"given how much the Dems have played politics with hurricanes nowadays, I really can't blame the NHC for being ultra-careful in waiting to make sure "
I agree 100%. I'm glad someone else said it, I was afraid I was becoming a tin foil hat guy. The NHC has been totally wrong and always have erred on overestimating this storm. It appears to be cover your ass instead of straight up forecasting. Too damn bad, reputations are lost quickly in the Internet age.
I posted this last night and feel evenly more strongly today...
I am sitting under my cone of silence, inside a copper wire cage wearing a tin foil hat...
I am not willing to submit that the people at the NHC have the most honorable of intentions and are not operating with a political agenda. And I am not willing to concede that we were getting honest information about the status of the storm.
A cone pointed at NO on the anniversary of Katrina. That was just too cute.
Hat has come off. Now I'm putting on my flame retardant suit.