New York City Marathon canceled

NBC REPORTS THAT THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON IS CANCELLED

The New York Marathon was canceled Friday in the wake of criticism that the race should not take place as the city struggles to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Earlier Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had insisted that the race would take place Sunday despite some New Yorkers saying that holding the race would be insensitive and tie up police, generators and other resources when many are still suffering.

Joan Wacks, whose Staten Island waterfront condo was swamped with 4 feet of water, had predicted authorities would still have been recovering bodies when the estimated 40,000 runners from around the world would have hit the streets for the 26.2-mile race. She had called the mayor "tone deaf."

"He is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with," she said. "If there are any resources being put toward the marathon, that's wrong. I'm sorry, that's wrong."

At a news conference, Bloomberg had defended his decision as a way to raise money for the stricken city and boost morale six days after Sandy flooded neighborhoods, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands homes and businesses and killed at least 39 people.

Bloomberg said New York "has to show that we are here and we are going to recover" and "give people something to cheer about in what's been a very dismal week for a lot of people."

"You have to keep going and doing things," he said, "and you can grieve, you can cry and you can laugh all at the same time. That's what human beings are good at."

Noting that street lights should be back on in Manhattan by midnight Friday and parts of the transit system are up and running again, he had given assurances that the race would not take away police officers and other resources needed in the recovery.

He also pointed out that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the New York Marathon two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and "it pulled people together."

One of the world's pre-eminent road races, the New York Marathon generates an estimated $340 million into the city. This time, the marathon's sponsors and organizers had dubbed it the "Race to Recover" and intended to use the event to raise money for the city to deal with the crisis. New York Road Runners, the race organizer, will donate $1 million and said sponsors have pledged more than $1.5 million.

"It's hard in these moments to know what's best to do," NYRR president Mary Wittenberg said. "The city believes this is best to do right now." A short time later the call was made to postpone the race.

The New York course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs. The course was not to be changed, since there was little damage along the route itself.

The damage all around it, however, ultimately swayed the decision.

United States Unemployment

New York Mayor "Meshuganir" Bloomberg endorses Obama

Associated Press reports that the "crazy" New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing President Barack Obama for re-election, citing his leadership on climate change.

Bloomberg says in an online opinion piece that Hurricane Sandy made the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election even clearer. He says the climate is changing and that Obama has taken major steps in the right direction.

An independent and former Republican, Bloomberg says GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has reversed course on a number of positions.

Obama Inauguration Preacher Says ‘America Is Going To Hell In A Hand Basket’

The reverend who gave the benediction during President Barack Obama’s inauguration said America is “going to hell,” and white people may go with it.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, 91, made the comments at St. James Baptist Church in Forsyth, Ga., as part of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference tour to encourage African-Americans to vote for Obama, according to the Monroe County Reporter.

The paper reports that Lowery apparently told parishioners in the crowd that he is back to believing that all white people will not get into heaven because of what’s been happening during the campaign.

“I’m frightened by the level of hatred and bitterness coming out in this election,” Lowery said, according to the County Reporter.

Lowery blasted blacks for costing Obama the state of Georgia in the 2008 election because 390,000 African-Americans decided to stay home and not vote.

“I don’t know what kind of a n***** wouldn’t vote with a black man running,” Lowery extolled, according to the paper. “All that he did with the stimulus was genius. Nobody intelligent would risk this country with Romney.”

Lowery added that “America is going to hell in a hand basket.”

Lowery tells The Daily Caller“Of course he doesn’t believe that all whites should go to hell,” Helen Butler, executive director of Lowery’s Georgia-based Coalition for the People’s Agenda, told The Daily Caller. that the white people comment was meant as a joke and that he doesn’t remember saying the “n” word.

Forsyth Mayor John Howard, who took part in the event, told the County Reporter that he was “pretty shocked” by Lowery’s statement.

“The Bible doesn’t say anything about white or black to go to heaven,” Howard said. “I have great number of black and white friends. I’ve been in the military. I make friends with everybody. I’m too old for enemies.”

Lowery, along with Martin Luther King, helped founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.

Obama awarded Lowery with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

U.S. Voters in Israel Voted Romney 6:1

Exit polls show voters overwhelmingly favored Republican candidate. 80,000 Americans from Israel have already submitted their ballots.

VoteIsrael, the leading organization facilitating the ability of Americans in Israel to vote in the US elections, has successfully completed its campaign to make voting from Israel more accessible to as many Americans in Israel as possible.
“iVoteIsrael is proud to announce that 80,000 Americans from Israel have already submitted their ballots to their local county board of elections in any of the 49 states where we successfully registered voters from,” commented Elie Pieprz, national director of iVoteIsrael.   “This represents an unprecedented increase in voter participation from the 20,000 or so that voted in 2008.”
Internationally, American expats typically have a 5% turnout rate. If those trends continue, the American vote from Israel will represent 20-25% of the total expat community from around the world, further solidifying proof of the unique nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, which is not limited to the diplomatic and strategic levels but also exists at the grassroots and electoral level.
“This connection demonstrates the breadth of the unique relationship between the two countries, and iVoteIsrael is proud to have played a role in illustrating this connection to the public,” commented Pieprz.
iVoteIsrael also unveiled the first authoritative exit polls of actual voters from Israel.  The poll surveyed 1,572 voters and found that:

·         President        85% voted for Romney and 14% voted Obama

·         Congress        62% voted GOP and 28% voted Democratic

·         61% of voters from Israel cited Jerusalem and "peace process" negotiations as a primary motivating factor for voting.

Swing state voters from Israel numbered roughly as follows:

·         Florida          7500

·         Ohio             3500

·         Pennsylvania          3500

IVoteIsrael calls itself "a diverse group of Americans who currently reside in Israel, from all over Israel, and all over the US. "
"We are deeply concerned about the safety, security and future of Israel," the group says. "Most importantly, we want to see a president in the White House who will support and stand by the American citizens living in Israel in absolute commitment to their safety, security and right to self-defense.

Obama Hood

Mother whose two boys were swept out of her arms in superstorm was left screaming on street for 12 hours by neighbors who refused to help her - and now police find their little bodies

Glenda Moore, 39, (pictured right on her wedding day) battled with 'all she had' but was unable to stop Connor, four, and Brandon, two, from being sucked away by a torrent which flooded her SUV. She knocked on a nearby door for help but was told: 'I don't know you. I'm not going to help you'. Mrs Moore then tried another neighbor near her Staten Island home, but when she rang the bell they turned off the lights and refused to answer.

Rabbi Blames Hurricane Sandy On Israel’s Subservient Relationship With the US

While the US East Coast is still coming to grips with the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, some people are already making jokes at the Americans' expenses.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, who is best known for trying to help Jews to become more religious, commented on the natural disaster in a lecture he delivered in the city of Ma'ale Adumim. "Here we have America, with all of its magnitude, dealing with a nice hurricane."

Imitating the sound of wind blowing, the rabbi added: "God put on a ventilator there. See how much damage and how many people have been killed, etc, etc – and that's just the first round."

He implied that the storm was a message from God against theState of Israel's dependence on the United States, and that he had a more efficient and simple answer to all its needs. "God has no problem helping his sons, but the sons must recognize their father," he explained.

"Why do we agree to follow the American's chain like a dog? So he can tie us to a tree and say, 'Now I'll let you go for a walk, now you stay here?' For $3 million?! Who tells a person, 'Give me money and I'll be your slave?' Have you ever heard of such a thing? Where is your freedom?" the rabbi rebuked the State of Israel.

'US comparable to Esau'

Yitzhak went on to argue that "no one surrenders to America today. No one. Just us. Saudi Arabia cut off ties with them, Egyptsevered ties, Syria doesn't listen to them, Iran disregards them. Ahmadi (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) goes there and calls them 'the Great Satan' and they don't stop him. South Korea laughs at them and developed nukes without asking them.

"The entire world shows contempt for the Americans, does whatever it wants, and the Americans beg for 'negotiations' and tell Ahmadi once and again that they want 'negotiations,' and only to us they keep saying, 'Well? Well? Well?'" the rabbi added.

"We are the only people that remains backward, that willingly places itself under foreign rule. Instead of a sovereign country –a colony of the United States."

According to Yitzhak, the Americans want Israel to be "devoted to them, captured by them," and that is the reason why they have prevented the Jewish state many times from developing advanced weapons – so that it depends on their military aid.

"(US President) 'Obamba' said that America's interests come before Israel's interests, until (Republican presidential candidate Mitt) Romney told him that he should be ashamed of himself."

Rabbi Yitzhak concluded by likening Israel to Jacob and the US to Esau, and lectured the Americans for not practicing restraints in their wars as they expect Israel to do.

He ruled that without US intervention, Israel could have ended its war with Iran before it even began – "on a small scale, as they say, without any noise, without any shouting, without any problem" – and stop the rocket fire on Israel's southern communities "without entering Gaza."

Haredi Rabbi Blames Hurricane Sandy On Gay Marriage, Video

New documentary showing the beauty of Judea and Samaria

(Scroll down for video) The Jews living in Judea and Samaria and other settlements are seen as heroes by many Jewish people. These settlers are there to protect the Jewish land given to them by god. The media often refers to Judea and Samaria as the West Bank, while trying to paint these settlers as violent people.

Yet this is far from the truth, with one visit to the settlements you see the peace, unity and love that exists in these settlements. One man decided to change the view of the Jews about Judea and Samaria by recording a documentary about Jewish life in a settlement.

Ezra Ridgley visited Israel for the first time 10 years ago and was deeply moved by the dedication and commitment of Jews settling in these communities.
Previously, I had seen Israel "as a nation still struggling with dealing with the Arabs and still not as modern as the West. That changed immediately after my first visit.” Ridgley said: “I started traveling through dozens of cities and towns across the country and I was pleasantly surprised at how modern and beautiful Israeli cities are. This was the Israel I was never told about.”

Ridgley decided it was crucial to let others know what was really going on in the Jewish settlements. He took many photographs, did interviews and started a website. After returning many times and having visited over 100 settlements he wrote a book: Judea and Samaria - The land of God.

The book documents the optimism of Jewish settlements and how Jews are returning to the land that was written about in the Bible. It also proves that the West Bank land belong to the Jews historically, legally, religiously and morally.

One of his objectives is to combat negative stereotypes about people living in the settlements. “I found the people to be interesting, cultured and refined, not extreme or violent, as we hear in the media," he said.

Now Ridgley has taken the many hours of video recordings and made it into a 90-minute documentary called: “The Spring of Judea and Samaria." He hopes his documentary reaches many Jews so they can become educated on the truth about Israeli settlements. They will get a firsthand look into the life of Jews in these settlements.

All proceeds will go to Bnei Chayil Yeshiva Kedumim in the Samaria region and Girls High School in

Kochov Tzvia Ya'akov of the Binyamin region. Both schools help children who are struggling with emotional and/or learning problems.

"My goal with the book and the video is to create a new awakening to the land that is central to our identity and Jewish heritage. When we can all see the clearer picture, the Jewish world will focus more attention and realize that settling in this land is essential for our future and continued existence as a people.” Ridgley said.