Democracy Now! is broadcasting under power outage conditions as they, and much of New York City, are without electricity after Superstorm Sandy pounded the East Coast. They continue their coverage of Sandy by looking at how it has impacted an economically divided New York City, especially in Manhattan, where the the richest fifth make 40 times more money than the poorest fifth. Inequality in Manhattan rivals parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Amy Goodman is joined in New York City by Reuters journalist David Rohde, whose new article for The Atlantic is "The Hideous Inequality Exposed by Hurricane Sandy." Rohde writes: "Those with a car could flee. Those with wealth could move into a hotel. Those with steady jobs could decline to come into work. But the city’s cooks, doormen, maintenance men, taxi drivers and maids left their loved ones at home." Rohde is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a former reporter for the New York Times.

Indeed, where else is the great divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots" more evident than in New York City? In the financial district -- Wall Street -- Goldman Sachs, and other financial institutions light up the night sky, while elsewhere in the city people need food, water, and wait for power for lights as the nights grow ever colder. But, the stock market... it's business as usual.

David Rohde explains what he's experiencing in NYC:

"There were two different maids I remember talking to that were still sort of walking through this hotel. It just seemed absurd, actually. The power had gone out in the hotel the night before, yet this one maid came in and sort of changed our sheets. And I just sort of felt—just felt ridiculous. I asked her about her family. She said that she had been in touch with them in Queens."

"There was a garage attendant I talked to nearby. He had not talked to his family at all since the storm struck. He was an immigrant, said most of his family is in another country. And I said, "But do you have any relative here?" And he said that he did have a sister in New Jersey, but he hadn’t been able to speak with her at all since the storm broke. He—I honestly let him make a call on my cellphone; he left a message for her. But what struck me was I asked him, "What did you do? How did you get through this storm?" And he had just stayed at this garage where he works, right near Union Square. And he said that throughout the storm, he just had slept in his car."

Full transcript is available here.

Much of the nation is reeling from Superstorm Sandy. As families rebuild from Sandy’s destruction, our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific, fossil-fueled storm.

When Gov. Mitt Romney made climate change a punch line at the Republican National Convention, he mocked a real threat to the lives of Americans.

We can't let Mitt get away with his laughing dismissal of the threat of rising seas caused by the carbon polluters who fund his campaign. Share this ad with friends and family to tell Romney: climate change isn't a joke.

http://climatesilence.org/romneyjoke

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The hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday suggested that NBC should postpone a Hurricane Sandy telethon until after the election because making sure that the event did not benefit President Barack Obama was more important than helping storm victims.

NBC announced earlier this week that Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting would all be performing a the Friday benefit concert, "Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together." Money collected during the one-hour broadcast will go to the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

But because most of the announced stars have supported Obama in the past, conservative media have panned the concert as "an ode to Obama’s grand and glorious leadership during Hurricane Sandy."

On Friday, Fox & Friends guest host Eric Bolling floated the idea that NBC had rushed the concert "to make President Obama look presidential."

"It does look like they are trying squeeze things in," co-host Steve Doocy agreed. "Where are the conservative performers? There aren't any on the list I saw.

Doocy recalled that during a telethon for 2005 Hurricane Katrina, singer Kayne West had declared that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

"How is NBC going to control what the people say?" the Fox News host wondered.

Bolling noted that NBC had waited for 10 days to host an event to support victims of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It let the city get its feet under itself first," Bolling insisted. "This just seems like a rush job because the election is going to be three days after that."

"Is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for Obama?" Doocy added.

"I don't know," Bolling replied.

(h/t: Huffington Post)

Yeah, I know it's another ad, but this one really is creative and smart. Using the iPhone assistant Siri, the case is made for President Obama's re-election, by Mitt Romney himself.

I especially like how they merged Mitt's argument for Dubya's re-election with the chart of job creation from Barack Obama's first term.

In case you're curious, here's the visual of Dubya vs. Obama:

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Given that chart combined with Mitt's words, I think we have an excellent case to make for why Mitt Romney is absolutely right to recommend that Barack Obama be re-elected.

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MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Thursday compared conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh to the rapist character from the movie "Deliverance" who told his male victim to "squeal like a pig."

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy earlier this week, Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had praised President Barack Obama, causing Limbaugh to rip the governor for playing "the role of a Greek column" and expressing "man-love" for the president.

On Thursday, Matthews reviewed the attack on Christie and mocked Limbaugh for sounding like a "walrus under water."

"He reminds me more of the guy from 'Deliverance' -- 'squeal like a pig' -- than anybody," the MSNBC host laughed. "It just seems that he's squealing like a pig essentially. He knows he lost the day and he just wants to complain about it, bromance, suggestions of gay behavior. It's absurdity, it's high school."

During the 1972 movie "Deliverance," the character Bobby encounters a hillbilly while canoeing in the Georgia wilderness. Beatty tries to buy some moonshine from the hillbilly, but he is forced to strip at gunpoint and is raped while being ordered to "squeal like a pig."

(h/t: Real Clear Politics)

An interesting bit of history recently recovered.

Three days after the informal end to the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy filmed a public service announcement urging Americans to vote. His message was filmed on October 31, 1962, in the Fish Room (now the Roosevelt Room) in the West Wing of the White House. In the 43-second, black & white address, President Kennedy reminded viewers of the importance of voting to show the strength and importance of American freedom and democracy.

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As Jon Stewart noted in the opening segment of The Daily Show this Thursday evening, the week before the general election, the people of New York might have it rough right now in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, but they can be grateful for one thing -- that they're not living in "swing state hell" like the residents of Ohio are now.

As Stewart joked, between all the political ads, robocalls and politicians on the campaign trail that are inundating the voters in the state, they're going to need their electricity turned off to get some relief. Daily Show regular Wyatt Cenac "reported" from an "undisclosed bunker," since there was no where else to go to escape the ads, not even the neighboring states.

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It seems former President George W. Bush isn't too worried about giving Mitt Romney some bad press just before the election. As Steve Benen noted, the contrast between how Bill Clinton is spending his time these days and Bush couldn't be more stark -- A tale of two former presidents:

Just this week, former President Bill Clinton has campaigned for President Obama in Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, and Iowa. Today, Clinton will hit the stump for Obama in Wisconsin and again in Ohio. By most measures, the former president has become Obama's most popular and most effective surrogate.

And then there's Clinton's successor.

[George W. Bush] will spend Thursday in the Cayman Islands, delivering the keynote address at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit. As Romney struggles to convince voters that he understands their economic struggles, having the previous Republican president reminding them of the questions surrounding Romney's financial dealings in the Caymans is beyond unhelpful.

Yes, as we first discussed in September, George W. Bush, with just five days remaining before Election Day, is headed to one of the most politically inconvenient locations possible for Mitt Romney: the Republican will deliver the keynote address this evening at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit.

In case anyone's forgotten, Romney ran into a little trouble over the summer when we learned he has stashed cash in the Cayman Islands, and played fast and loose with the facts, hoping the public won't realize that Romney is using the Caymans as an apparent tax-avoidance scheme.

Which reminds me -- has anyone asked Romney about his secret tax returns lately?

Fat chance of that happening. Romney's been running from reporters asking him questions he doesn't like for months on end now.

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There are so many things wrong with this clip, it's hard to know where to begin, but it's fairly obvious that conservatives completely fail when it comes to their attempts at "humor" and Steven Crowder isn't worried about making an ass out of himself on television. But of course, the Fox-bots loved it.

Here's more from Raw Story but there's a problem with their headline. Crowder isn't wearing a bear costume. He admits it's a monkey costume during this follow up interview on Fox Thursday morning.

Fox contributor in bear suit steals kids’ Halloween candy to make ‘point’ about Obama:

In a video published to YouTube on Tuesday, Crowder — whose strange attempts at conservative-styled satire have made the pages of The Raw Story before — does exactly that in an effort to make a point about progressive tax policies couched in something President Barack Obama said 14 years ago about how he favors “redistribution” of government resources “to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.” Video of the comment was widely circulated by Republicans in September, although most of the focus was on the word “redistribution” (a stand-in for “taxes”), and not the portion where Obama praised “competition” and market-driven “innovation.”

Despite numerous law enforcement outfits warning that children and parents should be wary of strangers wearing bear costumes in public, Crowder somehow managed to get flocks of kids to come up to his camera-rigged car. “You just stole my candy!” one of the kids in the video yells. Another one threatens to call the police.

“Is that your costume? You didn’t make that shirt, you didn’t build that,” Crowder told a group of visibly angry children, referencing the misleading Obama quote that Republicans built their nominating convention around. He went on to inform his unsuspecting victims that he’s going to “redistribute” their candy so that everyone’s the same, which was somehow supposed to teach the children a lesson about why they should vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Voting age in the U.S., however, is 18. Read on...

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After Donald Trump extended his offer to President Obama that he would donate $5 million to charity if the President releases his college records and passport application, Stephen Colbert responded in kind, and also extended his offer to teabag the Donald for charity.