DAY 14 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

WE REMEMBER THE VETS LOST IN WARS ON THIS REMEMBRANCE DAY 2012

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

MATTHEW 16:1-4
1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

DAY 1 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/updates-on-hurricane-sandy.html
DAY 2 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/no-ny-trading-today-again.html
DAY 3 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/day-3-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 4 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/nov-112-day-4-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 5 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-5-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 6 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-6-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 7 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-7-hurricane-sandy-update.html
DAY 8 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-8-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 9 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-9-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 10 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-10-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 11 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-11-hurricane-sandy-update.html
DAY 12 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-12-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 13 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-13-hurricane-sandy-update.html 

DAY 14 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES-HAPPENINGS 

AS OF 9:15AM NOV 11,12-THERE ARE STILL 125,000 PEOPLE POWELESS IN THE NEW YORK,NEW JERSEY AREA.121 ARE THE LAST DEAD MEMBERS STATS I HAVE IN AMERICA. 

New York readies for Veterans Day as region struggles

By Edward Krudy | Reuters – 9:15AM NOV 11,12

(Reuters) - New York City was preparing to stage its first major event since cancelling its annual marathon as thousands of victims of Superstorm Sandy continued to struggle with power outages, gasoline shortages and freezing weather conditions.Sunday's annual Veterans Day Parade is expected to attract crowds of over 600,000 people to central Manhattan and will be a test for a city still struggling to clean up after one of the worst natural disasters in the region's history.Thousands were in temporary shelters, and in New Jersey a tent city on the edge of Monmouth Park racetrack was home to hundreds. Authorities in the region said they did not have access to enough alternative housing or hotel rooms for all those who have been displaced.There were still over a quarter of a million customers without power nearly two weeks after the storm. As of Saturday, 66,000 of those were on Long Island, where residents hit hard by the storm protested outside the headquarters of the Long Island Power Authority in Hicksville.New Yorkers also faced their second day of gasoline rationing under a system in which cars with odd- and even-numbered license plates can fill up only on alternate days.Electric utilities have drawn withering criticism for their failure to quickly restore power throughout the region. For many, no electricity means no heat, hot water or hot meals."It's been terrible," said Diane Uhlfelder, a former New York City police officer at the protest in Hicksville, where a local police officer estimated about 300 hundred gathered outside LIPA headquarters."The cold is the worst," she said. "It's been hell."Sandy smashed into the East Coast on October 29, killing at least 120 people and causing an estimated $50 billion in damages and economic losses. It destroyed homes along the New Jersey Shore and around New York City, cut off electricity for millions of people and knocked out much of the public transportation system.Newly re-elected President Barack Obama is to visit hard-hit areas of New York City on Thursday. Obama put off an earlier visit at the request of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who feared it could hinder relief efforts.Back outside LIPA headquarters in Hicksville, two 13-year-old girls held white cardboard signs decrying LIPA's slow response. One, in pink magic marker, read: "LIPA Stinks!" The other read: "Lame, Inept, Pitiful, Awful."As a LIPA truck drove by, the unsmiling driver gripped the wheel with his left hand and raised his right hand to give the girls the finger.
FREE FUEL
Early on Saturday in Far Rockaway, a coastal area of New York City devastated by the storm surge, more than 500 people lined up with empty fuel cans. Word had spread Friday night that a tanker truck carrying 8,000 gallons of free gasoline was to arrive around 10 a.m.The fuel was delivered under the auspices of the Fuel Relief Fund and funded by an anonymous donor, according to two police officers on the scene.More than a quarter of the gas stations in the New York metropolitan area did not have fuel available for sale on Friday, the same number as on Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.At the Inwood refinery in southern Queens, a line of more than a dozen tanker trucks stretched from the refinery entrance. Some drivers slept while they waited.Seven tanker drivers, most of whom serve independent gas stations throughout Long Island and New York City, said the average wait in recent days to fill up their tankers was about 3 hours, and then another 90 minutes once they reached the pumps."We're now lucky if we can get two runs in a day," said Parkash Ram, 54, of Queens, who works for a trucking company that supplies independent gas stations on Long Island.But there were signs fuel lines were starting to ease up. There were no gasoline lines reported at most gas stations in New Jersey as well in some places in Long Island.
COMMUNITIES ISOLATED
Bloomberg announced a day of service on Saturday and hundreds of volunteers helped stricken areas of the city.On Staten Island, the New York City borough hit hardest by the storm, the sense of total material loss has settled in and residents were preparing their homes for demolition.On Saturday, Yevgeniya Maltseva, 63, a Staten Island homeowner and medical office staffer was staying warm burning all five elements on her stove."We don't have any info at all. Con Edison (the electric utility company) is not even picking up the phone," she said.On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will visit Staten Island. Homes along the island's south-eastern flank took the full brunt of the Atlantic storm surge.Subway services to coastal areas were slowly being restored. Service to Coney Island resumed on Friday, but there was still no service to Far Rockaway. Widespread delays were reported on New Jersey commuter trains.Many communities remain isolated. At a supermarket parking lot on East Park Avenue in Long Beach late Saturday afternoon, hundreds of weary residents were met with trucks carrying donated food and water, clean-up supplies and piles of clothes."Out here, time doesn't mean anything anymore," said Miles Rose, 58, an IT consultant from Long Beach. "You live by the sun, and when it goes down, the day is over and you go to bed. That's how we live now."In New York's Broad Channel community, there was a boat in the middle of a road with a sign that read: "Broad Channel - the forgotten town."On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended the deadline to February for New Yorkers who lost their income due to the storm to apply for federal assistance.A boat belonging to Staten Island-based actor Clem Caserta called the "Jimmy Whispers" after a character Caserta played in Robert de Niro's debut film "A Bronx Tale" was washed up in Harbortown, 20 miles south of Newark, New Jersey.Sandy ripped some 300 feet of floating dock off its moorings on the Staten Island side of the Arthur Kill waterway, and pushed it about half a mile across the water along with a half dozen fishing boats.There were 289,239 customers without power on Saturday in the states struck by Sandy, a drop of 144,901 from Friday, the U.S. Energy Department said. At the peak 8.5 million were without power.(Additional reporting by Chris Francescani Lauren T. LaCapra, Jonathan Spicer, and Jonathan Leff; Editing by Jackie Frank and Todd Eastham)

As post-Sandy power outages dwindle, LIPA rage lingers

Reuters – NOV 10,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of households and businesses still without power in the Eastern United States nearly two weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit fell below 300,000 on Saturday, with nearly half of those on New York's Long Island, government data showed.The Long Island Power Authority, or LIPA, which has come under growing criticism over its response to Sandy, still had 130,000 customers without power, half of those in Nassau County and over 30,000 on the Rockaway Peninsula, according to LIPA figures. That's down from 207,000 customers on Friday.In total, 145,000 customers across the affected area had their power restored over the past day, the Department of Energy said, leaving 289,239 without power in New York, New Jersey and West Virginia by Saturday morning.Some 8.5 million people across nearly two dozen East Coast states lost power after Sandy delivered an unprecedented blow to the New York City area. Another 150,000 were cut off when a Nor'easter blew through a week later.Other utilities were also hard hit but have recovered more quickly. New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), which had peak outages of some 1.7 million, had restored power to all but 23,000 of them by Saturday morning, most of those related to the Nor'easter, PSEG said.Consolidated Edison, which serves New York City and Westchester County, had only 15,000 customers without power, down from over 1 million, according to its website.Almost all of state-owned LIPA's 1.1 million customers lost power in Sandy; still more were knocked out by the Nor'easter that came a week later. It now has 14,000 people, including 8,200 utility workers and tree-trimmers, working in its area.The utility has been among the slowest to recover, making it a target of fierce criticism from both local residents and state politicians. Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that LIPA had "failed the consumers," and has threatened to replace the group's management.
At LIPA's headquarters in Hicksville on Saturday, residents vented their anger and frustration at a peaceful protest of a few hundred people. Two 13-year-old girls held up white cardboard signs decrying LIPA's slow response. One, in pink letters, read: "LIPA Stinks!"One of the girls' mother, former NYPD cop Diane Uhlfelder, said her family has been without power for 12 days."It's been terrible,'' she said. Every night "... we wake up in the middle of the night and it's freezing. My sister's asthma has been acting up because of the cold."John Michno, 36, of Westbury, who is unemployed, said he lost power the Monday night of the storm, got it back last Monday, and then lost it again on Thursday."It's maddening," he said. "It's so cold in my house it's been very difficult to sleep. I wake up, turn on the gas on the stove just to get warm, and then turn it off and try to go back to bed."(Reporting By Chris Francescani and Jonathan Leff; Editing by Eric Walsh) 

DAY 13 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

MATTHEW 16:1-4
1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

DAY 1 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/updates-on-hurricane-sandy.html
DAY 2 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/no-ny-trading-today-again.html
DAY 3 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/day-3-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 4 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/nov-112-day-4-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 5 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-5-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 6 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-6-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 7 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-7-hurricane-sandy-update.html
DAY 8 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-8-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 9 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-9-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 10 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-10-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 11 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-11-hurricane-sandy-update.html
DAY 12 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-12-hurricane-sandy-update.html 

DAY 13 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES-HAPPENINGS 

Homeowners return to storm devastation on N.J. island

By Eddie Evans | Reuters – 1:08AM NOV 10,12

(Reuters) - Homeowners return to an 18-mile (30-km) barrier island off New Jersey's Atlantic coast on Saturday, giving some of them their first view of the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy.Long Beach Island, an enclave of mostly affluent vacation homes, took a direct hit from Sandy, with some homes washed full of sand and seawater and others completely destroyed.The island, with some 10,000 year-round residents and perhaps 10 times that number in the summer, has been closed to residents except for brief visits to retrieve belongings.Sandy smashed into the U.S. East Coast on October 29, killing at least 120 people and causing an estimated $50 billion in damage or economic losses. It destroyed homes along the New Jersey Shore and around New York City, cut off electricity for millions of people and knocked out much of the public transportation system.Days later, protesters were demonstrating in the streets because they were still without power, gasoline rationing was in effect, and commuters struggled all week to get in and out of New York City.Authorities warned that for coastal communities where thousands of homes were washed away, flooded, or burned to the ground, full recovery would take a long time."This is not going to be a short journey," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference on Friday.And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who toured the Jersey Shore on Friday, said that many popular vacation spots will not be fully rebuilt by next summer. "This is our Katrina," he declared, referring to the hurricane that washed out New Orleans in 2005.As homeowners were to return to Long Beach Island on Saturday, an emergency website operated by towns on the island warned that some areas were still without sewer, water and electric service and the entire island is without gas. (http://lbieoc.org)One community, Holgate, on the island's southern tip, would remain closed because it was still too dangerous to enter.
SECOND DAY OF RATIONING
New Yorkers faced their second day of gasoline rationing on Saturday. Under the system, which was introduced in New Jersey last week, cars with odd- and even-numbered license plates can fill up only on alternate days.Some 28 percent of gas stations in the New York metropolitan area did not have fuel available for sale on Friday, the same level as on Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.On Friday, protesters took to the streets in Oceanside, a community on Long Island, to protest that they were still without power. "Where is LIPA? Where is LIPA?" they chanted. LIPA is the Long Island Power Authority, a state-owned utility.Some 434,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast lacked power as of Friday afternoon, down from 696,000 the previous day, the Energy Department said.Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York City would work with federal authorities to provide electricians, plumbers and carpenters to help fix the worst-hit homes. He said he hoped to get people back into their homes by the end of the year.(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder, Dan Trotta, Jonathan Leff and Jeanine Prezioso; editing by Philip Barbara) 

Displaced New York legal groups struggle to offer storm relief

By Peter Rudegeair | Reuters – 9:15AM NOV 10,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As thousands of New Yorkers struggle to recover from Superstorm Sandy, three major legal aid providers seeking to help victims have been hampered by their own storm-related damage.

Legal Services NYC, the New York Legal Assistance Group and the Legal Aid Society were shut out of their downtown offices when Sandy struck last week and have been operating out of satellite offices or space borrowed from other non-profit groups and large law firms.The organizations provide a variety of civil legal services to low-income residents, ranging from obtaining orders of protection for domestic violence victims to drafting living wills and appointing healthcare proxies.Legal Services lost power at two of its downtown locations, including the central office on Worth Street, where its telephone network and email and data servers are located.The approximately 75 staff members affected by the outage were able to relocate to Legal Service's Harlem location, travel to outreach clinics and assemble disaster relief manuals for volunteer attorneys.But the entire organization was without access to phone, email or electronic records for three days, said Raun Rasmussen, Legal Services' executive director. Those challenges were compounded by limited transportation and access to documents, which made it difficult to coordinate court appearances and contact some clients, Rasmussen said.The headquarters of New York Legal Assistance Group, at 7 Hanover Square, were flooded in the storm and will be closed for about six weeks, according to the group's president and attorney-in-charge, Yishoel Schulman.The organization's 200 lawyers have scattered to spaces in 11 law firms across the city, and the executive staff is using the United Jewish Appeal Federation offices as a base, Schulman said.
DIFFICULTIES PERSIST
NYLAG lawyers and paralegals have been offering legal services via a citywide hotline and through Federal Emergency Management Agency centers around the city, said Schulman, who estimates his employees have counseled over 1,000 people since Sandy hit."I don't think in my career I've ever experienced such an intense, immediate need for free legal assistance," he said.Yet communications difficulties persist. Without phones and Internet, the organization has found it difficult to publicize its services, including its Mobile Legal Help Center, a van equipped with private meeting spaces that travels the five boroughs, Schulman said.
Legal Aid has faced similar challenges. The organization, part of a nationwide network, had to redeploy a third of its 1,700 lawyers after its downtown headquarters were flooded and three additional lower Manhattan offices lost power, said Attorney-in-Chief Steven Banks.The group continues to have intermittent phone and Internet access, Banks said, and employees are working out of Legal Aid's other 21 offices in the city.Since Wednesday of last week, the organization has been representing clients in courts in all five boroughs, Banks said. Its staff has traveled to New York City Housing Authority developments in Far Rockaway in Queens, Coney Island and Red Hook in Brooklyn and to various neighborhoods in Staten Island.The staff has handled applications for emergency food stamps, disaster unemployment assistance and FEMA aid, in addition to helping residents who needed food, hot water and electricity. Legal Aid also has a van that it has been trying to take to hard-hit neighborhoods to offer legal services, but the service was temporarily suspended because of the gasoline shortage.(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; additional reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Eileen Daspin and Jim Marshall)  

DAVID PETRAEUS RESIGNS-LIBYA MURDER INVESTIGATION CONTINUES

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

ARE THESE FIRST 2 STORIES RELATED.ONLY TIME WILL TELL.WHY DAVID PETRAEUS RESIGNS OVER A SEX AFFAIR AND A POSSIBLE SCAPEGOAT FOR OBAMA AS A COVERUP FOR THE 4 MURDERED LIBYA EMBASSY WORKERS.WAS THE WHITEHOUE TOLD ABOUT LIBYA MONTHS BEFORE IT HAPPENED THAT STEVENS NEEDED MORE PROTECTION.OR DID STEVENS NOT AGREE WITH THE WHITEHOUSE ABOUT SOMETHING AND HE HAD TO DISAPPEAR.AND IS PETRAEUS TAKING THE FALL FOR OBAMA IN THE LIBYA MURDERS.WE MIGHT FIND OUT.EVEN ON OBAMAS PUPPET NETWORK CNN THEY HAD A ANALYST ON SAYING-THERE HAS TO BE MORE IN THIS PETRAEUS CASE BECAUSE NO CIA DIRECTOR HAS EVER BEEN INVESTIGATED FOR HAVING AN AFFAIR.THE CIA JUST USUALLY IGNORES IT.

OH AND NOW JUST A BRIEF COMMENT ON ANOTHER SUBJECT.THE BIBLE SAYS ISRAEL WILL LEAD THE WORLD.WHAT HAPPENINS IN ISRAEL OR THAT DEALS WITH ISRAELIS WILL LEAD THE WORLD.WELL 7 OUT OF EVERY 10 ISRAELIS VOTED FOR OBAMA IN THE ELECTIONS IN AMERICA ON TUESDAY.AND OBAMA WON THE ELECTIONS,I BELIEVE AS A RESULT FROM THE JEWISH VOTE.THE ISRAELIS VOTED OBAMA AND THE WORLDLY PEOPLE VOTED FOR OBAMA ALSO.SO ONCE AGAIN WE SEE GODS WORD COMING TO PASS AS ISRAELIS GO,GO THE WORLD.EVEN IN EUROPE THEY SAID IF OBAMA WAS IN ELECTIONS FOR PRESIDENT OF EUROPE.EUROPE OVERWHELMINGLY WOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA.IN FACT 90% OF FRENCH WHICH IS 10% PLUS MUSLIM WOULD VOTE OBAMA THEIR LEADER.SO YES WHAT ISRAELIS DO THE WORLD FOLLOWS.

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 

CIA Director Petraeus resigns, admits extra-marital affair

By Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria | Reuters – NOV 10,12

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the leading U.S. spy agency on Friday, saying he had engaged in an extramarital affair and acknowledging he "showed extremely poor judgment."In a letter to the CIA workforce, Petraeus, 60, said he met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday and asked "to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position."

"After being married for 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair," he wrote. "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."Obama, who was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday, said in a statement he had accepted Petraeus' resignation, praising him for his work at the Central Intelligence Agency and for leading U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.The woman with whom the former CIA director had the affair is Paula Broadwell, according to a person familiar with the matter. She is an author who wrote a biography of Petraeus titled "All In."Attempts to reach Broadwell were unsuccessful. There was no answer at the door of her house in the affluent Charlotte, North Carolina, neighborhood of Dilworth.Much about the sudden and dramatic turn of events remained unknown Friday evening, including how long the affair had gone on and what prompted Petraeus to resign now, just days after the 2012 presidential election.There were indications, however, that the affair was first uncovered a few months ago during an investigation by the FBI. A U.S. national security source said the FBI had stumbled across evidence of Petraeus' affair during an apparently unrelated investigation of news leaks.Petraeus' revelation of the affair appeared to end the public career of a widely admired warrior-scholar who played a key role in the Iraq war, led the U.S. Central Command and commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.Petraeus' name had circulated speculatively as a possible Republican presidential nominee before Obama tapped him as CIA chief. Before taking the CIA post, he retired as an Army general after nearly four decades of military service.Petraeus led the CIA for only 14 months. His sudden departure threatened to usher in a period of instability at the spy agency, which is grappling with a leveling off in its budget after a decade of steady increases.The agency is also fending off questions about its performance before and after the attack that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.U.S. officials insisted the CIA's handling of the Benghazi incident had nothing to do with Petraeus' decision to resign.
TESTIFY ON CAPITOL HILL
Petraeus recently traveled to Libya and the Middle East, and had been scheduled to testify about the Benghazi events next week behind closed doors to the House and Senate intelligence committees. Now, he will not give that testimony.There is no indication Petraeus broke any agency rule in connection with his admitted affair, sources familiar with the matter said. The CIA has no broad rule banning officials from engaging in extramarital affairs though, if discovered, liaisons by CIA personnel with suspected foreign agents would pose security problems for a U.S. agent.In his statement, Obama said "I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission."Obama, who accepted Petraeus' resignation in a phone call with him on Friday afternoon, said Michael Morell, the agency's long-time deputy director, would serve as acting CIA chief.Morell is a leading candidate to be Petraeus' permanent successor, sources said. He earned Obama's trust when he frequently briefed the president during planning for the operation to take down Osama bin Laden, a senior administration official said."He's respected, a straight shooter, and has great relationships with the White House and Capitol Hill. Not to mention over 30 years of agency experience," said a former CIA official, who called Morell "the odds-on favorite."Other possible candidates being discussed on Capitol Hill include John Brennan, Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser; Obama's national security adviser Thomas Donilon; and former congresswoman Jane Harman, who chaired the House intelligence committee.Petraeus' resignation also adds a new vacancy on Obama's national security team. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she will leave after Obama's first term, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is widely expected to leave as well.Petraeus' wife, Holly, has been an advocate for U.S. veterans and head of the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Last month, Petraeus and his wife appeared together at a reception at the Canadian Embassy in Washington to celebrate the premiere of the Ben Affleck film "Argo," which chronicles a successful operation in which the CIA and Canadian diplomats smuggled a group of U.S. officials out of Tehran during the 1979-81 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.At the Pentagon, people who worked closely with Petraeus expressed shock at the revelations and at his resignation.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement: "I wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation, but I understand and respect the decision."(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Phil Stewart in Washington and Rick Rothhacker in Charlotte; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Jackie Frank, Jim Loney and Todd Eastham)

Pentagon timeline shows military response to Libya

By DONNA CASSATA and LOLITA C. BALDOR | Associated Press – NOV 10,12

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Pentagon details show that the first U.S. military unit arrived in Libya more than 15 hours after the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was over, and four Americans, including the ambassador, were dead.A Defense Department timeline obtained by The Associated Press underscores how far the military response lagged behind the Sept. 11 attack, due largely to the long distances the commando teams had to travel to get to Libya.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his top military adviser were notified of the attack about 50 minutes after it began and were about to head into a previously scheduled meeting with President Barack Obama. The meeting quickly turned into a discussion of potential responses to the unfolding situation in Benghazi, where militants had surrounded the consulate and set it on fire. The first wave of the attack at the consulate lasted less than two hours.Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the attack. Intelligence, State Department and military officials have released details on the response in an effort to answer Republican criticism that the administration was holding back what and when it knew about the assault.Panetta and other defense officials have repeatedly said that they did not have armed aircraft or military teams near Benghazi that could have gotten there quickly.But there have been persistent questions about whether the Pentagon should have moved more rapidly to get troops into Libya or had units closer to the area as the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America approached. In particular, there was at least a 19-hour gap between the time when Panetta first ordered military units to prepare to deploy — between midnight and 2 a.m. local time in Tripoli — and the time a Marine anti-terrorism team landed in Tripoli, which as just before 9 p.m.A senior defense official on Friday said forces were at the ready around the globe, but it took time to assess the murky situation, evaluate the threats, put plans in place and get the teams there. With the situation on the ground rapidly evolving, military officials have said there were a number of potential scenarios that had to be evaluated, including concerns that the violence could continue for some time or there could be a hostage situation to which commandos might have to respond.In a letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Friday, Panetta specifically addressed the claim that the military could have dispatched armed unmanned aerial vehicles, AC-130 gunships or fighter jets to thwart the attack. Such aircraft were not in the region and not an effective option, he said.Panetta said that based on a continuous evaluation of threats, military forces were spread around Europe and the Middle East to deal with a variety of missions. In the months before the attack, he noted, "several hundred reports were received indicating possible threats to U.S. facilities around the world" and noted that there was no advance notice of imminent threats to U.S. personnel or facilities in Benghazi.The attack began at about 9:40 p.m. local time in Benghazi. Less than 20 minutes later, the U.S. military began moving an unarmed drone to a position over Benghazi, so it could provide real time intelligence to the CIA team on the ground. The CIA team went to aid the Americans at the consulate. The drone arrived shortly after 11 p.m. By 11:30 p.m., a CIA team was able to get all the Americans out of the compound.As that was happening, Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left the Oval Office and went into a series of meetings in the Pentagon with senior leaders to discuss how to respond to the Benghazi attack and assess the potential for other outbreaks of violence in the region.Between midnight and 2 a.m., Panetta began to issue verbal orders, telling two Marine anti-terrorism teams based in Rota, Spain, to prepare to deploy to Libya, and he ordered a team of special operations forces in Central Europe and another team of special operations forces in the U.S. to prepare to deploy to a staging base in Europe.As the military units begin moving, just before dawn, the Americans in Benghazi, who were now at the CIA base less than a mile away from the consulate, again came under attack around 5:15 a.m. when five mortars were fired at the building. Two missed, but three hit, killing two CIA security officers who were on the roof.The Americans fired back and soon afterward fled the CIA base for the airport. By 10 a.m., they had flown out, heading to Tripoli. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Americans, including the bodies of the four dead, were flown out of Tripoli on a military aircraft.Not until just before 8 p.m., however, did the first U.S. military unit arrive in the region, as the special operations team landed at Cigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily. An hour later, the Marine team landed in Tripoli. The defense official noted that even if the military had been able to get units there a bit faster, there was no way they could have gotten there in time to make any difference in the deaths of the four Americans."The U.S. Armed Forces did everything they were in position to do to respond to the attack in Benghazi," Panetta said in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press. "The department's senior leaders and I spared no effort to save the lives of our American colleagues, as we worked to bolster security in response to a series of other threats in the region occurring at the same time."

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
31  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AMERICA)

BETWEEN THE LINES

America pronounces judgment on itself

Exclusive: Joseph Farah on Obama election: 'It's time to double-down and fight harder'

Published: 4 days ago NOV 7,12

by Joseph FarahEmail | Archive

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.More ↓

For many of us, the unthinkable has happened.America has decisively turned the corner away from the constitutional principles of limited government and self-government with the re-election of Barack Obama.
There may be no way home for us.For those of us who fundamentally reject Obama’s policies, things are going to get very rough for the next four years. We have allowed our fellow Americans to pronounce judgment on the nation.That’s what Obama represents to me – God’s judgment on a people who have turned away from Him and His ways and from everything for which our founders sacrificed their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.The nation is divided like never before – intentionally so. That has been Obama’s game plan from the beginning – to build a constituency of special-interest groups that truly believe their salvation is found in bigger government, more programs, irresponsible spending and unconstitutional policies.This election could very well represent the beginning of the end of the American Dream, American exceptionalism, the American way.But it’s no time to give up – to throw up our hands in disgust and walk away from politics. Neither is it time to surrender to the radical social agenda Obama has championed to win his victory.It’s time to change tactics.It’s time to double-down and fight harder.It’s time to raise our collective voices of outrage.It’s time to form new alliances.It’s time to form new communities of people who understand just how much Americans have been disenfranchised from our God-given rights and responsibilities.But, at the end of the day, people generally get the kind of government they deserve.
When you turn away from the ways of God Almighty, this is what you should expect, if you are a student of the Bible and history.I’m not going to lie to you.I think things are going to get very tough in America over the next four years.I expect more division, more stratification, maybe even the disintegration of the constitutional republic that was the envy of the world for so long.It’s time to hunker down.It’s time to prepare for the worst – economically, militarily, socially, culturally.The revolutionaries have won a major political victory.The America haters are running the country for another four years.That is not a pretty prospect.But it’s not time to retreat. It’s time for those of us who love what America has been for most of its history to gather our wits and begin the long march back.Most of all, it’s time for collective repentance.Only a miracle can save us – and we need to humble ourselves before God and pray hard for one.Can we find our way home? Is the political system even viable for us anymore? Has our heritage of representative government been permanently robbed from us? Are our cultural institutions – from the press to the schools and universities to the major foundations and even our churches – let us down so badly that there is no hope of restoring the America we once knew and loved?I don’t know the answers to these questions.But we must not retreat. We must not hide. We must not be intimidated. We must not stop fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
Maybe we deserve this punishment for taking our lifestyles for granted. Maybe we deserve this judgment for our own individual and collective sins. Maybe there’s still time to turn things around because we serve a Creator of second and third chances.One thing is for certain: Our national condition is going to get much worse before it gets better.

Vatican computer expert convicted in leaks case

Reuters – 1 hr 34 mins ago NOV 10,12

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican court on Saturday found Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert, guilty of obstruction of justice in the investigation of leaks of sensitive papal documents to the media by Pope Benedict's former butler.The same court which last month convicted Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's former butler, gave Sciarpelletti a two-month suspended sentence.Sciarpelletti had been charged with aiding and abetting Gabriele in leaking the document.But the court decided that he was guilty only of obstruction of justice because he had changed his version of events several times during the investigation.Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.One of the pope's closest household assistants, Gabriele admitted leaking the documents in what he said was an attempt to help disclose corruption and "evil" in the headquarters of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic faith.Sciarpelletti spent one night in a Vatican jail cell on May 25, two days after Gabriele was arrested when police searched the former butler's home and found many copies of papal documents, some alleging infighting in the papal court and corruption at the highest levels of the church.When Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's desk in the Secretariat of State - the nerve center of the Holy See's administration - they found a closed envelope addressed to Gabriele marked "personal".It contained documentation relating to a chapter in a book about Vatican corruption and intrigue written by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who had received confidential documents from Gabriele.(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Pravin Char)

ISAIAH 17:1,12-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Suicide blasts in Syria kill at least 20 troops

By ZEINA KARAM | Associated Press – 2 hrs 36 mins ago NOV 10,12

BEIRUT (AP) — Twin suicide bombings shook a southern Syrian city on Saturday, killing at least 20 regime troops, an activist group said.The early morning blasts in Daraa targeted an encampment for government forces in the city, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground.The explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, said the Observatory. Its chief, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said at least 20 soldiers were killed in the blasts but the claim could not be independently verified.The state-run news agency SANA said the explosions caused multiple casualties and heavy material damage, but did not provide further details.Daraa was the birthplace of the uprising against Assad, which erupted in March 2011. The conflict began largely with peaceful protests against Assad's rule but turned bloody after rebels took up arms in response to the regime's crackdown.The crisis has since morphed into a vicious civil war and in recent months, rebels have driven regime forces out of much of a pocket of northwestern Syria and are battling troops in several key cities and towns. The fight has also taken on dangerous sectarian tones between a mainly Sunni opposition and a regime dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam."I heard two very loud explosions and a third smaller one followed by bursts of gunfire," said Mohammad Abu Houran, an activist in Daraa. He said the first two were likely car bombs and the third a mortar shell or rocket propelled grenade.Abu Houran said black smoke could be seen over the high-security area, which was sealed off. Heavy shooting could be heard from the area for about 10 minutes after the explosions, he added.Bombings targeting state security institutions have become frequent in recent months, and military intelligence branches in Damascus and other cities have been hit. Most dramatically in July, rebels detonated explosives inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus, killing four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister.The targeted area is considered a security zone that houses a branch of the country's Military Intelligence as well as an officer's club where dozens of regime forces are based. Around 30 tanks that regime forces use to shell Daraa and surrounding areas are also stationed in a nearby stadium, activists said.Despite gaining control over large swathes of territory, particularly in the country's north, Syria's rebels are far outgunned by the military, which has increasingly relied on airstrikes against rebel strongholds.The Syrian opposition, which is deeply divided and plagued by rivalries, says it needs weapons to break the military stalemate and defeat Assad. The rebels' Western backers have been reluctant to send weapons to the opposition fighters, for fear they will fall into the wrong hands.George Sabra, the newly elected leader of the main opposition bloc, the Syrian National Council, urged the international community on Saturday to support rebels without any conditions."Unfortunately, we get nothing from them, except some statements, some encouragement" while Assad's allies "give the regime everything," Sabra told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a weeklong SNC conference in the Qatari capital of Doha.Sabra was heading an SNC delegation Saturday in talks with rival opposition groups on forging a new, broader and more inclusive opposition leadership group — an idea promoted by Western and Arab backers of those trying to oust Assad.Syria has dismissed the meeting in Doha, and Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi called it a political folly. In an interview on state-run Syrian TV aired late Friday, al-Zoubi said those who "meet in hotels" abroad are "deluding themselves" if they think they can overthrow the government.Activists say more than 36,000 people have died in Syria during the nearly 20-month-old conflict.The Daraa bombings come a day after as many as 11,000 people were said to have fled Syria over just 24 hours, to escape fierce fighting between rebels and government forces — the latest surge of refugees fleeing the civil war.The flood of Syrians into neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon was "the highest that we have had in quite some time," said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. refugee agency's regional coordinator for the region said Friday.About 2,000 to 3,000 people are fleeing Syria daily, and the recent surge brings the number registered with the UNHCR to more than 408,000, said Moumtzis.The largest flow into Turkey came from the fighting at Ras al-Ayn in the predominantly Kurdish oil-producing northeastern province of al-Hasaka, where rebels were fighting government forces.

Iraq reconsiders $4 billion Russian arms plans

Associated Press – 27 mins ago NOV 10,12

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say the government is reconsidering plans to buy more than $4 billion in arms from Russia.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last month traveled to Moscow and outlined plans to buy the weapons, including helicopter gunships and air defense missiles.Some Iraqi media reports, such as one that aired this week on the private al-Sharqiya TV channel, have suggested impropriety such as kickbacks by some of those involved in brokering the deal. They cite mostly unnamed sources and provide few specifics.The prime minister's spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi, said Saturday the proposed deal is now under review.Iraq's acting defense minister, Saadoun al-Dulaimi, insisted no money has changed hands so far and says the existing proposal "has become meaningless." He says the government plans to renegotiate the deal, seeking better terms.

Egypt Muslim Sisters rise with conservative vision

By MAGGIE FICK | Associated Press – NOV 10,12

CAIRO (AP) — The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt has brought with it a new group of female politicians who say they are determined to bring more women into leadership roles — and at the same time want to consecrate a deeply conservative Islamic vision for women in Egypt.Women's rights have sprung to the forefront of the debate in Egypt as members of an Islamist-dominated assembly wrestle over the writing of a new constitution for the country. The power of Islamists, who dominated parliament elections last winter and who seized the presidency with the election this year of the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, has worried secular and liberal Egyptians who fear they will restrict rights of women and minorities.The women of the Brotherhood say the fundamentalist group is doing more than any other political movement in Egypt to promote women in a political scene where men have always held a near total monopoly. Confident and articulate, the women say they are pushing for a greater voice within the Brotherhood itself and its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, where the leadership is entirely male.The number of women in prominent positions in Egyptian politics remains tiny, as it was under the ousted secular president, Hosni Mubarak. But in the new Egypt, if a woman does hold a high post, she's most likely a member of an Islamist group. Morsi has appointed three women — two of them Islamists — to his 21-member team of advisers and aides. Of the six women on the 100-member assembly writing the constitution, three are Brotherhood members.Their vision is a world apart from that of liberal women's rights activists, who fear that Islamist women in power will only carry out the Brotherhood agenda of implementing its conservative interpretation of Islamic law.Azza el-Garf, one of the Brotherhood women on the constitution-writing panel, said the "first" role of women in Egypt is "inside the family, as a wife and mother," while politics or work comes second. "Women are responsible for raising the new generation ... this means the future of Egypt is in our hands," she told The Associated Press.El-Garf, a 47-year-old mother of seven, said that a woman's role in her family need not contradict with her participation in politics, saying that she balances these two responsibilities. El-Garf joined the Brotherhood when she was 15 and has done social work and community organizing for the group.Secular feminists, she argues, are out of step with Muslim-majority Egypt's conservative society.
"We speak on behalf of the street," said el-Garf, who like most Egyptian Muslim women wears a head scarf. "Egyptian people are very religious, devout people. If (the liberals) continue to separate religion from normal life, people will not listen to them."El-Garf was one of three women from the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party elected to the first parliament formed after the revolution, which had fewer than a dozen female lawmakers among its nearly 500 members. The body has since been dissolved, but she plans to run in new parliamentary elections to take place once a new constitution is ratified.Islamists who make up the majority on the constitution-writing assembly are racing to try to finish the document in the coming weeks to put it to a referendum. One of the biggest fights is over an Islamist-backed clause that would call for equality between men and women but only if it does not contradict Islamic law, or Shariah. Liberals say that condition will allow influential ultraconservatives to severely restrict women's rights. A seventh woman who was on the assembly — Manal el-Tibi, a non-Islamist activist — resigned in September in protest over that and other articles concerning women.Omaima Kamel, perhaps the most powerful of the Brotherhood women, defended the clause. Kamel is a member of Morsi's advisory team and sits on the constitutional panel.
In a recent interview on state TV, she said that without the phrasing, certain rights that Shariah gives to men and not to women could be overturned — such as men's right to marry up to four women or inheritance laws that give a greater to share to men than women. Such polygamy and inheritance laws existed during the Mubarak era and in most Muslim countries.Kamel, a 51-year-old doctor, dismissed fears that hardliners would use the clause to pass harsh restrictions on women, saying only rulings of Shariah that are "firmly established, with no controversy around them," like polygamy and inheritance, could be applied.
The clause was also needed to ensure Egypt is not beholden to international women's rights accords that she said would impose "complete equality" and "strip us of our character as a people who are religious and respect Islam.""Just like people on the left fear that someone on the right will one day say women have to stay in the home, there are people on the right — the conservatives and Islamists — who fear that one day Egypt will be forced to carry out what's in international agreements, like complete equality."
Other issues have stirred up trouble for the Brotherhood's women, particularly the issue of female genital mutilation, which is known as "circumcision" in Egypt and is widespread despite a 2008 law banning it. Both el-Garf and Kamel have been quoted in the Egyptian media as speaking of allowing the practice to a degree, but each later denied making the comments. Now they both are circumspect in talking about it.
"We have problems in education, health care, and security," she said. "These issues (of FGM) do not bother anyone, we have bigger issues," el-Garf told The AP, adding, "I respect all laws," in reference to the ban. Kamel called FGM a "bad practice" that should be addressed through awareness campaigns.Like other female Brotherhood politicians, Kamel says she is determined to see more women in positions of authority.
The Brotherhood is "trying to put the cornerstones for the right path toward democracy" within its political party, including bringing more women into the leadership, she told The AP. But she added that this will take "a few years" because there are currently few women with the political experience to compete for top positions in the party.Liberals say the Brotherhood women are just a token cover for an agenda they consider deeply opposed to women's rights.Having Brotherhood women in authority "is even more dangerous than not (having them), given their ideology," said Hoda Badran, a veteran women's rights activist and chair of the Egyptian Feminist Union.Bahy Eddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, said the Brotherhood's female members "don't believe in the concept of basic women's rights ... We don't have illusions about how much progress we can make with them."Sally Zohney, a founding member of the local women's rights group Baheya Ya Masr, said the constitution is a "lost cause" given the Brotherhood's ability to rally public support. The liberal side, she said, has to work to advocate an alternative vision among Egyptians."We have to start reaching the public, and fast," she said.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

JOEL 3:2 (WW3 OCCURS WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people (ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(JERUSALEM)(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND BRINGS 3 DEAD BILLION IN WW3)

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 

PA Unveils UN Membership Resolution

PA envoys unveil the resolution they hope will give them observer membership at the United Nations.

By Elad Benari First Publish: 11/9/2012, 5:13 AM-INN

Abbas addresses UN Genearal Assembly-AFP/Timothy A. Clary

Envoys from the Palestinian Authority on Thursday unveiled the resolution they hope will give them observer membership at the United Nations but held back from setting a date for a vote, AFP reported.Arab League foreign ministers are to discuss the resolution next week, diplomats told AFP.The PA’s mission to the United Nations sent a letter to UN members with its proposed resolution, saying it would be put to the 193 member UN General Assembly "at a date to be announced in the near future."The resolution would call on the assembly to accord observe membership and urge the 15-nation UN Security Council to "consider favorably" an application for full membership made last year by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.The United States has blocked the full membership bid, threatening to use a veto at the Security Council, which must approve any full application. It cannot hold up any bid for observer membership at the General Assembly.
The PA’s application is certain to be passed at the General Assembly but the question would be how big a majority it would get if the United States opposes the resolution.Arab League foreign ministers are to meet on November 12-13 and could set a date for a vote if Abbas agrees, UN diplomats said, according to AFP.
The draft resolution "reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination" on the basis of Israeli-Arab borders before the 1967 Six Day War.The resolution highlights "the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations" between the two sides to settle the questions of refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders, security, water and prisoners.Abbas formally announced in September that the PA would ask the General Assembly to grant it "super-observer" status that could give it access to UN institutions and agencies.Kol Yisrael radio reported on Thursday night that the PA will likely table the resolution on November 29.Channel 10 News reported earlier this week that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has threatened that if the PA goes ahead with its unilateral statehood bid he “will work to ensure the PA will collapse.”Lieberman reportedly stressed that a unilateral statehood bid by the PA will "put an end to the chances to resume peace negotiations."Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he remains ready to sit down for final status talks with the PA leader."Only in direct negotiations will it be possible to clarify what the true positions are. Generally, I can say that if Abu Mazen is really serious and intends to advance peace, as far as I am concerned, we can sit together immediately. Jerusalem and Ramallah are only seven minutes apart; I am ready to start negotiations today,” Netanyahu said bluntly.
"I will take this opportunity to again call on President Abbas to return to the negotiating table without preconditions, because peace may be advanced only around the negotiating table and not via unilateral decisions in the United Nations General Assembly, which will only push peace further away and will only lead to instability.”The Obama administration has indicated that it opposes the PA’s unilateral move and said it would “make the case” at the UN for Israeli- PA talks when Abbas submits his bid.

Finance minister threatens to withhold tax revenues if Palestinians make UN statehood bid

Yuval Steinitz points at success of freezing assets in preventing similar measure last year

By Ilan Ben Zion November 10, 2012, 4:51 pm 0-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Israel will withhold transferring tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority if President Mahmoud Abbas presses forward with a United Nations statehood bid, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz warned on Saturday.

Stenitz said that Israel would not collect taxes on the Palestinians’ behalf, nor deliver the moneys to the PA, nor assist Ramallah in economic matters if the Palestinians insist on seeking nonmember observer state status at the UN.Under the current economic agreements between Israel and the PA, Israel collects customs, border and some income taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and transfers the sums to Ramallah on a monthly basis.The finance minister noted that the Palestinians backed down from a unilateral UN bid last year after Israel blocked the transfer of Palestinian tax funds to the PA.Abbas was expected to submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly this month requesting nonmember state status for the Palestinians, but a senior Palestinian official indicated Friday that Abbas may be willing to postpone the move if the US were to offer a “clear objective” for negotiations. According to the official, the objective would have to be a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.Palestinian sources indicated Saturday that Abbas was “seriously considering” pushing back a UN bid, and that the stated reason for a possible postponement – from November to the end of January – is that reelected US President Barack Obama needs time to organize a political agenda for the second term of his administration.

Peres: I Intend to Complete My Term

President Shimon Peres denies reports that he is planning to run in the next Knesset elections as head of Israel’s center-left bloc.By Elad Benari, Canada First Publish: 11/9/2012, 9:11 PM-INN

President Shimon Peres-Flash 90

President Shimon Peres denied on Friday recent media reports that he is planning to end his term early and run in the next Knesset elections as head of Israel’s center-left bloc.This week it was reported that former Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni has been pressuring Shimon Peres to head a center-left Knesset list in the coming election. She reportedly told the 89-year-old president that she would support him if he chooses to run as his number two.Peres has also been under pressure by other politicians to run. It has been suggested in previous weeks that Peres might be the only candidate who can unite the fragmented center-left bloc and beat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the January elections.However, on Friday morning as he was making his way en route from Moscow back to Israel, Peres denied the reports about his political intentions and said he intends to complete his term as president in one year and 10 months.President Peres rejected any idea of ​​returning to the Knesset and said, “All the reports are pure speculation.”On Thursday, opposition head MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) hinted at an impending center-left political union to match the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu merger on the political right. Mofaz told an interviewer at Gordon College in Haifa to expect political change.“Things will happen in the next two and a half months,” he said. “These are things that aren’t ready yet.”“The map is going to change,” he added. “It will happen very quickly, close to the time of elections.”Mofaz was asked if he has considered the possibility that if a left-wing political merger occurs, he may not stand at the head of the new party. Polls show that Kadima, the largest party in the current Knesset, may not make it into the next Knesset.“I take everything into account,” Mofaz replied.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

Gaza Rockets Explode in Eshkol Region

Two Kassam rockets fired by Gaza-based terrorists explode in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council.

By Elad Benari, Canada First Publish: 11/9/2012, 8:46 PM-INN

Qassam rocket (archive)-Flash 90

Two Kassam rockets fired by Gaza-based terrorists exploded in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council on Friday afternoon.The rockets did not cause any physical injuries or damage. The rockets were fired despite an Egyptian-brokered “ceasefire” that was supposed to have gone effect in late October, after Gaza-based terrorists fired more than 80 rockets at southern Israel within a period of 24 hours.Similar “ceasefires” have been announced by Hamas rulers after previous rounds of escalation, but the Gaza-based terrorist groups always take advantage of these “ceasefires” to periodically send a reminder to Israelis that they have the ability to fire rockets.In another incident on Thursday evening, a smuggling tunnel exploded in southern Gaza as a group of IDF soldiers were in the middle of an operation to uncover it.One of the soldiers was very lightly wounded in the incident and damage was caused to an empty military vehicle that was standing nearby.Residents of the Eshkol Regional Council on Thursday held a rally at the Sharona Park in Tel Aviv, across from the IDF's Kirya central military base.The residents told the government during the rally, “We are not willing to accept this kind of life. Even one Kassam rocket is one too many. The government of Israel must bring quiet to the area.”(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

DAY 12 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

MATTHEW 16:1-4
1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

DAY 1 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/updates-on-hurricane-sandy.html
DAY 2 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/no-ny-trading-today-again.html
DAY 3 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/day-3-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 4 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/nov-112-day-4-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 5 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-5-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 6 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-6-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 7 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-7-hurricane-sandy-update.html
DAY 8 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-8-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 9 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-9-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 10 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-10-hurricane-sandy-update.html 
DAY 11 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
 http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/11/day-11-hurricane-sandy-update.html

DAY 12 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES-HAPPENINGS 

ITS 8:15AM FRI NOV 9,12 AND THE DEATH TOTAL IS 121 FROM HURRICANE SANDY AND STILL 600,000 WITHOUT POWER YET.FROM THE HURRICANE AND THE NOREASTER.NEW YORK ALONE HAS $33 BILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES FROM HURRICANE SANDY SO THE TOTAL OVERALL I PREDICT WILL BE OVER $100 BILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES IN ALL THE STATES AFFECTED.

Gas rationing expands as Sandy, Nor'easter effects linger

By Daniel Trotta and Robin Respaut | Reuters – 8:20AM NOV 9,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City drivers will wake up on Friday to the first widespread gas rationing since the fuel crisis of the 1970s, as the U.S. Northeast struggles to recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy and a subsequent snowstorm.After a difficult commute Thursday night that saw heavily armed police trying to quiet crowds at area bus and train stations, New Jersey authorities are adding free buses and ferries Friday to try and ease commutes that have been four and five times longer than normal all week.The recovery from Sandy stalled Wednesday after a snowstorm that plunged 300,000 homes and businesses back into darkness. By Thursday night much of the snow melted, and temperatures were due to warm slightly Friday, welcome news for the thousands of people still without power.Bitter cold, rain, snow and powerful winds added to the misery of disaster victims whose homes were destroyed or power was knocked out by Sandy. The storm came ashore on October 29 and caused widespread flooding, leading up to as much as $50 billion in economic losses and prompting the medical relief group Doctors Without Borders to set up its first-ever U.S. clinic.The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was providing mobile homes to house those displaced by the storm, a reminder of the scramble after Hurricane Katrina seven years ago to tend to the newly homeless. Some evacuees will be put up nearly 200 miles from home, FEMA said, because there is little available space closer to the city.
GAS, PATIENCE RUNNING OUT
With drivers still struggling to find adequate fuel, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday the city would begin an indefinite program of gas rationing early Friday.It is modeled on one New Jersey implemented last week - allowing drivers to fill up on alternating days depending on their license plate number - that has reduced lines dramatically.Bloomberg indicated that the city had little choice."It now appears there will be shortages for possibly another couple weeks," Bloomberg said, later adding, "If you think about it, it's not any great imposition once you get used to it."Neighboring counties would implement a similar program, he said, in an effort to cut down lines that ran for hours at local filling stations following Sandy. The city's iconic yellow taxis are exempt from the new regulation.New Yorkers, never known for holding their tongues, let their exasperation with the bad weather show."Kick in the gas," the New York Post blared in a headline on its website, a day after its print newspaper hit the streets with the cover headline "God hates us!"
'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'
A week after Sandy, Doctors Without Borders established temporary emergency clinics in the hard-hit Rockaways - a barrier island in Queens facing the Atlantic Ocean - to tend to residents of high-rises, which still lacked power and heat and were left isolated by the storm."I don't think any of us expected to see this level of lacking access to health care," said Lucy Doyle, who specializes in internal medicine at New York's Bellevue Hospital and has done stints with the group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya. "A lot of us have said, it feels a lot like being in the field in a foreign country."Sandy's death toll in the United States and Canada reached 121 after New York authorities on Wednesday reported another death linked to the storm in the Rockaways.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo turned his ire on the power utilities, which he said had failed customers.Some 696,000 homes and businesses in the region were without power as of late Thursday night.The storm damage exposed flaws in the regulation of power utilities that will require a complete redesign, said Cuomo, who oversees the state-controlled utilities and appoints the members of the Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities such as Consolidated Edison."It is nameless, faceless bureaucracy that is a monopoly that operates with very little incentive or sanction. ... They have failed the consumers," Cuomo said.(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg, Philip Barbara, Michelle Conlin, Chelsea Emery, Jilian Mincer and Edward Krudy; Writing by Dan Trotta and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Insight: In Sandy crisis, motorists stranded at Big Oil's pumps

By Edward McAllister and David Sheppard | Reuters – 8:27 NOV 9,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Superstorm Sandy left a trail of destruction and despair in the U.S. Northeast, but it also exposed a surprising fault line in the ability of gasoline stations to keep fuel flowing.Motorists in New York and New Jersey, desperate for gas amid constrained supply and power outages, spent hours in snaking lines waiting for a chance to hit the pumps. But those who rushed to stations bearing the names of the world's biggest and best known oil companies were the least likely to find fuel.It came down to one critical factor: the outlets of the oil majors are franchised, while those of the regional chains are company-run and benefited from the full resources of their corporate parents.Three days after Sandy hit the Northeast, triggering the region's worst oil crisis since the 1970s, less than a quarter of the service stations operating under the Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and Shell names were selling gasoline, according to a Reuters analysis of industry data. The companies say the figures are higher, closer to half.But a handful of medium-sized regional chains like Hess Corp., Wawa Inc. and Sunoco performed far better, with as many as three-quarters of their stations operating, using back-up generators to dispense fuel to millions of motorists, homeowners and utility crews.

The vast power outages across the Northeast left thousands of stations unable to dispense fuel from their electric pumps for a week or longer, but the new analysis, based on data from leading retail intelligence firm OPIS, shows how hidden factors deepened the crisis.Oil stations branded by the three big oil companies make up a third of the market in the New York City area, the data shows, but over the past decade they have been franchised out to individual operators who enjoy little support from the multibillion-dollar majors whose name they bear.When Sandy hit, they were largely left stranded, with no easy means to hire the big generators needed to power fuel pumps. But at the other firms crisis teams swung into action, hiring dozens of units to get fuel flowing again."We have a detailed crisis plan, whether it be a big Nor'easter or a hurricane," said John Poplawski, head of the emergency response team at Wawa, a regional convenience store and gasoline retailer.Many franchise owners would not have been able to run back-up power easily anyway -- they are not required by law to install the necessary plug-ins, a fact that came as news to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.The breakdown in supplies has prompted calls from lawmakers to introduce rules modeled on hurricane-prone Florida, where key gas stations are required to have access to back-up power within hours of a storm. The suggestion is already meeting with fierce resistance from industry groups, who say purchasing a $30,000 generator would inflict financial hardship on station owners and convenience stores, which on average earn just $45,000 a year.To be sure, a lack of power was by far not the only problem plaguing the fuel supply, with key fuel terminals that supply the stations knocked offline and refineries shuttered.Even New Jersey-based Hess Corp, which received praise from Christie for supplying rival stations with fuel after securing 85 generators before the storm, has been unable to re-open its own 70,000 barrel-per-day New Jersey refinery.The fuel shortages have hampered recovery efforts and may come back to haunt the big companies, which risk reputational damage from frustrated motorists even if they are not to blame.Over 10 days later, even with power restored and fuel moving again, there were still long lines at gas stations on snow-covered streets on Thursday. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered even-odd rationing on Thursday, following the path taken by New Jersey last week.
A TALE OF TWO GAS CHAINS
Behind the scenes, as much as a week before Sandy arrived, centrally managed emergency teams at some gasoline retailers were preparing, scouring weather maps for signs of where and when the storm might land.
Wawa, a Pennsylvania-based independently owned company with 200 gasoline outlets in New Jersey and surrounding states, rushed to be ready.Six days before Sandy struck, chief crisis manager Poplawski moved to secure 30 large-scale generators for its pumps and stores. They normally cost about $5,000 per week, but rental rates had already jumped 20 percent to around $6,000.He eventually took 15 units, from as far afield as Ohio, Indiana and the Carolinas. Then rates surged as Sandy struck."We had offers to get more than 15 at double the rate, but we chose not to," Poplawski said. "Frankly, the business benefit gets outweighed at that point."Wawa fared better than most after the storm. Many of its sites are in south New Jersey or inland, areas less affected by the storm; it also moved the units as power came back."We were going down the list. As one generator became available we would (move it) to the next store," Poplawski said.By Friday, four days after Sandy came ashore, 95 of its 100 New Jersey fuel stores had been reopened, the company said.Hess Corp. was more aggressive, sourcing 85 back-up generators before the storm hit, the firm said. It had 177 of 186 of its stations in the area running again by November 2 because it was able to "execute hurricane preparedness plans across our retail network," the company said in a statement.Chief Executive John Hess, a New Jersey native whose father founded the firm and once owned the New York Jets, took the opportunity to laud his efforts on a conference call with analysts last week.
"Hess has had a long history of doing whatever it takes to meet the demand for energy during times of crises," he said.
NO MORE RETAIL
At hundreds of Exxon Mobil's 500 branded stations in the region, a different story unfolded. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, spun off the last of its retail division in 2008, licensing more local operators to run their branded stores as franchises.Few stations had generators, and most relied on utility companies to restore power, according to interviews with Exxon and Mobil station operators in the area. Many struggled to make contact with their local representative as phone lines failed."Mobil helps no one," said one Mobil station operator on Long Island, who asked not to be identified. "That's why they are the richest company in the world."Only 46 branded Exxon or Mobil outlets in New Jersey were selling fuel on November 1, according to data from OPIS, which is based on fleet car sales and surveys and is used by the AAA motoring group to gauge daily gasoline prices nationwide. A week earlier, OPIS recorded sales from 285 stations.On Monday, Exxon released a statement advising investors that it did "not own or operate any gas stations, fuel terminals or refineries in the impacted areas" of Sandy.In response to queries about the data, an Exxon spokeswoman said that half of its New Jersey stations had power by November 1. Some stores may have had power for the pumps but not credit card sales, according to OPIS.By this week, the problem had become more about distribution of fuel than about power, with more than one-fifth of the New York metropolitan area's stations unable to sell fuel because they were out of gasoline. It was not clear which brands were most affected."We are doing horrible," said an owner of a Mobil station in Long Island, which has only received two rationed deliveries since the storm. "We don't have any gas, we have long lines at the pump, even though people know that we don't have any gas, hoping that we get a delivery," he said, asking not to be named.An Exxon spokeswoman said it recommends that franchise owners have access to generators, "but we can't mandate it."The OPIS data showed that only just over 20 percent of the 138 BP-branded stations in New Jersey were selling gas by November 1, a figure broadly similar across the region.Asked about the figures, a BP spokesman said two-thirds of its 300 stations in the "New York-New Jersey metro area" were open by November 1 and have been helping emergency services get fuel "to the best of our ability." By November 6, BP had only 11 stations still offline in the area, he said.Oil majors did help their branded stations to varying degrees. Royal Dutch Shell shipped generators to be near its wholesalers before the storm, even though "this is not a part of our contractual agreements," a company spokeswoman said.Still, by November 1, more than half of Shell's branded stations in New Jersey remained closed, the company said. On that day the OPIS survey found just 33 stations compared with 234 the previous Thursday. By November 5 more than 15 percent of the company's New York state and New Jersey stations were still shut.
POLITICS OF POWER
After a crisis so serious that the military was called in to give away 22 million gallons of fuel, politicians are preparing for legislative action."What we've witnessed during Sandy is that gas stations and terminals lose power it has the potential to bring us to a screeching halt," said New York State Senator David Carlucci, who won re-election on Tuesday.He has proposed legislation requiring every key service station to permanently keep a generator on site.A similar bill was first introduced in Florida after the state was hit with three hurricanes in 2005. That law requires every fuel outlet on a major trunk route to be able to hook up to reserve power within hours of a blackout, with big chains mandated to keep generators for their stores close by.Yet even as motorists continue to steam in New York and New Jersey, gas station operators are balking at the cost of installing on-site generators that would allow them to keep operating even if power fails.
"Mandating the costly installation of equipment that will only be used maybe as little as once every several years is bad policy and bad for the economy," said John Eichberger of the National Association of Convenience Stores.Carlucci's proposal, which includes tax incentives, would cost a total of about $200 million to provide each of New York State's 6,500 gas stations with an estimated $30,000 generator, according to Reuters calculations. That equates to around $10 per head of New York State's population.
Pat Moricca, president of the Gasoline Retailers Association of Florida who ran a Paterson, New Jersey, service station in the 1970s, called Sandy a wake-up call that should be heeded."Whether you're wet or dry, hot or cold, this storm has shown that anywhere can run into this situation eventually."(Reporting By David Sheppard and Edward McAllister; Additonal reporting by Selam Gebrekidan; Editing by Leslie Adler)