BEFORE YOU VOTE ...

READ ROMNEY'S STORM TIPS!

PRIVATIZE THIS, "SMALL" GOVERNMENT, LIBERTARIAN IMBECILES

MITT ROMNEY'S PANDERING TO THE RIDICULOUS "SMALL" GOVERNMENT ZEALOTS AND JUVENILE LIBERTARIANS with a VAST American History knowledge gap makes the ABSURD assumption there is a DEVASTATED STATE/PRIVATE SECTOR replacement for the federal-state-FEMA-military coordination of resources to areas most needed. And the very idea that such an effort of saving lives and putting the broken victims of a natural disaster back together again would be a FOR-PROFIT enterprise is OBSCENE, GHOULISH, AND PROFOUNDLY UN-AMERICAN. Shame on all of you who hold to these selfish, alien views.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Navy has ordered three ships to sail off the shores of New York in case federal emergency responders need off-shore support as they continue clean up efforts.

On Oct. 30, "the helicopter carrier USS Wasp (LHD 1), which was already at sea riding out the storm, began to head north to be better positioned," Rear Adm. James Kirby, chief of information for the Navy, wrote on a Navy website.

On Oct. 31, "the fleet commander ordered two other amphibious ships, USS San Antonio (LPD-17) and USS Carter Hall (LSD-50), to get underway and likewise head north … however these ships have not been officially tasked to provide support," Kirby wrote.

The Navy, like the rest of the U.S. military, is often tasked with supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency in disaster-relief efforts. Navy ships can serve as floating airports as well as provide airlift and SEABEE construction-battalion support.

More than 7,400 citizen-soldiers and airmen had been mobilized in 11 states at the East Coast since 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 30 to respond to hurricane Sandy.

According to the National Guard Coordination Center, the responders assembled and staged in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia. Their mission include providing support at evacuation shelters, route clearance, search and rescue, and delivery of essential equipment and supplies.

“Additional Army Guard forces, from outside the immediate hurricane affected states, are prepared to meet gaps in essential functions, if requested,” Army Lt Gen William E. Ingram, Jr., director of the Army National Guard, said in a news release on DoDLive.mil.

As each affected area continues to monitor, assess, and respond as needed, the National Guard Bureau officials do their part in monitoring and coordinating from the federal level. On Sunday, Army Gen. Frank Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, briefed President Barack Obama on the National Guard response in support of state, local and federal agencies.

The National Guard said other states were also extending assistance for rescue operations and relief efforts. A Nevada National Guard 152nd Airlift Wing C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and crew departed on Monday for Moffett Field, California to pick up a rescue boat, truck, and several Guardian Angel Pararescue Airmen from the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard.

”What we provide to FEMA and the state governors at their request is just a myriad of support and response and rescue capabilities, so that they can pick and choose what they need, and they know they’ll have it,” says Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman. “We can go anywhere in the country and get it quickly if they don’t have it.”

That begins with the raw manpower of the National Guard. Even before Sandy made landfall this week, more than 61,000 National Guardsmen were standing by to lend a hand to civilian authorities. Now, those who have been activated are helping state police and local fire departments with rescues, debris removal, and evacuation of hospitals.

Meanwhile, cargo planes help emergency officials move pieces around the chessboard. On Thursday, the US military sent C-5 and C-17 planes to California to pick up “civilian power vehicles” to bring to New York, adds Colonel Crosson. This included “bucket trucks” and pickups to help work on the downed lines and power grids in New York and New Jersey.

The military also has its own high water vehicles and Humvees to get into isolated areas.

For its part, the Army Corps of Engineers has “fanned out” throughout affected areas to see what kind of expertise it can lend to affected states. “The Corps has been very aggressive,” said Mr. Little.

This expertise has included helping to restore power to the “several million households” on the East Coast that remain without electricity, according to Little.

Another top priority has been assessing and starting to clean out flooded tunnels, homes, and electrical substations. “The Army Corps of Engineers has a great deal of experience in what they call ‘unwatering,’ which involves pumping water out of tunnels and other sites,” he added.

To this end, nine small assistance teams are at tunnels throughout New York, “working with city officials and engineers to determine what’s needed to get that water out,” Crosson says.

Quotable: Stephen Colbert Re Dumping Disaster Relief On States

“Who better to respond to what’s going on inside its own borders than a state whose entire infrastructure has just been swept out to sea?” Colbert noted.

President Racks Up MAJOR Endorsement Coups

SAID NEW YORK CITY's MAYOR, Mike Bloomberg endorsing President Obama:

“The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast — in lost lives, lost homes and lost business — brought the stakes of next Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief. 

“[W]e can't do it alone. We need leadership from the White House — and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year.”

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! One of the world's leading financial (and very conservative) publications, The Economist, has also endorsed President Obama, with a few choice words for Mitt Romney, you know, the lying chameleon who says Obama doesn't  “understand” the economy:

“Under President Romney, new conservative Supreme Court justices would try to overturn Roe v Wade, returning abortion policy to the states. The rights of immigrants (who have hardly had a good deal under Mr Obama) and gays (who have) would also come under threat. This newspaper yearns for the more tolerant conservatism of Ronald Reagan, where “small government” meant keeping the state out of people’s bedrooms as well as out of their businesses. Mr Romney shows no sign of wanting to revive it.

Many of The Economist’s readers, especially those who run businesses in America, may well conclude that nothing could be worse than another four years of Mr Obama. We beg to differ. For all his businesslike intentions, Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says. That is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive.”

Well, the Romney camp has their own pair of high-profile endorsements: Lindsey Lohan and Meatloaf. As the saying goes, cream rises to the top. Don't be stupid, Romney “swing” voters. Vote Obama, 'kay. Trust me, it'll be good for your health, your pocketbook, and your 401k/stock options.

Music Break: From Obama's Workout Playlist

'FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE': "YOU'VE GOT THE LOVE" — FOR A STIMULATING WORKOUT ...

 

 AND THIS BEAUTIFUL SONG, "SHELTER," FROM RAY LAMONTAGNE, though not in the playlist, is for
our fellow suffering Americans, going through hard times in Sandy's wake:

 

SHELTER
I guess you don't need it
I guess you don't want me to repeat it
But everything I have to give I'll give to you
It's not like we planned it
You tried to stay, but you could not stand it
To see me shut down slow
as though it was an easy thing to do
Listen when
All of this around us'll fall over
I tell you what we're gonna do
You will shelter me my love
And I will shelter you
I will shelter you
I left you heartbroken, but not until those very words were spoken
Has anybody ever made such a fool out of you
It's hard to believe it
Even as my eyes do see it
The very things that make you live are killing you
Listen when all of this around us'll fall over
I tell you what we're gonna do
You will shelter me my love
I will shelter you
Listen when
All of this around us'll fall over
I tell you what we're gonna do
Hey you will shelter me my love
I will shelter you
If you shelter me too
I will shelter you
I will shelter you

All You Need To Know To Give President Obama Another Four Years

TWO WORDS: LEADERSHIP. BIPARTISANSHIP. These truly moving scenes from the sincere bromance budding between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and President Obama, visiting areas blighted by Hurricane Sandy should make anyone thinking of voting for FLIM-FLAM millionaire Mitt Romney think twice. They drive home the point that government is US, the people; not some amorphous entity to be broken up and handed over to Romney's greedy investment pals; that government truly works for US, and it's only as good as we are; that when one million jobs were on the line, Mitt Romney said to the auto industry, 'drop dead', and President Obama said, eviscerating our auto industry and casting millions of lives adrift is unacceptable; that President Obama GETS IT, because he's lived it, and Mitt Romney never will, because he hasn't; and that when the chips are down the best among us work together, regardless of party labels, BUT the worst among us, the traitors among us, the right wing Republicans and Teabaggers deliberately derailed the economy, suppressed jobs programs and a swifter recovery, heaping more misery on the people simply to defeat the President; and that President Obama represents US, the people, against a traitorous criminal enterprise; and that their final defeat and destruction ultimately depends on the President's re-election, with a mandate to finish the job, end right wing treason, repeal Citizens United and make government work for all of the people, once again.

THIS IS WHAT BIPARTISANSHIP LOOKS LIKE; IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

 HAVE YOU NO SHAME YET, BIRTHERS/OBAMA HATERS?

Quotable: Rachel Maddow, "Happy Halloween" ...

"As you can tell, my Halloween costume once again this year is: Middle-aged lesbian pundit in cheap coat. BOO."

Quotable: Maureen Dowd

THE NEW YORK TIMES' FLAME-HAIRED VIXEN has written another good column on the 'bromance' between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and President Obama. Here she cites some smart White House officials "flummoxed" by Christie's bearhug of the President:

"They speculate that Christie, who always puts Christie first, has decided that it’s better for his presidential ambitions to be a maverick blue-state governor with a Democratic chief executive exiting in 2016 than to have President Romney and Tea-Party Republicans in Congress pulling him over to the extreme right for the next eight years. He also knows he’ll need a boatload of federal cash to make his state whole again."

MSNBC's Chris Jansing Is Already CLUELESS ... 10 Minutes Into Her Broadcast

GOD, THESE TALKING HEADS ARE SO FRIGGIN' ANNOYING WITH THEIR TERMINAL INCOMPETENCE! Interviewing Republican "Communications Director" (trans: CRAPAGANDIST) Sean Spicer on Romney's threat to gut FEMA and throw disaster recovery back to the states, the SLOW Jansing was TOTALLY unprepared to push back with the TRUTH. First, she did catch on to the softball 'spaghetti-on-the-wall/see-what-sticks' from Spicer when he argued, misleadingly, that the states had "prepositioned" assets and resources. SO DID FEMA, ACTING IN CLOSE CONSULTATION WITH THE STATES TO FILL GAPS IN DISASTER RECOVERY THE STATES CANNOT HANDLE! As we speak, FEMA personnel are in full search and rescue mode; case in point, northern New Jersey, where they were prepositioned and the first to the rescue when a town was flooded in the space of 15 minutes, stranding residents.

But the most OUTRAGEOUS claim was Spicer LYING about FEMA "red tape" and "bureaucracy" knowing full well how misleading he was, so he threw it onto Susan Page, a REPUBLICAN, who was conveniently silent, along with Jansing. If anyone wants to know why the American voter is the STUPIDEST, MOST IGNORANT of ALL so-called 'First World' nations, this is why: No BBC talking head would have allowed Spicer to get away with his crap. And to work in that kind of professional climate, Jansing would REALLY need to do her homework, rather than spend hours applying makeup, teasing her hair, and memorizing her own 'talking points.' Here's where you get an F for your homework, Chris; it's very simple, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist; only a minimum of application:

From Tuesday's New York Times — to quote one of your favorite talking head ditties, it's a "target-rich environment:"

It’s an absurd notion (Romney proposing to kick FEMA functions to the states), but it’s fully in line with decades of Republican resistance to federal emergency planning. FEMA, created by President Jimmy Carter, was elevated to cabinet rank in the Bill Clinton administration, but was then demoted by President George W. Bush, who neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

The agency was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

Can you HANDLE giving the viewers this information, rather than that ODIOUS, DESPICABLE, ON-THE-ONE-HAND v. ON-THE-OTHER-HAND talking points coverage of REPUBLICAN LIES, LIES, LIES, LIES! Chris Jansing, STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE: TYPICAL. That's why Rachel Maddow is such a breath of fresh air, and why she's our SWEETHEART; but she can't possibly cover all the ground laid to waste by HURRICANE JANSING.

P.S. Memo To Chris Matthews: Re Your 'Sap The Poison' Hope

ITEM: Chris, have you checked out John McCain's latest comments about President Obama TODAY, while the President was at the Red Cross delivering sober words of encouragement and updating the American people on Sandy's continued danger, as well as relief efforts?

ITEM: Chris, did you see Romney's OFFENSIVE campaign event masquerading as a Sandy "relief" rally, ostensibly collecting foodstuffs from the crowd for delivery to the Red Cross, although the Red Cross explicitly discourages such types of donations, as that is not the way they collect donations?

ITEM: Chris, did you see Romney's LYING (c'mon Chris, you can say it: L, L, L, Y, ... I ...) ad about Jeep that is being run in Ohio? Every news organization that counts is calling it a LIE, including Team Obama. How about you? Oh right, yeah ... 'respect.'

AMAZING VIDEO OF EXPLODING POWER STATION; LIGHTS OUT IN MANHATTAN

'The video below shows the moment that the 'Consolidated Edison' electricity substation in Manhattan exploded,
causing a quarter of a million people in the area to lose their power supply.

A fire can be seen from the view across the Hudson River, which is quickly followed by a blinding blue/white
flash of the electrical explosion.'

Quotable: Martin Bashir Zaps S.E. Cupp — AGAIN!

"S.E., YOU FAILED TO MENTION THE THREE BOTTLES OF BURGUNDY YOU DRANK AS WELL" ... Martin Bashir LOVES to needle Sarah Elizabeth, as she finished her comments about sharing a meal while riding out the storm with her CYCLE pals, and the realization that the "bloodsport" of presidential politics isn't the most important (sniff, sniff) thing ... "family is." Sarah Elizabeth is a work in progress, and, I'm convinced, a closet progressive. President Obama had a message for S.E. (and Paulie The Objectivist Munster, too) in his Rolling Stone interview:

"Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up," Obama said. "Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity — that that's a pretty narrow vision."

"It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America," Obama said about Rand's vision. "Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a 'you're on your own' society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party."

Time to grow up, Sarah Elizabeth.

Scenes From A Devastating Hurricane

IN COMMAND: President Obama at FEMA headquarters receives briefing on Hurricane Sandy. To his left is the very capable FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, a Republican, who previously served as Florida's emergency management director under Gov. Jeb Bush before being promoted by President Obama. It should be noted that President Obama called ALL governors, Republicans and Democrats, affected by this catastrophe; Romney called only Republicans.

LADY LIBERTY STANDS PROUD AND TALL against the elements, as a tugboat fights the swells.

ATLANTIC CITY BOARDWALK, LIKE A WAR ZONE: In the foreground all that's left of old brick buildings are foundations and pilons. If anyone decided to "ride it out" in these buildings rather than evacuate, they're probably dead. The mayor says, other than one fatality, "to my knowledge" everyone is "A-OK." We certainly hope so.

Chris Christie, Obama Surrogate?!

OR HOW AN EXTREME WEATHER EMERGENCY CAN BECOME NATIONAL POLITICS' MOTHER OF INVENTION. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall of Mitt Romney's inner councils? "That BENEDICT ARNOLD!" spat PSYCHO MITT THE TWIT after watching this: (Christie to FOX, on whether Romney would be "touring" the devastation with Christie: “I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested. I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics and I could care less about any of that stuff. ... I have a job to do. I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power, I’ve got devastation on the shore, I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don’t know me.” ... As for President Obama's response: Christie said he's been "OUTSTANDING.")

Thruthfully, I never disliked Christie as I do the wingnut Republican ideologues. Christie is so bombastically New Jersey, giving as good as he gets, that it's hard to whip up serious dislike for the man. Basically, he's a good guy; we disagree on policies. But ideologues and phonies like Romney ... their draconian, fundamentalist, EVIL character flaws drive their policies. That's the difference; and it's a BIG ONE so-called "swing voters" are totally clueless about.

Memo To Mitt 'The Psycho Twit' Romney: Do Your Part

TRYING NOT TO PUKE WATCHING THIS PHONY, LYING ONE-PERCENTER attending a hurricane relief campaign rally in Ohio. The BEST thing you can do for Hurricane Sandy relief, besides getting out of the way, is write the Red Cross a check for one or two days' of your offshore tax haven dividend earnings ... between $20-$40 million? Despicable plutocrat.

Times: Let's Hear It For BIG GOVERNMENT! NOW!!

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SPEAKING AS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE DEVASTATED BY HURRICANE SANDY in the region served by this nation's most influential newspaper was swift to assert the URGENT need for BIG GOVERNMENT to confront severe weather emergencies. Just a few points to bolster the Times' argument:

1. FIRST AND FOREMOST: DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU TO HELL, YOU DAMNED ANTI-SCIENCE REPUBLICAN LUDDITES! Anyone, ANYONE who doesn't think man-made GLOBAL WARMING has contributed to this latest catastrophe is a DANGEROUS, UN-AMERICAN, UN-PATRIOTIC FOOL! Now is not the time to make SAVAGE CUTS to government; quite the contrary. If these anti-science Republicans have their way, we will be giving away our CROWN JEWELS, which is our cutting-edge scientific can-do know-how through neglect and IGNORANT, STUPID defunding of BIG GOVERNMENT (see below). Worse, in this instance, we'll be ceding our weather tracking capabilities to the EUROPEANS! (Romney said President Obama wants to turn America into Europe ... WRONG! He wants to RETURN America to our LEADERSHIP role in cutting-edge science.)

2. An Op-ed by two meteorological experts at the U of Georgia sounds the alarm against the REPUBLICAN TEABAGGER TRAITORS in Congress, as Hurricane Sandy is being tracked by a U.S. climate-and-weather network — largely funded by the federal government — that is coming under increasing financial pressure. Here are excerpts: (ANGRY emphasis mine.)

"Recently, GOES-13, the United States’ main weather satellite monitoring the Eastern Seaboard and Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico hurricane basin, experienced technical difficulties and was taken offline. Luckily, a “spare” satellite was in orbit and was able to provide seamless coverage until GOES-13 was reinstated.

What if we didn’t have that spare? Or what if budget pressures were setting up the real possibility of significant gaps in satellite coverage in the coming five to 10 years? These are not hypothetical questions. The National Research Council recently called attention to the consequences of a degrading or waning research and operational satellite fleet.

Policymakers must continue to adequately support satellite, aircraft, and observational capacity. Such investments pay for themselves multi-fold through saved lives, property, and dollars from needless evacuations and other planning costs. The best estimates are that taxpayers reap $5 or more from every $1 spent on weather forecasts.

We must also continue to ensure that our world-class weather modeling centers have the necessary funding and manpower to implement the most advanced modeling and data assimilation techniques. Numerical weather forecasting was invented in the United States, but today other countries have extremely capable modeling capacity.

In Great Britain, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts was targeting an East Coast landfall days ahead of the best American model. With the appropriate resources, the U.S. could firmly establish itself as the leader in weather forecasting and increase our lead time for weather disaster preparation, if the public and political will exists to do so. The cost would be peanuts compared to most other government programs. The entire budget of the National Weather Service—everything and everyone, from computers to carpet—is less than $1 billion per year.

Improvements in track forecasting, intensity changes, and storm genesis often come from collaborations among the government, private sector, and academia. Scientific meetings are key forums to share scientific research, vet new methodologies, and forge new partnerships.

Yet, recently, our federal meteorologists and other scientists have been denied access to such meetings due to budget or administrative mandates. Even worse, some have suggested scientific meetings are a waste of taxpayer dollars. It is reasonable to ask how well we would be able to predict or assess a storm like Sandy without the knowledge and capacity gained through meetings held by the American Meteorological Society or the National Weather Association.

Most taxpayers clearly recognize the impact that weather events like Sandy and the “ghost” of Sandy megastorm can have on life, property, and the economy. In austere times, it is critical that neither required fiscal discipline nor short-sightedness jeopardize U.S. citizens. We should not let an obsession with penny-pinching trick us into thinking that a penny saved on weather forecasts is a penny earned. Instead, it is nickels and dimes and dollars lost, as well as lives lost. Let’s treat ourselves to a safer future instead."

And here, in this context, is today's Times Editorial:

A Big Storm Requires Big Government

Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the war room of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where officials gather to decide where rescuers should go, where drinking water should be shipped, and how to assist hospitals that have to evacuate.

Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of “big government,” which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it. At a Republican primary debate last year, Mr. Romney was asked whether emergency management was a function that should be returned to the states. He not only agreed, he went further.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.” Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job. He said it was “immoral” for the federal government to do all these things if it means increasing the debt.

It’s an absurd notion, but it’s fully in line with decades of Republican resistance to federal emergency planning. FEMA, created by President Jimmy Carter, was elevated to cabinet rank in the Bill Clinton administration, but was then demoted by President George W. Bush, who neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

The agency was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

Does Mr. Romney really believe that financially strapped states would do a better job than a properly functioning federal agency? Who would make decisions about where to send federal aid? Or perhaps there would be no federal aid, and every state would bear the burden of billions of dollars in damages. After Mr. Romney’s 2011 remarks recirculated on Monday, his nervous campaign announced that he does not want to abolish FEMA, though he still believes states should be in charge of emergency management. Those in Hurricane Sandy’s path are fortunate that, for now, that ideology has not replaced sound policy.

Quotable: Chris Matthews

"If nothing else, I think this (Hurricane Sandy event) is going to sap some of the poison out of this race." HA! Chris, the perennial political ingenue, desperately clutching his rose-colored glasses. Oh Chris, I believe Mitt The LYING PSYCHOTIC TWIT has a $10,000 bet he'd like to make with you.

Sandy Bears Down On The East Coast

FROM THE LATEST FORECAST, IT APPEARS HURRICANE SANDY is going to SLAM the Jersey Shore, in the vicinity of Atlantic City, around Cape May, later this evening. Those residents of the outlying areas along the Jersey shore who didn't heed Gov. Christie's "DON'T BE STOOPID" warning are now regretting their decision to "ride it out," as related to one reporter, for in some cases their escape route is already cut off by rising waters. Anyone familiar with the Jersey Shore knows that area is as flat as a pancake, with nothing but sand dunes and narrow beaches. I hope folks with a death wish who decided to stay don't come to harm, but they really should have listened to their governor. In New York City, there is a real flooding danger, as the reader photo below attests. This is a really cool feature of the Times: Dozens of reader pictures. Check it out:

Riverside Park in NYC, at 9 AM around 80th Street.

The Mitt Files: Things The Idiot Punditocracy Won't Tell You; But We Will

ASIDE FROM THE FACT THAT MITT ROMNEY EXHIBITS ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SOCIOPATH, EVERY MSNBC PRIME TIME HOST is, at least, on the same page regarding Romney and his serial lies. Except, that is, Chris Matthews, who has censored the word on his show, forced Joan Walsh to use the RIDICULOUS euphemism "dissembling," and assumed the pompous body language of his wingnut sidekick, Bill-O The Clown. Beyond the LIES and the arrogant stealth campaign generating much faux handwringing among the Beltway elites, though, this media malpractice — like MSNBC's whitewash "respect" the candidates ads — extends to a total blackout of the REAL Mitt Romney. Stop asking the question, ASSHOLES, you know exactly what I'm saying and WHAT he is.

Mitt Romney was a homophobe from way back, and quite openly, too. It's not only the cruelty he exhibited leading a posse of gay bashers to cut a young man's hair, traumatizing him for life. This rotten ratbastard was proud of his homophobic pranks, so much so that it occupied a prominent corner of his yearbook. Check out this lovely limpwrist photo of the RomBot, student homophobe: (Hmm ... Mitt's lifelong obsession with the gay may indicate unresolved repressed identity issues.)

 Then, apparently the major MSM Media outlets, including MSNBC/Matthews in particular (Big Eddie, Rachel and Lawrence have done yeoman's work within the bounds permitted by their corporate masters), were too compulsively preoccupied with polls and the horse race to even consider this story, broken by that great news organization, TMZ. (Sadly, I'm not being ironic.) Hot off the presses, TMZ reports that Romney lied “under oath when he testified in the divorce of his good friend and screwed the friend's wife out of a lot of money in the process,” according to the wife of the founder of Staples. Can't say I'm surprised. Read all about it here.

And as we face impeding catastrophe for residents of the East Coast from the MEGASTORM Sandy, which will doubtless keep President Obama busy and mobilize all of FEMA's resources to coordinate the federal response to this extreme weather emergency, here's what Romney said about the need for FEMA: (I should add that Paulie The Objectivist Munster and his teabagger cohorts in Congress cut funding for our national weather service satellites and early warning system.)