Winds spread over eastern North Carolina as Irene nears landfall

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (CNN) -- Hurricane Irene neared coastal North Carolina late Friday and had metropolitan New York in its sights, staying on an unusual track that could bring deadly storm surge, heavy rainfall and misery to millions.





With winds near 100 mph, Irene churned toward an anticipated 7 to 8 a.m. landfall between Beaufort and Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, where a curfew was in effect.

But the massive storm -- which is shutting down hundreds of airline flights, Broadway shows and the New York subway system -- won't be content to curve away from the mainland after striking North Carolina.

Instead, a slowly weakening Irene will head for the Jersey shore, New York and southern New England, dangerous conditions in tow, forecasters said.

"We're going to see tropical storm-force winds for as much as 24 hours in some places and, in North Carolina, near and to the east of the center, they could experience hurricane force winds for as much as 10 hours," Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center told CNN.

Irene roiled the surf and blew strong gusts of rain into the Carolinas as it neared landfall.

Ernie Seneca, a North Carolina spokesman, said authorities were concerned about the "entire eastern half of the state. This hurricane could potentially impact an area that includes 20 counties and 3.5 million people."

Irene was about 235 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at 8 p.m. ET Friday, according to the hurricane center.

Hurricane warnings were in effect from Little River Inlet, North Carolina, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A hurricane warning means sustained winds of 74 mph or higher are expected within 36 hours.

President Barack Obama warned that Irene could be a "hurricane of historic proportions."

The Category 2 storm had top sustained winds of 100 mph, and it is expected to be borderline Category 1, with maximum winds of 95 mph, when it comes ashore Saturday and moves toward the Mid-Atlantic states, according to forecasters. Earlier Friday, winds were at 110 mph.

"This could still be a large and powerful storm," North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said. Evacuations were ongoing in 19 counties.

An ocean surge of up to 11 feet is possible in coastal North Carolina, tearing away beaches and probably damaging homes, businesses and other structures before sliding up the East Coast to New England, Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said.

Storm surges of 4 feet to 8 feet are possible in the Virginia Tidewater region, with 3- to 6-foot surges farther north along the New Jersey shore, Read said.

Other areas were under tropical storm warnings or watches. A tropical storm warning indicates that sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph are expected within 36 hours. A watch means such winds are possible.

New York City issued what Mayor Michael Bloomberg said was its first mandatory evacuation order, covering low-lying areas of all five of the city's boroughs. About 250,000 people are affected.

Authorities warned of widespread and prolonged power outages, flash flooding and storm surges that could flood low-lying communities and possibly inundate subway systems. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority will shut down its system at noon Saturday. Five airports in metropolitan New York will close to arriving flights beginning at noon Saturday.

New Jersey Transit will shut down at noon, and the transit system in Philadelphia will halt service at 12:30 a.m. Boston said it intends to keep its system operating. The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey closed 98 miles of southbound lanes Friday night.

The storm also was forcing cancellations of concerts, sporting events and, in New York, all the weekend's Broadway shows.

Authorities on Friday urged residents who needed to leave to do so immediately.

"The sun is shining, but don't be misled," Bloomberg said. "There is a very dangerous storm headed in our direction."

Even guests in Atlantic City's iconic casinos were being asked to go. And the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, will be quiet during one of the busiest times of the year.

Some plucky businesses were digging in. A restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, posted a message reading, "We are open until the letters fly off this sign," CNN affiliate WRAL reported.

Steve Aarthun, a resident of Wilmington, was preparing for his first hurricane. His wife, Sally, has seen three. They bought a generator, stocked up on bottled water and flashlights, and filled the bathtub with water.

"I feel the lull," Aarthun said mid-afternoon Friday. "You just have the sense it is coming."

The couple lives about a mile from the ocean and were hopeful they could avoid the storm surge.

Drew Goulde, a Kill Devil Hills resident and a maintenance worker at a hotel, was surfing, taking advantage of a higher-than-usual tide.

"It is fun," Goulde said. "I'm just messing around right now. It's kind of heavy out there, though."

Governments and private agencies launched an immense effort to prepare for the storm.

"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, shortly before cutting short his vacation to return to Washington.

The mayor of Washington declared a state of emergency. The move opens up additional resources to deal with a storm that Vincent Gray said would "bring heavy rain, flash floods and high winds to the area."

The federal government began moving tons of supplies to military bases and other staging areas.

The U.S. Navy was sending 38 ships to sea, 13% percent of the deployable battle force vessels, a U.S. Navy official said.

Tens of millions of people could be affected by the storm as it moves up the densely populated East Coast, and officials urged residents to be prepared for the worst.

In New York, Bloomberg said, "The low-lying coastal areas that will be endangered most by storm surge include Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other low-lying areas on Staten Island, Battery Park City in Manhattan, and some small sections of the Bronx."

He added, "Now, we have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing this now if we didn't think the storm had the potential to be very serious."

Amtrak, Greyhound and major U.S. airlines canceled routes and flights.

American Airlines canceled all flights in the Washington area from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, said spokesman Ed Martelle.

AirTran Airways has canceled 265 flights for Saturday through Monday, according to an airline spokeswoman. JetBlue Airways has canceled almost 900 flights in the Northeast ahead of the storm. Most of those are Sunday and Monday flights out of the New York metro area and Boston, said spokesman Mateo Lleras.

Delta Air Lines will cancel 1,300 flights from Saturday to Monday, spokesman Anthony Black said. Southwest Airlines said it is canceling scores of flights to and from the East Coast.

US Airways is planning "significant flight schedule reductions" at a number of airports, including Reagan Washington National, John F. Kennedy International and Newark International.

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Virginia earthquake rattles East Coast

Washington (CNN) -- A strong earthquake in Virginia shut down a nearby nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon and sent out seismic waves felt by millions from Georgia to northern New England. Three aftershocks were reported by Tuesday evening.


No major injuries or extensive damage were reported after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The quake prompted evacuations of office buildings and the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation's capital.

A surge in calls by cell-phone users after the event affected service in many areas, federal officials said.

Aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 2.2 were recorded later in the afternoon, followed by one of 4.2 just after 8 p.m. ET, officials said. More aftershocks are possible in the coming weeks.

"It's one of the largest that we've had there," U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said of the quake.

Most federal buildings in Washington had reopened by late Tuesday afternoon, but officials were taking all precautions before giving the all-clear to some of its most iconic structures. The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, but inspectors asked people to limit their time inside the building while engineers continue to work around the complex.

A helicopter inspected the Washington Monument, and it was found to be structurally sound, the National Park Service said.

But a secondary inspection revealed cracking in the stones at the top of the monument. Structural engineers on Wednesday will determine the best way to repair the monument before it is reopened, the agency said. The grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside the plaza.

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Earthquake shuts down Virginia nuclear plant

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck Tuesday afternoon near Washington, D.C., the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia. The quake was four miles deep, according to the USGS. Did you feel it? Send CNN an iReport.
To get complete coverage and all the latest updates, click on CNN's main story here. View a CNN Open Story about the quake. CNN Open Story combines iReports with reports from CNNers across the globe on a map and timeline.
Update 3:36 p.m. ET: Terminal A at Washington Reagan National Airport has been evacuated because of an odor of gas, airport spokeswoman Courtney Mickalonis said. Initial sweeps of the building showed no major damage from the earthquake.
Light structural damage has been reported in Culpepper and Orange counties in Virginia, said Laura Southard of the state Emergency Operations Center. She said there have been no reports of injuries in Virginia.
Update 3:28 p.m. ET: The White House and adjacent buildings evacuated as a precaution following the earthquake have been given the all-clear, the U.S. Secret Service said. The FBI and Justice Department have also reopened evacuated buildings.
Update 3:25 p.m. ET: East Coast residents should be prepared to feel aftershocks from Tuesday's earthquake, a U.S. Geological Survey official said.
Update 3:22 p.m. ET: The North Anna nuclear power plant, located 20 miles from the epicenter, is shut down and in a safe condition, a company official and the Louisa County public information office report. There has been no release of nuclear material, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said.
Update 3:04 p.m. ET: All national monuments and parks in Washington are "stable but closed" following Tuesday's earthquake, a United States Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said. A couple of minor injuries and some minor structural damage have been reported in Washington, following Tuesday's earthquake, according to Schlosser.
Part of the central tower of the National Cathedral, the highest point in Washington, was damaged, according to spokesman Richard Weinberg. "It looks like three of the pinnacles have broken off the central tower," Weinberg told CNN.
Update 3:02 p.m. ET: Amtrak is reporting service disruptions between Washington and Baltimore because of the earthquake, the company reported on Twitter.
Aftershocks are a concern, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told CNN. "People should be expecting (them), especially over the next hour or two," she said.
The quake was felt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. It's unknown if the president felt the quake.
The Pentagon has been evacuated, CNN's Barbara Starr reports. "When the building began shaking rather violently, hundreds of people began streaming out," she said, because many people thought that the building was under attack. Starr was standing in the Pentagon's press office when the roof started to shake.
Cell phone service has been disrupted in New York City, CNN learned within minutes of the quake.

Updated 2:47 p.m. ET: A "considerable amount" of water from a water pipe has flooded two corridors of the Pentagon, according to an announcement in the building. People who work in those areas are being asked to stay in their offices while workers try to repair the damage.
The National Cathedral in Washington is damaged, CNN has confirmed.
And Dominion Generation, which operates the North Anna nuclear power station in central Virginia a few miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, is trying to reach operational staff at the plant, according to a company spokesman. Landlines to the plant appear to be down.
Shortly after the quake struck, traders in the New York Stock Exchange also felt the quake and shouted to each other, "Keep trading!" CNN's business correspondent Alison Kosik reported from the floor at 2:20 p.m. E.T.
Twitter traffic suggests the quake was felt all over the East Coast.
In Philadelphia, HunterPence3 tweeted, "Wow Earthquake just shook the entire locker room!"
In Cleveland, "tribeinsider" wrote "I'm no expert but i think we just had an earthquake here."
And even in Toronto, Canada, tweets said that the shaking could be felt for minutes.
Pete Krech, who works at a business in Fredericksburg, Virginia, likened the sensation to being on a jolting amusement ride. "I was receiving a supply truck," said Krech, store manager at Mattress Warehouse of Fredericksburg, south of Washington. "I felt a vibration under my feet."
Brendan Wein, a sales representative at Hoffman Nursery in Roxboro, North Carolina, said he thought there was a helicopter flying above his work building.  "I was literally shaking in my chair," he said.
CNN iReporter Jeff Yapalater said he was in his backyard in New York's Long Island when the earthquake hit. "Suddenly I felt this light swaying of the Earth. I'd never felt that before, so I thought maybe I was experiencing vertigo for a moment, and it lasted maybe 30 seconds ... We're feeling this really far away!" he wrote.

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Libya: Is Gadhafi's loss Obama's gain?

Moammar Gadhafi's fall
may be a victory for President Obama,
but it may not mean much to voters
amid a sour economy.

Tune in to "AC360º" at 8 ET for live reports from CNN reporters on the ground in Libya, as rebels battle Moammar Gadhafi loyalists for control of Tripoli.


Washington (CNN) -- Roughly six months after President Barack Obama called on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step down from power, it appears change has come to Tripoli. Four decades of iron-fisted rule are coming to an end.

So does this make you more or less likely to vote for Obama next year?

As the U.S. presidential campaign begins in earnest, that question is not far from the minds of top Democrats and Republicans. But for now it is questionable whether success in North Africa -- assuming the NATO-led mission is ultimately viewed as a success -- will matter much in economically stressed middle America, many analysts say.

Analysts are also unsure what, if any, impact Gadhafi's fall will have on Obama's stature and reputation overseas.

U.S. voters so far appear to have given little thought to the war in Libya. Sixty percent of Americans cited the economy as their No. 1 concern in an August 5-7 CNN/ORC International Poll. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya were the top concern of a mere 5% of Americans -- a figure barely outside the poll's 3% margin of error.

Translation: Who's up or who's down in Tripoli may not matter to someone who can't find a job in Dayton, Ohio.

To the extent that war-weary Americans have been paying attention, they haven't been terribly supportive of the U.S. role in NATO's air campaign. Only 35% of Americans supported U.S. military action in Libya in a July 18-20 CNN/ORC survey, while 60% opposed any American military intervention there.

There's also little evidence that other recent foreign policy successes worked to Obama's advantage.

"After Osama bin Laden's death (in May), Obama's approval rating didn't rise at all in some polls," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "In others, it rose and then dropped back down the previous levels."

"We can't predict whether events in Libya will boost Obama's poll numbers," Holland said. "But if bin Laden's death did not lead to a permanent gain, it seems unlikely that removing Gadhafi from power will have a long-term effect on Obama's approval rating."

Politically speaking, is there any upside for the president?

"At the least, the situation in Libya should soften criticism last week by Republicans for the president being on vacation," said Paul Steinhauser, CNN deputy political director. "Obama's handling of the fighting in Tripoli is more ammunition for the White House that the president's stay in Martha's Vineyard is truly a 'working vacation.' And Gadhafi's ouster will also make it harder for the GOP presidential candidates to criticize Obama over his foreign policy."

Analysts also note that while the economy appears to be foremost on voters' minds today, 15 months is a lifetime in politics. It's not easy to predict where the country will be in November 2012.

Next year, "Obama will likely have two big achievements to brag about," Holland said, referring to bin Laden's death and Gadhafi's ouster. "That may not be of much help if the economy is still the No. 1 issue, but even if that is still the case, it's likely that at least one presidential debate will focus on foreign policy. And who knows if events between now and next November might make foreign affairs into a big worry for a significant number of voters."

Holland argued that "in the long run, (success in Libya) may not make voters feel better about Obama on the issues, but it may make them feel better about Obama personally."

"Americans seem to like Obama himself more than they like his stands on the issues," Holland said. "That helped him in 2008 and it may be his ace in the hole in 2012."

Adam Sheingate, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist, told CNN there is a "limited upside" at best for Obama in Libya. There are, however, potential risks to the president's popularity if a post-Gadhafi Libya becomes unstable, he said.

In terms of governance, however, Obama's ability to help NATO prosecute the air war in Libya is a clear victory for the executive branch in its post-Vietnam struggle with Congress for control of U.S. foreign policy, Sheingate said. Despite the war's relative unpopularity in the United States, a sharply divided Congress proved unable to speak with one voice on the conflict, much less impose any sort of constraint on the president's power.

Ultimately, Obama was largely constrained only by his own pledge not to commit any U.S. ground troops to the conflict.

"As far as the institutional question, there are very few limits on presidential war powers," Sheingate said. "Presidents can deploy forces pretty much at will ... and (generally only) seek congressional backing for the use of force for political reasons, not constitutional ones."

Outside the United States, it is unclear whether the developments in Libya will do much to bolster's Obama reputation.

"Obama should get credit for making the call" and backing a NATO intervention, said Michael Rubin, a Middle East analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.

But "I don't think it's going to make much difference" in terms of the president's or America's standing in other parts of the world, Rubin predicted. "Europeans are going to look differently on Libya a month from now once migrants start flooding across the Mediterranean."

"Also, if you thought Iraq's reconstruction was hard, at least Iraq had a structure on which to build a new government," Rubin said. "Gadhafi got rid of Libya's structure 38 years ago."

It's "ironic that Obama the Nobel peace laureate now attaches his legacy to war," Rubin said. But his stature "for better or for worse is defined by the global economy."

Middle East expert Shadi Hamid argued that to the extent leaders in Britain and France took the lead in NATO's air campaign, they are more likely to reap the political benefit of any successful outcome.

In many ways, Gadhafi's fall is "a vindication of Obama's decision to take military action. He can say the mission was a success," said Hamid, research director at the Brookings Institute's Doha Center, which focuses on Middle East politics. The Brookings Institute is a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

But "I don't think it's a very big boost" for Obama, Hamid told CNN. The United States "took a back seat and preferred to let others lead," he said, highlighting Europe's role in providing military training for the rebels.

A perception has taken hold, particularly in the Middle East, that Obama is an "overly cautious, weak leader who wants to split the middle (and) never takes it all the way," Hamid said. "Libya fits into that narrative of weak leadership."

"Whether that's fair is a different issue," Hamid said. "But you can certainly argue that those sentiments have taken hold."

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Russians Pine for Old Soviet Union - US

At NYT, "20 Years After Soviet Fall, Some Look Back Longingly."



The article notes that "Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, called the fall of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”."





That's a wistfulness for great power status tempered by some Great Russian Nationalism. I doubt too many Russians are all that nostalgic for communism. Stability and economic security in general mean more that the stale old Soviet ideology.



Recall as well that Foreign Policy had that big 20 year retrospective on the fall of the Soviet Union, "Revolution Road." It's worth a look.

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NewsBusted: 'Obama campaign will try to destroy Romney's character during campaign' - US

Via Theo Spark:

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Northrop Grumman Bails Out of Los Angeles, Ending Headquartered Relationship Dating From 1939 - US

At Los Angeles Times, "Northrop execs bail out of L.A., but the firm is still grounded in the region":

Northrop Grumman Corp., the last big-name aerospace company headquartered in Southern California, is headed out of town this week.



The nation's second-largest military contractor, founded in 1939 by visionary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, is officially moving its main office to Falls Church, Va., on Monday. It is a milestone for the corporation that along the way absorbed big names like TRW Inc., Litton Industries Inc., Westinghouse Electronic Systems and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical.



Today, the company is an industry giant with about $35 billion in annual sales, building such things as sophisticated satellites, high-flying spy drones and the ghostly B-2 stealth bomber. While 300 members of its corporate staff departs, it still will have about 30,000 jobs in the Southland and remain one of the region's largest private employers.





The company joins an exodus of military companies — including Lockheed Martin Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. — that have abandoned the Southland since the mid-1990s in favor of headquarters nestled nearer to decision makers in Washington.



"This is an important move for the company, and it's one that we believe will improve the effectiveness in serving the nation and our customers," said Northrop Chief Executive Wesley G. Bush in announcing the decision to move the company back in January 2010. "The proximity to Washington enables us to be a more integrated part of the federal process."

More at that top link.

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College Rape Accusations and the Presumption of Male Guilt - US

Oh boy, Peter Berkowitz is opening it up with this one, at Wall Street Journal, "Pressured by the Obama administration, universities abandon any pretense of due process in sexual assault cases":

Late August and early September bring recent high school graduates, bright and eager, to campuses around the country. Carefully planned orientation sessions will impress upon freshmen the paramount importance of sensitivity, of avoiding offensive words and ideas, and—notwithstanding that in recent years approximately 55% of matriculating freshmen nationally have been female—the urgency of maintaining a campus atmosphere friendly to women.



But parents who might expect this orientation to include an introduction to the moral and political purposes of liberal education—including respect for liberty of thought and discussion, and due process of law—will be sorely disappointed.



The neglect at freshmen orientation of the aim of liberal education and how it undergirds and is undergirded by the principles of freedom is not an accident. It is emblematic of college as a whole. Our universities impair liberal education not only by what they teach and do not teach in classrooms but also by the illiberal rules they promulgate to regulate speech and conduct outside of class.



The Obama administration has aggravated the problem. On April 4, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali, head of the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), distributed a 19-page "Dear Colleague" letter to "provide recipients with information to assist them in meeting their obligations."



At the cost of losing federal funding—on which all major institutions of higher education have grown dependent—colleges and universities are obliged under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex) to thoroughly investigate all allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus, including the felony of rape. They are also obliged, according to Ms. Ali, to curtail due process rights of the accused.

Keep reading.



And following the discussion takes you right to the neo-Marxist legal and educational "reforms" of the last couple of decades, those instituting a sexual harassment regime of radical feminist ideological totalitarianism. And that's what today's "liberal" education is really all about. Isn't that sick?

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Robert Stacy McCain: Final Thoughts on Ames Straw Poll Politics - US

That was one hella journalistic trek. See: "Fear and Loathing in the Airport Lounge: The Final Wisdom of My Iowa Journey."

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Governor Rick Perry Throws His Ten-Gallon Hat in the Ring - US

Some folks have criticized Rick Perry's timing , but I'd say it's one heckuva campaign launch (and so does Nikki Haley). Perry seems both amicable and capable, and the record of job creation in Texas would be a huge asset against Obama in the general election. But that's about all I know, so more on Perry later. A interest group sent me the YouTube below, FWIW, "Keep Conservatives United Aiming To Even Playing Field For Bachmann."



And at New York Times, "Promising Better Direction, Perry Enters Race," and "Money No Obstacle as Perry Joins G.O.P. Race."

source:americanpowerblog

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Ann Althouse Attacked at Wisconsin Capitol Singalong - US

This is generating some interesting discussion: "Attack on Althouse at the Wisconsin Capitol singalong" (found at Memeorandum).

Plus, Althouse gets picked up at Breitbart TV, and from the comments there:

As they keep doing this kind of behavior on a near daily basis now, they do not realize that America has grown tired of this and their patience will eventually wear thin. Because the left is losing power and their true agenda is now exposed in the light of day for the Communist agenda that it is, they are desperate to achieve that ever elusive and imaginary Utopia their leader has promised. When in reality, all they accomplish by doing this is to unite the opposers to Obama's agenda even more.



Not to mention the fact that some day, probably soon, they will pick on the wrong person and find out what it feels like to have your ass beat, and good.

Well, yeah. All in self-defense, of course.

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Butter Cow - US

Robert Stacy McCain's really enjoying himself! "The Butter Cow Is SEXY!

More from ABC News:

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