The article about Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy going to Washington, DC to mingle with luminaries angers me.

“The American people are watching,” Obama said. “They need this plan to work. They expect to see the money that they’ve earned — they’ve worked so hard to earn — spent in its intended purposes without waste, without inefficiency, without fraud.”

This would be good if intended purposes did not include subverting Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties.

Bellamy said she told Donovan about the proposed Glen Rock Hotel project, a Mountain Housing Opportunities development that would build 60 affordable rental units on Depot Street.

Fortunately, the mayor has absolved herself from all conflicts of interest pertaining to her former employer, MHO.

“I also gave him a list from the Housing Authority about what their shovel-ready projects are and where they are with them.”

Recall McCormick Heights. It was an Asheville housing project that underwent facelifts about every seven years and would deteriorate to a hive of vandalism and other crimes nonetheless. Subsidized décor had no power to root out disrespect for others’ property and safety. Officials tried to attribute the blight to slumlording, but city inspectors said old violations would be remedied but a list of new problems would be generated on every visit. I still recall the seven dealers that swarmed and beat on my car, the baggies, the two little peanuts imitating their big heroes, the sting of the plastic bullet on my neck, . . .

Bellamy said she told Chu and Duncan about a new program initiative from Asheville resident Matt Pearsall and Councilwoman Robin Cape called Reading, Writing and Retrofit, a plan to retrofit local schools for energy efficiency.

Notice Rithmetic has been scratched. That’s the heresy that purports -11 billion – $1 billion = -$12 billion – and more taxes plus more regulations means India is looking better every day.

While she didn’t talk directly to Obama, Bellamy said she gave one of his staffers information about the Asheville Project, a disease management and wellness program the city has had in place for a year.

For one thing, I wrote an article on the Asheville Project several years ago. For another, Bellamy just tried to deny reappointment of the program’s founder John Miall to the city’s Civil Service Board. New members of council requested to interview Miall before taking such unprecedented action, but an emergency scare that didn’t seem to make the newspapers called at least seven fire trucks to city hall, requiring evacuation of the building and pre-empting the interview.