@dbase = PG.connect(
    :user => 'scrape',
    :password => 'test2bob23',
    :dbname => 'ep_development'
#     :server   => "#{db_host}",
#      :user     => "#{db_user}",
#      :password => "#{db_pass}",
#      :dbname   => "#{db_db}"
#     :encoding => "#{db_charset}"
    )
    @dbase.exec('SET AUTOCOMMIT OFF')
    @dbase.exec("BEGIN")