Irene flings boats across bay [Video]

Two boats were lifted from their moorings anchored offshore in Keyport Bay, New Jersey and carried across the bay to the Cliffwood Beach section of Aberdeen where they were unceremoniously dumped on the rocks by Hurricane Irene.

Jersey Shore residents wake up to Hurricane Irene flooding, damage

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Flooding, and cars abandoned in the standing water, greeted residents of the Cherry Tree Village townhouse condo development in Middletown, NJ as dawn broke on the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

Palmer Avenue on the Middletown-Holmdel border turned into a river, but one unlucky motorist didn’t know that and, thinking it still a road, traveled into the middle of the water and had to abandon the car.

Trees down across Cherry Tree Road and Harmony Avenue caused a bit of inconvenience for motorists.

But the power of Mother Nature was best seen at work where the Waackaack Creek, normally a placid easy to forge tributary that meanders to the nearby Raritan Bay, overflowed its banks at Middle Road in Holmdel, turning into a raging river that lapped at nearby buildings.

Keansburg, New Jersey evacuates ahead of Hurricane Irene

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Keansburg, a town along the Raritan Bay which leads into New York harbor and the Atlantic Ocean, is under a mandatory evacuation order.

Business owners are scurrying to put plywood up over their windows before Hurricane Irene’s unwelcome visit.

Some people are getting out of town ahead of the official start of the evacuation, Saturday at 5 PM. But others needed some convincing. Firefighters are going door-to-door with evacuation notices, and taking the names and addresses of those who are insistent that they must stay behind. That way they can account for everyone if the town, as is expected, floods, loses power and telephone service and is temporarily isolated from the outside world.

The famed Keansburg water park and boardwalk were open late Friday afternoon. But it was hardly worth the effort. Parking places, normally at a premium, were plentiful as tourists got the message to not come to the Jersey Shore. At least not until Irene leaves, damage is assessed and repairs are made.

The Jersey Shore prepares for Hurricane Irene

People are taking very seriously the potential threat posed by Hurricane Irene, which is slowly churning toward a northward track up the East Coast of the United States.

Along the Jersey Shore there already have been evacuations, starting at Cape May in the south and working north.

In Sea Bright, a town on a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Shrewsbury River, Office of Emergency Management truck s are already staged in front of the fire station. And boats and a ski jet are at the ready to rescue people from their homes by watercraft if necessary.

The assistant manager of the Long Branch Family Dollar store watched as crews boarded up the plate class windows with plywood.

And in West Long Branch, the Home Depot was open ’round the clock to accommodate people in need of board up supplies, generators, flashlights and batteries.

Earthquake shakes buildings, frays nerves

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia promoted the evacuation of government and non-governmental buildings in nearby Washington D.C. causing some minor damage but no injuries.

The quake shook up people as far away as New York City where the airports were temporarily shut down to check the structural integrity of the control towers. Several Manhattan skyscrapers were evacuated as well to check for damage to building foundations.

In Middletown, New Jersey a store full of salespeople and customers escaped injury when a portion of the interior ceiling came tumbling down. Firefighters and building inspectors evacuated the store while checking its integrity as well.

Black spokesman for Tea Party blames Obama for setting tone for black vs white flash mob violence

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Apparently I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the flash mob stories to realize there was a racial element to them.

Yes, I was aware that youth in Philadelphia and other cities were moving into neighborhoods en masse to reek havoc and assault people. But I guess I was too immersed in other stories to realize that the gangs were black and the victims white.

Thank Lloyd Marcus for pointing that out to me. In an opinion piece, Marcus argues that President Obama’s demeanor toward race relations sets an atmosphere and sends a signal to black youth that this kind of behavior is OK.

Marcus, who is black (but identifies himself as a “proud unhyphenated American” is a Tea Party Movement spokesman and co-chair of the Campaign to Defeat Barak Obama.

“While I am not saying president Obama is responsible for the epidemic of black youth flash-mob attacks on whites around our country, his race baiting has to be a contributing factor,” Lloyd writes.

The president’s political rhetoric, Marucs maintains, is racially divisive.

“Clearly,” he writes, “the Obama administration’s game-plan for his presidency is to use race as a bludgeon whenever anyone opposes an Obama agenda item. Obama obviously considers the loss of harmony between black and white Americans to be acceptable collateral damage.”

He refers to this as “race exploitation” which he suggests  could be “be fueling rage in black youths.”

New book marks 10th 9/11 anniversary by showing WTC attacks thru firefighter's eyes

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

For Harvey Eisner, editing WTC, In Their Own Words was a labor of love.

Eisner, a retired Tenafly, New Jersey fire chief and longtime editor of Firehouse Magazine, felt the calling to capture the story of 9/11 and present it through the eyes of those who responded to the call - members of the FDNY - the New York Fire Department.

It's more than photojournalism at its best - captured images from a perspective never before seen by the public. It's a reference guide. And in year's to come, it may very well be a seminal historic accounting of the immediate aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in history.

For some, still active or retired firefighters, it was too difficult to tell the story. For others, it was just the first, or second time, that they've ever articulated the emotional pain of that fateful day, nearly 10 years ago.

There's an accompanying DVD, with recorded video images as well.

Eisner felt it important to record for history the words of some of those who put their lives on the line. To present stories that have never before been publicly shared.

It was his way of honoring those who died, those who are ill, those who still will die from cancers and other diseases related to their responding to 9/11 and for those who lost brother firefighters on September 11, 2001.

Rick Perry's announcement may be good for the Democrats

As expected, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced today in South Carolina that he is the latest candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Progressive radio show host and blogger Danny Schechter the News Dissector says there has to be joy in Obamacamp today.

Schechter, in an interview with the Paltalk News Network, says Perry's candidacy plays right into the hands of the  Obama campaign, giving the president an opportunity to strike a distinction between himself, a right leaning moderate, with Perry, a far right wing evangelical Christian.

But, Schechter adds, the celebrating in Obamaville may be short-lived. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the perceived front-runner until now, is far more moderate than Perry. And there's still a chance the Republicans may shun the Tea Party and field another more moderate candidate who would be a more formidable opponent to Obama.

Will Rick Perry's religious beliefs help him or hurt him?

Gage Skidmore photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Barack Obama's race became a factor when he was a candidate for president. Addressed about the subject, Obama opined that the issue of his skin color cut both ways. There’d be some who would not vote for him because of it. Then, there’s be some who would vote for him because of it.

But what about Rick Perry, who announces his candidacy for the GOP nomination for president today? Will his strong evangelical ties stand in the way of his campaign?
Some people oppose President Obama because they wrongly believe him to be a Muslim. Some cringe at the idea of a Mormon in the White House. Two Mormons, including the current front-runner in the polls, Mitt Romney, are seeking the Republican nomination.

But Mormons are “the others.” Evangelical Christians, in the United States, are not.

So, will Perry’s strong religious beliefs, his embracing of prayer for America, hurt him or help him? And will this issue overshadow other, perhaps more important questions that might be raised about his candidacy? Like his positions on issues and likely policies should he be elected.

Nearly 15-hundred millionaires paid no taxes in 2009

John Morgan photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

The Los Angeles Times reports that 1,470 millionaires paid no taxes in 2009.

How did they get away with this? Quite legally.

They were either tax exempted because of their foreign investments. Or because they gave to charity.

So let me see if I get this right.

Republicans oppose lifting tax exemptions from the very wealthiest of our fellow Americans because they, the rich folk, are “job creators.” But, according to the IRS, the jobs they are creating, aren’t in the USA. They are on foreign soil.

Then there are those who argue that the government should not be involved in social programs. That’s something for the churches and other private agencies to provide. It’s called charity.

But the rich people who gave to charity were then exempted from paying taxes. So, isn’t that the same as if the government paid that money directly to the charities?

There are those who are concerned about the growing list of people on the other, lower, end of the economic spectrum, who aren’t paying income taxes.  They note, as the LA Times does, that the total percentage of Americans who are tax exempted is 46 percent. A staggering number. But why aren’t they paying taxes?

Mainly because they are out-of-work. Many of them suddenly and prematurely unemployed. If you don’t have income, you don’t pay taxes.

Some people say low income folk who aren’t paying taxes are bringing this country down. They’re not, it is argued, paying their fair share.

One fellow told me the poor should not be subsidized by the government at all. They should subsist on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There was a bit of resentment in that statement, which, I actually understand. The guy who made it is barely eking out a living himself.

But I’ll tell you what. I’d rather be part of the 54 percent who are paying taxes than the 46 percent who are not. Unless, of course, I was a millionaire.

Obama calls for bipartisan action to overcome economic crisis

The U.S. credit rating fell, President Obama said in an early afternoon White House address to reporters, not because the country is unable to meet its obligations, but because the political process failed. And he called on Congress to work in a bipartisan manner when it returns from its August recess to take actions that will restore faith in the U.S. economy.

But some of what he proposes is likely to be opposed by Republicans. Making that dream more difficult to achieve.

“The gridlock in Washington over the past several months has not been constructive to say the very least,” Obama said.

The result: a slowing, the president said, of the pace of the economic recovery.

While this is a legitimate source of concern, the good news, he said, is that the problems are “imminently solvable.”

Obama noted that the 11th hour agreement reached in Congress resulted in historic cuts to defense and domestic spending. That, he believes, cuts things pretty much to the bone. What’s needed now, he argues, is tax reform that asks “those who can afford it to pay their fair share.” He also supports “modest adjustments to healthcare programs like medicare.”

The former will likely, however, to be opposed by Republicans. The latter, by Democrats.

Obama also called for an extension of the payroll tax cut and assurances that jobless Americans still get their unemployment insurance. Both actions, he argued, will put money in people’s pockets and more customers in stores.

While not specifically using the word “stimulus,” Obama also said the government should help companies that want to repair bridges, highways and airports, creating more jobs for construction workers.

Failure to enact these measures, he warned, could result in one million fewer jobs and half-a-percent reduction in growth.

“These are not Democratic proposals These are not big government proposals. “These are all ideas that traditionally republicans have agreed to “There’s no reason,” he said, “why should not act on them now.”

Palestinian envoy: Israel root of all Muslim world's problems

There will be no Palestinian state following the UN vote

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

It would be comical if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of people believe this dribble.

The Palestinian’s envoy to Tehran says any miseries that are visiting the Muslim world are the direct result of “Zionist regime.” And he called for a unification of the Muslim world. In this context, presumably in solidarity against Israel.

Again, the “moderate” Palestinian Authority speaks out so recklessly against Israel.

This reminds me of the Indonesia tsunami, blamed, by some, on the Israelis. You’ll likely recall that much needed aid from Israel was rejected.

And who can forget how the Israeli’s were blamed by an Egyptian official for shark attacks along the Sinai?

Seemingly, these absurd assertions are ignored by a world community that also turns a blind eye to the repression of Palestinian journalists, the official antisemitism in the Palestinian territories and the PA’s funding – with U.S. tax dollars – of terrorists in Israeli jails.

All this at a time when the Palestinians, who have not sat down with the Israelis in nearly a year, are going to the United Nations to seek a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.

Say what you will about the position of the Netanyahu government. He has called – repeatedly – for the Palestinians to come to the negotiation table but they continue to refuse.

They know that, in the end, there will be no Palestinian state coming from the UN. For that to happen, the Security Council must say “yes.” And if it does, the U.S. will veto the resolution.

They can go to the General Assembly for a vote that will pass. But that will be all form with no substance of law.

So if they really wanted a state of their own, they would do the right thing. They would sit down and negotiate. Their recalcitrance suggests that they don’t really want a state of their own. And if that’s the case, it’s likely that those Israelis who believe that Fatah, like Hamas, really would rather that the Jewish state disappear, are right.

In the meantime, next time a Muslim stubs his toe, Palestinian diplomats can continue blaming Israel.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist in hiding

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

This is the kind of freedom that we see coming out of the Palestinian territories.

Palestinian security forces have arrested the brothers of an award-winning investigative reporter who refuses to turn herself in for questioning because she refused to sign a document which would require her to limit her reporting.

Majdoleen Hassouneh was honored for her reporting about medical conditions in the West Bank.

If you think this is an anomaly, think again. Palestinian authorities routinely require journalists to sign what amounts to self-censorship agreements before they can cover events.

Palestinian journalists were also forbidden from covering the results of an International Commission for Human Rights report detailing human rights abuses in both the West Bank and the Gaza.

And in the West Bank, Hamas systematically abuses Palestinian journalists, Human Rights Watch says.

What is more disturbing is that there is no outrage over all of this from the international media. Why the silence? Because it’s more acceptable to criticize Israel than the Palestinians?

Note that this coercion of journalists and, at least in this case, their families, is not limited to the Hamas. The so-called “moderate” Palestinian Authority Israel recognizes as a potential but recalcitrant peace partner, is involved in these bullying tactics designed to silence critical reporting.

The world seemingly turns a blind eye, as well, toward the funneling of millions of dollars in U.S. tax money given to the Palestinian Authority to pay the “salaries” of Palestinian terrorists who are in Israeli jails. In other words, the “moderate” Palestinian Authority is using U.S. tax dollars to pay terrorists.

Where is the outrage?

NASA: Salt water flows found on Mars

NASA says its Mars orbiter has taken photos that suggest that water exists on the Red Planet.

Water, flowing on Mars, appears in late Spring through mid-Summer, scientists say.

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Wall Street tanks

Wall Street faced a mid-afternoon sell off, investors concerned about Friday's job figures which aren't expected to be good.

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