where the water is not just “warm” but goddam near “hot,” it could kick a LOTTA ass…

Heed glorious words of Dear Leader only a year ago:

[BUSH] I take full responsibility for the federal government’s response, and a year ago I made a pledge that we will learn the lessons of Katrina and that we will do what it takes to help you recover. (Applause.) I’ve come back to New Orleans to tell you the words that I spoke on Jackson Square are just as true today as they were then.

To make sure that we keep our promises and to make sure this good area recovers, we have got to give assurance to the citizens that if there is another natural disaster, we’ll respond in better fashion. Every department of my administration has looked at its response to last year’s hurricanes and has recommended practical reforms, things to do to make sure that the response is better.

So, I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about! Just to lay down a marker….

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

Chimpy’s bro ain’t in the Florida state house, so anything that goes to hell there won’t be blamed on the Bushies …
I’m kinda glad I didn’t take that job in Harlingen, now.

since the insurance rates have gotten past Rapacious and are well into Simply Unpayable, people were talking months ago that an awful lot of folks were just dropping it entirely. Or the reverse, being dropped as their carriers pull out of the whole Florida market.

IIRC New Jersey faced a similar situation of Blackmail By Insurance some years back. They passed some limits on charges for car insurance and the big guys said well neener neener, we just won’t write car insurance in NJ any more, see how you like that Mr. Commie Legislator.

NJ said buck you fuddy, you don’t sell car insurance in NJ (assuming you sell it anywhere), then you don’t sell nuttin’ here. No life, no health, no renters, no property, no insurance of any kind.

NJ is too big and too rich a market; insurers backed down. I forget details but it still strikes me as a lesson florida could learn from. If it weren’t still infested with idiot Republicans in the state gov. *ptooey*

Visited my mom in Charleston, SC, and about half the news is devoted to potential hurricanes.

It’s all they think about in SC - that, and how the Democrats are going to ruin everything they hold sacred. My mom, a Dem, can’t decide if she is more despairing about the state of the nation, or about the unwillingness of her fellow Charlestonians to get honest about what is wrong about Bush Co. It is pathological. And the nightly weathercasts help the whole fear, fear, and more fear thing.

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

I just checked Crown Weather
(http://www.crownweather.com/tropical.htm…), the best comprehensive info for us folk in the path (so check it out now, but lookie-loos please stay away once the storm gets within a day of landfall: whoever is in the cone needs that server up even more than we needed firedoglake up for the Libby trial). [I have an oversized UPS at home to keep the cable modem & WAP running for myself and the neighbors, as CATV stayed up the whole first halves of Katrina/Rita/Wilma 2 years ago.]

NHC sends it directly toward Puerto Rico, and as Cat 2 at Antigua. There are only 2 models that project 7 days: AVNO sends it up the Atlantic, maybe hitting the Carolinas; GFS sends it toward St. Augustine. No wind shear in sight for the next week, but the ocean’s only 28-30c in front of TD4 (and not >30c until east of the Bahamas), so it shouldn’t intensify too quickly.

Damn. I’m tired of putting up my shutters. I hoped to sell my house & move in January without another storm.