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Kind of tells you everything you need to know about who's more likely to stand up for American workers, doesn't it?

Via Mark Crispin Miller.

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I have no idea what the politics of this is, but yes, I noticed this week that the NHC wasn't issuing advisories on Hurricane Sandy as it approached the Mid Atlantic and thought it was bizarre. Now that I know the reason, I'm even more confused. They're really that inflexible?

AccuWeather CEO Barry Myers urged the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to reverse its decision not to issue hurricane or tropical storm warnings for Sandy north of North Carolina.

"To indicate that there is a landfalling hurricane and to issue warnings about it is the most effective thing that can be done to warn the public," Myers said.

There has not been one hurricane watch or warning issued by the National Hurricane Center for New Jersey despite the anticipated landfall of Hurricane Sandy near Atlantic City this evening. The NHC released a statement on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, that there will be no advisories issued for Sandy north of North Carolina.

Typically, hurricane watches are announced 48 hours in advance of the expected onset of tropical storm-force winds. Hurricane warnings are usually issued 36 hours in advance of the expected onset of tropical storm-force winds.

The following is an excerpt from the NHC statement:

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issues advisories, forecasts, and warnings on tropical cyclones - the generic term for hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions. Sometime prior to making landfall, Hurricane Sandy is expected to lose its characteristics as a tropical cyclone and take on the structure of a wintertime low-pressure area. Because the National Hurricane Center only issues advisories on tropical cyclones, there will be changes in the flow of information coming out of the NWS when this transition occurs.

"What we have is a hurricane becoming embedded in a winter storm. It's clearly unprecedented," Myers said. "But to refuse to issue hurricane warnings clearly can cause confusion."

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In case you hadn't heard, The Combover is trying to goad the president into releasing his college transcripts and passport application by offering to $5M to charity. The deadline was supposed to be today.

Leave it to The Combover to turn an unfolding emergency in which at least a dozen people have died into an opportunity for crass self-promotion -- with some birtherism thrown in for good measure.

What an ass.

(h/t Heather)

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As much of the U.S. grappled with Monster Storm Sandy’s devastation, Fox & Friends found time to work in an attack on the AARP for being too pro-Obama by supporting ObamaCare. And what expert did they find to discuss this burning controversy? Why, none other than former game show host Chuck Woolery. But hey, he’s a conservative and he’s fronting for some anti-Obamacare/anti-AARP group so that qualifies him on Fox!

The “controversy” was AARP’s support for ObamaCare which Woolery alleged breached its non-partisan status. That also just so happens to be a pet cause for the Tea Party’s fave Senator, Jim DeMint.

Doocy said, “The fallout’s so bad it’s even attracting some celebrity attention.”

By “celebrity attention,” Doocy meant Woolery’s. Coincidentally, Woolery is also the spokesperson for Generation America, described by Doocy as “the largest conservative alternative to AARP.” If you go to the Generation America website, it has suspiciously little information about who funds it or who runs it. If it’s there, I couldn’t find it. But nobody could miss the “repeal Obamacare” ad on just about every page. It’s also the only issue listed under the “public policy” tab. But there is an editorial called, “A Huge Victory for a Principled Mitt Romney.”

Yet, Woolery and Doocy shamelessly griped that AARP is too partisan. Woolery even directed viewers to his group’s website for more attacks on the AARP information. “It’s really to inform seniors more than anything else,” he insisted, before adding that what AARP did is “absolutely disgusting.” According to Woolery it’s largely AARP’s fault that we’re stuck with health insurance laws that provide for coverage for all Americans. Well, who would know better than a guy who made a living reading answers on cue cards?

Doocy went on to display some recently uncovered emails obtained by Woolery's group that showed the White House working with AARP to get Obamacare passed. Doocy didn’t mention how AARP also supported George W. Bush’s Medicare prescription benefit. Nor did he question why an organization supposedly devoted to helping seniors is trolling for emails (Woolery said he got some of them from the Freedom of Information Act) for political gain.

As the interview wound down, Doocy made an explicitly anti-Obama pitch. “So what you’re saying is with the big election coming up, people need to know that if you don’t like the health care reform act, the Affordable Care Act, a vote for President Obama would be a vote to keep that in business.”

“That’s exactly right,” Woolery agreed.

Fox News: where "fair and balanced" now comes with non-partisan!

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If you were like me last night, you went to Twitter to see live, up to moment reporting of damage on the East Coast due to Hurricane Sandy. I have family in New York and New Jersey and the power of the storm made me very scared for their safety. So far, the only report from them I've heard is a tree branch hitting a car. Others have not been so lucky.

But in between some eerie and just plain horrifying pictures, there was one tweeter who seemed to be tweeting out a lot of information that others needed to then correct, thereby sending the twitterverse into a lot of confusion at a time when the chaos was already overwhelming. That tweeter? @Comfortablysmug

So who is this guy? Turns out, he's a GOP consultant, hedge fund analyst and a big Romney supporter:

During the storm last night, user @comfortablysmug was the source of a load of frightening but false information about conditions in New York City that spread wildly on Twitter and onto news broadcasts before ConEd, the MTA, and Wall Street sources had to take time out of the crisis situation to refute them.

What leads a person to do such a thing, which his critics have likened to shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater? It’s unclear. But perhaps it has something to do with the nature of anonymity. If there are no consequences for posting false “BREAKING” news, there’s an incentive to do it to an accumulate a large audience.

What @comfortablysmug didn’t count on, apparently, was losing that anonymity. Based on photos he censored and posted to the account but I found unedited elsewhere, @comfortablysmug is Shashank Tripathi, a hedge-fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, this year’s Republican candidate for the U.S. House from New York’s 12th congressional district.FEC documents show Wight has paid Tripathi thousands of dollars this election cycle as a “consultant.” @comfortablysmug has been a vocal supporter of Mitt Romney and posted tweets suggesting he attended this year's Republican convention.

Yeah, it's petty. But for millions of New Yorkers and others along the Eastern seaboard, this was quite literally a life and death situation. And to purposefully send out false information that could lead to slower response times for actual emergencies is just unconscionable.

But then again, when do Republicans show concern for actual lives in the balance?

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Mitt Romney claimed he was suspending his campaign today. Sorta. Kinda. Not really.

Actually, he was out schmoozing voters in Ohio under the guise of calling it a "disaster relief" event:

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney urged his supporters on Tuesday to keep up their efforts to help those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and pitched in to box up donations.

"We have heavy hearts, as you know, with all of the suffering going on in a major part of our country," he said at an appearance in Dayton, Ohio, touted by the campaign as a "storm relief" event. "A lot of people are hurting this morning and they were hurting last night."

He thanked the crowd for bringing goods, which he said will be sent to New Jersey.

"I appreciate the fact people right here in Dayton got up this morning, some went to the grocery store, I see, and purchased some things that these families will need," he continued. "I appreciate your generosity. It's part of the American spirit, the American way, to give to people that are in need."

This warmed the cockles of the talkers' hearts at Fox News, of course, where no one doubted that Romney was not, repeat NOT campaigning. He was just helping box up some canned goods to help in the relief effort, and, heavens, if some photographers or some voters happened to be nearby, that was swell too. (Oh, and by the way, Obama was campaigning because Bill Clinton was out doing events in Minnesota, donchaknow.)

But had anyone at the Romney campaign bothered to ask the Red Cross, they would have been informed that collecting canned goods is exactly what they don't need. From the Red Cross website:

The American Red Cross does not accept or solicit small quantities of individual donations of items for emergency relief purposes. Items such as collections of food, used clothing, and shoes often must be cleaned, sorted, and repackaged which impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel that are needed for other aspects of our relief operation.

The Red Cross, in partnership with other agencies, suggests that the best use for those types of donations is to support needy agencies within donors' local communities.

The best way to help a disaster victim is through a financial donation to the Red Cross. Financial contributions allow the Red Cross to purchase exactly what is needed for the disaster relief operation. Monetary donations also enable the Red Cross to purchase relief supplies close to the disaster site which avoids delays and transportation costs in getting basic necessities to disaster victims. Because the affected area has generally experienced significant economic loss, purchasing relief supplies in or close to the disaster site also helps to stimulate the weakened local economy.

As John Aravosis observes:

It “impedes” relief efforts, it doesn’t help. The Red Cross prefers money because it’s far easier to handle, and can be spent where it’s most needed and on what is most needed.

Afterwards, Romney refused to answer any questions about his previously documented proposal to eliminate FEMA:

"Gov are you going to eliminate FEMA?" a print pooler shouted, receiving no response.

Wires reporters asked more questions about FEMA that were ignored.

Romney kept coming over near pool to pick up more water. He ignored these questions:

"Gov are you going to see some storm damage?"

"Gov has [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie invited you to come survey storm damage?"

"Gov you've been asked 14 times, why are you refusing to answer the question?"

Oh, and here's how the press badges for the event read, via Dave Weigel:

Continue reading »

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In some ways this is a nothing sort of clip, as Scarborough and Halperin have featured these type of discussions pretty much daily on MSNBC's Morning Joe as this election wore on. Democrats are in trouble, worried that safe states have now suddenly become competitive depending on the vagaries of some useless partisan polling by companies no one ever heard of before this election (or worse, Rasmussen). The list is endless really.

Today's installment of concern trolling about how close this election is, and how "nobody knows who will win", features tea-leaf readings about how Bill Clinton is in Minnesota today (never mind that he was in North Dakota last night helping Senate hopeful Heidi Heitkamp try to win in a red state, which she just might), and that suddenly Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are now "in play". None of which is really true of course, but that doesn't matter to them. They're selling a narrative and are sticking to it, come hell or high water.

All of which will be over soon when this election finally and mercifully ends, and hopefully these clowns can spend the next several months wondering what the hell went wrong for Mitt Romney, when they should have been asking what ever went right to put him in the position to get elected in the first place.

(via ThinkProgress)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Tweeted the following message yesterday (Oct 29, 2012):

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Credit: ThinkProgress

...suggesting that the Obama Administration has directed the Dept of Labor to withhold the October Jobs Report (which he is certain will be bad) until after the election and to blame Hurricane Sandy for the delay. "The Fiscal Times" website is predicting a "weak" yet still positive "124,000 jobs created" for October... a 10,000 job improvement over the September jobs report that resulted in a 0.2% drop in the UE rate.

The DoL says the report is still scheduled for its normal Friday release despite being closed on Monday for the storm. Grassley likely jumped to his ridiculous conclusion based upon a report on "The Hill" blog questioning whether or not the report may be delayed due to the storm. (not unlike Romney quoting an incorrect blog-posting claiming Jeep was "moving all production to China" based on a blogger that misread a Bloomberg headline touting Chrysler's "return to China".)

Remember that just last month, Republicans falsely accused the Obama Administration of tweaking the unemployment rate down to 7.8% as a pre-election ploy. NOW they are accusing the administration of plans to "delay the report" for political advantage.

First, they accused the administration of fudging the numbers. NOW they are accusing them of "withholding" the numbers. If the Administration had the power to "fudge the numbers for political gain", why wouldn't they simply "fudge" the numbers again rather than leave the appearance they are hiding something prior to the election?

No one ever accused the GOP of making sense.

I saw it fly past in yesterday's Twitter stream: 'Hurricane Sandy is a Keynesian'. And I thought, "Hmm."

Now, don't get me wrong. There's no way in hell I'm happy about this storm (in fact, I'd like to send an invoice to oil lobbyists and tell them to split the bill) and after it's done, there will be people who died (sixteen on the East Coast, 69 in the Caribbean as of this writing), and countless others left homeless, but there is a small silver lining in all those clouds.

Because the construction industry has been moribund for a while. Now it will explode, and a lot of people who didn't have jobs will have them.

And those people who have those new jobs will spend money, and that will create more jobs. How many? That depends on how much money the feds put into the recovery. (Don't forget, Wall Street brokers live in these affected areas, too.)

This story appeared after Hurricane Irene, but it still applies:

When it comes to the larger economy, Irene could provide a hefty stimulus. Analysts are already predicting a big jump in construction and home-furnishings spending as beleaguered homeowners rush to repair and replace property that was destroyed in the storm. Economist Peter Morici estimates that this short-term consumer spending boost will total roughly $20 billion, and suggests that it may have some long-term positive effects. To begin with, he predicts a multiplier effect of about $16 billion as post-disaster spending works its way through the economy. What's more, as business owners replace destroyed property, Morici estimates that there may be a long-term economic improvement of more than $10 billion.

Other analysts agree; David Kotok, chairman of money management firm Cumberland Advisors, notes that his company is now predicting that fourth-quarter GDP growth may go as high as 3%, fueled by "Billions [that] will be spent on rebuilding and recovery."

Unfortunately, much of this growth will be dependent upon the political climate. Cumberland assumes that, among other things, "Washington may set aside the usual destructive and divisive partisan political wrangling and act in the interest of the nation." If this is the case, Kotok emphasizes, federal financial assistance will rush to troubled areas, quickly stimulating rebuilding efforts.

However, if the recent debt ceiling debate demonstrated anything, it's that "neither snow nor rain" nor the best interests of the country can slow down Washington's partisan wrangling. When it comes to post-Irene rebuilding, the battle lines have already been drawn: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is demanding other federal budget cuts to offset disaster assistance spending, and FEMA is in the middle of a funding crisis that -- barring quick action -- will undoubtedly delay some rebuilding efforts.

Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)reiterated his argument for killing FEMA altogether.

I just don't see it now. I just don't see the Republicans lying down on the railroad tracks and letting the train of popular opinion run over them. They've done it before, of course, but this time it's just too many voters. It's D.C. (where they live), it's Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, New England, the Virginias, North Carolina. The rural areas (which always take a lot longer to get repair crews to) are their voters! The sensible thing would be for them to call an emergency session of Congress and pass a massive funding bill for the reconstruction.

Or will they throw public opinion to the wind and instead double down on the Cantor Doctrine? Stay tuned.

It's a depressing way to finally get an adequate stimulus, but I'll take what we can get.

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The presidential candidates have canceled all campaign events on Tuesday, but Republican New Jersey Chris Christie seemed to be stumping for President Barack Obama by appearing on several networks to praise the federal response to Hurricane Sandy.

In an interview on NBC, Christie called Obama "outstanding" for expediting relief efforts. He also told MSNBC that Obama "deserves great credit."

"He gave me his number at the White House and told me to call him if I needed anything," Christie said.

The New Jersey governor even took his message to Fox News, saying that Obama had helped "tremendously."

"I spoke to the president three times yesterday," he explained. "He called me for the last time at midnight last night asking what he could do. I said, if you can expedite designating New Jersey as a major disaster area that that would help us to get federal money and resources in here as quickly as possible to help clean up the damage here."

"The president was great last night," Christie continued. "He said he would get it done. At 2 a.m., I got a call from FEMA to answer a couple of final questions and then he signed the declaration this morning. So I have to give the president great credit. He's been on the phone with me three times in the last 24 hours. He's been very attentive, and anything that I've asked for, he's gotten to me. So, I thank the president publicly for that. He's done -- as far as I'm concerned -- a great job for New Jersey."

Fox News co-host Steve Doocy wondered when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was going to get some of the same benefits from the hurricane with a photo op in disaster-stricken New Jersey towns.

"Over the last couple of months, you have appeared throughout the country, Governor, on behalf of Mitt Romney," Doocy remarked to Christie. "[W]e hear that perhaps Mr. Romney may do some storm-related events. Is there any possibility that Gov. Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you?"

"I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested," Christie replied, immediately shutting down the idea. "I've got a job to do here in New Jersey that's much bigger than presidential politics and I could [sic] care less about any of that stuff."

"I have a job to do," he added. "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."