This is simply surreal! Seriously, the highest law enforcement figure in the State of Virginia believes the President of the United States is not rightfully elected? I’m sorry, can Virginia look any worse in the eyes of the country? This bizarre conspiracy theory is simply unfathomable to me.
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The content in the following thread is purely the opinion of the author..
Some of our contributors want a thread on the sins of Frank Principi, Supervisor, Woodbridge Magisterial District, regarding the homeless. The story is in the News and Messenger. You will have to read it there. It is far too convoluted to summarize here. Basically, Supervisor Principi supposedly met with community leaders when he heard that a homeless shelter was way over capacity in hopes of finding solutions. The Chair, Corey Stewart moved into executive session at the last BOCS meeting and the problem was discussed. What has surfaced is a newspaper article that has more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese, rumor and innuendo about sex offenders being placed in schools with school children and Mr. Principi’s fiefdom.
For starters, Virginia Law is rather specific about what executive session can and cannot be used for. Mr. Principi is not an errant employee being taken to task for misdeeds. What was the justification for going in to executive session? (MoM might fill us in here on this one…calling on MoM!) Secondly, if a situation is discussed in executive session, why is it now in the newspaper? By definition, if a situation warrants executive session, isn’t there some responsibility to keep the content of the session private?
Thirdly, if the matter didn’t belong in executive session, where is the sunshine? A full disclosure with all the facts needs to be given to the residents of Prince William County. Right now, the issue is a whisper campaign on steroids and good people get hurt when this sort of story takes on a life of its own.
I certainly hope the supervisors were as ‘aghast’ when the Chairman ordered the Chief of Police back to his office rather than going to a scheduled town hall meeting to educate the immigrant community on changes in the county law. The Chairman also demanded that a laundry list of questions be answered in an hour’s time and acted on his own accord. Additionally, I hope that the supervisors were equally ‘aghast’ when they saw their private email to the chairman appear on a local blog (not this one I might add) without their permission, hours after it had been sent. There had not been sufficient time for a FOIA request to be made. The directive and list of questions to the chief was also on that same blog. Did any of them question the appropriateness of that behavior?
I smell a big election rat behind this story. Someone wants to get re-elected (best Jon Stewart voice). Whether Mr. Principi violated protocol or not, it sounds like his heart was in the right place and that he sought solutions to a very real problem involving real human beings. He looked outside of government fixing every problem and sought the resources of the community, the churches and the private sector. For that, he is to be commended. A simple discussion of protcol handles the other stuff.
The violence caused by warring drug cartels in Mexico is worsening by the day. Over the weekend, Americans were targeted and killed. When does it end?
According to the NYTimes:
UNIÓN, Mexico — Gunmen believed to be linked to drug traffickers shot a pregnant American consulate worker and her husband to death in the violence-racked border town of Ciudad Juárez over the weekend, leaving their baby wailing in the back seat of their car, the authorities said Sunday. The gunmen also killed the husband of another consular employee and wounded his two young children.
Gunmen killed an American consulate worker and her husband in Ciudad Juárez. Their baby was found in the back seat.
The F.B.I. was sending agents to Ciudad Juárez on Sunday.
The shootings took place minutes apart and appeared to be the first deadly attacks on American officials and their families by Mexico’s powerful drug organizations, provoking an angry reaction from the White House. They came during a particularly bloody weekend when nearly 50 people were killed nationwide in drug-gang violence, including attacks in Acapulco as American college students began arriving for spring break.
The Mexican govenment has 10,000 troops in border towns. Secretary of Clinton has sent strong warnings to the Meixican government. Triggering the drug trafficking is competition over the American drug market. What steps can be taken to cut down on Americans and American interests being harmed by this continuing violence? it all seems rather hopeless. Americans use drugs, human beings are greedy. Where is the weak link here?
The Virginia General Assembly just couldn’t help itself. It had to put the sticky fingers into the pension fund before closing for the session.
The State of Virginia is helping itself to more than $620 MILIION that belongs in the state pension fund, VRS, to pay pensions to state employees, some county employees and teachers. Virginia must begin to pay back the money by 2013 at an interest rate of 7.5% over 10 years.
Predictable. So the state who must have a balanced budget doesn’t really have one and the Emperor has no clothes. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:
The provision, sought by the state Senate and included in the joint budget adopted by the General Assembly yesterday, is aimed at easing jitters over the decision to defer state and local payments to pension plans for the portion of future retirement liabilities that aren’t funded by the system.
Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, called the provision the most important step taken by the assembly to protect the retirement system, even as it relies on deferred pension contributions for almost one-fourth of the money used to balance the two-year budget.
“I don’t want anybody to feel that their pension is in jeopardy, because it isn’t,“ Stosch said yesterday. “But we’re recognizing the unfunded liability and requiring it to be repaid.“
But that wasn’t the only important step taken by the legislature to guard the $48 billion retirement system. It also adopted a package of changes that will lower the cost of pensions for future employees by more than $50 million in the next two years and $3 billion over a decade.
The above sounds like politico-speak for “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.” The warm, fuzzy feeling just isn’t there if you have anything to do with the $48 Billion VRS. This sounds like the government doing what the government does best: Robbing Peter to pay Paul. However, there is no free lunch. Retirement ages will increase and a greater part of employee contributions will come of the the employee’s pocket.
This house of cards doesn’t sound like the foundation is real firm:
House budget officials had argued that the deferral would not harm the retirement system because of benefit changes that would reduce long-term costs and a likely recovery of stock market investments.
The VRS lost 21% of its assets during the free fall of 2008. Actually, it ended up better than most individuals. However, I don’t think our lawmakers should be gambling pension money away on the shaky premise that the stock market earnings are going to take up the slack.
Part 2 will continue when more unfolds about the great robbery of 2010. (subtitle: Public Employees: This will only Hurt for the Rest of Your Lives) They just couldn’t keep their grubby mitts out of the pension fund. News is sketchy at this point on the great robbery. If the Washington Post even mentioned it, I didn’t see it. The budget news is overwhelmingly horrible.
NOT ANY MORE. DADDY HAS HIS HAND IN THE POT.
I came upon this movie, Constantines Sword, quite by accident, while uploading movies to watch instantly on the T.V. I was profoundly fascinated, not just by the storyteller and his narrative, but the journey of Christianity and its intersection with Judaism, throughout history. For me, the movie was truly moving, in a very personal sense. When it was over, I wondered, how is it possible that the Jewish religion has survived? What dedication must it have taken to continue the traditions under such heavy persecution.
In the end, I came away feeling even more strongly that religion is more often than not, misused and abused. That the most important message, from almost all religions, “love they neighbor as thyself” too often becomes, well, completely forgotten.
One fact that was truly an eye opener was the use of the cross. Now, as a Jewish person, not knowing much about Christianity, I just always assumed it was because Christ was crucified on the cross. Could it be true, that Constantine had this vision when looking up into the blue sky, 300 years after Jesus’s death, of a cross in the sky, a vison he would replicate by crossing his swords? Once he conquered his enemies, believing Christ had been the reason he had vanquished his enemy, the symbol of the cross would now be used to represent all Christians.
I look forward to the discussion!!!
