HOW'M I DOING?

Mayor Ed Koch was famous for walking around the city of New York asking anyone he could stop, "How'm I doing?"

He usually received favorable reviews but occasionally got a more typical New Yorker to tell him a thing or two.

Nobody ever asks that question anymore but after, or rather while the disaster that is Super Storm Sandy still has so many of us in the cold and dark I decided to grade a bunch of people and groups intimately involved in the aftermath.

Let me know what you think.

LIPA:

With full knowledge of an approaching Super Storm the CEO of this now British owned former American utility I like to call LIPASUCTION did nothing to prepare for it.  In fact he even had the nerve to say that LIPA was, "Grossly undermanned" at the time of the storm.

Power outages started Monday night but the storm did not abate enough for clean-up until Wednesday.

But instead of calling in for extra crews many LIPA workers bickered with local tree removal services to determine jurisdiction.

Did someone say, While Rome burned?

Over a half a million customers or maybe 2 million humans were still in the dark for the weekend.  And a cold weekend it was with temperatures dipping below freezing.

All this from a utility company that charges the highest rates in the nation!

I wonder if that CEO had power in his home?

LIPA - GRADE F

Con Ed:

Far more damage was done to the Con Ed infrastructure than its inept cousin on Long Island.  Tunnels and relay stations were flooded under record amounts of water yet that company was able to repair and restart power much faster.

Con Ed will still come under scrutiny for pre-storm preparedness but should not be punished for the effort and results.

CON ED - GRADE C+

AT&T:

Home phone service was of course at the mercy of the power companies but Cell Phones were another story.  Some texts were getting through while most were not.  And if you were silly enough to try to call someone during the furst day or two you were treated to an "Emergency calls only" message.  After a week cell service is still spotty.

But to their credit they did send all customers a text of apology and kept us informed as to progress or the lack thereof.  Something the CEO of that foreign company fron Great Britain never even thought of doing.

AT&T - GRADE C+

Gas Stations:

This group gets a mixed grade.  While many tried to do their est during a tough situation others saw an opportunity to make a fast buck.  At several stations I observed the price jump 30 to 40¢ in one day while lines were as long as half a mile.  I understand that we have a supply and demand economy but gouging is gouging and these criminals should suffer some proper pump pain from the authorities when the smoke clears.  Anyone affected please keep records and let the public know when the power returns.

GAS STATIONS: A FOR THOSE WHO CONTINUED AS USUAL - F FOR THE GOUGERS

State & Local Officials:

These slap happy back slapping phonies spent so much time praising one another at every news conference concerning the storm I nearly threw up! And after telling the public what a great job Joe Blow did and getting the praise right back all they really did was pander and threaten the utility companies with future scrutiny and fines if they don't get the job done.

I realize they could not do everything but I would have rather had them work behind the scenes to get the power companies working and have their subordinates relay any messages of progress to the public.

STATE & LOCAL OFFICIALS - GRADE C-

President Obama:

He seems to have done what he could and exerted pressure where it needed to exerted to make sure we did not have another "Heck of a job Brownie" type situation.  He even received praise from that big New Jersey body in the Governor's office.  I forget his name but I think hje was on the "Sopranos" at some point in the past.

PRESIDENT OBAMA - GRADE A

Romney and his Party:

Using the disaster to vilify the President for a supposed poor response and then asking common folk to open their pockets to help disaster victims because "It's the private sector that must help out their neighbors" he once again shows his hand. This is the man who wants to privatize FEMA and make the States pay for their own clean up.  I wonder what the Governor of Jersey thinks about that.

Of course the useless flip flopping anti-human corporate hack could not do anything to help with the clean up and repair of the north east anyway so I cannot completely fail the jackass.

ROMNEY & HIS PARTY - GRADE D

Fox News:

Seizing on every aspect of the disaster this filth ridden phony news service blamed everything that went wrong during the storm on President Obama.  This sad bunch of American terrorists is, however the only voice listened to by many under educated Americans who believe the Kenyan high school drop-out living in the White House should be deported.

FOX NEWS - F--

Mayor Mike:

Billionaire Bloomberg possibly fearing a failing grade from yours truly finally came to his senses and called off the NYC Marathon a day before it was set to take place.

Having runners jog by devastated neighborhoods with homeless hungry cold New Yorkers was probably not the picture he wanted seen by the world.

And taking Police and generators away from the recovery effort would have been a brainless thing to do as well.

But the Mayor has been visible and on top of the clean-up effort in the city and for that and not claiming he was the greatest as did some silly 9-11 guy a while back gives him a boost in my rating system.

MAYOR MIKE - GRADE B-

Governor Cuomo:

Promising to go after the inept LIPA and their board members after the blackouts are repaired is mere pandering and typical of every politician since time began. But the jury is still out as to whether or not he will do as he promises and perhaps place these criminally negligent morons in jail - preferably on the Green Mile.

GOVERNOR CUOMO - GRADE C+ (Reviewable)

Firemen, Cops, First Responders:

Constantly running against the tide and into harms way to protect and serve and search and rescue these true heroes do a job that boggles the mind. Surely they deserve salaries higher than any idiot useless third baseman for a baseball team!

FIREMEN - COPS - FIRST RESPONDERS - GRADE A++

MTA & LIRR:

Irealize the scope of the disaster made service impossible but once it started and they were able to get one line up and running I wish they had placed more than one train per hour into the city. It would have given many more people a feeling of progress and hope and kept many more off the roads so the inept utility companies could have done more work.

Still they did get service up faster than I thought they would and for that I thank them.

MTA & LIRR - GRADE B-

Regular New Yorkers and others:

I salute all of the volunteers and regular folk who came to the aid of their neighbors.  Anyone who helped someone else is a hero in my estimation.

REGULAR FOLK - GRADE A

And Finally:

Whoever invented Daylight Savings:

Just what we needed - an extra hour to sit in the cold and dark while the power never cam back in the North East!

Thanks guys!!

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS INVENTOR - GRADE F