Hurricane Ivan is a Communist Threat (but not the way you would think)

I just watched a story on “The Weather Channel” about the latest tropical weather poised to threaten our little pieces of paradise here on the coast of the Southeastern United States--Hurricane Ivan. Unfortunately, it looks like this year will continue to produce a bumper crop of tropical weather for the pleasure of the weather forecast professionals and the dread of the residents of the Lesser and Greater Antilles, the Caribbean Islands, Florida, and the balance of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US.

While my home is located on St Simons Island on the Atlantic coast of Georgia, I’ve spent the past week visiting my mother in lower Alabama (also affectionately called LA) just about one hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico. (I offer this visit as my excuse for my reduced writings on the Blog this week.) We and the other members of my extended family have all become quite aware that this year’s tropical weather is unusually capable of keeping us on our toes, worrying about our homes and possessions situated on both coasts.

Hurricane Charley produced only a little rain and wind on St Simons and nothing here in Alabama, but I learned via E-mail earlier this week that Hurricane Fances managed to remove the roof from our carport on St Simons. Now I get to drive home on Sunday and begin preparations for Ivan--reluctantly leaving behind my seven plus decade old mother to fend for herself should the storm take a more westerly track than that currently predicted. The generator is all gassed up and she’s already done her share of tropical weather in her day, so I hope she'll be O.K.

Situated between the US and Ivan are the countries of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cuba. I’m afraid that my friend Ian, a native of Monteigo Bay, Jamaica, is in for a rough September 11th. If you have never visited Jamaica ( population 2.6 million,) picture a million plus people living in simple tin/cardboard/wooden packing crate huts with no utilities. Even the thin middle class who own real homes and the few wealthy individuals who reside on the island could have their property destroyed and their lives placed at great risk by daylight this morning.

The image that really caught my eye in this evening’s “Weather Channel” story was a picture of Fidel Castro, sitting at a conference table, brandishing a printout of the latest NOAA three day forecast track for Ivan from the 11:00 PM forecast this evening. My mind leapt to attention!
There we go again, us mean old, insensitive, capitalistic, war-mongering, bigoted, ugly, Americans-- providing free technology to third world communist countries. Information, by the way, the free dissemination of which will inevitably save hundreds if not thousands of lives and help to minimize damage to whatever meager property the citizens of Cuba possess.

How can the United Nations‘ Kofi Anon, not to mention the French, the Germans, the Spanish, the Russians, and the Chinese, et. al. sit still for such behavior from a country whom is so obviously dedicated to the ideals of international conquest and nation building?

What will John Kerry and John Edwards say? Would they vote for the funding of NOAA, before they vote against it? Since, according to the Democrats, our president is a known liar, who was AWOL for much of his reserve pilot duty during the Vietnam war thirty years ago, I would expect Jimmy Carter to personally fly to Cuba to warn Senior Fidel of the treachery of anything delivered by the Republican controlled US government.

I understand that newly formed 527 group “Caribbean’s against Bush” are collecting plywood, tarps, bottled water, generators, and vintage IBM electric typewriters for distribution once the storm has passed in an effort to rebuild and document Mr. Bush’s 30 year old culpability in the (un)natural natural disaster.

“If John Kerry had just been in office, Ivan would have been a kinder, more sensitive form of tropical disaster” stated Grenada Governor General Daniel Williams. “It was just like old Ron Reagan came back from the dead and was looking for some medical students to rescue,” stated an unidentified Democratic spokesperson. “The American people deserve better…”