- After the devastation wrought by superstorm Sandy I cannot believe there are still idiots complaining that building up seawalls and other coastal protection measures will ruin their view. Take this account, from Delaware Courier-Post: ”Earlier this week, the state Supreme Court heard arguments concerning a couple from Harvey Cedars who won a lower court decision granting them more than $370,000 as compensation for having dunes block their view of the ocean. ‘It’s like the new lottery,’ said Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini. ‘They want money to protect their house. Amazing.’”
Tracks
DE-STRUCTURE A large crane on Tuesday tore down a roller coaster in Seaside Heights, N.J., that had been in the ocean for six months since superstorm Sandy. (Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images via The Wall Street Journal)
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
SIX MONTHS HENCE David Friedman and John Makely of NBC News present before and after panoramic photos of Breezy Point, Queens — a New York City neighborhood ravaged by fire and flood after Superstorm Sandy.
Today in Terribly Contaminated Water:
- “Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world’s second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain.” (NY Times)
- “Hurricane Sandy’s huge coastal floods flushed 10 billion gallons of sewage into New York and New Jersey’s waterways — and turned most of the shoreline into a filth-filled toilet for days, according to a report set to be released Tuesday. New York and New Jersey released 10 billion gallons of sewage — virtually all of the 11 billion gallons that leaked into rivers, lakes, streams and oceans between Washington, D.C. and Connecticut.” (NY Daily News)
The rebuilding of Seaside Heights, NJ begins.
NO HUDDLED MASSES A police officer makes his rounds at the Statue of Liberty National Monument in New York Harbor. The island suffered major damage during Superstorm Sandy and has remained closed to the public. (Photo: John Makely / NBC News)
NY TIMES: "The fate of New York City’s legions of rats remained something of a mystery in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Rodent specialists predicted that many rats would drown in submerged subway tunnels, but also that survivors would feast on the buffet of garbage strewed in the streets. Now, several exterminators say they know exactly what happened to the rats: Driven from shorelines, the rodents came inland, in droves."
31 Senate Republicans Opposed Sandy Relief After Supporting Disaster Aid For Home States | ThinkProgress
When the Senate passed the long-delayed $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package Monday, 36 Republicans voted against the bill. But of the 32 no-votes from Senators who are not brand-new members, at least 31 came from Republicans who had previously supported emergency aid efforts following disasters in their own states.
Most incredible among the no voters were Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Those two had not just backed disaster aid in the past — they actually sought disaster aid for their own states for relief from Hurricane Sandy. And Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) endorsed disaster relief for snow storms damages in Arkansas just four days before casting his “nay” vote.
The “hypocritical” list includes:
1. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH): Requested disaster aid after Hurricane Sandy.
2. John Barrasso (R-WY), Republican Policy Committee Chair: Requested disaster aid after flooding.
3. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Republican Conference Vice Chair: Demanded the Senate be called back from recess to pass disaster aid during a drought and boasts: “When a disaster surpasses the ability of states and communities to rebuild, Senator Blunt believes the federal government should prioritize spending to help the people whose lives and livelihoods are impacted. During his time in the Senate, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that Missouri gets its fair share of those federal resources specifically dedicated to disaster recovery.”
4. John Boozman (R-AR): Requested disaster aid after snow storms in January 2013.
5. Richard Burr (R-NC): Requested disaster aid after severe storms.
6. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA): Requested disaster aid after flooding.
7. Dan Coats (R-IN): Requested disaster aid after tornadoes.
8. Tom Coburn (R-OK): Requested disaster aid after winter storms and for extreme drought.
9. Bob Corker (R-TN): Requested disaster aid after flooding and asked for supplemental emergency flood relief.
10. John Cornyn (R-TX), Republican Minority Whip: Demanded drought relief aid and requested disaster aid for wildfires.
11. Mike Crapo (R-ID): Boasted of obtaining a FEMA fire safety grant and pushed for a bill providing emergency drought relief.
12. Mike Enzi (R-WY): Requested disaster relief after flooding.
13. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): Requested disaster relief after freezing and boasted of obtaining emergency drought relief.
14. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): Requested disaster relief after severe hail storms.
15. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): Requested disaster relief after flooding.
16. James Inhofe (R-OK): Boasted of obtaining disaster relief after severe storms and drought.
17. Johnny Isakson (R-GA): Requested disaster aid after flooding.
18. Mike Johanns (R-NE): Requested disaster relief after flooding and blasted Democrats for “inaction on disaster relief” for drought and wildfires.
19. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Requested disaster relief after a blizzard.
20. Mark Kirk (R-IL): Appealed after FEMA denied assistance following severe storms and tornadoes.
21. Mike Lee (R-UT): After calling federal disaster relief unconstitutional, endorsed relief aid after flooding in Utah.
22. John McCain (R-AZ): Endorsed disaster relief after flooding.
23. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Republican Minority Leader: Requested disaster relief during a drought and after tornadoes.
24. Jerry Moran (R-KS): Requested disaster relief after tornadoes.
25. Rand Paul (R-KY): Requested disaster relief during a drought and after tornadoes.
26. Rob Portman (R-OH): Endorsed disaster relief during a drought and after storms.
27. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Boasted of obtaining disaster relief after drought and wildfires and criticized the Bush administration for inadequate emergency relief after a blizzard.
28. Marco Rubio (R-FL): Requested disaster relief after severe freezing.
29. Jeff Sessions (R-AL): Requested disaster relief after tornadoes and during a drought.
30. John Thune (R-SD), Republican Conference Chair: Requested disaster relief after flooding and snow storms.
31. Pat Toomey (R-PA): Requested disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy before it even hit landfall.Not one of the opponents has co-sponsored Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) “Extreme Weather Prevention and Resilience Act” which would encourage Congress to “prepare and protect communities from extreme weather, sea-level rise, drought, flooding, wildfire, and other changing conditions exacerbated by carbon pollution” and “reducing pollution, promoting the use of clean energy sources, and improving energy efficiency.”
ThinkProgrss previously reported that at least 37 House Republicans who opposed Sandy relief had also supported disaster aid for their home states.
Vote all these morons out in 2014, 2016, or 2018!
Senate passes $50.5 billion aid package for Superstorm Sandy relief; President will sign it today. And it only took Congress three months. Yay, Congress.
QUARTERED Parking meters stand out from sand dunes at Seaside Heights, NJ, a town devastated by superstorm Sandy. (Photo: Marko Georgiev / AP via The Guardian)
House approves $50.7 billion Sandy aid relief bill despite broader GOP efforts to block helping their fellow human beings.
![A New Jersey resident waded into the surf off of Seaside Heights, climbed to the top of the partially submerged roller coaster knocked from its moorings by superstorm Sandy, and planted an American flag.
(Photos by Chris Nesius / Reuters [top] and Chris Angulo via the New York Daily News)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9bcdb9536d2a709697bb68a4aa3ac42e/tumblr_mgc88jBuJ91qz82gvo1_500.jpg)
![A New Jersey resident waded into the surf off of Seaside Heights, climbed to the top of the partially submerged roller coaster knocked from its moorings by superstorm Sandy, and planted an American flag.
(Photos by Chris Nesius / Reuters [top] and Chris Angulo via the New York Daily News)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/7d2f07edfd5d4b332e344e8c65eee930/tumblr_mgc88jBuJ91qz82gvo2_500.jpg)
(Photos by Chris Nesius / Reuters [top] and Chris Angulo via the New York Daily News)
I doubt he has the dignity nor the guts to do it.
Yep.
(via The New York Times)
Last night, the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service, and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state. If you want an example of how non-partisan this issue should have been, I offer this for your consideration: near midnight last night, conservative Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California both spoke on the floor in concert with each other in support of (the Hurricane Sandy) aid package. It’s one for the record books, I suspect.
On the equities, this one should be a no-brainer for the House Republicans, as well. Both New York and New Jersey used the international firm of McKinsey & Co. to assess and quantify the damage to our states. Our professional staffs have spent countless hours with Congressional staff providing leadership and backup documentation for ALL of the damage claims. Governor Cuomo and I have spent hours and hours speaking to individual members of the House and Senate to answer their questions. We worked with President Obama and his administration to satisfy them of the urgent need of this $60 billion aid package.
This was good enough for 62 United States Senators — of both parties — to vote for this package. This was good enough for a majority of the House of Representatives. It overcame all the factual challenges. It just could not overcome the toxic, internal politics of the House majority.
Finally, New Jersey and New York are perenially among the most generous states in the nation to our fellow states. We vote for disaster relief for other states in need; we are donor states sending much more to Washington D.C. than we ever get back in federal spending. Despite this history of unbridled generosity, in our hour of desperate need, we’ve been left waiting for help six times longer than the victims of Katrina with no end in sight.
Americans are tired of the palace intrigue and political partisanship of this Congress which places one-upsmanship ahead of the lives of the citizens who sent these people to Washington D.C. in the first place.
New Jerseyans and New Yorkers are tired of being treated like second-class citizens. New York deserves better than the selfishness that we saw displayed last night; New Jersey deserves better than the duplicity we saw on display last night. America deserves better than just another example of the government that has forgotten who they’re there to serve, and why.
66 days and counting. Shame on you; shame on Congress.
Christie would later make his anger crystal clear: “All I can tell you is this was the Speaker’s decision. His alone.”
(via Mediaite)
House Speaker John Boehner yanked the bill to provide $60 billion in emergency aid to states ravaged by Hurricane Sandy to get back at a top lieutenant who defied him over the Fiscal Cliff fix, Congressional sources said Wednesday.
Boehner was angry, the sources said, when Majority Leader Eric Cantor led the revolt Tuesday by conservative House Republicans against the Fiscal Cliff compromise that wound up being passed later in the day, the sources said.
So rather than let Cantor bring the Sandy aid bill he had hammered out with New York and New Jersey lawmakers to the floor for a vote, Boehner (R-Ohio) pulled rank and tabled it - likely killing the aid package for the current session of Congress, which ends Thursday.
Boehner’s decision to pull the bill triggered outrage Wednesday from both Republicans and Democrats in New York and other states devastated by Sandy. They said his decision forces tens of thousands of storm victims to wait even longer for help.
His voice shaking, Rep. Pete King, a Long Island Republican, took to the floor of the House Wednesday morning to launch an extrordinary attack against Boehner, his own political leader.
King called it a “cruel knife in the back” to New York and New Jersey.
Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, issued a joint statement calling the House’s inaction a “dereliction of duty.”
And at a Manhattan press conference, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, “Speaker Boehner pulled out the rug from us at the last minute.” He added, “This failure to get relief now could be called the Boehner betrayal.”
The New York Daily News, “Sources: House Speaker Yanked $60 Billion In Sandy Aid Out of Spite.”
Pathetic.
