DC Braces for megastorm

[DinoDoc]

Hey Mr. Empathy, were you aware that there are laws against that?

The question here is if those laws while being politically popular actually serve the public interest.

[regexcellent]

Hey Mr. Empathy, were you aware that there are laws against that?

That's unfortunate. Price controls

[MrFun]

You are a hypocritical, racist douchebag.

What does racism have to do with my statement?

And are you saying that Tea Baggers are not hypocritical when they seek federal government assistance for anything like disaster relief?

[MrFun]

Are you claiming that the Tea Bagger's have a monopoly on hypocrisy?

Duh, of course not.

[Dinner]

It seems like the governors on both sides have done a good job while Obama has been very pro-active in getting states what they need as quickly as possible. It's a night and day difference compared to how Bush fumbled Katrina. Kudos to all of them.

[Hauldren Collider]

You don't think Kathleen Blanco had much to do with the failure of the Katrina response?

[Dinner]

Partially but FEMA, by law, is the head of all multistate disasters. The buck stops there.

[giblets]

You don't think Kathleen Blanco had much to do with the failure of the Katrina response?

Clearly Chris Christie is a better governor than Kathleen Blanco was, and Barack Obama is a better president than George Bush.

[The Mad Monk]

How so?

It makes for hard feelings, and poisons future dealings. For example, there's a rubber supplier I know of, who lowballs every other supplier, unless there's shortage. Typically everyone rations instead of raising prices so nobody gets driving out of business, but these guys raise the price through the roof for those desperate enough to pay it. Because of this, nobody wants to deal with them at any other time even with the lowballing, because they dislike having to take a shower afterwards to wash the slime off.

[The Mad Monk]

Clearly Chris Christie is a better governor than Kathleen Blanco was, and Barack Obama is a better president than George Bush.

Good thing Bush isn't running this time around.

Christie for President.

[The Mad Monk]

'Sons of Anarchy' star: Storm aftermath 'a lot worse than how it's being portrayed by media'
by Lynette Rice

EW spoke to Sons of Anarchy – and Staten Island native — Theo Rossi (Juice Ortiz), who was home visiting family and friends when Sandy hit. He’s remained there ever since and gave us this first-hand account of the devastation.

“It’s so bad here, a lot worse than how its being portrayed by the media. They are finding bodies left and right, elderly people who don’t even watch the news or who knew the storm was coming. I was just with one of my best friends from high school and college, and his house is completely gone. One story I heard was about this one guy who evacuated his house during Hurricane Irene but then it got looted. So when they told him to evacuate for Sandy, he said, ‘I’m not leaving.’ Now they can’t find him, his 13-year-old daughter is dead, and his wife is in critical condition at the hospital. These are the stories. My stepfather and my mother, I love them to death. But when they heard the storm was coming, they said, ‘It’s not going to be that bad. Irene didn’t do anything.’ They had two flashlights and a couple of scented candles. Little did they know. It’s just not worth it. If you’re told to evacuate, you need to get out.

The one weird thing is how there is no power. The other weird thing is how there’s no gas. To get gas requires a three-and-a-half hour wait. It’s like this odd, post-apocalyptic kind of thing. Most trees are down. Power lines are down. It’s like a movie, or like The Walking Dead. You can’t believe it. Especially when you grow up here. I moved to Los Angeles in 1999, but this has always been my home. There’s the place I kissed a girl, that’s the place I played handball. I know this island in and out. To see it completely destroyed is bizarre.
I’ve been trying to hit every shelter on Staten Island to do what I can, just to make people smile. A lot of people know me and know I’m from here. My flight has been changed six times now. Finally, I got a flight for Sunday. Then, the city decides they are going ahead with the New York City Marathon. The bridges will be closed, so I can’t get to the airport. How are they doing a marathon when most people don’t have power? On top of it, the hotels in Manhattan have been nice enough to put up people who have no homes. They are charging them $200 as opposed to $700 a night. But now they are throwing these people out because they’ve got people from all over the world coming to run the marathon. They are throwing out the survivors! So I call Jet Blue and say I can’t fly Sunday because I can’t get from Staten Island to JFK Airport. And they said ‘Okay Theo.’ They know me know because I’ve been calling them every 15 minutes. They say, ‘Theo, we can get you on a flight Friday.’ I say book it! I call up the car service, and they say, ‘We can’t pick you up, we have no gas.’ All my friends on Staten Island say, ‘How are we going to get you there? We have no gas.’ And the people who do have gas, don’t want to waste it going to JFK. So I’ve got to call and change my flight again. Now I’m leaving Monday. Everybody says if we don’t have gas in our cars by Monday, if the roads aren’t clear by Monday, that’s it … we’re throwing in the towel.

I’m really glad I’m here to help and do anything, but I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m just glad I’m here with my family. A shout out and thank you to all the amazing city workers who have been working around the clock. Police, fire, sanitation. You all are the true fabric of this city.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/02/sons-of-anarchy-irene-staten-island/

[Felch]

This should be a heads up to all Americans to engage in some sort of disaster preparedness. Even if you're some freakish anti-gun lunatic, there's no reason to be anti-canned food or anti-generator.

One thing that puzzles me is that the gas stations without power aren't being provided with generators. It seems like common sense for some sort of charity or (shudder) government agency to provide generators to help fuel stations without power operate their pumps.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The question here is if those laws while being politically popular actually serve the public interest.

Depends on which public interest you are interested in having served, right? The moral public interest or the economic public interest? (Btw, on a slight tangent - this is why I get pissed at "What's the Matter with Kansas" and books like that. Moral interests are just as important as economic interests - then again, the author somewhat knows that as one would also ask "What's the Matter with New York" as rich states should be voting Republican if they are only looking at economic interests)

[Felch]

How is it moral to choke off supplies to people in need?

[giblets]

The majority of people in "rich states" are not rich themselves.