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Hurricane Irene revealed new cracks in the Washington Monument, which was already closed following the Virginia earthquake, the National Parks Service said. Spokeswoman Carol Johnson told CNN Wednesday Parks Service employees found standing water in the monument when they inspected it Monday. She said engineers tried to find holes following last week's 5.8 magnitude earthquake and in advance of the hurricane. "There were some leaks that we were not able to identify or able to plug," Johnson said. "What happened was a lot of mortar popped out, so much so that you can see sunlight above 450 feet in the...

Monday, August 29, 2011. 6:24 PM Toward the beginning of his radio show today, Glenn Beck responded to an effort this past Friday by the Washington Post to smear him and his Mormon faith by means of a skewed article with an even more misleading headline (“Mormon Glenn Beck: Hurricane Irene and East Coast earthquake a ‘blessing’ from God,”) As discussed in an earlier article in the Philadelphia Jewish Culture Examiner space, the Post was successful if its goal was to spread the impression that Beck really believed that last week’s natural East Coast hurricane and earthquake were themselves a...

President Obama warned Monday that the effects of Hurricane Irene will continue to be felt for some time. Obama, speaking in the Rose Garden, noted that much of New England continues to battle flooding caused by the hurricane, which left destruction from North Carolina to Maine. Much of the country is trying to “deal with the impact and aftermath” of the storm, the president said before introducing Alan Krueger, his nominee as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. “It's going to take time to recover from a storm of this magnitude,” Obama said.

A quote often (mis)attributed to German National Socialist propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” That thought process certainly appears to have been absorbed by the Washington Post. Friday’s Post blared a headline “Mormon Glenn Beck: Hurricane Irene and East Coast earthquake a ‘blessing’ from God,” connected to an article by Elizabeth Tenety in its “On Faith: A Conversation on Religion and Politics” section. Tenety’s first paragraph reads: "Not willing to be outdone by Pat Robertson, Glenn Beck recently weighed in on God’s communication by way of natural disasters, telling his...

A quote often (mis)attributed to German National Socialist propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” That thought process certainly appears to have been absorbed by the Washington Post. Friday’s Post blared a headline “Mormon Glenn Beck: Hurricane Irene and East Coast earthquake a ‘blessing’ from God,” connected to an article by Elizabeth Tenety in its “On Faith: A Conversation on Religion and Politics” section. Tenety’s first paragraph reads: "Not willing to be outdone by Pat Robertson, Glenn Beck recently weighed in on God’s communication by way of natural disasters, telling his...

The Hurricane Irene story ought to, but won't, shed light on our prejudices regarding science. The favored liberal Democratic narrative -- we've seen it trotted out against Rick Perry in the past two weeks -- goes like this: Democrats are the party of the enlightenment. They believe in science and facts. They know that Darwin was correct about the origin of species, and that human beings are responsible for potentially catastrophic global warming through production of carbon dioxide. Republicans, on the other hand, are the pre-modern party of superstition, religious explanations for natural phenomena and global warming denial. Gov. Perry...

Almost a dozen New England towns were rendered virtual islands Monday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Irene reshaped parts of Vermont and upstate New York, turning placid rivers into raging torrents and some streets into treacherous mud bogs. Hundreds of roads remained closed, dozens of bridges were gone and entire towns were cut off from assistance in the worst flooding some areas have seen in a century. A day earlier, Irene dumped up to 11 inches on parts of Vermont and more than 13 inches on some areas of New York — a deluge that quickly overwhelmed waterways,...

"I walked into the booth this morning and noticed the smell first. It was not fresh," said SRN White House correspondent Greg Clugston on Monday. "Then I realized the floor was wet." The entire White House press workspace was gutted and renovated in 2007, but the basement's tendency to flood was kept mostly intact. Subterranean-dwelling reporters after big storms often confront power strips and equipment sitting in damp puddles on the floor. It's no one's fault, really -- it's just an old building, and the GSA was prompt in addressing the latest problem. Still, the power-drying equipment set up in...

Yes the media does hype stories and weather.Everyone is sick of watching Cantore pick the wrong worst place to report in Hurricanes. I just got off of a generator with minimal things powered since Friday.I am in NC and I am just now catching up to NC/local news.People came back today to no homes whatsoever.The tobacco farmers lost they're crops to a tune of 16 milliom in losses in one county so far. The JOKER Purdue has not toured completely to asseses. There are people right now without water,electric and the temps have returned to very hot and humid.I just...

Limbaugh on hurricane hype: a ‘media desire for chaos’ Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller 42 mins ago Although it has claimed 29 lives to date and flooded countless square miles of the northeastern United States, Hurricane Irene didn’t quite live up to some breathless predictions. Was this a case of “better safe than sorry,” or media opportunism? On his Monday radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh accused the news media of building up Irene out of their “desire for chaos.” “It was a rainstorm and there was a lot of flooding and there were deaths associated with it,” Limbaugh...

"Well, I want to tell you something: Hurricane Obama -- this irene. Whatever this Irene is going to cost us, it pales in comparison that has been the Hurricane that is the Obama administration. "The Obama administration, the Hurricane has cost us far more. And Byron York, while I was gone, great story, fabulous story on the source of all this deficit spending under Obama. The $4 trillion that they're spending. Everybody's focused on entitlements and he correctly points out it's not entitlements that have busted the budget here. Entitlements are known, the spending in entitlements. "What's been added to...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of property and casualty insurers rose Monday after the damage from Hurricane Irene appeared to be less than the market had predicted. Complete clarity on loss estimates will not be known for some time, but research firms say based on weaker-than-forecast wind speeds, particularly for the New York metropolitan area, the total loss for the sector is likely less than the initially expected range, which some had been pegging as tens of billions of dollars.

Some federal money pledged to tornado-ravaged Joplin and other disaster sites is being diverted to help victims of Hurricane Irene. Bob Josephson of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday that FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund is running low. He says individual aid to victims of the May 22 tornado that destroyed about one-third of Joplin will continue, but money for long-term public repair and rebuilding projects will be used for immediate disaster relief on the East Coast.

CBS White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell said President Obama displayed his engagement to the federal government's response to Hurricane Irene by returning a day early from vacation and meeting with the head of FEMA. O'Donnell says the administration wanted to make sure no comparison to the government's handling of Katrina was made. "I think it's important to note too that the Obama administration was really determined to avoid any comparisons to the failed federal government response to Hurricane Katrina. So, President Obama made a very public display of his engagement on this issue. He returned from his vacation a day...

Damage from Irene appears to be less than feared, a bit of reassuring news for a fragile economy. Insured damage from Irene will range between $2 billion and $3 billion, and the total losses will likely be about $7 billion, according to preliminary estimates by Kinetic Analysis Corp. a consulting firm. Both figures are less than had been feared and will likely have little impact on the nation's $14 trillion economy. "Irene left several places with black eyes, but it doesn't seem to have delivered an economic knockout," said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody's Analytics. The estimates from Kinetic...

President Obama has received regular briefings about Hurricane Irene's impact. During the wet and windy weekend in Washington, senior advisors and cabinet officials have updated the president on the response and recovery effort taking place along the East Coast of the United States and in U.S. territories. Sunday morning, Obama convened a video teleconference in the White House Situation Room and plans to reconvene with his team managing the federal government's response Sunday night.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry is considering his options after the federal government denied his request for emergency aid to help the state clean up from Tropical Storm Hermine, his spokeswoman said. President Barack Obama's administration rejected Perry's Sept. 20 request for a major disaster declaration and about $6.8 million in aid for 13 counties. Last month's storm killed eight people, including seven in Texas, and destroyed nearly 200 homes statewide, according to the governor's request letter. In his letter to Obama, Perry asked for about $2.9 million in federal funds to repair public property and infrastructure in Bell, Blanco, Cameron,...

That had to have been the most succinct speech Obama ever gave. He looked like he is plenty relaxed.....I guess Janet's deep baritone is soothing to the Wuss in Chief! Guess they had to hurry to make sure they could catch the second half of the Pre-Season Pittsurgh/Atlanta football game.

(Reuters) - Hurricane Irene could cost U.S. state and local governments billions of dollars in damages, but funds from the federal government might ultimately cover much of this expense. It is too early to estimate the cost of the storm, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said New Jersey alone may have suffered tens of billions of dollars in damage.The timing is terrible for municipalities as they dig their way out of their bleakest economic period in decades after the financial crisis and recession sank budgets and forced widespread cuts in expense and increased taxes.But Maryland said the federal government...