OCTOBER SURPRISE

The storm had a cute, almost mundane name. Sandy. The same name we gave our playful beige Labrador retriever in 2010. Maybe it was the benign name…a nickname for woman named Sandra or a man named Sanford…or for as long as he toiled for Brooklyn and Los Angeles the one name that meant the best pitcher in baseball---Sandy Koufax….maybe it was that easy going name that allowed the East Coast to let it’s guard down. New Yorkers are a resilient bunch, they’ve weathered hurricaines and nor easters before..most of which are more bark than bite….the typical damage…a few power outages…some downed trees…or piles of snow that keep kids from school…and some folks from work….but after a day or two of inconvenience, become just a white slippery memory. After all New York is a town that survived an unthinkable air attack by our own commercial jets-hijacked by mad men….so how bad could a fall hurricaine be?

Very bad…and watching both the damage and the news coverage I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe. I rode those heavily damaged Subways every day. I lived along the Long Island coast, much of which is under water. I grew up hearing tales of Breezy Point….a mostly irish beach enclave where generations of shore loving cops, firefighters and good middle class folks spent their summers for decades. My Dad was a lifeguard there in his college days. Now 100 of those homes, lovingly cared for over the decades have been burnt to the ground or under water..or washed out to sea. On Staten Island….a hero NY cop rescued a couple people as the water rose in his home….he went down to the basement to search for other potential victims…and never came back…Our colleague Dominic Brascia, a Staten Island native reports 3 family homes are a triple loss courtesy of the natures October Surprise.

My emotions are mixed. I am so delighted to be here in sunny Northern California and away from the chaos…but I feel for the family and friends dealing with the hassles of high water and no power. Or repairing damage to homes that are already financially underwater.

In this parallel universe I also wonder what ever happened to the real journalists I worked with once upon a time. Not the ones who consume and spread the liberal dogma of the day, like an addict with a fresh stash of crack cocaine. The blogs scream the opinion of the great sore loser Al Gore….Sandy, the dangling chad whipped former VP was clearly the result of Global Warming. Here’s a history lesson Al---there have been worse storms to hit the NY area….a couple in the early 19th century---when there was no power grid to fail, fewer buildings to catch fire and many fewer people to be affected by fire, floods and erosion….Good meaning people ask me why Obama seems to get a free pass on Libya and other issues…while Romney’s under the microscope for even the slightest gesture. The answer is a generation ago, the reporters who covered the white house and the elections were seasoned professionals, who might have leaned left but for the most part tried to report down the middle. Many of today’s card carrying media are second rate bloggers, who believe there job is not to report the facts but to shape their personal left wing agenda. Like the idiots on one cable network who blasted Romney for collecting food for the hurricaine victims at a campaign stop…dissing the GOP candidiate because the red cross requested cash not food.

I do feel like a live in a parallel universe….hopefully, we can All come back to earth next week…if the American voters take a long hard look at where we’ve been in the last 4 years….and vote their frustration.