Sandy

Outside of the Republican Bubble,
there are facts
--Bill Maher 

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you 
--Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime, 
The Korgis 

Oh, where is my Sandy?
What does she do each day and night?
Well, I follow her behavior
The way she do it just ain't right 
--Sandy, John Mayall
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RAW is very sorry that the people already so harshly dealt with by Hurricane Sandy are going through another Nor'Easter before they have begun to recover (Northeaster Adds to Misery, Dumping Rain and Snow).  This is just a small observation on the differing use of the National Guard in the United States during its two most recent devastating storm events, Hurricane Katrina (2005, Category 5 storm) and Sandy. 

In their response following Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard was armed and decked out in combat gear.  Homeland Security hired additional armed para-military contractors from groups like Blackwater.  The remaining population of New Orleans was corralled into a large stadium, in which they could be contained.

In the aftermath to Hurricane Sandy this month in the Northeast, the National Guard did not provide an armed defense.

Why the difference?

Just a Bit Odd. . .

I am a firm believer in the people.

If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.
The great point is to bring them the real facts

--Abraham Lincoln

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August's Real Estate Forum leads with news on terrorism insurance.

The Editor's Page feature touts "welcome news" in the first days of August as the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Barney Frank (D-MA), approved a 15-year extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, originally a three-year temporary program instituted in 2002 and extended once in 2005.

It will require insurers to offer "nuclear, biological, chemical and radioactive coverage by January 2009, and eliminat(e) the program's current distinction between foreign and domestic acts of terrorism."

"Real estate futurist" Christopher Lee (could it be any more apropos?) says terrorism will stick around for at least another 20 years. (I didn't know it had a shelf-life.) "By 2030, there will be at least five to 10 more 9-11-type attacks, he predicted."

The insurance will kick in at the $50 million trigger mark. I take it the insurance companies providing these big ticket policies won't be viewing these anticipated Islamic fundamentalist attacks as "acts of God."

It is all in keeping with insane rules that offer continued insurance to people (the wealthy) who choose to live on sandbars (="barrier islands") and other coastal areas.

Meanwhile, those living in FEMA trailers in New Orleans got the unfortunate news that cancer-causing levels of formaldehyde exist in their living structures (FEMA Knew of Toxic Gas in Trailers.) FEMA found it prudent to suppress this information for over a year. Meanwhile people were becoming ill from exposure to these unhealthy levels of a carcinogen, levels for which governmental safety protocol requires breathing masks.

"According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), workers should use respirators if they have to spend most of their working day in formaldehyde levels above 0.016 parts per million - the inspected trailer had a level of 1.2 parts per million, seventy-five times higher" (FEMA Slow to Investigate Formaldehyde Levels.)

The solution: keep your doors and windows open. No duct taping. I wonder if that is part of the recommendations in the insurance package given to the multi-million dollar home sandbar dwellers.

One thing is certain: any health damages suffered by FEMA trailer dwelling down-and-outers will not be covered by terrorism insurance, even though they have suffered a form of state-sponsored terrorism. But they don't really matter anyway, as they are trailer trash.

Wouldn't want to cause a market panic.

--Jim and Lisa