One Sided Debates – Not An American Tradition
by Richard David Boyle
Recently a “forum” was held at the Operating Engineers Hall in Redlands in which only one candidate for the 3rd District Board of Supervisors, James Ramos, was invited by the Democratic Party Club to speak on the issues. American history would have been much different if Abe Lincoln was not allowed in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates and in fact until recently open public debates were the only way voters could tell if a candidate was lying or waging an expensive smear campaign with money from shady contributors.
If Lincoln was barred from those debates, we may have endured the crime of slavery much longer and had a different Civil War outcome. Ralph Nader, the Green Party Candidate, was barred from the 2000 Presidential debate by Frank Fahrenkop, the chair of the Presidential Debate Commission in 2000 because he was considered a fringe candidate. Later the Democratic Party would scream this fringe candidate cost Al Gore the election. Fahrenkop is now CEO of the American Gaming Association, which donates huge amounts to both parties and lobbies for casinos such as San Manuel which makes millions of dollars tax free and was investigated in 2006 and 2007 for murder for hire plots, drug dealing and money laundering for the La Eme, the Mexican Mafia.
I debated Ramos twice when I ran against him for the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees in 2010 and he would not talk about his actions while on the tribal board or about any murder for hire plots hatched at the casino VIP room and would probably say in fact he was a target by another tribal faction himself. Ramos does go around with armed guards in a bullet proof van. Ramos was sure he always had a friendly moderator at any forum and only his cronies were allowed on the program, such as at Crafton Hills College.when Gloria Harrison, then college president, accepted large campaign donations for her string of newspapers and only those candidates who paid up were allowed on the student forum program,
Governor Jerry Brown this year appointed Ramos to the state Board of Education, despite DEA investigations of racketeering and murder plots at San Manuel. Jerry Brown was Governor in 1976 when he first met Jim Jones, founder of Jonestown. The Democratic Party leadership then appointed the Peoples Temple preacher to the powerful San Francisco Housing Authoity. Democrats Brown and San Francisco District Attorney Joseph Freitas lavished praised on Jones at a dinner in his honor in 1976 depiste a report from the Los Angeles Police that Jones was arrested for in 1973 for seeking sex from a male in a public bathroom and from Temple members that he sexually abused children, both boys and girls. DA Freitas even appointed Jones top legal adviser as his Deputy DA to head up the new “electon fraud” unit.
The question might be asked why did Brown and Freitas so favor a man who would later murder in Guyana 909 of his followers, including 303 children, by forcing them at gunpoint to drink poison cool aid. The answer is simple. Just as Ramos gave millions of dollars to Jerry Brown and San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos, Jones could muster 3000 church volunteers who would work all day going door to door and that could and often did swing close elections.
The San Manuel murder record does not yet rank with Jonestown, but there is the case of James Seay, brother of pro football superbowl hero Mark Seay. James Seay got into a argument with casino goons at the San Manuel members owned Brass Key nightclub in Highland. Seay was shot seven times by casino thugs, but according a San Bernardino Police homicide detective who investitgated Seay’s murder, District Attorney Michael Ramos refused to file charges in that attempted murder. Seay sued the casino and settled for about $250,000 and was then chased by two teen Latino killers through his mother’s house and gunned down on the lawn. Again, despite overwhemling evidence of casino involvement, no charges were ever filed. “It is still an ongoing investigation,” the detective told me and I asked if the half millions dollars the James Ramos’ chaired casino “donated” to DA Mike Ramos had anything to do with the refusal to prosecute the murderers. “I never got a dime of it,” the detective told me.
In the tradition of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, James Ramos should debate incumbent Supervisor Neil Derry, with a truly impartial moderator who would allow the audience to ask tough questions, such as was DA Mike Ramos filing of charges against Derry for perjury a politically motivated “selective prosecution.” Derry attacked DA Ramos because the County was forced to pay about $140,000 to fight a lawsuit by a female district attorney’s office employee on charges of firing after sexual advances and an affair. Derry did plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Also, how much did James Ramos know about the murder of James Seay, and attempted murder of Leonard Epps, a lawsuit case that is going to trial this year. Lastly, exactly how many voting members of the tribe are there, 32 or 200 and how much do they make tax free every month and how much did they really give to Jerry Brown and Michael Ramos or was they any “pay to play” deal?
Richard David Boyle was a former national security adviser to Congressman Pete McCloskey, who led impeachment of Nixon and ending the war in Vietnam. Boyle was twice wounded as a combat reporter and was a Khmer Rouge POW in 1975. He is presently living in Forest Falls and Philippines and is President of Teachers for a Change. www.teachersforachange.biz