Virginia Beach Councilwoman Rita Sweet Bellitto To Resign Effective June 18th

Bellitto (Pic | sweet4council.com)

According to Bellitto, “My husband was offered a very good promotion with The Boeing Company, and I need to do what’s in the best interest of my family.” City Attorney Mark Stiles says that council will appoint a temporary replacement with a special election to be held this November to fill out the remainder of her term. Bellitto herself had previously been appointed to fill now Delegate Ron Villanueva’s seat and then won herself a full term last November by beating out a fairly large field of challengers. Bellitto served in one of the two at-large seats, the other being held by Councilman Bill DeSteph.

In an at-large election, the top two vote getters win the seat, so you may be thinking; well who came in third place? The answer would be former City Councilman John Moss and he announced last night via email that he will be running in the special election. You can read an excerpt from the announcement below:

“I Appreciate all the calls and emails asking me to run, as well as to put my name in the hat for the interim appointment. This is to let you know that on behalf of the 26,000 plus voters that joined with us last November, I will carry our pro jobs, pro residents, and pro fiscally conservative message to the voters in the Special Election this November to fill the seat being vacated by Rita this month.”

This should be an interesting race to watch and an even more interesting selection process. Dave Redmond of Bill DeSteph Genie commercial fame was the pick of Mayor Sessoms and the Virginia Beach Establishment last time around. Will he be the one appointed? Only time will tell…

Congressman Forbes Removes $30 Million for Carrier Move From Budget

This is great news for the local military industrial complex and bad news for Mayport, FL. It’s also bad news for national security, because while permanently basing the carrier in Mayport is a bad idea, the port certainly should be dredged to accommodate a fully loaded aircraft carrier in case of emergencies. Right now a carrier must offload a significant amount of fuel and its flight wings to make it in without scraping the bottom of the harbor.

Forbes (Pic | forbes.house.gov)

If you aren’t familiar with why its a bad idea to base a carrier in Mayport, I invite you to read this General Assembly Resolution that was unanimously passed in 2010. Just as a point of personal privilege, I actually drafted the initial resolution with Kenny Golden (USN Ret.) right behind me as I typed on the computer. We then gave it to Delegate Chris Stolle for one of the happiest moments of our Congressional Campaign.

Norfolk School Board Will Not Ask Council For More Money

I’ve been sick all week, so unfortunately I was unable to make this meeting. Thanks to some grant money and lower than expected increases in health care costs, the School Board won’t be needing extra money from the city after all.

Residents Ask Norfolk To Do More With Less At Budget Hearing

Who would have thought Norfolk would come through with a budget that cuts spending and doesn’t raise taxes while neighboring Virginia Beach, with a solid GOP majority on council, didn’t even come close to that? Had I never met City Manager Marcus Jones, I probably would have never guessed it either.

According to the article, “There were the usual pleas for pay increases for city employees, cost-of-living raises for retirees and more money for school construction. But many among the estimated 250 who came out Wednesday night for a public hearing on the budget seemed to allow that it’s time to make do with less.”

“The way Marcus reached out to people and got them engaged in the process makes a lot of people feel like this is a very fair budget,” Mayor Paul Fraim said. “Marcus has won over a lot of hearts.”

Amen to that, because he certainly has won myself over as well as many other die-hard Norfolk City Government skeptics.

Now on to the national news and world news

First GOP Presidential Debate Today In South Carolina

Mitt Romney won’t be there, neither will Newt Gingrich, but Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain will be. Ron Paul supporters have been plotting a big fund raising drive for today which has already raised Dr. Paul $344k, according to his website. That’s a huge one day haul for anyone and especially for someone few are looking at as a serious candidate. The debate starts at 9pm on Fox News, so if you can bring yourself to even turn on Fox News, I would encourage you to watch.

Dollar Hits 3 Year Low as Food Prices Continue To Skyrocket

Shadow of a dollar, get it? (Pic | Svilen.milev)

Our currency keeps getting weaker and weaker as food prices keep getting higher and higher. Are the two related? You bet they are. Combine that with the flooding along the Mississippi River as they blow up levees to prevent even worse flooding, and you have a recipe for run away inflation and some serious hurt to the American consumer. Don’t worry though, I’m working with some people to come up with a replacement/supplement for the dollar for when everything hits the fan. Want a preview? Check out The Barter Authority, The International Reciprocal Trade Association, and their Universal Currency.

Interactive Map of Food Stamps Recipients

About 1 in 7 American’s receive food stamps. I personally think this is totally depressing. Fixing this does not mean giving these people more government assistance, but finding a way for these people to have decent paying jobs. However, if we don’t get our financial house in order soon, the dollar value of their food stamps won’t be enough to buy a loaf of bread, let alone feed a whole family.

Osama Bin Laden is dead according to Multiple Sources

Bin Laden is dead, there is no doubt about that one, but the Obama administration’s story is full of more holes than Swiss cheese.

First they release a picture of Obama and his team watching the firefight in real time on the video screen in the Situation Room. Then it comes out that there was no video of the raid at all.

First they say his wife was killed and used as shield while Osama fired back at the SEALs. Then they say no woman was used as a shield, no shots were fired by Bin Laden as he was unarmed. According to this report, only one person in the entire compound was armed and got off a shot.

Supposedly they confirmed the death through DNA testing, but the sample they used was from Bin Laden’s mother. You don’t need a PhD in Chemistry to know that a sample from someone’s mother is going to end up showing a positive if a test done in less than 24 hours on anyone directly related to her. Bin Laden’s son was killed in the raid as well; had they tested him, it would have shown he was Bin Laden as far as DNA is concerned. As it turns out, the US reportedly took one of Bin Laden’s other sons with them when they left the compound.

Apparently the SEAL team didn’t have a tape measure and had to guesstimate Bin Laden’s height by laying down in a pool of blood to confirm how tall he was. That definitely makes for a great bio-metric ID, about as great as facial recognition on someone who just took a bullet in the face.

The administration won’t release photos, albeit for understandable reasons, conspiracy theories aside. However, they dumped his body in the ocean within 24 hours, which only makes things look even more unbelievable.

Did the Pakistani’s help? Some say no, some say yes. The qualifier I’ve read in every book pulling from White House conversations always included the  statement “if he is alive, the ISI has him.” We’ve also known that close to half the money we give to the ISI goes directly to help the Taliban, but that’s a different matter entirely. Go pick up a Bob Woodward book if you want to read more on that one or you can read this story about a Wikileaks cable.

So is Bin Laden dead? That’s for certain. When did he die? Well, that’s up to you to decide. He was on his veritable death bed in 2001 when he was visited by the CIA just before 9/11. The man needed a kidney dialysis machine just to stay alive and had a rare genetic disorder called Marfan Syndrome. Both made his life expectancy extremely short. Was there a dialysis machine in the compound? I have yet to see a report on that one. I really have not made up my mind yet as to when he died, but I do know one thing for certain:

If we killed him in that raid, we should have kept the body for medical research. Anyone with his medical problems that could survive for a decade after being given only months to live is a veritable medical miracle. Maybe some of that DNA holds the secret to eternal life?