!"  Turns out that the Rebel With A Cause was right, and Arlington is paying the price, while the Can-Do City down the Landry Freeway from the City of Arlington, the Home of the Snookered, is rolling right along.

Arlington was fooled by George W. Bush on the Rangers' stadium and they were snookered this time by Jerry Jones.  When will the snookering stop?  Only when Arlington voters find people to elect who will actually think of their constituents when it comes time to making decisions and not their own political careers.

Cranky Greg wonders what the City of Arlington will do to stop the bleeding.  Cranky Greg knows one thing:  don't expect Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones to help.  He's busy laughing his way to the bank!

And if you're a police officer looking for a job, you might want to apply in Dallas where they can afford to pay the police.

One final note....the fine folks running the City of Arlington are blaming some of the problem on home foreclosures.  Cranky Greg thinks it is kinda ironic that the last monument the people of Arlington paid for, that stadium in which the Texas Rangers "play," was for awhile named "Ameriquest Field."

LOL!!

Corporate Cowboys

Richie Whitt of The Dallas Observer writes about the Corporate Cowboys, a subject that annoys the hell out of Cranky Greg.

Cranky Greg's complained about this before, here and here and here and here and here.

Jerry Jones conned the citizens of Arlington, Texas into paying for a big chunk of the cost of the new stadium so that Jerry's ego can grow along with his bank account.

The funny thing is, average Arlingtonites will not even be able to afford to go to Cowboys games anymore.

It's corporate welfare at its worst.

Whitt documents the extreme expense for season ticket holders.  Parking = $75 per game!  Per game!

And they used the government's power of eminent domain to seize land from others so Jerry can charge someone $75 to park a car for a football game!

This is criminal, to say the least.

A ticket that costs $129 at Texas Stadium will cost $340 at the new stadium.  Per ticket!

Cranky Greg, who's not good at math, figured this out:  $340 x 4 = $1360.  Add parking at $75 and it costs a family of four $1,435!!  To go to one game!!

How many families in Arlington can afford that?

Cranky Greg doesn't have a problem with greedy sports owners charging whatever they can get for tickets.  But CG has a big problem with it when the wealthy owners come begging the taxpayers to pay for their castles so they can charge even more for tickets.

It really is criminal.  The local politicians should be thrown out of office for selling out the local citizens in exchange for 15 minutes of face-time on ESPN.

Despicable.

More from Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones

Here's an ego video for Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

Watch him brag about the Super Bowl coming to his ego stadium in Arlington, Texas, that is financed by the taxpayers.

Watch Jerry's head grow bigger and bigger.

Be good in this life, or you will be doomed to spend eternity in a room with this crazy bastard!

Dallas Cowboys and Arlington, Texas

Why is this ugly bastard smiling?

Because he parlayed money from the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas into making the Dallas Cowboys the most valuable sports franchise in the world!

According for Forbes, the Dallas Cowboys are worth $1.5 billion!

What's the reason for this astonishing value?  Because of the new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys that is being built in Arlington, Texas, courtesy of the taxpayers of Arlington.

Do the taxpayers of Arlington share in this wealth?

No.  To see the Cowboys play in the new shrine, tickets will be at least $100.00.  Corporations will probably rush in to buy season tickets, and the only seats that will remain for the average Arlington taxpayer will be nose-bleed seats, high above all the fancy boxes, and those seats will cost at least $100, meaning that for a family of four, that's $400 plus parking, which will be at least $20.  Then drinks and maybe food, add another $50. The median household income in Arlington $47,622.

Oh, and add the cost of increased taxes in Arlington.

The citizens of Arlington may have another restaurant or two in which to dine, or to work, but will also have to endure the headaches of a big stadium and all that brings.

Meanwhile, Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones is laughing all the way to the bank.

WQ Jones was rich before the stadium, and Cranky Greg sees no reason why the taxpayers should subsidize rich guys who want to build bigger stadiums just so they can get richer.

CG doesn't have a problem with rich guys, he just has a problem with taxpayers paying the expenses so these rich guys can expand their portfolios.

Cranky Greg often laughs when he hears big business guys like Welfare Queen Jones complain about government interference in their business lives.  They complain of bureaucrats and excessive regulations.  They preach self-reliance and pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps.

But, when they wanna make a little extra money, they don't mind government then!  They love getting the money from the taxpayers.

Guys like Welfare Queen Jones have no problem building Ego Stadiums, even if it involves fleecing taxpayers and condemning people's homes so the Ego Stadium can be built.

He sounds more like a bully than anything else.  Jerry "Welfare Queen" Jones is a shameful, sickening person.

Any guy who would kick people out of their homes and take welfare so he can get richer is not someone to be admired.

Somehow, Welfare Queen Jones and others like him have convinced people that using the power of government to seize private property from modest citizens and transferring that wealth to billionaires is a good thing.  And to force people to pay taxes and then to transfer the tax money to billionaires is a good thing.

Cranky Greg sees nothing good in it.  All he sees is hypocrisy.  If Welfare Queen Jones is going to use the public coffers to enhance his own wealth, he should be forced to turn over most of the profits to the taxpayers.

Welfare Queen Jones is a pig.  A greedy pig.