O, Republican Party, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

A letter by James M. Sharp

Dear Republican Party,

What has happened to you? My parents – and their parents before them – were Republican. I proudly registered as a Republican in high school upon reaching my eighteenth birthday. I remember vividly the sense of awe that I felt as I cast a ballot for Ronald Reagan in my first presidential election in November of 1980. Those were our glory days and we enjoyed them together. But we knew that, like all good things, they would not last forever. I stuck by you as we all endured the Clinton years. It was not easy, but we survived and lived to see, once again, as Republicans took the reins.

But something happened to you: You changed; you underwent a metamorphosis, so to speak. You became less and less like the hardworking party of previous generations and became more and more like Democrats. You and your complicit Democrat friends in Washington made it easier and easier for the terminally lazy to shift their transmissions into neutral and coast – on the taxpayers’ dime. At the same time, due to the growing number of shiftless individuals mooching off of the system, you make it harder and harder for those of us that get up and go to work every day as we strive to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table – AND support the 40-plus percent of people that, for whatever reason, don’t work. You have, along with the Democrats, made hard work seem passé and boring. With very few exceptions, you have permitted the left and those in the media to vilify conservatives and conservatism.

We have told you repeatedly that we have had enough – enough of the spending, the cronyism, the deceit, the cesspool that Washington DC has become. Yet you allowed George W. Bush to spend like the proverbial drunken sailor. You rammed through a Medicare prescription drug debacle in 2003 that is costing – and will continue to cost – untold billions of dollars. By the time that Barack Obama came to power, we knew that we were in deep trouble. I’ll give you a modicum of credit – none of your Congressional members voted for the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. But that alone was not enough to restore our faith in you.

Conservatives spoke loudly and clearly in November of 2010 when we granted you power once again in the House of Representatives. You promised us that you would turn things around. Except for a small number of extremely promising new individuals in the halls of Congress, you have greatly disappointed us.

Many of your members continue to side with the liberals regarding illegal immigration. Exactly WHAT makes you think that opening the flood gates for millions of foreigners who came here AGAINST THE LAW is going to win you massive numbers of minority voters? Are you really that stupid? These people have been conditioned to believe that the Democrat Party is the party of handouts. And it IS. Do you honestly believe that by siding with the Democrats on this issue, these voters are going to, as if by magic, think that the Republican Party is now the party of handouts and vote for YOUR party for the next eighty years? This is not likely to happen.

What IS likely to happen is the following: The mass exodus from the Republican Party is going to continue unabated. Your party (my FORMER party) is going to become a relic. A thing of the past. Something to be seen sitting on a shelf in a curio shop. People of my generation will point out to their grandchildren that what they are looking at is all that remains of a once-great political machine. You have succeeded in reducing it to a mere skeleton – like the carcass of an armadillo lying in the road after the vultures have picked it clean (with much the same odor). The vultures being the aforementioned slackers. The ones that have come to the realization that it is far easier to let working Americans do the heavy lifting while they sit on the sidelines and watch – AND collect a check from the government.

I will close by saying “goodbye”. I have been active with my local Tea Party almost since its inception in late-2009. The individuals in the Tea Party are my friends; they share my values and my love of God and country. I know that, unlike you, I can count on them to stand with me as we try to protect and defend the principles that made this country great. We can – and WILL – protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Something that you have sworn to do but, at the same time, something at which you have failed miserably.

Hey, Republican Party – It’s been nice knowing you!

Beware! Sandy!

Hurricane Sandy is due to strike from Florida to Bangor, Maine this next week.

Sandy has the potential to bring major impacts to the U.S. East Coast through the weekend and into early next week.

Below, we have a breakdown of the impacts and timeline for Sandy beginning with the serious threat the system poses to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. You can find more information on the Southeast U.S. impacts at this link.

Confidence is growing that Sandy will be a major threat to portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Though we feel that it's likely Sandy will hit some portion of the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic coast, there remains uncertainty with where this occurs and the exact magnitude of the impacts. The forecast involves a rare, complex atmospheric setup that will allow the system to pivot back to the northwest into the region rather than simply moving out to sea.

Where exactly this pivot back to the west or northwest occurs will dictate where the worst of the potential impacts ultimately hit. That said, Sandy will have a large wind field and therefore impacts will stretch across a wide area well away from where Sandy eventually moves inland.What kind of impacts are we talking about?

Destructive winds, heavy rain, major coastal flooding and beach erosion would pummel portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions between later Sunday and Tuesday of next week. Of course, the high winds would extend inland, with the potential for downed trees and powerlines. Widespread power outages could last for days.

This setup could even wrap in just enough cold air on its western edge to produce wet snow, possibly heavy, in some parts of the central Appalachians (mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania).

Residents from New England to New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia should remain vigilant and be prepared to take action in the next few days.

We'll continue to refine our forecast here at weather.com and The Weather Channel.

Check back with us often as this major storm unfolds.

Source

This is the time you should be finishing up your preps.  You should be ready to evacuate (If the authorities tell you to do so, bug out!!!), have your windows boarded up.  (Masking tape is not the solution.  It is not the best way to protect yourself, but if you have nothing else, use it.)  And make sure you have an emergency radio.  (One of those which wind up to power it.)

REMINDER:  According to Homeland Security you should have 3 days of food and water on hand.  In reality you should have at least a month if not more of non-perishable food and water.  You should be preparing this to be used now.

Remember to listen to warnings.  A hurricane (even a Category 1) can be very dangerous and cause loss of life.  You can replace your belongings.  It is only STUFF.  But you cannot replace your life.

Stay safe.

      Stay dry.