China: CaribPundit rides again!

CaribPundit is back up and running again. For the time being, we've lost our database files, but I'll settle for that (reluctantly) as long as the blog is operable. I'll worry about the DB later.

Visit us over at http://carib.us.

CaribPundit on our own domain again!

We're back in the saddle again at our own domain, CaribPundit. HTTP://CARIB.US.

So far, there's not much cuz I just got the site up. I'll have to fiddle with the database once again; who knows, maybe this time I'll get it to upload. Hey, y' never know!

Looking forward to seeing all my rowdy friends again.

I'm off to a meeting. Later.

China: Bad words

How many bad words can a person avoid saying? If anybody has a count, I want to know. You see, this weekend has been an exercise in self-restraint in trying to get CaribPundit up on its new server.

As if that weren't enough, I've not heard from fellow blogger, RTFM, in days. As you all know, he was carrying the weight of CaribPundit whilst I tried to get my online ducks in a row here in Nanning, China. Oooh, the stories I could tell, and I will, cuz it ain't easy.

But I digress. Since last week, just before Jeanne struck the USVI, RTFM went off the air, and I've not heard from him since. I've not been able to get much if any news cuz I'm on a nasty, slow and expensive connection here. Please join me in praying that RTFM is all right, and that he, his family, and his country came through the storm just fine.

It's now a little after 1AM, and I have to be up at 6AM for an early class. Tomorrow is a heavy schedule. Night and God bless.

China: Getting my butt kicked!

I'm getting my butt kicked restoring the site's database. It's now Saturday evening. I started Friday night and worked until Saturday 7AM, when the lights went out. We had no power all day until a few minutes ago. Fourth world stuff.

Is there anybody out there who has a clue about MySQL DBs? I'm well nigh clueless but valiantly trying. Here's what I'm doing. I've loaded up the backup file to the server. I'm in phpMyAdmin doing a Choose File at the SQL line. Once 'Go' is clicked, that is supposed to reload the database. Theoretically. Somebody must've beaten me with a dumb stick cuz I sure ain't getting it right.

I'm also posting blind to the Blogspot site. Yep, that's how it is. You can post, but you can't see the thing. Fifth world stuff.

Meantime, The Bronzegod, he who has made the new spacious CaribPundit digs possible, is wondering what's up. Bronzegod, I love you, man, and I'll love you a whole lot better if you can restore the DB for me.

China: Countdown to a bigger new home

I'm working on getting CaribPundit up and running over on a new server with lots of room and bandwidth.

The move should be accomplished by the close of the week-end. Meantime, the thing is driving me nuts!

We'll be at http://carib.us, the new home of CaribPundit

DR: Jeanne takes lives in the Dominican Republic

SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Tropical Storm Jeanne battered the Dominican Republic before heading to the Bahamas where the tempest, which has killed at least nine people, began to churn seas and stir deadly storm surges on Saturday.

Jeanne lost strength as it drove thousands of Dominicans from their homes Friday. But a few hours after being downgraded to a tropical depression, it strengthened again into a tropical storm with lashing winds.

Forecasters said it was too soon to predict if the storm would hit the United States. But Brian Jarvinen at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said he couldn't rule out the possibility that it might strike Florida, which has been struck by three hurricanes since mid-August.

The storm stalled over the Dominican Republic after coming ashore Thursday as a hurricane, with winds near 80 mph. It raged through Puerto Rico on Wednesday, dumping up to two feet of rain, flooding hundreds of homes and downing power lines.

Jeanne became better organized as it moved over the sparsely populated outer islands of the southeast Bahamas Saturday morning.

I know part of the hurricane rhyme goes "August, about just. September, remember; October, all over," but the Caribbean and Florida can't have October come too soon.

This has been a rough hurricane season, for Floridians, especially. Every bad wind coming off of the Atlantic seems to have Florida's name written on it. God give them, and those currently afflicted by all these hurricanes, the ability to endure and build again.

TT: Life after Ivan

"STILL picking up the pieces in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, members of a Maraval family returned home on Friday to find their home virtually destroyed after a massive pile of debris came crashing down on top of their house following a sudden downpour of rain.

Michael Potts and his wife Margaret, of Upper La Seiva Road Maraval, said it was the second time for the month that misfortune had struck the family as the heavy rains and wind from Hurricane Ivan, had also brought down piles of debris onto their house, totally destroying the guest room.

'Thank God we had nobody there at the time because they would have surely died,' a visibly fatigued Mrs Potts told the Sunday Express yesterday."

Prayers ascending for all those families in the Caribbean and U.S. who have lost loved ones, homes, and other possessions.

TT: Go with a two-dollar whore...

and you'll surely get crabs. Now TT is afflicted with crabs and other STDs because both political parties may have gone a-whoring after that old rowdy whore, the Muslimeen.

: "Long before Bakr and his group of insurgents shot their way into public notoriety by using murder, mayhem and terrorism in their attempt to overthrow a properly elected government, the self-styled imam was reported to have met with key figures of the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) party in the run-up to the December 1986 general elections.

Sources, who spoke on condition that their names not be used, identified a former mid-level NAR official in a gun distribution scheme aimed at buying protection for candidates and other party officials on the ground. The official (name given), is said to have handed over some 13 handguns to Mark Guerra in what sources say, was an initiative to provide safe passage for NAR candidates in what was expected to be a keenly contested, if not violent, election. Guerra, a gangland boss and then a top lieutenant of the Muslimeen leader, was shot dead last year.

Sources say the gun amnesty offered by the NAR Government in early 1987 was not unrelated to the distribution of guns to so-called bad boys in the run-up to the 1986 polls or the tacit support of Muslimeen 'soldiers' waiting in the wings, in the event of a NAR victory and the PNM's refusal to hand over the reins of power after a 30-year stranglehold on government."

"The idea then was the PNM was the problem," said one source, who pointed to the protracted legal wrangling between the Muslimeen and the PNM-controlled Port of Spain City Corporation over the disputed lands at No.1 Mucurapo Road.

. Now, everybody is denying Bakr's claims. Nobody went to the back-alley looking to turn a trick with him. Nobody was in league with him. So, how come Bakr and his thugs are still free, in spite of their endless games with arms, ammunitions, and other assorted types of smuggling? How come the Muslimeen can control the quarry in Valencia and Wallerfield and the government lets them get away with it? How come the government lets the Muslimeen get away with intimidating and threatening government officials? What does the Muslimeen whore have on the government and the opposition party of TT?

TT: Enough Grenadians, we don't want any more, says Sat Maharaj

:"Let Grenadians remain in their hurricane-ravaged country, Sat Maharaj, general secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), has advised.

'We say to the Government: take our money, help the Grenadians, they are our brothers. But for God's sake let them stay home over there,' Maharaj told the congregation at Maraj Hill Mandir, Coalmine, on Thursday night.

He added: 'We have enough of them in Laventille and Morvant who have not yet fitted into the social structure in Trinidad and Tobago.'

Maharaj said it took two generations for a migrant to fit into the culture of the host country.

'It's like when our people go to Canada or the USA, it takes them about two generations to fit into the culture of those countries. Those who have come here have not fitted into the culture of Trinidad and Tobago yet, and it will take them about two generations to do so,' he argued.

Commenting on the devastation caused by recent hurricanes in several countries, Maharaj said he believed that prayers played a major role in sparing Trinidad from a similar fate."

Sat, would you say the same thing if Grenadians were Hindus? Admittedly, Sat has a point about new immigrants fitting in. The problem with the Grenadians in Laventille and Morvant is that many or almost all of them are illegal aliens. Thus, they lack the papers necessary to fit into TT, man, woman, and child.

For a child to enroll in a TT school, birth and baptismal certificates are necessary. The birth paper needs to be presented again before the child writes the exam to go to high school. It's impossible to open a bank account in TT without at least two official IDs, a passport and a national ID card, for instance. Everything requires official ID.

Therefore, the illegal alien must, of necessity, exist outside the bounds of society in some dim, grim limbo created by his choice to enter TT illegally. However, as with the U.S., children of illegal immigrants born in TT are automatically citizens of the country.

So, is Sat really afraid of more illegals who can't fit in, or is this plea really about maintaining that 50-50 balance of power between the country's two biggest ethnic groups?

China: Oh, woe!

Well, it looks like we chose a heck of a time to get hit with an excess bandwidth shutdown, which we got because we've exceeded our bandwidth by almost 100% in just about two weeks in September.

Here I am in China with a U.S. bank-card that has nothing much on it (the one with a few pennies on it is back home with my sister who will not enter banking information online) and a Chinese bank card that can't be used internationally. There is RTFM in the USVI, coping with the after effects of Ivan, Jeanne, and all those hurricanes he's been blogging about. I've not heard from him, so I don't know if he's been blogging (remember, I can't see this blogspot site).

Previous to this weekend, the only 'net service I had at my apartment was in-China; at the office, where I had international access, I could look at some sites on the web. No blogspot sites at all (I can't even see this one though I can blog to it using BlogThis! Thank you, Blogger!), no Baldilocks, no Iraqi bloggers, and so on. Reading Gmail was not an option, though I could access the account.

On Friday, after talking to a friend here, I discovered internet cards. Yes, Virginia, there is such an animal. You buy a card for 23 yuan, about $3 U.S., and it's good for a month. If you don't have a phone line, you buy a phone card and pay 1.5Y per hour. If you have a phone line, and I do, heaven knows what the cost is. I'll moan about it at the end of the month. With this new discovery, then, I could access the www from my apartment.

So, I managed to scout out a new web host that allows LARGE bandwidth. Donations helping us to get back up and running on the CaribPundit domain (http://carib.us) would be very much welcome. Please hit the tip jar if you like the blog.

U.S.: Bush served his country free of charge

From the American Thinker who links to Polipundit on the issue of Bush's pay stubs for April-October, 1972.

A search of the web led me to AF Form 1288 (front/back) in which 1LT Bush requests duty in Alabama on May 24, 1972. Block 17 shows that the request is "no pay, training category G." In the approval section, it is clearly disclosed that this is "pay group none." Why is this important? Regardless, of the ultimate unit he ended up training with, it shows that 1LT Bush was willing to train without pay. The old media remains focused on pay records!! In regards to pay records, USA Today states, "They show he was paid for 82 days in 1972 and 1973, but show no service for five months between April and October 1972." Pay records would show no service during this time period because he was not paid! 1LT Bush served his country without pay. That is why there is no pay record. 

The emphases are mine.

Tropical Storm Jeanne: St. Croix feeling the effects.

The wind has started snapping in the last half hour.
The St. Croix Weather page just recorded a peak gust of 74.7 mph and we are stil four hours out from the forecast closest point of approach.

I' don't know how much longer my wireless antennae is going to hold out but I'll keep posting for as long as I'm able.

Wow!

Tropical systems never fail to amaze me...

12:45 AM:
Power flickering...
Low rumble of thunder in the distance...

12:51 AM:
Bigger Gusts way more consistent!
Now I'm sure my connection will be knocked out at some point tonight. Still hours away from closest approach.


1:00 AM:
Rainband with some pretty strong colors moving in... Higest gust so far - now 75.3 MPH.

1:23 AM:
I'm gonna shut down for a while...Barometric pressure, which has been falling steadily since before 11:PM is now down to 29.435 (1:02 AM) and the winds are consistently in the high 30s and 40s MPH range.

1:50 AM:
So much for shutting down...Power seems a little more stable. and ther's not much thunder in this so far. still supposedly an hour or so until closest approach
Highest gust 79.5 MPH current windspeed 51.0 MPH at 1:47 AM. (From)

2:05 AM:
Goodnight...
Jeanne 35 miles south of us.

Tropical Storm Jeanne: St. Croix US Virgin Islands update

The wind has really started picking up in the last half hour with a top recorded gust of 67.2 mph at 11:25 pm local time (GMT -4). There is sporadic lightning but little rain as of the time of this post. Here on out the conditions will deteriorate until TS Jeanne reaches its Point of closest approach which apparently is forecast to be around 3:00 AM in the morning.

The webcam on the Boardwalk in Christiansted is starting to show the effects.

Following are results based on Storm Carib's How Close Can It Get? tool and forecast track data from the 11:00 pm AST Forecast Advisory (#6):

Results for St.Croix (17.7N, 64.8W):
The approximate Closest Point of Approach (CPA) is located near 17.4N, 64.9W or about 21.3 miles (34.4 km) from your location. The estimated time of when the eye will be at that location is in about 5.4 hours.

Currently, you can really see the circulation on the San Juan Doppler radar loop as Tropical Storm Jeanne spins just to our (St. Croix) south..

I wouldn't be half surprised if Jeanne is upgraded to a category one Hurricane as it passes us.

Check out Storm Carib's St. Croix and St. Thomas threads for more local reports.

Be sure to check out http://hurricane-ivan.blogspot.com/ for a consolidation of news and useful information on Hurricane Ivan the Terrible. It looks as if they've been covering the storm since shortly after Jamaica was mashed.

It's not looking good for New Orleans.

Let us not forget Grenada and the rest of the Caribben Region. A good place to check up on the aftermath and relief efforts within the Caribben region would do well to check out Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) homepage.

Storm Carib also has a great page with information on how we can contribute toward helping people suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.

Tropical Storm Jeanne: Ever wonder...

Ever wonder what the birth of a hurricane looks like on doppler radar?

No...?

Then don't check here.

It's live so if you missed it...Oh well.

Here's the latest output from Storm Carib's - How close is it? - tool.

Results for St.Croix (17.7N, 64.8W):
The eye of the storm is about 67 miles (107 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 10 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 6.7 hours (0.3 days) to reach you. Given the current windfield (40 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 2.7 hours (0.1 days).

Latest max gust is 49.2 mph at 8:00 pm local (GMT -4).

Feel free to scroll down for more links and updated content on strengthening Tropical Storm Jeanne.

On this dark stormy night I would be remiss if I didn't point you toward some good news and hope via Arthur Chrenkoff's 10^th installment of his excellent Good News from Iraq series. With all the spinning from hurricanes and politicians going on it's always a refreshing link-rich read.

Tropical Storm Jeanne: Virgin Islands now under Hurricane Warning!

The US Virgin Islands is now under a Hurricane Warning!

AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...A HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR PUERTO
RICO AND THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS.

A meteorologist out of Puerto Rico's National Weather Service office just said that soon to be Hurricane Jeanne will pass just south of St. Croix but that he expects that the wind shouldn't get much past 70 mph in gusts...But we know how that goes. Expect Hurricane conditions as per the Hurricane Warning the NWS placed us under at 5:00 pm .

Here's a webcam maintained by GoToStCroix.com that's focused on the boardwalk and harbour at Christiansted.

Providing the power and/or net connection doesn't go down, there should be lights all night and It could get interesting even though the town is on the leeward (north) side.

Here are some local streaming radio links:

WSTA 1340khz AM - St. Thomas.
ZBVI Radio - 780Khz. AM - Tortola.

As much as I love this island, St. Croix - as usual - just can't seem get it together to have radio streaming on the net.

Anyway, if anyone can point me toward a link to a St. Croix radio station with a working stream, please leave the URL in the comments section and I'll post it if I still have a connection to the net. Otherwise it'll just be there in the comments I guess.
;^)

Tropical Storm Jeanne: Strengthening...Heads for St. Croix U.S.V.I.

Storm Carib's excellent How Close is it tool is a good way to get a handle on approaching tropical systems.

Entering the data from the 2:00 pm UPDATED to: 5:00 pm AST National Weather Service advisory gives the following:

Results for St.Croix (17.7N, 64.8W):
The eye of the storm is about 86 miles (138 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 10 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 8.6 hours (0.5 days) to reach you. Given the current windfield (40 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 4.6 hours (0.2 days).

Latest Tropical Storm Jeanne Advisory - Automatically Updated

According to a local amateur weather station - as of 3:35 local time (GMT -4) winds have increased to 16-25 mph sustained with gusts to 44.1 mph!

(As of 5:00 pm local, the peak gust recorded still stands at 44.1 mph)

...And there are still supposedly five or so hours to go before we feel sustained tropical storm force winds.

CaribPundit slinks back in after a Hurricane Ivan - lanche

Talk about a hurricane season...

Ivan, besides wrecking a good portion of the Caribbean, has swamped our carib.us digs with over 15 gigs of traffic (4gigs in one day!) effectively shutting us down.

On top of that our St. Croix annex (umm...me) is under a tropical storm warning!

Yep...Newly formed Tropical storm Jeanne is bee-lining it for St. Croix.

Refresh/reload the page to update animation graphics

Conditions are expected to deteriorate throughout the day as Jeanne approaches. By the time the center of TS Jeanne is over us here in STX, it's expected to pack Tropical storm force winds of 51.8 mph (45 knots) with higher gusts effecting us tonight and tomorrow. There is an even ten percent chance that the sustained winds will reach 70mph, so I'll be posting here until my wireless connection dinks out or I have to take my antenna down.

We have only just passed the halfway point of the 2004 hurricane season and if the second usually more active half keeps its climatological course, It's gonna be a windy fall.