Free Republic

When bank robbery suspect Elmer Reyes crashed his getaway car on Interstate 880 in the East Bay, he told the officers who arrested him that the bad economy made him commit the crime. And when Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums responded to a spree of takeover robberies at restaurants in the city this month, he also blamed poor economic times as a motive for the crimes."The desperation of these crimes speaks to the broader issue of where we are in terms of this economy," the Quiet Mayor said. "When people become this desperate, they take desperate acts and we have to...

He is incredibly compassionate.He is incredibly reticent when faced with making decisions. And as a result, his handling of the Deborah Edgerly affair was an incredible disaster.That's pretty much how Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' aides, past aides, city department heads, politicos and longtime friends explained his apparent inability to deal with Edgerly after it came to light that the city administrator had possibly injected herself into a police investigation of her nephew."You have to understand, he's never fired anyone - that's not his style," said one friend who has worked with Dellums since his days as a congressman. "He always...

OAKLAND — Mayor Ron Dellums announced Tuesday that City Administrator Deborah Edgerly will be allowed to stay at her post until July 31, even as she faces increasing criticism for possibly interfering with a police investigation. Dellums and Edgerly said that under a months-old agreement, Edgerly will retire July 31. Dellums said Edgerly's retirement has nothing to do with recent allegations that she intervened on behalf of a nephew, William Lovan, 27, in the police department's ongoing investigation of the Acorn gang of West Oakland. "What's important is that this is about the announcement of a decision that was made...

Whether Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly leaves office quietly or fights tooth and nail to keep her job, it's time for a higher authority to take a look at operations inside Oakland City Hall during her term in office. This wasn't the first time that Edgerly has intervened on behalf of a co-worker, friend or family member, police sources say: -- Two years ago, Edgerly and Assistant City Administrator Cheryl Thompson showed up and made similar threats when police arrested Thompson's son, also a city employee, for disorderly conduct outside a bar in downtown Oakland. He remains a city employee....

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, nearly 18 months in office, still reacts like a rookie to the most important events that affect the lives of city residents. When major breaking news has occurred while he was away, Dellums' office has issued generic, one-paragraph statements that are not only vague but leave the impression that he doesn't understand the city and the impact that such events have on the people who live there. His dispatches from afar no doubt are intended to convey a sense that the mayor is on the case, but they have the opposite effect - highlighting his emotional,...

North Oakland shopkeeper Scott Silvera tried for months to get Mayor Ron Dellums' attention about the explosion of crime in his neighborhood. Finally, fed up, he vowed to stop paying sales taxes until he heard from the mayor's office. Silvera is still waiting. But he did get an official visit the other day - from a representative of the state Franchise Tax Board, who warned the storekeeper to pay up the taxes he owes.Or else.Silvera, who runs Scout Home Hardware at 5026 Telegraph Ave. in the Temescal neighborhood, says he intends to pay the $3,000. The funny thing is, he...

Former President Bill Clinton listens to a question from the audience about the sub-prime mortgage crisis during a campaign visit for his wife at a barbecue restaurant in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008. Former president Bill Clinton talks to a crowd of about 550 people at the Carson City Fire Department, while stumping for his wife Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in Carson City, Nev., on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008.

<p>Haiti's government, while controlled by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his party, spent $7.3 million between 1997 and 2002 lobbying the U.S. government as more than 80 percent of the country was impoverished.</p> <p>During this time, U.S. funding to Haiti — a typical measure of lobbying success — declined, and its economy foundered, fueling his opposition's successful effort to depose Mr. Aristide last week for the second time in 15 years.</p>

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday responded to a recent spike in Oakland homicides by committing more California Highway Patrol officers to patrol the city, where 79 people have been killed this year. "The violence in Oakland is absolutely unacceptable and represents a serious threat to innocent people," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "We must do everything we can to eliminate that threat." The shooting death of a journalist downtown last week increased awareness of violence in the area. And even as community leaders gathered over the weekend to mourn Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post, gunfire felled seven others...

Just about every proposal Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has pitched since he took office seven months ago has sailed past the City Council. His first, a plan to hire qualified ex-felons for city jobs, was praised for its utility and humanity. And when he asked the council to significantly increase the budget for the mayor's office, not one member of the council questioned it. But now it seems that Dellums' honeymoon with the council and the public is coming to an end. Many residents are weary from the 3-week-old garbage lockout and are looking to Oakland City Hall -- including...

As part of his effort to help ex-felons get jobs and become integrated into society, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums wants to make it easier for them to get jobs with the city, his spokesman, Mike Healy, said Wednesday. Dellums wants to end the requirement that prospective city employees disclose whether they have been convicted of a felony by checking a box on the standard employment application, according to Healy. "There may be some jobs that ex-offenders who aren't violent can come out and do if they're qualified," he said. Healy said applicants for jobs in the Police Department and some...

OAKLAND - With the hopes and expectations of a city riding on his shoulders, Mayor Ron Dellums publicly took the oath of office Monday, becoming Oakland's 48th mayor. In a fiery and eloquent speech, Dellums pledged to end the violence that has long plagued Oakland, limited the city's progress and stained its reputation. "Let us unite to bring peace to the streets of Oakland," Dellums said, bringing the standing-room only crowd at the historic Paramount Theatre to their feet. "Peace is about justice, and we have a responsibility to bring justice to the streets of Oakland." Dellums, 71, reiterated his...

Dellums to engage youths 'as equals' Mayor-elect vows to appoint teenagers, young adults to every city board, commission By Heather MacDonald, Staff writerInside Bay Area Article Last Updated:12/03/2006 02:51:16 AM PST OAKLAND — Mayor-elect Ron Dellums said Saturday morning he would appoint young Oakland residents to every city board and commission in an effort to make sure the voices of teenagers and young adults are heard at City Hall. Dellums, who spoke often during his campaign of his commitment to Oakland's youth, said it doesn't make sense for the Planning Commission, for example, to make decisions about the future...

OAKLAND -- An ebullient Mayor-elect Ron Dellums today embraced voters' endorsement of his vision to make the city a model, saying he will soon set up citizen groups to help him deal with the city's public schools, crime, economic development and other issues when he takes office Jan. 1. "It is a responsibility I accept with honor, humility and optimism," the progressive former congressman, 70, said at a news conference that was his first public appearance since the June 6 election. "We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city." His chief opponent in the race...

Oakland, Calif. -- After nearly two weeks of ballot counting, former Rep. Ron Dellums emerged as the winner of the Oakland mayor's race Saturday when his chief rival said he would not challenge the election results. City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Dellums at home to concede, said Mike Healy, a spokesman for Dellums' campaign. "Ignacio was very gracious," Healy said. "He said he wants to work with Ron for a better Oakland, and that it was a great campaign." De La Fuente campaign officials would not confirm that he made the concession call, but they scheduled a...

For those watching the Oakland mayor's race, there was a bit of news Friday as Ron Dellums slipped below the threshold needed to avoid a runoff, but many more said they simply aren't watching the horse race. World Cup fever. Soaring gas prices. The war in Iraq. Violence in Oakland. Those loom larger on many residents' radar than the mayor's race, in which former Congressman Dellums maintained a significant lead over City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente. Dionecio Espinoza voted for De La Fuente, but he's not fretting over the fact there still was no winner three days after...

Exposing America's Enemies (Part 2): Communist Progressive Democrats Linda Kimball From Exposing America’s Enemies: the ‘Social Justice Seeking’ Communist Left, comes this relevant quote, “For over forty years the New Left has been waging a Gramscian ‘quiet’ revolution for the overthrow of America’s Constitution, Rule of Law, sovereignty, and our way of life. Today the subversives call themselves liberals, progressives, and Democrats (and) as David Horowitz attested to (the majority are) social justice seeking communists. “The Democratic Party is very close to being the (Communist-controlled Progressive) party of Henry Wallace…the vast bulk of the American Left is a communist left.”...

It's starting to get personal in the Oakland mayor's race -- and the focus is front-runner Ron Dellums' post-congressional career as a Washington lobbyist. In their efforts to escape Dellums' shadow, rivals Nancy Nadel and Ignacio De La Fuente are going after the longtime congressman's reputation for political purity. The targets include his refusal to release tax returns, questions over how his profession would be described on the ballot -- and his recent service in the revolving-door ranks of lawmakers-turned-lobbyists. "The voters have a right to know what we've done and what we've earned for the last eight years,'' De...

The "Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors" is an organization which "supports and promotes individual and collective resistance to war and preparations for war", according to its website. Among the resources available on the website are How-to guides on being AWOL, various reasons for getting out of the military, as well as a list of reasons one should not join the US military. The following picture on its website illustrates the goal of the organization: This organization lists among its sponsors former Democratic congressman Ronald Dellums of California. Dellums was an anti-war, anti-military radical who created a stir during the Vietnam...

OAKLAND -- Former U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums ended months of speculation today and announced he will run for election as Oakland mayor next year in a move that shakes up the race to succeed Jerry Brown. Dellums' announcement came after months of urging by community activists, including a drive by independent volunteers who collected about 8,000 signatures begging the former congressman to run for office in his hometown. He credited that network with helping him make his decision. Dellums, a 69-year-old former Marine, served 28 years in the House of Representatives before retiring in 1998.

Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist Party that ruled Cambodia from 1976-1979. "Khmer Rouge" (or Khmer Reds) was the French rendering of the organization’s official name: the "Communist Party of Cambodia," later the "Party of Democratic Kampuchea" and also the "Communist Party of Kampuchea," or CPK. (Kampuchea is the local name for Cambodia.) Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar in what is now the province of Kompong Thong, Cambodia in 1925. He came from a prosperous farming family that in 1931 moved to the capital, Phnom Penh, where the young Pol Pot learned some of...

On January 18 Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, told a placard-waving anti-war crowd: "The greatest patriots of this country are here today...The president said it'd be a cold day in Washington before this country turns against this war, but it is a cold day in Washington and here we are." Apart from Conyers nasty insinuation people who disagree with his leftwing views about war against the genocidal Saddam are not patriotic, what can we deduce from his presence? Well, for one, Rep. does not like America and prefers the company of totalitarians to that of genuine democrats. And how...

The passions of war in a divided nation can be not only unpleasant, but dangerous as well. They can tie our hands, weaken our resolve, and make us vulnerable to those who are determined to destroy us. But when lives are at stake – and those lives are our own – it is easy to abandon common civilities and to think of our opponents as an enemy camp vying for the right and the power to determine our fates. In these circumstances it is easy to forget the ties that bind us, and that we are, when all is said...

“We must develop instead a new world order in which the United Nations, regional organizations,constructive diplomacy and equitable development policies lead to a reduction of the economic,social, cultural and political tensions that foster these spasms of violence and human rights abuse..... “If the new world order is to move us past nationalism, then even the proprietor of the world's most powerful military force must be prepared to conform to a perhaps laboriously created international consensus...... “Progressives have an opportunity to enter this debate and to convince our families, colleagues and neighbors that we need not fear and have much to...