~2013~ Crystal Ball....

What will 2013 bring to Augusta County and all of Virginia?.......

There is already "Rumblings" that one of those who did not make the last "BOS-cut" will be making that run again...

And what about a "Special Appointment" for that somebody who has been praising a present BOS member whenever they get a chance but in the past had always been on the other side of the fence?.....

No doubt 2013 will be an interesting one as well as a continuation of the "political games"....

 

Interesting comments posted at the original location for this at OPERATION DRUMBEAT...

Florida Keys Dolphin Tournament

http://www.floridakeysdolphinchampionship.com/

Point Pleasant Beach Rescue Dive Team ~Hurricane Sandy~

Hurricane Sandy ~Rescue 34~

 

I am headed up to the NJ Shore to work with and train with the Point Pleasant Rescue Dive Team which I have trained with for years. They are a great group of volunteers who have always been prepared and ready to help the community when ever needed and were ready when Hurricane Sandy hit the shore.

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The news was everywhere...Hurricane Sandy was coming and it was going to be bad. We started out on Sunday preparing for the storm to come. The skies were already dark with clouds swirling overhead. The wind was beginning to pick up just a bit. We took a quick drive around the area to check conditions. The Manasquan Inlet was washing over the sea wall at hightide…flooding the area where the fishermen set up their posts. The waves were high and pounding the jetty.

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As we stood there watching the waves pound the jetty, we noticed an incoming vessel. We couldn’t help but think to ourselves, I’m glad its not me on that boat. The captain of the boat made all the right choices entering the inlet and we were happy to see him motor his way past us. As it turns out, this was the boat that had just picked up a surfer that was being pulled out to sea by the storms surge. Nice job Captain.

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Stopping at the RR Bridge we could see the water had reached the bottom of the bridge. Windows were boarded along each street and boats were being pulled from the area as quickly as possible. It was time to get back to the squad and do more work.

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We made a new cradle for our boat that was still in our parking lot. Just to be sure she could withstand the winds, we also tied her down. We spent the remainder of the day stocking supplies and prepping as best we could for the upcoming storm.

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 As Monday morning came, we could see the effects of the storm strengthening. We made a quick run down to the beach and to check out the damage that was already being caused by the winds and waves. We spent some time watching Al Roker give his reports, as we watched the waves behind him slowly eroding the dune he was standing on. Power lines were already down in the area and wind was racing. The ocean was at the boardwalk in many areas. Already washing over and breaking thru the sand dunes protection.

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Our day Monday was spent like so many other Rescue and First Aid teams, transferring people to shelters and doing our best to provide help where needed. As the day wore on, the weather worsened. The local gas station had its roof ripped off of the pump area, trees were falling left and right, power line after power line fell and the wind gusts were up to 60 mph.

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Around 11:30 Monday evening we got a call of people trapped in a flooding house. The trucks could no longer make their way thru the debris and high water. It was time to take out Rescue 34, our inflatable RIB. Chet, Bob, Gibby, Sabrina and Joe geared up and headed out.

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It was the height of the storm. Winds at 70mph, rain blasting your face, and debris everywhere. We decided to place the boat in the water along Arnold Avenue. The streets were flooded from less then a block past the RR Tracks all the way to the beach. We made our way past sunken canoes, trees, downed lines, boats and flooded cars. We found the house and drove the boat right up to porch. We got the man and wife and their 2 cats and a dog into Rescue 34 and headed back to the waiting ambulance. Sometimes you can find humor even in the middle of a tragedy. As we slowly made our way back, wind whipping at our faces we all began to sing “Row Row Row your boat..” Twisted maybe, but it made everyone laugh and eased the tensions of the family with us.

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We transferred our family to the ambulance and decided to head back out to check on a few houses where we could see flashlights moving in the darkness. As we were walking Rescue 34 out into deeper water a nearby transformer blew. It lit the sky with this eerie bright blue glow. It was so bright we could see almost to Ocean Avenue along the beach. It was like a full moon rose for just a minute. Bright blue, then almost green, then dark blue...fading to darkness. It made you realize just how dark it was with no power or lights anywhere.

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A few houses we found with people refused to leave. Assuring us they were fine and wishing that we stayed safe. As we moved back towards the ambulance area, we saw a truck coming towards us. One of the houses had a bad gas leak and we needed to get one of the workers to it asap. As we neared the house, we found it also had a family still occupying it. Mother, father, three children and 3 dogs! We cleared the house and brought the family to the ambulance.

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We were ready to go back and check more houses when we were called back to the squad building due to worsening conditions. Back at the squad building, we cleaned our gear and made ready for the next call if needed. We made it through the night like the rest of the Point Pleasant Beacharea, by riding out the storm. Answering a few calls and hoping for the best.

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The next morning we had a request for another rescue. It was daylight and things had quieted down quite a bit. However the area was still massively flooded. Once again Rescue 34 was the way to go. We had a person trapped on the second story of a house. Inside the house was a jumble of furniture and debris. We cleared the way and got our victim to the waiting boat.

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As we slowly made our way back to the ambulance, the view around us was unimaginable. Cars washed up on lawns. Sunken boats. Hot tubs, swimming pools, lawn chairs, anything you could imagine, floated along in the flood waters or were washed up into the most unlikely of places.

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The storm was over.

But its devastation was all around us.

Now its time to cleanup. To rebuild.

To be thankful for those who were safe and to remember those we lost.

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P.S. A few years back the Dive Team was raising funds by way of coin donation Jars at local 7-elevens and other businesses to purchase a hard-bottom inflatiable boat for the team to respond to distress calls and serve the community. Donations were good but one day the team received a phone call from local resident and President of Nassau Broadcasting, Mr. Mercatanti, who said he wanted to help the Dive Team in it's efforts serving the community. Mr. Mercatanti stepped up to the plate on completed the cost of what is now known as ~Rescue 34~ and described above......

 

Oh, those Liberal Democrat friends......

My Liberal Democrat friends at work continue to tell me that the “Deficits and Debt are not important” and that the government must infuse money (borrowed) into the economy to improve it… That by bailing out large banks, GM motors, Chrysler, and numerous “Green energy” pet projects, we stimulate the economy and create jobs… Remember, “Deficits and Debt are not important”…

They explain that by providing more services like increased use of Food Stamps this will also stimulate the economy. Anybody remember when Pelosi said that for every dollar spent on Food Stamps it returns $1.79 to the economy? “It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance. The biggest bang for the buck,” … Remember, “Deficits and Debt are not important”…

So if this is true why don’t we place everybody on Food Stamps? Imagine the Billions we could produce if each dollar spent returns $1.79 to the economy and all of us were on Food Stamps?!!! I sure would spend money elsewhere in the economy if I did not have a food bill each month!... Remember, “Deficits and Debt are not important”…

Think of all the business created now that the government provides 17 million plus free cell phones to voters, I mean citizens. If we gave free cell phones to everybody imagine the explosion to that sector of the economy? I sure would spend that monthly bill money somewhere else in the economy! Remember, “Deficits and Debt are not important”…

Come to think of it didn’t Pelosi include unemployment insurance in that statement about returning $1.79 to the economy for every dollar spent on Food Stamps and unemployment insurance? Then we need more people un-employed!!! Let’s get another 100 million people collecting unemployment checks and imagine the economy taking off then!!! Remember, “Deficit and Debt are not important”…

Boy, if we only knew it was going to be this easy!!!...

 

Enough said......

With the election being the main focus for so long it's great to have the opportunity to speak with friends about issues we have supported and worked for all along. Received this from and friend and GOOD STUFF!!!

One of the chief benefits that the nation would receive under a Romney-Ryan administration is a return to what I call “energy realism.” By that I mean understanding that oil and gas are the key drivers of our national economic engine and will be for decades to come.

In sharp contrast to this view are the policies of President Barack Obama who has attempted to “remake” America’s energy reality through top-down, central planning strategies that chase after a pie-in-the-sky “green jobs” economy. He has piled on the tax increases, regulations and green subsidies for companies like Solyndra and others. Remember, Obama is the one who pushed hard for but failed to pass cap-and-trade, warned that he would “bankrupt” anyone who wanted to build a new coal-fired power plant, has done nothing to open up federal lands for oil and gas development, and killed the Keystone XL pipeline that would have connected U.S. refineries to vast new oil deposits in Canada. Makes you wonder if the president is running our energy policy for our country or for special interest groups.

It is really ironic when you have a president continuously advocating for “corporate welfare” for Big Oil when, as the Congressional Research Service pointed out in a report last year, the most expensive energy tax breaks are not for U.S. oil and gas companies but for renewable energy startups. Yes, and we’re always shocked -- shocked I say -- to find out that a lot of these green subsidies go to “investors” who are politically connected to the White House.

So when you hear Obama talking about an “all of the above” energy policy, he’s probably looking at a list of DNC-linked donors, bundlers and crony capitalists.

Here’s Obama in the Oct. 3 debate with Romney:

The oil industry gets $4 billion a year in corporate welfare. Basically, they get deductions that those small businesses that Governor Romney refers to, they don’t get. Now, does anybody think that ExxonMobil needs some extra money, when they’re making money every time you go to the pump?

Two major problems with this scapegoating of oil companies for Obama’s own economic failures:

The first is that there truly are no government “subsidies” or “corporate welfare” for Big Oil. What we’re talking about are for the most part legitimate tax provisions that apply to virtually all American manufacturers and producers.

The second problem is that, in truth, Obama fails to mention that his plans call for raising taxes on our biggest domestic oil and gas producers by more than $40 billion over the next few years.

Let’s see if I understand this. Obama wants to selectively raise billions in new taxes on one of the most productive sectors of the U.S. economy, one that employs more than 9 million Americans with good paying jobs? At a time when sluggish GDP growth has brought job creation to a virtual standstill?

The oil and gas industry also sends $86 million dollars a day to the U.S. Treasury, and many more millions daily to states like North Dakota, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and others enjoying an energy boom. Here in Virginia, where the energy industry amounts to an $11.6 billion sector, there are more than 128,000 jobs provided or supported – with an average salary of $57,281 for non-gas station oil and natural gas employees. Just think where we’d be today if Obama hadn’t put energy resources off the coast of Virginia on his list of “none of the above” places to develop.

What the White House also fails to see is that, if you want a technological solution to greenhouse gases, the free market is the best way to get there. The U.S. oil and gas industry invested $71 billion in greenhouse gas-reducing technologies from 2000-2010. That’s nearly twice as much as the federal government ($43 billion) and almost as much as all other investors combined ($74 billion). When private industry invests in green technologies, it does so with a market test in view. Not so with government planners, whose idea of a sure thing has ended in multiple failed businesses. But of course when you’re picking winners and losers in the economy, from the commanding heights of the Obama White House, you also get to hand out a lot of favors.

Voters will do us all a big favor on Nov. 6 by putting Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in charge of America’s energy policies. And none too soon.

Mayor Bloomberg was to allow the NYC Marathon to proceed and use valuable energy assets and equipment while hurricane Sandy victims suffered from lack of fuel, electric, food, shelter, and security...

Mayor Bloomberg, you are NO RUDY GIULIANI !!!

Water tight integrity.....