Sometimes you can go home again

I’m a car guy. What that means is that I have a fascination, akin to obsession, regarding certain aspects of cars and trucks.

When I was a kid, most of our cars were not new. These cars frequently malfunctioned, and at an early age I was introduced into the art of being a shade-tree mechanic. That’s a misnomer, because we mostly worked on the cars out in the dirt road. And I mean right down in the dirt, lying under the car, having oil and other fluids dripping in your face. In the winter you couldn’t feel your fingers, in the summer you couldn’t touch metal left in the sun.

During my first couple of years in college, I attempted to turn away from my legacy. I decided to pursue matters of the intellect and forsake the dirty arts. Alas, the first time my car wouldn’t start, I had three hippies trying to advise me. I had to intervene before one of them hooked up the jumper cables backwards. Thereafter, I adhered to the path of righteousness.

I bought a little ’63 Ford Falcon; 6-cylinder, three-on-the-tree. My Dad and I started tweaking more miles per gallon out of it. Play with the spark timing, adjust the carburetor float level, run a multi-viscosity oil, acquire steel-belt radial tires and pump ‘em up to the max. We succeeded in increasing the mpg from 22 to 27, which was phenomenal in the early 70’s.

Right now, I’m driving my ’83 Rabbit diesel pickup around the county with a campaign sign attached. I’ve had the pickup about nine years, but I’ve had the engine and tranny for twenty-five. I took them out of my legendary ’81 Rabbit sedan when it had close to 300k on it. (The Rabbit is now a project in progress, which means it’s parked in the weeds up in Corning.) The current pickup engine is a 1.6 liter naturally-aspirated four cylinder diesel. It has never been rebuilt, although it broke a radiator hose in 1994 when someone else was driving it, and ran it till it quit. So the cylinder head has been off a few times.

I took the truck for a test run the other day, about a hundred miles. By the way, test runs are very important. You fix or change or adjust something, then you drive the car and see what it does. On that test run, at freeway speeds, the truck achieved 40 mpg. It should do a little better at slower speeds.

Back in early 2008, when fuel prices were going crazy and apocalypse seemed near, I filled the pickup’s fuel tank as a hedge against a possible scarcity of fuel. Prior to last week, I had used possibly 5 gallons out of the 30 that the tank holds. I consulted my mentor, Willie Blakely of Chico VW. He told me that I needed to do something with that diesel, not just leave it in the tank. “Best to run it out”, he said.

So essentially I’ve got 25 gallons of free fuel, a potential thousand miles of campaign driving. It may look like I’m traveling off to far-flung parts of Butte County, but in reality I’m coming home.

Ramsey doesn't keep you safe

On his signs and in his television ads, Ramsey proclaims that he is “Keeping Butte County Safe.” That’s strange. I’ve lived in North-east Chico for nine years, and we now have gang shootings and drive-bys.

However, the real question is: Whose job is it to keep the county safe?
Answer, not the District Attorney’s office. It is tasked with prosecution after a crime has occurred, not before. The more brutal, sensational and unpredictable the crime, the more obvious it is that the DA has no power to prevent such crimes, and can only react after the fact.

If not the DA, then who keeps us safe? Take a look in the mirror, my friend. Each of us has the personal duty to live our lives cautiously, to refrain from heedlessly walking out into traffic, and to keep ourselves out of harm’s way. We also have a moral duty to monitor and watch out for those less able: The very young, the very old, the disabled. Only when events escalate into the danger zone must we seek professional help.

We’re talking basic law enforcement here. It’s the Chico Police Department for the East Avenue area where I live, with the Butte County Sheriff’s Office for the unincorporated pockets. Over by the College, you’ll see the University Police. And of course, up on the freeway, it’s the CHP.

When Ramsey says he is keeping Butte County safe, he is distorting the truth. When he embraces that distortion, and makes it his campaign theme song, he does so with reckless negligence.

During the course of a jury trial, there comes a time when the judge reads the jury its instructions. One of those instructions goes more or less like this: “If you find the testimony of any witness to be unreliable in one instance, you may disregard the remainder of his or her testimony in whole or part.”

If Ramsey can’t tell the truth on his campaign signs, why should you believe anything else he says?

The lackluster consumer that I am

In this bipolar political world we inhabit, it is hard to avoid being pinned with some kind of label. For example, I am routinely described as “liberal”, whereas I would describe myself as an unincorporated amalgam of at least all of the following: Liberal, cautious, skeptic, frugal, intellectual, laborer, anarchist, enlightened redneck.

One thing that I have never considered myself to be is a “tree-hugger”, which is not to say that I am oblivious of the need to conserve. My wife, Kristy, and I live moderately. We have three operating vehicles: 2003 VW Jetta, 2007 VW Eos, 1983 VW pickup. The two newer cars have 4-cylinder gas engines that will get in excess of 30 mpg on the highway, without sacrificing power. The VW diesel pickup just got a solid 40 mpg on a test run.

Kristy and I keep the house thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer. We have a whole house fan. I am well-acquainted with the crawl-space under the roof, and have spent many hours augmenting the insulation. I hate paying PG&E, and I do believe it is best to conserve energy.

At our house, we don’t buy much stuff, and we throw away even less. When we get tired of eating left-overs, the doggies get them. We compost all vegetable matter from the kitchen, and everything except tree branches from the yard.

After starting this post, it occurred to me that there are some particular trees that I am quite fond of. When I was a 4th grader at Independent School, I became the proud recipient of a Ponderosa Pine seedling. I planted it in a vacant stretch of our yard. By the mid 90’s it was 35 feet tall and about 16 inches in diameter at the base. Then came the big storm in 1997. When the storm ended, the tree was listing at a 45-degree angle, threatening my Mom’s garage. I drove over from Chico with my chainsaw. I tied the tree off with a rope, and then climbed up and cut off the top of the tree. Back on the ground, I hitched a come-along to the tree and cranked until it was as near straight as I could make it. I then tied a rope to the fence and secured the tree with a trucker’s knot. It stayed that way till the ground got hard in late spring. After a year or two, the tree sent a branch up that replaced the missing treetop.

I guess the reason that I went to all that trouble to save the tree is that I was sort of attached to it. Maybe I am a damn tree-hugger after all.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Anthony Peyton Porter, in his Chico N&R article of 5/21/10, stated that I showed promise of being “real” and “human”. Thank you, Anthony.

You see, to be human is the antithesis of PAU (Politics As Usual). PAU decrees that a political candidate reduce his essence to a catchy, yet vague slogan. Thereafter he will assault the voters with a veritable barrage of tv ads, mailers, signs and other campaign garbage. PAU mandates that each particle of information be massaged and scrutinized to avoid offense to any potential voter.

All that PAU crap makes me gag. In my blog, I’ve been striving to reveal myself through my writing. Perceptive readers understand that when one openly expresses his or her thoughts, the true person is inevitably exposed.

There are thousands in Butte County who know me on some level. Tuesday and Thursday mornings I walk through the hallways of the main court in Oroville, carrying my plastic box full of CPS files. I’ve eaten at Chico’s La Comida and Italian Cottage restaurants for years. I’ve wandered through Kragen, OSH and Home Depot in my dirty work clothes. I’ve danced many times in the City Plaza in my signature tie-dyed tank tops.

I’m a good choice to replace Ramsey because of the following:

I am real smart. I learn quickly. I am patient and can control my temper. I can interpret the language of law into the common tongue. I am intimately acquainted with criminal law and the Butte County court system. I am accomplished in legal research and the writing of motions, writs and appeals. I understand the human pain that goes hand-in-hand with the legal process.

You see, whatever I am; good, bad or ugly; it’s all visible and can’t be hidden. Ramsey tries to hide his persona, but over time, his essence has been revealed. Suffice it to say that Ramsey repels and alienates many, many people. Finally, we don’t know what Lance Daniel is all about, and we won’t before June 8th. But it’s a moot issue. Daniel is not one of us.

I’ll close with a quote from one of the lesser-recognized philosophers and cartoon heroes.

As Popeye sez: “I yam what I yam.”

At least throw Ramsey out

In my campaign blog, I said that North Korea and Libya are examples of countries where strongmen have ruled for decades, and that such is anathema to the American way. I was making a comparison to Ramsey’s 23-year reign. A reader has asked if I meant this to apply to Jane Dolan’s 32-year tenure. The answer is no.

There’s big differences between being a county supervisor and being head honcho District Attorney. There are five supervisors, therefore no one supervisor can run the show. County supervisors share power with towns, cities, California, and the Federal government. By contrast, the DA shares power with no one, and is only minimally answerable to the Attorney General or the Grand Jury. Short of recall or indictment, the only way to extract a recalcitrant DA is to unelect him.

I was also asked if I endorse Jane Dolan, or anyone, for that matter. Again, no. As an independent (and temporary public figure), I am not seeking or dispensing endorsements. As a private citizen, I will cast my absentee ballot within the privacy of my home in absolute confidentiality. The entire purpose of my campaign is to address issues that I deem germane to the DA’s race. I’m not running for other offices and will not comment upon them.

The rebel part of me whispers “Why don’t they throw everyone out?” The more temperate approach is to urge robust challenges to all incumbents. Those incumbents that survive such challenges are the true choice of the people.

Ramsey's specious logic

Perry Reniff, retired Butte County Sheriff, recently wrote a letter to the ER praising Mike Ramsey. In his conclusion, Reniff stated : “The DA’s office, like any other business, must be managed by an experienced professional leader.”

Well, Perry, the DA’s office is not a business. Businesses supply goods or services in exchange for money. That’s not how the DA’s office is supposed to work.
Most small businesses are managed by the owner. Appearances to the contrary, Mike Ramsey does not own the DA’s office.
On a corporate scale, there would be shareholders, directors, and CEO’s. The DA’s office is not a corporation either. Actually, it’s a bureaucracy funded by public money and managed by an elected official.

The key word here is “elected.” In other words, every four years there could be a change of guard. Such change is actually encouraged by the election codes. There are only two legal requirements for DA candidates: (1) They must be California licensed lawyers, (2) who live in Butte County. This means that a very wide range of lawyers could conceivably be elected as District Attorney: Family law practitioners, corporate lawyers, or legislative wonks who have never set foot in court.

With this sort of fluidity built into the law, any district attorney’s office must be organized so that periodic changes of leadership can occur with minimum disruption. It’s not an outlandish idea. All over our great state, there are routine transfers of power every four years or so. Everywhere except the Butte County DA’s office, that is.

According to Ramsey, the DA position cannot be filled by anyone who lacks his long years as head DA, which is 23 and counting. Ramsey seems to forget that he himself was appointed when his predecessor abruptly resigned. If “experience” is essential, then by definition Ramsey was doing a piss-poor job during his first few years as DA.

By his own admission, during the last 23 years Ramsey has apparently tweaked his office into a bastardized creation that “only he can run.” In the brutal world of politics, when the “shareholders” finally rebel, there will be no fat stock options or golden parachutes. It will simply be: “Hit the road, Mike.”

On political ethics

Some years ago, my wife and I went to see a band at a place called The Palms. During the break, we went outside for some air. This guy walked up and started hassling me about the 2002 DA race. He was shouting: “You screwed up the campaign in 2002. You could have taken Ramsey down. You didn’t go for the jugular!”

I knew the fellow, because I had represented him during criminal proceedings before the 2002 campaign. Ironically, he lacked the capacity to vote because of his prison record. Nonetheless, I knew exactly what he was getting at: I had been aware of certain rumors concerning Ramsey’s family, and I chose not to address or employ those rumors in my 2002 campaign.

I’ll say it again: I’m not doing politics as usual. My own personal book of ethics decrees that there are certain areas that should not be ventured into. You shouldn’t mention a candidate’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or skin color. You shouldn’t discuss your opponent’s height, weight, or medical condition. You should avoid all references to bedroom, bathroom and medicine cabinet.

On the other hand, Mike Ramsey has been District Attorney for a generation, which makes him into a public figure. He has transformed the office into a reflection of himself. That means that his narcissistic attraction to the television camera is open to comment, as well as his ghoulish tendency to share gory details of high–profile cases.

But back to ethics: First and foremost, never disparage a candidate’s family.
It has now come to my attention that a certain comment regarding Ramsey’s kin has been posted on the FaceBook page of Lance Daniel.

I am no fan of Mike Ramsey. At the moment, he is my “political enemy.” But I condemn anyone who would smear Ramsey’s family. Only a loser would seek victory with such tactics. We don’t do politics that way in our county.