Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Run Ron Run

By Mark Ross, Contribuing Writer

Is it me… or does anyone else think that it’s sort of curious that mayoral candidates are lining up in Oakland… as if the incumbent has announced his retirement… which he hasn’t? Talk about foregone conclusions.



Another question: Is Don Perata the man to save Oakland?

Or, is he going to do for Oakland what he has already done for California… get termed out just as the enterprise goes off a financial cliff. Oh, that’s right… Oakland is already off the cliff.

Here’s a rephrase: Does Don Perata have any financial talent whatsoever? He’s a prodigious fund raiser. So prodigious in fact that the FBI found him extremely interesting… that is until Democrats took over the Department of Justice. In practice, however, prodigious fund raising tends to be connected with profligate spending. Not a good sign.

Back to Ronald V. Dellums. Why would I or anybody suggest that he continue his breathtakingly inept tenure as Oakland’s chief executive? I really don’t want him in the job… I never have. I want to stir the pot.

Oakland and environs are the sole political property of the left-wing Democrat establishment. Period. They are at war with common sense.

To improve the competitive advantage of common sense it is best to divide the enemy into as many disparate factions as is possible. Dellums has a loyal constituency -- who knows why -- that represents votes that would be torn away from Perata, Quan, DeLaFuente, Hans Reiser, whoever.
A good reason for the lack of success of conservative political agendas is that conservatives just aren’t as ruthless as the neo-Marxists. Maybe that should change.

Just to further befuddle the point… I tend to subscribe to the Groucho (not Karl) Marx philosophy. He said “I’d never join a club that would have me as a member.”

I paraphrase: I’m reluctant to vote for a candidate who would actually want to win an election. William F. Buckley once ran for mayor of New York City. A reporter asked him what would be the first thing he would do if elected. “Demand a recount” was his answer.

A partial explanation for the expanding chaos of public sector institutions is the selection process that empowers the decision makers. The presidency is the most obvious example. We have invested way too much power in a single mortal being. Only the most driven, megalomaniacal control freak would seek such a punishing situation.

Ronald V. Dellums and Oakland are microcosmic analogs of this problem. Dellums’ perceived failure as mayor has been enhanced by his complete lack of executive experience.

The voters assumed that success as a member of congress (who never drafted any significant legislation) would easily translate into mayoral success. Lions of the Left have some kind of mysterious talent for making things work -- so they think.

(Matier & Ross just wrote that Dizzy Debbie Edgerly, in her suit against Oakland, claimed that Dellums’ wife, Cynthia, wanted Debbie to use city funds to pay the Dellums’ PG&E bill for May of 2008. The bill was $1,600. Now that’s a carbon footprint that would make even Sasquatch blush.)

Chip Johnson, a few years ago, wrote in the Chronicle that a significant impediment to running Oakland is the whole menagerie of agenda pushers. You have your tenants’ rights pimps, public employee unions, tree huggers, illegal alien huggers, vagrant huggers, public safety advocates, paroled felon huggers, medicinal pot merchants, developers and open space huggers. I’m sure I left many out, but brevity is the soul of something.

Why Dellums ever wanted to be mayor remains a mystery. He could have made a lot more money arranging government grants for the likes of the Black Muslim Bakery. But the lure of conspicuous public eminence was too strong to resist.

Should it come to pass that the various “progressive” cliques that monopolize our local political processes start warring with each other, in a way more severe and littered with casualties than in the past, then a focused campaign for common sense would have a better shot at coming in ahead of the pack.

Divide and conquer. Annnnnnnnd, a Dellums candidacy for re-election would be a major plus in this direction.

Run Ron Run! It’s got a ring to it. So, let’s start an ad hoc “Re-elect Ron Dellums Committee.” Nothing official… just a reason for the old man’s political hormones to start flowing again. Who needs comedians when our alleged “leaders” are even bigger buffoons.

9 comments:

  1. I've found some valuable ideas in this blog and try to read it often. Unfortunate, though, that the good stuff is couched in smirking catchphrases, wild exaggeration, and veiled racism. It's like reading a bright child -- the brightest spawned by the union of Ann Coulter and Patrick Buchanan.

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  2. i would almost welcome one candidate from each of these god-awful bleeding heart liberals and one good conservative. Maybe just maybe, we can get some real change! Change I can believe in.

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  3. I don't think too highly of Don Perata, but didn't know the dems were running the local justic department. Last I looked it was John Russinielo. I agree with charlie, some disturbing inuendo in what would otherwise be thoughtful discourse.

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  4. i think that tom delay or karl rove were every bit as ruthless as any leftist anywhere.

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  5. I enjoy your score keeping on Mandela Foods vs. 99cent store.

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  6. I liked the column. I do want to know who conservatives may put up to run- who will be bold enough? Karl Rove or Tom Delay may have been as ruthless as any leftist but they aren't running in jOakland nor for any CA office- they are 2 sides of the same coin. The reason why I am a registered Republican is not so much that I agree with everything the dysfunctinal national Republican party says but because the local Democrats are socialists and we could really benefit from a 2 party system (and no not the socialists and democrats.) Funny but I think everything Dellums promised has come to pass- one wonders which idiots voted for him and if they see anything wrong with his performance- he was even smart enough to make the voters enlist him. Of course it was all downhill after that.

    I am hoping that the Edgerly case goes to trial just to open up the records at city hall. OAK government says they cannot possibly cut but they have agreed under democrat rule to the golden pensions/benefits which I realize are tied to SF's b/c all pub employee unions are tied in together- well OAK is not SF- we've got so little driving this economy, no panache and no great resources, high crime.

    The platform of a new mayor could just be to give people and businesses a reason to locate here. That would be enough (and that may save our city.)

    Finally mayor fuzzy offers no comic relief - except if you think Where's waldo is funny. he has disppeared

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  7. Good points. I bumped into "Fuzzy" in the parking lot of the Lincoln Square Snakeway. I almost went up to him and axed "Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Cooler heads prevailed. An Edgerly trial would be a feast for the mind.

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  8. I find it astonishing that Mark Ross had the audacity to write - supposedly with a straight face - that Don Perata's troubles went away once "Dems took over Dept of Justice". No wonder this country is in such trouble - the unfathomable pile of misinformation & lies spewing from all corners. 1) Perata's investigation was begun under the BUSH Dept of InJustice; 2) Perata's investigation should have come to a halt when the Bush-appointed US attorneys in the SF area said they would not - COULD NOT - prosecute due to lack of evidence; 3) the case was then picked up - by most legal experts account, picked up ILLEGALLY - by the Bush-appointed USAG in Sacramento; 4) Even HE couldn't find enough evidence to take Perata or anyone associated with him into a courtroom.

    Sadly, this is just one of over 17 cases I researched over the past 2 years where Bush-appointed USAGs went after high-profile Democratic electeds and/or contributors where the evidence was staggeringly absent. You wanna peel sour grapes that your comrades lost in November? At least do it with FULL DISCLOSURE. I'm sick to death of partisan pseudo-journalism, and if you're writing a blog that portends to tell the truth about issues, you are pathetically in the category of journalist. Thus the sorry state of our nation. PS - the Obama health care plan doesn't include a panel that votes to put senior citizens to death. Just thought I'd hit the ground running on your next rightwing misinfo campaign.

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  9. Anastazi-So the case against the dapper & dandy don was dismissed- don't you find it all curious that in 2006 he took money from Indian gaming while sponsoring an Indian gaming bill- the new Indian giving.

    How about the lavish lifestyle the don leads- how come one cannot follow where the money comes from. He claims that money to buy a box @raiders came from political campaign contributions 9or maybe the 3R's) Look when pols get big donations those who donate get a big voice on all those gov't $ to be doled out, so as a good lib aren't you at all curious about these connections?
    The Perata cup?
    Following the money of this guy is important don't you think?

    And the obama healthcare plan well it's not even his but it doesn't cure what ails healthcare. Just by better simple sanitary conditions/protocols 100,000 lives in US could be saved, open up interstate insurance co's, tort reform, blood clots after surgery kill a preventable 200,000 yr., how come it is impossible to rank medical services and see a "consumer report" of cost and benefit for Dr.'s Hospitals & procedures, this reform cements bad procedures in place. The use of insurance to fund all health care of course raises costs, how come we are so technologically backward in healthcare? this "reform" does nothing to reform the system. Medicare spends 2x in Dallas than Salem Or- because there are more Dr.s & specialists in Dallas not that life expectancy is higher or care is better. Health care demand has no limit especially if the gov't is paying for it. We need to pay for things ourselves like any other service and become better stewards of our bodies, more responsible for our own actions rather than having someone else do that and pay for these treatments - of course there is a roll for insurance- but one should see the costs, be able to shop and pay for maintenance of your own self. that is reform I can believe in.

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