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Friday, November 2, 2012

Faces that tell a story. 
Sadness, horror, confusion, lonlyness, doubt, exasperation, frustration, hunger, thirst, determination, hope, scared, relief.


 

Joe Gallagher carries his aunt Kathleen Fitzsimmons on Thursday, Nov. 1 in Breezy Point, N.Y. Fitzsimmons collapsed after viewing the burned-out remains of the home that had been in her family since 1928. Residents returned to their devastated homes after Superstorm Sandy and a fire there that destroyed over 100 homes. (David Friedman / NBC News) 
People wait for hours with gas canisters at a Gulf gas station on November 1 in Manalapan, New Jersey. With power out in many parts of the state and so few stations open in certain areas, gas is in heavy demand for both vehicles and generators. Superstorm Sandy, which has left millions without power or water, continues to affect business and daily life throughout much of the eastern seaboard. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)
National Guard troopers load food and water onto trucks to distribute to those in need, as the city tries to recover from the after effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York City. (Andrew Gombert / EPA) 
 
The site where George Dresch's house stood before it was slammed by Hurricane Sandy. Dresch and his daughter Angela, 13, died when their home was flattened from Hurricane Sandy's storm surge, which sent over eight feet of water into the neighborhood. George's wife, Patricia, is reported to be in critical condition. George had been reluctant to leave his home because when they evacuated for Hurricane Irene, their home was looted while they were gone (John Makely / NBC News) 
 
Chris Zaturoski uses a garden hose to attempt to siphon gasoline from his car to use in a generator at his house which is without power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy on Thursday, in Little Ferry, N.J. The hose was too big to fit into the gas tank of the car. (Mike Groll / AP) 
 
People scramble for food and supplies being handed outside a grocery store damaged by Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways section in Queens, New York City on Thursday. (Shannon )
Commuters ride the F train in New York City on Thursday. Limited subway service returned to New York. (Allison Joyce / Getty Images) 

 People board the NY Waterways ferry with the Manhattan skyline in the background in Hoboken, N.J., on Thursday. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images)      
 
Commuters wait in a line to board buses into Manhattan in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday. The line stretched twice around the arena and commuters reported wait times of one to three hours to get on a bus. Limited subway service returned to the city, but commuting was hampered by tunnels still flooded with water and limited train service. (Seth Wenig / AP) 
 
Members of the fire department extinguish a campfire built by people to keep warm in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, in New York City's Lower East Side on Wednesday night. (Carlo Allegri / Reuters)  
Blaine Badick and her fiancé Andrew Grapsas cross a flooded street with their dog while leaving their home in Hoboken, N.J., on Wednesday. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images)
People line up for fuel in the corner of Hylan Boulevard and Reid Avenue in Staten Island, N.Y., in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday. New York City and the sodden Northeast U.S. began an arduous journey back to normal on Wednesday, after mammoth storm Sandy killed at least 64 people in a rampage that swamped coastal cities and cut power to millions. (Andrew Kelly / Reuters) 

Shopping carts full of food damaged by Superstorm Sandy await disposal at the Fairway supermarket in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, N.Y., on Wednesday. The food was contaminated by flood waters that rose to approximately four feet in the store during the storm. (Seth Wenig / AP) 
Food is handed out to residents by the Caring Foundation in the Rockaway section of Queens, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) 
 
Food is handed out to residents by the Caring Foundation in the Rockaway section of Queens, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)    
   People crowd into a Chase Bank ATM kiosk to charge phones and laptops at 40th Street and 3rd Avenue, one block north of where power has gone out, on Wednesday, in New York City. "This is the modern campfire," one man said. (Andrew Burton / Getty Images) 
Renter Donna McBride reacts to seeing the damage done to her home by the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, New York, on Wednesday. (Lucas Jackson / Reuters) 

     
Commuters make their way across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on Wednesday. (Keith Bedford / Reuters) 
A group of teenagers hang out in front of a boarded-up store following Hurricane Sandy, on Tuesday in Belmar, New Jersey. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)
People congregate in front of a building that still has wireless internet access in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York on Tuesday. (Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters) 
  
Sebastian Romatowski wades through knee-deep water across from his home, background, right, on 2nd Avenue that was flooded from the effects of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday in Bayville, N.Y. Sandy, the storm that made landfall Monday, caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses. (Kathy Kmonicek / AP) 
 
Miatid Amini makes his way with his family onto John Mercadante's truck in Moonachie, N.J. on Tuesday, assisted by Frank Mercadante, right. (John Makely / NBC News) 
 
An elderly resident is carried over flood waters brought on by Hurricane Sandy in Little Ferry, New Jersey on Tuesday. (Adam Hunger / Reuters) 
 
Emergency personnel rescue a resident from flood waters in Little Ferry, New Jersey on Tuesday. (Adam Hunger / Reuters) 
 
An fireman carries a residents dog to safety from flood waters brought on by Hurricane Sandy in Little Ferry, New Jersey on Tuesday. (Adam Hunger / Reuters) 
 
Neighbors Lucille Dwyer and Linda Strong embrace after looking through the wreckage of their homes devastated by fire and the effects of Hurricane Sandy in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York on Wednesday. (Shannon Stapleton / Reuters) 
  
Aerial Video of Sandy's  havoc on the Northeast Coastal Region and what has changed.


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Panoramic view of Breezy Point destruction after Hurricane Sandy fire and flood

In a 240-degree view, more than 100 homes in Breezy Point lie in ruin following a blaze during Hurricane Sandy. (David Friedman / NBC News)

Vu Zjahday … the opposite of déjà vu. The sense that you’ve never been somewhere before.


Putting a television in your house is like putting an Invasion of the Body Snatchers seed pod in your bedroom closet. If you watch the damned thing long enough sooner than later you’ll end up in a Stevie Wonder song:

… you believe in things that you don't understand
Then you suffer
I watched the presidential and vice presidential debates on CBC up here in Beautiful British Columbia. During the debates viewers could vote on who was winning. The first debate’s results were: 76% Obama, and 18% Romney. The next morning I went online to read the American Polls. WTF!!?? Romney was declared the winner.

Then came the VP debate between Biden and Ryan. Again I watched it on CBC and the Canadian viewers voted 88% Biden and 10% Ryan. The next day American polls gave a slight edge to Biden. The CNN/ORC poll showed Ryan at 48% to Biden’s 44%. NBC Politics had Biden at 38% to Ryan’s 34% and CNBC reported a tie with Ryan and Biden both at 47%. WTF squared. A couple of nights ago I watched the second Obama-Romney debate and the final tally was 63% Obama and 34% Romney. The following morning I went online to see MainStreamMedia reporting Obama won 49% to Romney’s 46%.

Obviously Canadians think Obama and Biden overwhelmingly won the debates but Americans, or rather the American Media, see it as a pretty tight race. Who are you going to believe, The Political Industrial Complex … or your own lying eyes?The last time I witnessed a disconnect from reality like this was on August 1, 1969 when I took a couple of hits of acid and went to a Led Zepplin-Jethro Tull concert. 43 years later it feels like America’s MainStreamMedia are on the heavy drugs and I’m an unemployed designated driver without anybody’s car keys.

So far the 2012 elections have already cost more than $4 billion and they’re projected to go as high as $5.8 billion. That’s a lot of money. There are 32 countries in the world with an annual GDP less than what the U.S. elections will cost. Americans spend $300 million on Oreos each year but at least they know what they’re getting. A bizarre combination of genetically modified wheat, soy, and corn, flavored with alkali processed cocoa and fake vanilla made from wood creosote. Yum.

But what are we going to get after almost 6 billion bucks have been blown? Barack Obama or Mitt Romney … and a host of Democratic or Republican members of the House and Senate. Regardless of who wins or loses … the U.S. will remain a relatively easygoing fascistic police state at home and a voracious capitalistic beast stomping fictitious enemies into a bloody paste abroad.

How much is it worth to you to have Romney get the job instead of Obama? Would you spend one half of one percent of your net worth to make it happen? Sheldon Adelson says he is. I think Adelson’s spending 100 million to make the Justice Department stop the investigation of his Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s alleged money laundering. But … Hey Sheldon … Listen up. You could have saved tens of millions of your sleazy dollars and given just a couple of mil to Obama. Weren’t you paying attention when after a year-long investigation of Goldman Sachs’ widespread mortgage fraud that led to the subprime mortgage crisis, the Justice Department concluded that it didn’t have enough evidence to meet the “burden of proof” required for charges. Eric Holder doesn’t prosecute criminals. Why are you giving money to Romney? You’re a Vegas guy … why didn’t you bet on a sure thing?

But there’s another disconnect going on here. In 2008 Wall Street gave bigtime for Obama. This time around the Wall Street Bucks are backing Romney.

Why?

Didn’t they like the trillions in bailout so they could pass out billions in bonuses? Are Rich White Guys so insanely racist they don’t like black guys even when the Black Guy in the White House and the Black Guy in the Justice Department gave them all the stuff they wanted? “Stuff” being the code word for trillions of dollars and a “Stay Out of Jail” card. Is it just a matter of aesthetics? Do they insist on having a white wind-up doll deliver their spoils to them on a platinum platter instead of The Black Guy? If that is indeed the case then that’s the proof-positive anyone needs to see that these guys are seriously crazy.

The Political Industrial Complex came into existence because somebody saw the similarities between elections and the stock market. A stockbroker makes money when you buy stock. The broker makes money when you sell. The broker makes money when you lose your shirt. The broker makes money ... period. The primary goal is to keep the money churning regardless of what the market is doing. The Political Industrial Complex needs to keep the money churning until Election Day.

The Media spends two years conditioning their viewers to be intensely emotionally invested in the horse race. And it has to be a close one to keep the people coming back for the latest news on their favorite. Who cares that Mitt Romney lied about lying about telling lies? Who cares that Joe Biden beat Paul Ryan like a gong for 90 minutes? It must be reported that the candidates are running neck and neck and nobody can predict who’s going to be first across the finish line. If that means taking Biden’s 78-point lead and making it even-steven to fit the script, then that’s the way it is. Everybody has got to tune in on election night to watch the season finale. What are you going to do? Change the channel?

But there’s something else going on here and I don’t have a clear idea what it is. It looks like Shelley Adelson, the Wall Streeters, and anybody who throws a twenty-dollar bill into Obama’s coffer are being fleeced by the Political Industrial Complex. All that money is going to people who distort reality all the way to the bank.

A multi-billion dollar PR firm takes control of the media and creates a phony narrative. Then corporate-owned proprietary voting machines count the ballots, and they tell us who “won.” They’ve got both sides of the transaction again. What could possibly go wrong?

Then we find ourselves in a Bob Dylan song

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?
And it’s Vu Zjahday all over again.



She shares my sentiment, the election season is far 2 long. The idea of nearly twenty debates to help pick a candidate, the primary election spread over a year is ridiculous. We need to change it. Revamp and streamline the process.  There should be a time limit, a different kind of brain-storming.

What I would like to see is  a primary season like that of the general election,  instead of the states vying for who should vote first, take the regions of the united states northeast, southeast, east central, mid-west, central, north central, south central, northwest, southwest, west central, or if that is 2 much do the primary by time zones.  All states in the zones vote at one time.  Then that would eliminate the elongated schedule.

Debates should be limited to three, just like the presidential debates.  That should give all participants enough airtime to say their peace.  The presidential debates should focus on economy and jobs,  foreign policy, and national security.  The vice presidential debate should focus on topics the VP candidate should know and have say so on.

The amount of money spent has got to be controlled, limits, especially all donors donating over what is allowed by ordinary citizens.  There has to be transparency for all donors. Published for everyone to see, especially corporate sponsors, the 2%, and any donors who might slip under the radar from other countries(who are not allowed).  We need to get rid of the super pacs, and if we can't then they need to be regulated, have limits to how much can be donated and by whom.


Election ads for either tv or internet need to be limited and budgeted. We as citizens need to step up and make them hear our voices, personally I am tried of all the garbage that is spread out there. They are totally out of control, and at a certain point, pointless, too many at anyone time.  And they get to be ridiculous, slanderous, and some lie.  I am still working the bugs out as far as how to weigh the balance of how much should be spent by each candidate. And the super pacs definitely limited to what amount they can spend on ads. If anyone reads this and would like to put a comment here with some suggestions. I will gladly update and post all suggestions. 

Fischer: ‘Entitled’ citizens will riot if Obama loses

By Samantha Kimmey
Thursday, November 1, 2012 15:25 EDT

BFischer
Bryan Fischer, spokesperson and Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association, issued dire warnings about how “flash mobs” will riot if Obama loses the presidential election.

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy “is just a preview of what’s going to happen if President Obama loses the election,” Fischer said, going on to explain that entitled citizens will fear having their “lollipops” taken away and that “there will be blood.”

“I predict there’s going to be, there’s going to be civil unrest,” he said. “I think we’ll get a lot of these flash mob burglaries. People out there going to be saying Governor Romney’s going to take all this away from us, Romney’s going to take away our lollipops. We’re entitled to it, we’re just going to go get it. Barack Obama, the election’s been stolen from us, what is ours by right has been taken from us by the dastardly Republicans, and by this soon-to-be President Obama, so we’re just going to go take what’s ours. I think there’s going to be unrest. I think there will be blood.”

Watch the video, published Nov. 1 on Youtube on by Right Wing Watch blog, below.



Deadliest zone: Staten Island reels from devastation; bodies of boys ripped from mom's arms found

9
hours
ago

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On Thursday, three days after the hurricane, residents in Staten Island accused government agencies of responding much slower than to wealthier parts of the city. NBC's Ann Curry reports.
Staten Island, just a ferry ride from Manhattan but often seen as the neglected stepchild of the New York metropolis, apparently was the city's deadliest zone in Superstorm Sandy – accounting for half the human toll.
On Thursday the bodies of two young boys who were swept away from their mother’s grasp during  the storm surge were recovered, NBC News reported. A missing husband and wife were also found dead Thursday, NBCNewYork.com reported.
That brought the toll on the island to 19, NBCNewYork.com reported. On Thursday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Superstorm Sandy is responsible for the deaths of at least 37 New Yorkers.

Seth Wenig / AP
Glenda Moore, and her husband, Damian Moore, react as they approach the scene where at least one of their childrens' bodies were discovered in Staten Island, New York, on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. Brandon Moore, 2, and Connor Moore, 4, were swiped into swirling waters as their mother tried to escape her SUV on Monday.
At a news briefing Thursday morning, elected officials pleaded for help for Staten Island.
Borough President James Molinaro blasted the Red Cross as an “absolute disgrace” and urged the public to stop giving to the venerable institution.
Asked by NBC News to explain his comment, Molinari said, “because the devastation in Staten Island, the lack of a response.” 
“You know, I went to a shelter Monday night after the storm. People were coming in with no socks, with no shoes,” Molinaro said. “They were in desperate need. Their housing was destroyed. They were crying. Where was the Red Cross? Isn’t that their function?”

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At a press conference, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro says "It's an absolute disgrace" that the American Red Cross is "nowhere to be found" during his county's time of intense need in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, especially after collecting "lots and lots of money" from people in his district used for relief efforts elsewhere.
Indeed, Staten Island, which took a direct blow from Sandy, is a scene of immeasurable misery and utter devastation, with homes obliterated, others off their foundations in addition to widespread flooding.
"The city of New York right now is talking about getting water out of the Battery Tunnel and preparing for a marathon," U.S. Rep. Rep. Michael Grimm said. "We're pulling bodies out of the water. You see the disconnect here?"
NYPD officials have denied to NBC News that Staten Island’s working class neighborhoods have come after wealthier areas.
“We are heading into the area where there is major destruction now,” Red Cross spokeswoman Anne Marie Borrego told NBC News late Thursday.

John Makely / NBC News
Little remains of a home on Yetman Avenue in Staten Island where homeowner George Dresch and daughter Angela, 13, perished in Hurricane Sandy. Patricia Dresch is reported to be in critical condition.
The Red Cross, Borrego said, has five emergency response stations set up at New Dorp Lane in the borough and the organization’s New York CEO, Josh Lockwood, is on the scene. 
While looking over the wreckage of his cousin's house on Thursday, Tom Monigan talked about his cousin George Dresch, who died  in the surge of water with his daughter Angela, 13, on Staten Island. George Dresch's wife Patricia was reported to be in critical condition at the hospital.
"Not in a million years, did I expect to see this," Monigan told NBC News. "This is unbelievable, I mean for George to lose his life and his daughter and his wife to be in the condition she's in it's a sin, it's unreal, I can't believe I'm looking at this. Terrible." 
"You can replace this stuff, but it's what happens to people," Monigan said, "it changes their life forever and it's terrible. People are worried because they don't have electricity, Jesus, this is the real deal right here."
Rescue workers who are part of a task force of searchers gathered on Staten Island on Thursday have fanned out with maps to search the hardest hit areas in the city. Large trucks and other equipment with Homeland Security decals began arriving late in the day on Sunday.
Phyllis Puglia didn't lose any family members, but she did lose lose virtually everything else. "I want to go home," Puglia told NBC News' Ann Curry. "But there's no home. I can't go home and that's killing me. That's breaking my heart.”
The boys whose bodies were found Thursday were identified by the New York Police Department as Brandon Moore, 2, and Connor Moore, 4, NBCNewYork.com reported.
A police description of the incident said that after their home became flooded and lost power, their mother, Glenda Moore, was attempting to drive them to relatives' home in Brooklyn when her Ford Explorer stalled in rising water on Father Capodanno Boulevard. 
Glenda Moore managed to free the boys from their car seats and tried to hold onto them, but the force of the water ripped them from her grasp.
“She was holding onto them, and the waves just kept coming and crashing and they were under,” the boys' aunt, who was not named, told the New York Daily News. “It went over their heads … she had them in her arms, and a wave came and swept them out of her arms.”
According to the Moore's sister, Moore had pounded on doors for help during the height of the storm, but no one was willing to help her.
About two dozen NYPD officers had been searching for the boys. Their bodies were discovered in a marsh early Thursday, NBCNewYork.com reported, about 15 yards from each other up against debris and a tree near where the SUV was overturned from the storm surge.
Some 470,000 people live in the Staten Island borough of New York, according to census figures, and many areas of the borough, were spared.
The Staten Island museum and zoo were both operating on Thursday, and ferry services was expected to resume in a day or two, according to the island's tourism website
NBC News producer Craig Melvin, WNBC investigative producer Shimon Prokupecz, WNBC investigative correspondent Jonathan Dienst and NBCNews.com multimedia producer John Makely contributed to this report.
 
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An incredible time-lapse video from the 51st floor of the New York Times building in midtown shows the progression of the storm as Sandy slammed New York City.