If you are in a “mail in ballot” only state, you have time to get those ballots dropped off. If you are in a state that requires you to physically go in an vote start making those arrangements if you haven’t already.

Don’t think for one minute that your vote doesn’t matter…it does.

My grandson writing notes to soldiers

It’s that time of the year again!! And this is the third year I’ve been involved helping to promote the Holiday Mail For Heroes program sponsored by The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes. Every year I sit down with my grandson (now 7) and write notes and sign Holiday cards for our soldiers who are deployed or recovering in hospitals like Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I have read many accounts of how this simple act has made such an impact on the lives of those who chose to give so much.

Please take a moment to say thanks.

The program started September 3rd and all cards must be postmarked buy December 10, 2010 so we need to get on this! Do it today!

The 2010 Holiday Mail for Heroes P.O. Box is now open! Please send cards to the address below. Remember they must be postmarked by December 10, 2010.

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes needs your help to make this year’s program the best yet. As you start your card-making activities, don’t forget to follow these important tips!

Do…

Include your heartfelt sentiments and sign all cards
Entitle cards with generic terms such as “Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran”
Limit cards to 15 per person or 50 for school class or business group
Bundle groups of cards in single, large envelopes

Don’t…

Send letters, care packages or monetary gifts
Include personal information such as home or email addresses
Use glitter – excessive amounts can aggravate health issues of wounded recipients
Include inserts of any kind as they must be removed in the screening process

Amy Grant’s holiday card design

This year, we are thrilled to welcome back celebrity cabinet member Amy Grant. Amy will once again be joining us for our special kick-off and card signing event on November 11th, Veteran’s Day.

Amy and several other celebrity cabinet members also collaborated with us this year to create custom holiday cards that you can purchase (a $25 donation to our Service to the Armed Forces) and send to the Holiday Mail mailbox as well as to your friends and family. Check out designs from Dr. Phil, Miley Cyrus, and Jane Seymour!

You can also contribute more than just cards. Our holiday gift catalog lists several different contributions you can make to provide much-needed items for service members, such as phone cards and “comfort kits”.

You can get more information at The American Red Cross Blog

Let’s get this done!!

The flight left Los Angeles International Airport about 20 minutes late. As it neared New York, John F. Kennedy Airport was experiencing dangerously strong winds of 60 mph or more and the plane was forced to divert to Stewart International Airport, about 70 miles northwest of the city.

The plane stayed on the tarmac at Stewart for more than six hours as the pilot and crew monitored the weather and seemed to promise a nearing departure again and again – and the passengers grew increasingly frustrated. (click HERE for original article)

I have traveled thousands and thousands of miles and have been stuck on the tarmac, diverted to other airports, delayed in airports…you name it. If you travel, it’s only a matter of time before something happens to delay you. Are you prepared for that? Would you be able to endure a “stranded on the tarmac for hours” nightmare? No food, no water, antsy passengers.

Whether I am traveling alone, or with my grandson or husband I ALWAYS pack non-perishable snacks in a carry-on backpack. As soon as I get on the other side of security, I buy a bottle of water for each person I am traveling with. That person keeps it in their backpack. You can also take an empty water bottle and fill it somewhere at the airport.

If you have special medication or medical needs, plan on at least a six hour flight delay. Take extra medications and food. If you have small children, plan on a six hour flight delay and make sure you have enough diapers, wet wipes, formula, water, food, medications and entertainment. Will you need any personal hygiene or feminine protection items if you are delayed?

Keep your cell phone and laptop charged.

Always carry some cash on you. At least $20 in small bills should do the trick.

Again…DO NOT put these items in your checked baggage. That will do you no good while you are stranded in an airport or on the tarmac.

Evaluate your individual needs and plan for that.

SAFETY NOTE: Normally sane people can behave totally insane when they are in a stressful situation. There are reports of people on this flight panicking, and taking rationed food that was not theirs. Pay attention to what is going on around you. Assess your situation. And if there is a food shortage I recommend you not broadcast that you had the foresight to plan ahead and are fully stocked with food and water. If you need to eat, you may want to go to the bathroom and eat something quickly.

By Bruce Shipkowski, Associated Press

A tree that crashed through the side of a home in Wantagh, N.Y., lies across cars in a driveway Sunday, March 14, 2010. Strong winds and heavy rain downed trees and power lines throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut on Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. (AP Photo/Chris Corradino)

EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J. – A torrential rainstorm that brought heavy winds to the Northeast, downing trees, flooding roadways and knocking out power, continued to pour rain on New England on Monday. (click HERE for video)

At least nine people died in storm-related accidents, and nearly half a million people were without electricity in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut at the peak of the storm.

The ferocious storm led to near-record numbers of 911 calls in New York. New York City experienced the second-highest volume of 911 calls ever. It got 65,000 calls between 11 p.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Saturday, second only to the 96,000 calls made during the 2003 blackout.

While the rain tapered off south of New York on Monday morning, wind-whipped precipitation continued to fall in New England.

In Boston, workers threw up sand bags around the entrance to a subway station near Fenway Park on Monday morning as the Muddy River rose and threatened the station. The Massachusetts Port Authority said the weather was causing some delays and cancellations at Logan International Airport and several low-lying roads and highway ramps in Massachusetts were closed.

There also were numerous road closures in southeastern New Hampshire due to flooding.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency, which would allow National Guard troops to be called up if needed. In signing the declaration Sunday night, Christie said he wants to ensure local and county resources are supplemented if needed.

Schools were closed in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York on Monday.

Utility crews were making headway in restoring power. In New Jersey, more than 100,000 customers were without service Monday, down from a peak of 235,000. In Connecticut, two major utility companies said more than 57,000 customers were still without power, down from a peak of about 80,000.

The storm, which carried wind gusts of up to 70 mph, came about two weeks after heavy snow and hurricane-force winds left more than 1 million customers in the Northeast in the dark.

“I spent most of the past few months clearing snow and ice out my driveway, sidewalks, front walks, and now we’re picking up all these branches,” Jack Alexander said Sunday as he and his family worked to clear debris from the front yard of their Egg Harbor City home. “It seems like we’ve had every type of weather event you could have this winter — I’m almost afraid to see what else can happen.”

In Atlantic City, N.J., residents in a condominium complex and two apartment buildings were ordered to leave their homes Saturday after a crane snapped and twisted at the Revel Entertainment casino construction site, sending debris crashing through a window of a police cruiser. No one was hurt. The residents may not be able to return until Tuesday.

Hundreds of people remained out of their homes in the northern New Jersey community of Bound Brook, where flooding is common.

Among those in a shelter were the Malik family, including eldest son Norbert, who celebrated his ninth birthday Sunday. His mom said he had cried Saturday night because he was worried the storm would ruin his celebration. Instead, he said it was the best birthday he ever had.

“I got to ride in a police boat, and then a truck and a small bus,” said Norbert.

Falling trees proved to be a deadly hazard.

A New Jersey woman was killed and three others were injured in Westport, Conn., after a tree fell on a car Saturday night during the storm, police said. Another woman died when a tree struck her as she was walking in Greenwich, Conn., they said.

In the suburb of Teaneck, N.J., two neighbors were killed by a falling tree as they headed home from a prayer service at a synagogue. In Hartsdale, N.Y., another suburb, a man was killed when a large tree crushed the roof of his car and entangled it in live wires.

A 73-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree while walking to her car in Bay Shore, N.Y. Three people tried to save the Brooklyn woman.

In New Hampshire, a large pine tree fell on a car traveling on Interstate 93 on Sunday afternoon, killing a man and injuring his wife and child, state police said.

In Lyme, Conn., a 75-year-old man drowned accidentally Sunday afternoon in a pond behind his home. And in Rhode Island, an off-duty state trooper died early Sunday after his car hydroplaned in standing water left from the storm, state police said. (click HERE for original article)

With the first spring storms of the season sweeping through the US, officials from local Emergency Management offices want to make sure residents were prepared.

Spring time weather was unpredictable, and could turn wicked in an instant. It is best to get a basic emergency kit ready before you’ve heard the sirens or see flashes of lightning in the sky, .

In that kit, you should have a flashlight with extra batteries, battery powered weather radio, a three day supply of bottled water, that’s one gallon per person, per day, and canned food with a manual can opener.

Know where the circuit breakers are in your house. If you have an emergency plan review it with your family. Make sure you have a radio with extra batteries set aside.

For those who need medications, they should keep a 3-day supply handy. Also be prepared with supplies for people with special needs, some basic tools, and a fully charged cell phone.

If rain flooded your streets, make sure your kids are not playing around drainage ditches or flood waters, where they can be swept away.

Be aware of your environment. If you’re outside and it doesn’t look right, best thing to do is get to a media outlet, listen, and trust your instincts.

If you hear thunder, lightning is sure to follow. Officials say you are are safest inside your home, during a lightning storm. Do not take a bath or shower. Water and copper tubing are excellent conductors of electricity.

If you’re outside, you are safest inside your car.

We have compiled a lot of info to help you get your 72-Hour Kits together for your family. Click HERE for that page.

The beta agonist ractopamine, a repartitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, was recruited for livestock use when researchers found the drug, used in asthma, made mice more muscular.

Ractopamine is started as the animal nears slaughter.

How does a drug marked, “Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask” become “safe” in human food? With no washout period?

The drug is banned in Europe, Taiwan and China, and more than 1,700 people have been “poisoned” from eating pigs fed the drug since 1998, but ractopamine is used in 45 percent of U.S. pigs and 30 percent of ration-fed cattle.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Ractopamine, aka Paylean and Optaflexx, is banned in 160 countries, including Europe, Taiwan and China. If imported meat is found to contain traces of the drug, it is turned away, while fines and imprisonment result for its use in banned countries.

Yet, in the United States 45 percent of pigs, 30 percent of ration-fed cattle, and an unknown percentage of turkeys are pumped full of this drug in the days leading up to slaughter.

Why?

This drug, manufactured by Elanco Animal Health, increases protein synthesis. In other words, it makes animals more muscular … and this increases food growers’ bottom line.

Adding insult to injury, up to 20 percent of ractopamine remains in the meat you buy from the supermarket, according to veterinarian Michael W. Fox. Yet this drug is marked “Not for use in humans,” and is known to increase death and disability in livestock.

Why is Ractopamine Allowed in U.S. Meat?

While other drugs require a clearance period of around two weeks to help ensure the compounds are flushed from the meat prior to slaughter (and therefore reduce residues leftover for human consumption), there is no clearance period for ractopamine.

In fact, food growers intentionally use the drug in the last days before slaughter in order to increase its effectiveness.

“How does a drug marked, “Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask” become “safe” in human food? With no washout period?” asks columnist Martha Rosenberg.

She answers:

“The same way Elanco’s other two blockbusters, Stilbosol (diethylstilbestrol or DES), now withdrawn, and Posilac or bovine growth hormone (rBST), bought from Monsanto in 2008, became part of the nation’s food supply: shameless corporate lobbying.

A third of meetings on the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s public calendar in January 2009 were with Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly — or about ractopamine.”

Massive Industry Lobbying Gets Agribusiness What it Wants … at Your Expense

Industrial agriculture lobbyists wield incredible power in Congress, and the fact that ractopamine is in U.S. meat is a shining testimony to this.

Time magazine put it quite well when they described current farm policy as “a welfare program for the megafarms that use the most fuel, water and pesticides; emit the most greenhouse gases; grow the most fattening crops; hire the most illegals; and depopulate rural America.”

There are too many conflicts of interest to name, but, for example, you may be surprised to learn that former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is now the Secretary of Agriculture, an appointment that took place despite massive public outcry.

What was needed for an effective Secretary of Agriculture was someone who would develop and implement a plan that promotes family-scale farming and a safe and nutritious food system with a sustainable and organic vision.

What we got was yet another politician who’s already made room in his bed for the industry lobby. Overall, Vilsack’s record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or factory farms (the ones that use chemicals like ractopamine) and promoting animal cloning.

Cozy Connections Allowed rbGH Hormones in Your Dairy Products, Too

Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is now the senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Who is Michael Taylor?

He is the person who not only “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods, but also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST).

This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:

“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”

Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free!

In a similar vain, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine’s Office of Surveillance and Compliance sent a 14-page warning letter to Elanco regarding ractopamine three years after its approval for use in pigs. They accused the company of withholding information about “safety and effectiveness” and “adverse animal drug experiences.”

Nonetheless, the next year the FDA decided to approved ractopamine for use in cattle, too, and later for turkeys as well.

What Should You do if You Don’t Want Drugs and Chemicals in Your Food?

As the U.S. agriculture industry now stands, antibiotics, pesticides, GM ingredients, hormones and countless other drugs are fair game in your food. So if you purchase your food from a typical supermarket, you are taking your chances that your food is teeming with chemicals and drugs — even those that have been banned in other countries.

So please do your health a favor and support the small family farms in your area. You’ll receive nutritious food from a source that you can trust, and you’ll be supporting the honest work of a real family farm.

It all boils down to this: if you want to optimize your health, you must return to the basics of healthy food choices. Put your focus on WHOLE foods — foods that have not been processed or altered from their original state — food that has been grown or raised as nature intended, without the use of chemical additives, drugs, hormones, pesticides and fertilizers.

It’s as simple as that!

It is not nearly as daunting a task as it may seem to find a local farmer that can supply your family with healthy, humanely raised animal products and produce. At LocalHarvest.org, for instance, you can enter your zip code and find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, all with the click of a button.

Once you make the switch from supermarket to local farmer, the choice will seem natural, and you can have peace of mind that the food you’re feeding your family is safe. (click HERE for original article)

I call my emergency food supplies, my food saving account. You just never know. And the way these politicians are jacking us around it could be sooner than later!!

I hope to be posting here more frequently. If you want to see what’s taking up the majority of my time head on over to MsSparky.com and take a look at the progress we have made against corporate corruption in the Defense contracting industry.

If anyone has any storage ideas for my new shop….let me know.

Deb

This is an unpaid unsolicited product review for the Evacsak.

I have always had pets and I have always tried to have a plan for them in the event I needed to evacuate. I even had a “Grab & Go” kit for our pet guinea pig Honey. You know that animal lovers do not want to leave their beloved pets behind. Normally they are faced with two choices. 1. Stay with their pet, which could very well endanger their life or 2. Leave their pet behind and be subjected to enormous guilt and worry.

I recently ran across this amazing product, the Evacsak. You say…..”What do I need that for? I have a pet carrier.” But…do you know where it is? Is it put together and readily available? Could you get to it if you had to “Grab & Go”? With the over the soldier strap the Evacsak leaves both hand free for you to take care of your children or carry other items.

The Evacsak comes on two sizes and is designed for cats, small dogs, smaller reptiles and birds.

The Evacsak is recommended by the Used and Recommended by Humane Societies and Animal Rescue Organizations since 1992.

Don’t wait. Don’t our best friends deserved the same considerations as our other family members. I am going to get my Evacsak ASAP.

DON’T GET CAUGHT UNPREPARED!!!!

Make sure you have what your need it your home and in your vehicle. Check the tabs above!