Position: 11.8 N 26.3 W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [80 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 35 miles [55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1004 mb ↓.

It is 245 miles [390 km] South-Southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

This will probably be a fish botherer in the Central Atlantic.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

I would have thought that people might have figured it out by now, but I was apparently wrong. Barack Obama is by training and inclination a mediator, not a leader. He doesn’t propose policies, he negotiates between parties. You can’t mediate if you advocate anything, so he doesn’t.

He doesn’t have a health care policy or agenda, he wants to find a program from what is proposed in Congress. His basic persona was revealed in the Gates episode. He brought people together and acted as a referee.

Israel and North Korea have figured this out, so maybe it is time for the American people to understand, that he will not change anything without external pressure. All change must be the result of dialog between opposing groups. He will not act without a decision being made on a “compromise” by others.

He has absolutely no executive experience. He has never bucked “conventional wisdom”. He has no vision as to what he wants to accomplish in office.

Only three and a half years until he’s gone.

Elayne Riggs is celebrating her Seventh Blogiversary™ over at Pen-Elayne on the Web.

Still on Blogger, still using the same template, still doing silly sites – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Seven years on the ‘Net qualifies for paleontology rather than history.

The fire in the Angeles National Forest has now burned over 157,220 acres [≅ 246 miles²] and at least 78 homes, two commercial buildings and 86 outbuildings. The cost estimate is >$49.5 million. It is 56% contained.

The Station Fire was started by an arsonist near mile marker 29 on the Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2) about one mile above Angeles Crest Fire Station near a Forest Ranger station [the source of the name] around 3:30pm [PDT] Wednesday August 26, 2009.

The state is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the fire.

The weather is continuing to assist in the efforts to control the fire. While there are still flare-ups and spot fires they don’t have the explosive growth that was common during the early days of this fire. There are a lot of backfires being set as the best way of denying fuel to any push by the fire, so the smoke and flames haven’t disappeared from the sky. but they are controlled. They are estimating total containment in a week.

Two Los Angeles County firefighters have died in a motor vehicle accident escaping a burnover. In addition there have been 3 civilians and 10 firefighters reported injured.

Among the injuries is a firefighter who came in contact with cyanide while fighting the fire. It was probably the result of an illegal chemical dump in the wilderness. Even in the midst of “nature’s glory” you can encounter man’s stupidity and greed.

Currently there are 121 hand crews, 419 engines, 43 water tenders, 66 dozers, 11 air tankers, 19 helicopters, and 4,623 total personnel assigned to the fire.

The aircraft now include the 747 Supertanker [20,000 gallons], Tanker 910 [DC-10 12,000 gallons], Mars Hawaii Superscooper [7,200 gallons], and two Canadair 415 water scoopers [1,600 gallons] from the Province of Quebec.

Links: InciWeb, LA Times, KTLA, and Pasadena Star-News

Maps: LA Times fire map, the Enplan Wildfire Viewer, and the Weather Underground Smoke Map.

Webcams: Tujunga and Altadena

[For more information go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]

If you are a US resident I hope you enjoy this panicked and unsuccessful attempt to salvage the Democratic nomination for President by Grover Cleveland, the 22^nd and 24^th President. Having sent in Federal troops and marshals to break the Pullman Strike, Grover thought he could win back support from labor by giving them their own holiday before the bodies of the workers killed by said troops and marshals were cold in the ground, and to preempt the possibility of labor declaring May 1^st, the commemoration of the Haymarket affair, a day for labor action.

When I was young, Labor Day was the last day of summer vacation from school, but now schools start in mid-August, so it’s just a long weekend filled with annoying drunken boaters clogging up my little street with their trailers.

It would have been nice if the current administration had at least managed to fill the vancancies on the NLRB by Labor Day, but that would have required leadership, a quality sadly lacking in DC at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.