Leslie and I are still fighting to get back to the kids after being stranded in New Orleans after all flights were cancelled. We are safe but had a wild night trying to find a way home.
Despite the fact that the weather was mild on Sunday and Monday morning in Washington, US Airways cancelled our flights. It was very frustrating to speak to friends in Washington and hear how the weather was fine. The cancellations appeared to be decisions based on the location of equipment, but thousands of passengers could have made it home. The main problem however at US Airways was the virtual collapse of any customer assistance that continued to Monday. We had to wait literally hours on the telephone to get through and then had to wait over an hour on hold to reach anyone. US Airways then told us that we would have to buy a separate ticket to go to closer airports like Charlotte (it didn’t matter since those were cancelled as well.) I remain furious with US Airways which (despite plenty of forewarning) did not appear to set up sufficient personnel or resources to assist passengers. We literally spent 24 hours from Sunday to Monday trying to reach someone at the airline, which has a message that repeatedly cut off calls and told them to call back.
With four kids with our sitter in Virginia, we could not wait any longer so I rented a four-wheel drive jeep and set out Sunday morning from New Orleans. We made it 700 miles when we were hit last night with a blinding blizzard storm in the mountains of Virginia. Visibility dropped quickly to virtually zero and we barely got off the highway. We found a motel in a tiny town called Marion, Virginia and bunkered down.
We are going to set out again shortly to try to get to the kids. A lot of roads are cut off with debris and winds remain high in McLean at 37 miles per hour. However, there are signs of it winding down. The kids are fine and still remarkably have electricity. We are prepared however. In Alabama, we bought boxes of water and Moon Pies (which we can’t get around us in McLean). If anything goes wrong, we can survive on Moon Pies for days in the mountains!
I hope all of our regulars on the East Coast are safe and sound today.
In Alabama, we bought boxes of water and Moon Pies …….
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You are a truly wise man! Boxes of Moon Pies will surely get you home… 😉 and I’ve heard they are very high on the barter exchange. Glad you are safe…hope your path is clear the rest of the way…
The Eye of the Storm That Sees Us All
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12404-the-eye-of-the-storm-that-sees-us-all
“Since last Tuesday, about 200 people have kept a round-the-clock vigil to protest the absence of climate change from the political conversation. Today, Hurricane Sandy forced an end to that vigil. Meanwhile, in all the wall-to-wall coverage of the storm on all the major “news” networks, there has been no mention I have seen of the elephant blowing through the room.
The climate is coming down around our ears, and neither big-dollar candidate has felt compelled to date to deign to bring it up, because this is America. We’re a funny lot, in that we must be led to the edge of the precipice and then kicked in the back before saying, “Wow, this is dangerous, we should do something about this!”
The lights just flickered, and the wind is picking up, so I have to submit this before everything shuts down.
A metaphor, that.”
Life isn’t “a cabaret” for many. Too many of us enjoy our little versions of “normal” until “reality bites” in a big way, because we failed to be vigilant.
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” -a prescient someone and we sure as hell better pay attention
Bron,
“when disaster strikes you step up to the plate to help your fellow man.
America has a history of charity, barn raisings and such.”
To be sure, and that’s a good thing, but we’re very good at turning a blind eye and pretending that all is well, when it’s not.
We’re a crisis-oriented lot and, in our zeal, we’ve been known to overreact, with terrible consequences for many. The response to 9/11 is a perfect example.
anonymously posted:
when disaster strikes you step up to the plate to help your fellow man.
America has a history of charity, barn raisings and such. After the disaster is over it is back to normal. Life is not a disaster and should not be treated as such.
(NOTE: I grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts.)
Mitt Romney Vetoed Flood Prep Funding In 2004, Blamed For Subsequent Flooding
By jason Cherkis & Ryan Grim
Posted: 10/30/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/mitt-romney-flooding_n_2042886.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2004, Peabody, Mass., got drenched with rain, which flooded the downtown area. After the storm, then-Gov. Mitt Romney asked President George W. Bush to declare Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk Counties federal disaster areas, according to the Boston Globe.
That fall, the state legislature proposed spending $5.7 million on a flood prevention project to protect against future floods. Those funds would be matched by $22 million in federal money.
Romney vetoed it. This week, Romney has come under fire for suggesting that the federal government get out of the business of disaster relief. But his record in Massachusetts doesn’t lend much support to the suggestion that states can handle it alone.
During the time of the Peabody fight, John Barrett, then the Democratic mayor of North Adams, was the vice president of the Massachusetts Mayors Association. He said the issue of flooding in Peabody was critical and that local officials had reached out to the legislature for help. “Every time it rained, it wiped out their downtown,” Barrett told HuffPost.
Barrett chalked Romney’s veto of the Peabody project up to a lack of familiarity with infrastructure in the state.
“This was not unusual for him. He didn’t understand infrastructure improvements. It was just the bottom line. He never visited communities. He never understood the issues. He never sat down with mayors or city managers. He never understood why those things were in the budget,” Barrett said. “That money was requested by locals. It was a major league problem.”
Dan Bosley, a former Democratic state representative in Western Massachusetts, agreed. “I think it was just the fact that Romney didn’t understand these issues.” He said he never saw Romney out with a rain slicker checking on towns like current Gov. Deval Patrick has done.
“I don’t think it was because he was heartless, he just didn’t know. That’s how he ran his state,” Bosley said. “His understanding of why you have government, I don’t think he ever had it.”
The Boston Globe reported that September that local officials were outraged, and doubly insulted that Romney claimed to have vetoed the money due to a lack of sufficient information.
Peabody officials yesterday lashed out at Governor Mitt Romney’s decision to block $5.7 million to pay for a flood control project in downtown Peabody. Romney blocked the money as part of $76 million in election-year spending he vetoed last week. At a State House press conference Friday, Romney said he had tried to contact Peabody officials to obtain more information about the funding, but was unable to reach anyone. Yesterday, state Senator Frederick E. Berry said … “We hand-delivered all kinds of information. They had all the information they needed … I don’t want to use the word ‘lie,’ but … how he could say he didn’t get the information? That’s not true.” Yesterday, Romney’s communications director, Eric Ferhnstrom, said the governor stands by his statement. “Governor Romney is not a rubber stamp for the expenditure of taxpayer funds. If there is no information to support a particular expenditure, our inclination is to be cautious and to wait until a rationale is put forward,” Ferhnstrom said. “In this case, we endeavored to get answers to our questions but none were forthcoming. We would be happy to take another look and if it appears to be a necessary and worthwhile expense we will include it in the next” spending bill the administration proposes.
In May 2006, Peabody flooded again, and local officials quickly blamed Romney, and slammed him for doing a tour of the disaster area. As the Associated Press reported:
Romney’s critics saw more than a little political hype in the media blitz. “The first thing I wouldn’t do is showboat for the national cameras and say I was going to prevent looting on the North Shore,” Democratic candidate for governor Chris Gabrieli said … Critics also faulted Romney’s 2004 veto of a $5.7 million flood control project in Peabody, hit hard by the rains, and his request for just half a million dollars for the state’s dam safety office. Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Therese Murray, D-Plymouth said, “Peabody today is under water” because of Romney’s action. Romney defended the veto, saying he wasn’t given a full explanation of how the money would be spent.
Swarthmore mom,
I find it interesting when people like Bruce–who appear to hate government social programs and seem to feel they are unnecessary–get their knickers in a knot when they think they could lose benefits from those same government programs…like Medicare, for instance.
Bron, Thanks for the support but I don’t pay much attention to what these recycled losers have to say.
Bruce:
What about North Korea? It is a festering sh!t hole. I doubt anyone wants to go there. It is just a failed state, the logical outcome of its policies. It took communism/socialism too far and threw in totalitarianism for good measure.
As much as I dislike a planned economy, no one on this blog is promoting a North Korean type state. Nor would they.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/30/superstorm-sandy-us-crisis
What superstorm Sandy shows about how the US handles crisis
America’s great paradox is that, facing disaster, individualism and government reconcile to rebuild – but never in normal times
by Paul Harris
“It seems that disaster and crisis provides an opportunity for Americans to blend together their individualism and their communal instincts into something that really works. But if you look at the headlines of the warring political campaigns of the 2012 election, it remains a distant dream for more normal times.”
Jeeze,
I hope people can learn to at least get along…. If christie can give Obama a complement can’t we be social?
Are you from Alaska?
Bruce,
Where are you from?
Bruce,
Road to Affordable Care Runs Through Medicare Pay Panel
By the Editors Mar 28, 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-28/road-to-affordable-care-runs-through-medicare-pay-panel-view.html
Excerpt:
Nothing in the debate over health- care reform is more depressing than the verbal attacks each party lobs against the other for attempting to cut costs.
Republicans denounce President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act for seeking to trim a few percentage points from Medicare spending over the next decade — out of $5 trillion. In turn, Democrats deride Representative Paul Ryan’s plan, which would create a voucher-like program enabling seniors to shop among competing health plans, for ending Medicare as we know it.
Truth is, congressional inertia is the single-biggest impediment to controlling health-care costs, which, in turn, are the biggest driver of federal budget deficits. An existing Medicare commission repeatedly offers cost-saving ideas, and Congress repeatedly ignores them.
But tucked away in the Affordable Care Act is a promising remedy, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. It resembles the existing Medicare commission, except its proposals for changing the delivery of health-care services can’t be waved off so easily. Unfortunately, Republicans and even some influential Democrats are gunning for the board; the House voted last week to abolish it. So much for countless hours of rhetoric about trillion-dollar deficits.
*****
Is the Independent Payment Advisory Board the “death panel” you’re talking about?
Can we please stay on the topic of this thread, please?
It is shame when known hateful people turn a seemingly good topic and make it personal.
Now, I’m going back to driving.
Why don’t you ask her?
D.S. what welfare state are you from?
Bruce,
What kinds of North Korean government control do you assume that people like Swarthmore mom would like to see in the USA?
A panel of non physicians that tell you weather you deserve a medical procedure to save your life or not. another kill list
Bruce,
I am not from Texas, are you? Hate is an awful trait, it can actually make one paranoid.
Can you be more specific in why you think North Korea would be better off?
I was refering to government control, seems that what you want