Atlanta paralyzed by 2 inches of snow!!!!

Apparently the highways around Atlanta are one vast parking lot...this is really sad...They didn't have enough salt trucks?

ATLANTA -- The Georgia National Guard was out in force Wednesday to rescue motorists trapped all night in their cars on Atlanta's icebound freeways from a harsh winter storm that forced many drivers to abandon their cars outright and left children to camp out in their schools.
Some commuters pleaded for help via cellphones while still holed up in their cars, while others gave up and trudged miles home.
Highways around the nation's ninth largest metropolitan area were littered with abandoned cars as commuters bailed out, some seeking warmth at shelter at 17 Home Depot that opened their doors to take in wayward motorists.
Police in suburban Atlanta say one of their own helped assist the safe delivery of a baby girl on a gridlocked interstate Tuesday afternoon after snow and ice brought traffic to a crawl.
Sandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose told The Associated Press the baby girl was safely delivered around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday amid gridlocked traffic on Interstate 285. A traffic officer arrived with only minutes to spare before the infant arrived.
"Fortunately he had his emergency lights on and people got out of his way," Rose said. "The delivery was pretty flawless."
About 500 students in Paulding County were stuck at elementary, middle and high schools, and about 1,300 were sheltering in place in Douglas county. Students were also trapped overnight in Marietta, Cherokee and Atlanta counties.
At Atlanta's East River Elementary School, about 100 students spent the night on mats on the floor, covered with coats and blankets. The children got caught out when school buses were unable to pick them up.
Some relieved parents, who spent the night trying to reach their children's schools, had begun picking up their children Wednesday.
"This has been an ordeal for everyone," said Georgia DOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale. "This storm and the bitter temperatures have caused so much difficulty, discomfort and anxiety for so many Georgians. We believe roadways will be restored to some level of normalcy today but would encourage the public to remain home, preferably all day."
Only about two-to-three inches of snow fell in Atlanta on Tuesday, but it was enough to ground hundreds of flights at Hartsfield International Airport — the U.S.'s busiest -- and paralyze the metropolitan area.
Debbie Hartwig, a waitress at an Atlanta area waffle house, said she managed to keep her cool thanks in part to the kindness of strangers after 10 hours on the road.
"I'm calm," she said. "That's all you can be. People are helping each other out, people are moving cars that have spun out or had become disabled. It's been really nice. I even saw people passing out hot coffee and granola bars."
"This was, hands down, the worst day of my life," Evan McLean of Canton, who told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he "was literally stranded on Canton road for two and half hours without moving an inch."
Cobb County chairman Tim Lee was among drivers stuck on I-75 in his truck north of the Chattahoochee River.
He said residents were calling him to request salt trucks, but he saw a silver lining in the lengthy gridlock.
"The good news is that traffic is so jammed up they can't get going too fast, so there's a lot fender benders but there's no injuries," he told The Marietta Daily Journal.
One traveler who had arrived Tuesday afternoon at Atlanta's airport from Maine spent five hours in traffic without moving when an WXIA reporter caught up with him.
He offered some Back East advice to Georgia's highway maintenance teams.
"You should put some salt on the road," he said. "When it's going to be wet and cold, get the salt trucks on the road. It's not hard."
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who dispatched guard troops in Humvees to clear the freeways, said Tuesday's storm "came unexpectedly."
Are meteorologists to blame for the traffic debacle, or a poor forecast? No, says Marshall Shepherd a meteorologist with the University of Georgia and current president of the American Meteorological Society.
"The buses had a tough time getting kids home, but meteorologists should not be thrown under the bus," he said.
Deal, like the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, declared a state of emergency.
While the storm that gripped much of the Deep South has moved into the Atlantic, there is little chance of significant melting of untreated roads and bridges Wednesday, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Nick Wiltgen.
Highs may struggle to reach the freezing mark in cities such as Atlanta and Charleston, S.C., he said.. Areas near the Gulf Coast such as Mobile and Pensacola may not rise much above freezing, even if a few rays of sunshine peek through the clouds later in the day.

22 Jan 2014: Pres and VP schedules

10:00 am
The President and Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:45 am
The President and Vice President meet with the President’s Commission on Election Administration
Roosevelt Room
Pool Spray at the Top

11:30 am
The President and Vice President convene a meeting with select Cabinet Secretaries of the Council on Women and Girls
Oval Office
Pool Spray at the Top

12:30 pm
The President and Vice President meet for lunch
Private Dining Room
Closed Press

2:05 pm
The President and Vice President host an event for the Council on Women and Girls
East Room
Pooled Press

4:30 pm
The President and Vice President meet with Secretary of the Treasury Lew
Oval Office
Closed Press

Rush on Women in Politics

From Rush yesterday, Monday, 20 Jan

Don't have time right now to comment on it, will just share the transcript and discuss tomorrow.

Dawn Zimmer is the mayor of Hoboken.  (Somebody has to be, folks.)  Dawn Zimmer is the mayor of Hoboken, and she is claiming that back in May the New Jersey lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, pulled her aside after touring a ShopRite that had been rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy and told her that Hoboken would not get any Hurricane Sandy relief aid if she didn't help push a real estate development project that Governor Christie wanted.
So the story is that Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of Hoboken, was pulled aside by the New Jersey lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, also female, and it was babe to babe. And the lieutenant governor babe said to the mayor babe, "If you don't get on board with us, you're not getting any Sandy money." Dawn Zimmer is the mayor. The lieutenant governor's denying it, says it never happened.
The mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, is saying it did happen.  She is not conceding anything, and she has provided MSNBC with an entry from her personal diary in which she recounted the incident. Oh, speaking of which, the New York Times actually has a soap opera-type story today about how Christie has fallen out of favor with the hosts of MSNBC, that they loved Christie.
They had a lot of hope invested in him as a Republican who could screw other Republicans and now there's been a falling out because of the scandal.  It's actually written as though it's a breakup of a soap opera-type relationship.  We will explain that in due course as the program unfolds.  Now, the lieutenant governor, according to the mayor of Hoboken, said, "It's very important to Governor Christie..."
This is the diary entry that describes Lieutenant Governor Guadagno saying of the development project, "It is very important to the governor. The word is that you are against it and you need to move forward or we are not going to be able to help you. I know it's not right -- these things should not be connected -- but they are, she says, and if you tell anyone, I will deny it."
So she's out telling the world that this happened, and the lieutenant governor is denying it.  "Zimmer said she was given the same message four days later by Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner. As the two prepared to appear on a television program about Sandy recovery, she said Constable told her she needed to support the project for her city to receive aid."
Now Guadagno and Constable are both denying what the mayor of Hoboken is saying.  So what are we to do with this?  Who are we supposed to believe here? Now, I guess one of the trains of thought is the governor wouldn't be this stupid, wouldn't make himself this big a target. He wouldn't tell the lieutenant governor go out there and deny aid if the mayor didn't come forth and help with the redevelopment project or supported it.
Nobody would do that.  So the tendency, I guess, is to not believe the mayor of Hoboken on the basis that Christie wouldn't do it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:  Ladies and gentlemen, we were all told for a long time that having women in politics was gonna put an end to political corruption because there wouldn't be any testosterone. Having women in politics would end war, for example, and barbarism. With women in leadership, there wouldn't be any predatory-type behavior because women don't do that and don't have a dominance of testosterone and they're not made that way.
They're nurturers and peacemakers. They are focused on relationships and making things work.  So I'm sitting here a little confused reading of the contretemps between the female lieutenant governor alleging that it is the mayor of Hoboken is lying and then vice-versa.  So I'm gonna have to think. It'll take me some time to work through this, 'cause I believed all of that.  Now my world is upside down.  I don't quite know how to process this.

6 Jan 2013: SoS Kerry and Staff Schedule

There's nothing posted for 6 Jan 2014, as of 9:10 am mountain time this morning.

Here's Kerry's schedule from yesterday.

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY

Secretary Kerry is on foreign travel to Jerusalem, Amman, and Riyadh. He is accompanied by Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Martin Indyk, Spokesperson Jen Psaki, and Vice Admiral Kurt Tidd, JCS.

7:15 a.m. LOCAL Secretary Kerry holds a solo press availability, in Jerusalem.
(POOLED PRESS COVERAGE)

10:00 a.m. LOCAL Secretary Kerry meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II, in Amman, Jordan.
(POOLED PRESS COVERAGE)

4:00 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Kerry meets with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
(POOLED PRESS COVERAGE)

6 Jan 2014: President and Vice President's Schedule

Obama's schedule

11:00 am
The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

2:00 pm
The President meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press

VP's schedule

11:00 am
The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

Apologies for being away so long...

If I have any subscribers left.... thanks for your patience...

I'll be getting back to posting here starting on Monday...lots to go over in the New Year!