Well, today I did my final pre-operative visit with my surgeon's office and then went over to the hospital and did the pre-operative testing visit there. Didn't really do much at all the whole day, but totally crashed out when we got home. The funny thing is, there wasn't much at all that was asked of me except to sit still while they drew blood and did an EKG and all that medical stuff; but, man, am I tired. Oh yeah, I did answer more questions than a steroidal baseball player in front of Congress...

And we did fill out about 40 million forms and papers...killing only 5 million trees in the process. Oh well...

This time next week, the whole world changes for me. Goodbye cheesecake......goodbye chocolate...farewell biscuits and gravy...waahhhhhhhhh!

Not really...I don't think I will miss them...they are the bad old friends that got me into all kinds of trouble.

I think I'll be happier with my new friends...

Maybe in a year I'll post some before and after pics. But I'll have to go shopping first.

Facing South: Katrina and New Orleans

As Katrina bears down on the Louisiana coast, New Orleans is at particular risk. Because most of the area is below sea level, the storm surge could cause extensive flood damage...

Facing South: Katrina: the morning after

There are at least 50 confirmed fatalilties in Mississippi. Officials in both Louisiana and Mississippi expect the death toll to climb as search-and-rescue teams are able to deploy today. Flood and wind damage along the coast is massive...

Facing South: Devastation

No food. No water. No power. No medical supplies or assistance. No sanitary facilities. No communications. No roads in or out. No infrastructure. No shelter. And seemingly no hope. This is the situation this morning for New Orleans and most of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This is human tragedy on a Biblical scale...

Facing South: Desperation

That’s the one-word headline on the Biloxi Sun Herald website this morning. And that seems to pretty much sum up the situation today. The frustration is starting to boil over onto the editorial pages...

Facing South: Outrageous

I just saw a report on MSNBC from the convention center in New Orleans. There are thousands of people there, families with children, infants, and elderly. They have no water. They have no food. They have no baby formula. They have no medical assistance. They have nothing. They are desperate, and they are furious...

Facing South: MIA media sighting

In fact, the media has been holding back. They have been telling us that there are things being filmed that are just too horrific to air. I think the gloves are coming off. It's about time...

Facing South: Disconnect

...So the question is, are these people so completely insulated or disconnected from reality that they are oblivious to what's going on? Do they not realize we have 24-hour-per-day new coverage broadcasting images and interviews by which people can see with their own eyes that the facts on the ground directly contradict what they are saying?

Facing South: Oblivious

...I realize they are "managing" this by remote control, but don't they at least have cable TV?

Facing South: Props to the Coast Guard

...Apparently, the Coast Guard is the only federal agency that didn't sit around waiting for some politician to get back from vacation to tell them to go out there and save lives.

Facing South: Surreal

...And broadcast news crews are able to get in to the affected areas and move about, yet trained and armed National Guard troops and FEMA relief with military escorts and helicopters and armored personnel carriers and Humvees and who knows what all are unable to?

Facing South: Wrapup

...This story isn't over. The repercussions of what has happened to the South this week will be felt for years if not generations to come. Atlanta may be the hub of the South, but New Orleans is our heart and soul. There is much work to do. There is much misery to be healed. There are many dead to bury. There are questions to be asked, and many more answers to be demanded.

Facing South: Reality on the ground

We'll probably never know the real story. But that general's description of "taking down" the convention center sounds more like a raid on an Iraqi insurgent stronghold than an operation to help U.S. citizens. It's also in sharp contrast to footage of Lieutenant General Russel Honore ordering solders to "put those goddamn weapons down!" admonishing that "we're here to deliver food!"

Facing South: Death of an American City - Bush's legacy?

The Mrs. and I were just talking about Bush's Jackson Square speech the other day and wondering whatever happened to all those promises. The speech was reminiscent of his "Mission Accomplished" speech. Both had inspirational settings with carefully crafted backdrops and costumes appropriate for the occasion. But just as the violence and killing resumed and continue long after declaring victory in Iraq, New Orleans was left holding a bag of empty promises in the dark, long after the lights in Jackson Square went off as Bush departed...

Facing South: Houston survives traffic jam, governor cites Bush leadership

As the media covered the Houston traffic jam and the horrific conditions at their luxury hotels in Galveston (room service was suspended and they ran out of half-and-half for the coffee), local officials in Beaumont and the former towns and parishes of Lake Charles, Cameron Parish, Sulphur, Vinton, and Lafitte Louisiana said from their new fishing boat and treetop headquarters that FEMA, the Red Cross, the National Guard, and the media shouldn't worry about them and should instead concentrate on Houston. "We saw the heartbreaking videos of those traffic jams and that shingle blown off the roof of that multi-million dollar beach home in Galveston, and just thought, hey, we can wait. There's not much left here to recover anyway," said one local official.

Facing South: This is Brian Thevenot, reporting from the Apocalypse

...The New Orleans Times-Picayune, on the other hand, is no longer part of mainstream media. It's in a class of its own. Katrina tore the newspaper down to its most basic element - reporting. For anyone paying attention, that reporting may very well have transformed journalism, with heroic reporters and staff leading the way.

Facing South: Absentee voting for Katrina evacuees

Of course it "obviously opens the door to potential abuse", because, you know, many of the evacuees are poor black people, not to mention Democrats. Give me a break.

Facing South: YANBCC*

...FEMA cuts through the red tape and passes the savings on to you, the taxpayer. Besides, time is of the essence in all things disaster relief related, right? And I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for travel trailers the first place I look is in the yellow pages under "motorcycles."

Facing South: Report: levees not built to specifications

...So, how can the Corps now say they "can't explain the disparity" when they were told about the problem ten years ago as the floodwall was being built? What's worse, it sounds like the problems boil down to the fact that nobody wanted to spend the money to do the job right.

Facing South: Iraqis vote in Nashville - what about Americans in New Orleans?

...Unfortunately, the U.S. government has not seen fit to make similar provisions for displaced Gulf Coast residents who were evacuated for Hurricane Katrina and have not been able to return.

Facing South: Senate approves hurricane relief funds

So, it's OK to run up hundreds of billions in deficits to help the people of Iraq (and Halliburton), but we have to make some sacrifices to help the victims of Katrina, "we" being children, old people, sick people, and the working poor.

Facing South: Bush: I am not a racist!

First of all, he wasn't really involved. He was on vacation and couldn't be bothered. I don't think he was on the phone telling Brownie to let all those black people suffer and die in the Superdome and the Convention Center just because they were black. Second of all, Bush's life of privilege has isolated him from issues of race and poverty, and, like most middle and upper class white folks, he just doesn't relate to or even think very much about "those people" whatever color they might be. This isn't overtly racist per se, although white America is genetically programmed by generations of fear and distrust...

Facing South: Katrina response "broken"

...According to the article, these e-mail exchanges were uncovered by the House Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, which is investigating the government's response to Katrina. These revelations, along with similar revelations in the 100,000 pages of documents Louisiana Gov. Blanco turned over to the committee last week, seem to confirm that the government response at all levels was, well, a disaster...

Facing South: New Orleans is a medical emergency

Officials also say that if projections for July 1 population levels are accurate, they will need to triple the number of hospital beds and hire "2,500 new medical staff members in six months" which will involve "extraordinary expense" for housing and incentives. Further, rebuilding hospitals and community clinics is expected to take a year or more in some cases.

Facing South: FEMA response in perspective

Here is a little thought exercise: Imagine that St. Louis or Phoenix or Cincinnati had been the target of a chemical weapons attack by terrorists. Or that terrorists had blown up the Tennessee River dam system, flooding the Tennessee Valley...

Facing South: New Orleans unveils rebuilding plan at public forum

Certainly there are controversial ideas, and virtually unlimited opportunity for corruption and exploitation, but it has to begin somewhere.

Facing South: FEMA voter data dispute

At least the Secretary of State has made an effort to reach voters. Going forward, it would seem like a good idea for FEMA to have set rules and procedures for keeping up with voters and coordinating with state election officials to keep voter registration databases up to date. ..

Facing South: Chertoff speaks to the Heritage Foundation

The number one improvement the Bush administration could make at DHS and FEMA would be to accept Chertoff's resignation forthwith.

Facing South: Mayor Nagin announces new and improved rebuilding plan

Another puzzling thing about all this is, who's in charge? The city's Bring New Orleans Back Commission does not have the force of law. The state's Louisiana Recover Authority and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development are all involved. As with all things Katrina related, there appears to be a problem with clear leadership.

Facing South: New Orleans public housing debate

...There appears to be a serious breakdown in communication and no clear strategy. Someone is going to have to step up to the plate and take charge before any of this gets solved. The question of the day is, who?

Facing South: Government against all odds

Despite everything these people have been through, and despite the federal government's failure to accommodate displaced voters (as they did for Iraqis here in the U.S. to vote in an election 6000 miles away), the people of New Orleans still want their voices to be heard. It makes me ashamed of the pathetic 18% to 20% turnout for local elections in my neck of the woods.

Facing South: Again with the priorities

...Voters around the South, and especially the Gulf Coast, are likely far more interested in what Congress is doing about Katrina recovery than they are about trifling with the Constitution to "protect" a symbol -- a symbol which is supposed to represent a nation founded to "insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare," not to mention the First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

Facing South: Anti-gay marriage amendment more important than Katrina recovery?

"I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. "I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress."

Facing South: Bush demands action on Katrina housing aid?

Are we seeing a pattern yet? Lots of tough talk and empty promises, not much action, plenty of finger pointing. What's becoming clearer and clearer is that Bush is a lame duck who couldn't lead a Shriner's parade around a Wal*Mart parking lot.

Facing South: Nobody could have anticipated...

It turns out that the image of an aloof, detached, and uninformed president going about business as usual as Katrina struck the Gulf Coast isn't accurate. New information reveals that he was aloof, detached, and informed...

Facing South: Katrina still taking a personal toll

Mental health experts say it will only get worse, and that the approaching one-year anniversary of Katrina "will spark new feelings of loss and more emotional and physical stress." Unfortunately the city isn't equipped to deal with it...

Facing South: Tennessee mobile home manufacturer not impressed with FEMA

Clayton Homes, headquartered in East Tennessee, is the nation's largest mobile home manufacturer. Clayton is a successful local family owned and operated company - so successful they were recently purchased by Warren Buffet. Apparently they aren't too happy with FEMA...

FEMA Alternative Housing Pilot Program

...FEMA is admitting they don't have all the answers and that what they have in place isn't the best plan to deal with a disaster on the scale of Katrina. The Alternative Housing Pilot Program sounds like one of those "market driven solutions" we keep hearing about, and there's probably more to the story regarding where the idea originated and who lobbied for it.

Facing South: Lost and forgotten communities of the Gulf

...These people, and all the other residents of the Gulf Coast, deserve the best America can do to help them. They don't need any more committees or hearings or political speeches or staged photo opportunities. They need real national leadership.

Facing South: HUD Secretary favors political allies in awarding contracts?

You may also recall that Jackson, who is responsible for public housing and other aspects of Katrina recovery in New Orleans, said at a press conference that "only the best residents' of the former St. Thomas housing complex should be allowed into the new mixed-income development that replaced it," suggesting that public housing in New Orleans was "gang-ridden by some of the most notorious gangs in this country," that residents protected them, and that others didn't pay rent on time, didn't have jobs, and didn't work...

Facing South: How quickly we forget

People are rightly concerned about the war and foreign policy. But it's puzzling that the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina have fallen off the political radar in this election. Because it's a year later and we have thankfully not had any major hurricanes this season, Katrina seems to be a long forgotten unpleasantness for most voters, and every candidate it would seem...

Facing South: Gulf Watch: Insurance industry on trial over Katrina claims

Hood says the response from the insurance companies has been to "delay, delay, delay and hope they go away" but that he is willing to settle if they will quit stalling.

Facing South: Gulf Watch: Laissez les bons temps rouler!

It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans and around the South. On the second Fat Tuesday since Katrina, the folks in New Orleans can forget their worries for a day and celebrate life...

Facing South: Reconstruction News Network

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT...

It has come to our attention that the Institute for Southern Studies is going to great lengths to present a biased picture of your government's response to the recent unpleasantness on the Gulf Coast and all the progress we are making there.

We're here to set the record straight by bringing you unbiased, unfiltered news about the recovery and reconstruction effort so you can see for yourself how America working together can spread freedom, democracy, and beignets in the Gulf....

Can anyone offer advice to a soldier on where he can get married by Elvis in Gatlinburg? All I can think of to suggest is contacting the Gatlinburg chamber of commerce.

Elizabeth Edwards asks the press to help the voters of North Carolina and the country to discuss the issues so that informed decisions can be made.

But I am saying that every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.
...
Who is responsible for the veil of silence over Senator Biden? Or Senator Dodd? Or Gov. Tom Vilsack? Or Senator Sam Brownback on the Republican side?

The decision was probably made by the same people who decided that Fred Thompson was a serious candidate.

Will the media listen? Do they care? Will the story be about her bitterness that John is not longer a candidate? It's the economy stupid. It's about paying for decent healthcare. It's about our soldiers dying in Iraq. It's about the billions of dollars spent in Iraq while our infrastructure is crumbling and American citizens are not asked to sacrifice but given money to go shopping.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for trying.

My little Miss Heidi died this morning. She had a cancer that had started in her injured leg and spread rapidly.

I want to thank the many friends who have expressed wishes for her recovery.

Her pain is over. Gino and I are going to the park now.

This is a repost from Reality Me.

My oldest son is doing a class project in ecology. He is writing two posts a week and soliciting comments which he will compile or aggregate into his report. He cannot complete his project without comments. Please take a moment and read his posts. If you are so compelled, please comment on as many as you can. Thank you!

His posts to date:

• Mountaintop Mining
• Tellico
• UT Environmental Ethics
• Busing
• Paper, plastic, or fabric?
• Water Dispute

Please make the comments on Tommy's blog.

His project's success depends on actually getting some feedback. Thank you!

Since we're talking about who should drop out and calling for "Superdelegates" to decide the Democratic primary RIGHT NOW, maybe Congress should just go ahead and convene the Electoral College and send McCain packing. Here's why:

National Polls (RCP Average):

Clinton v. McCain: Clinton 44.8%, McCain 45.8%
Obama v. McCain: Obama 44.6%, McCain 44.4%

Well within the margin of error. Clearly McCain has not made his case, despite the benefit of his party's incumbency, early coronation, the alleged weakness of his opponents, and the endorsement of sitting president George W. Bush.

Popular vote (Green Papers):

McCain: 7,441,267
Dem: 27,815,851 (Obama: 13,961,775, Clinton: 13,854,076)

Wow. Not too many ways you can spin these numbers. Clearly, McCain is toast and should drop out for the sake of unity, etc. etc.

According to the AP, an Oklahoma man was declared brain dead and was about to have his organs removed, only to be saved by family members after he showed reactions to touch while paying their last respects. This sounds like the making of a horror story. How many thousands, after being declared brain dead, have gone under the knife and had their organs plucked from their bodies, while alert enough of their situation to know it, but unable to convey their horror externally.

Here's a gallery of some of our Florida vacation photos that may display on some browsers.

Rolled in about 2AM. We left 80 degree shorts and t-shirt weather, and I'm just now looking out the window at snow flurries. Talk about your culture shock.

We were driving down the road towards the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this morning and spotted this heron coming out of the canal along the side of the road. It had caught something, and was struggling to get airborne.

The heron flew out right in front of us, going down the road in the same direction. We had to slow down to keep from running over it. At first we thought it had a snake, but then we could see it looked like an eel. We followed the heron down the road for a minute, until it flew back over into the brush along the side of the road. We pulled over to watch. Click read more to see what happened...

The sea was angry today. This longboard surfer was up to the challenge. Looked like a lot of work. And dangerous. He was way out there, maybe 150-200 yards. I was a little worried. Thankfully, he came back in OK after a while. Taken a few minutes ago from the deck. It was overcast with bad light and I had the telephoto extender on, so these aren't as sharp as I would like. Bigger version and a couple more photos after the jump...

You will be missed...

Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90

By RAVI NESSMAN – 15 minutes ago

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

The jetty at Ponce Inlet, this evening

A local, enjoying the view

(click pictures for bigger...)

We debated whether to go see the 2:28AM scheduled launch of STS-123. We went back and forth all day. It's an hour's drive down and back. It's scheduled for 2:28 AM. It might get scrubbed because of cloud cover.

Around 9:30 PM we decided we're here, the latest NASA reports said weather conditions were 90% go for launch and the main engines were fueled, so we figured why not. We loaded up and headed down to Titusville.

Some photos after the jump...

The Mrs. and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Fletch, the legendary photo blogger and self-proclaimed high-tech drifter. He's a super nice guy and just as peaceful and laid back in person as his photo blogging suggests.

We had breakfast at the Flagler Beach Pier Restaurant, and took a stroll around Flagler Beach and down to a nice county park on the Intercoastal Waterway. Fletch then took us a few miles further up A1A for a tour of the Washington Oaks State Park.

It's always nice to finally meet bloggers in person, especially someone who you feel like you sort of already know after five years in the blogosphere. Fletch's home base is in the Smoky Mountains and ours is in the foothills, but for some reason we had never met up before today, in Florida of all places.

Fletch and Bubba

The rental brochure forgot to mention that it's Bike Week in Daytona. It's over tomorrow, but we took a stroll downtown for a sampling of the crazy. Some photos after the jump...

Click for bigger

Been on the road and have just arrived at our new temporary HQ. Sitting here watching a big storm roll down the Atlantic coast. Tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings in effect. Welcome to Florida, I guess.

Florida State Representative Don Brown has introduced a bill (HB 1007) to create a Confederate Heritage license plate. Brown's district is in the panhandle, nestled right next to the Alabama border.

George Diaz has written a commentary to oppose the Confederate tag.

And while it is proper to mourn all the brothers and sisters of past generations who died, you don't do it by flaunting one of the defining symbols of racism.

Check out the comments for this article. From near (Orlando) and far (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio), many speak up to continue their defense of the Confederate flag.

Sorry, George, but this demonstrates your complete ignorance. The Civil War was about state's rights - the right of a state to govern itself.

Yeah, states rights, that's what it was about, uhuh. That's the ticket.

Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will "shift the power from the few to the many."

Wow! What a surprise. Will anyone take him seriously this time?

This shows, both that my wife has a far better imagination than I do and that she buys much better Xmas gifts. I got her an appliance. (a durn good one mind you) She got me a license plate. Took a while to get but I put it on my truck today. The real shocker is that in Louisiana there is already someone wth the plate "TROLL" Go figure.

Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Gray Sasser discusses the Tennessee Democratic Presidential Primaries on PBS NewsHour. Short clip and links to the full segment and transcript at TennViews...

I was going to do a comparison of the Democratic candidate's energy plans, but someone has already done it and saved me the work.

Arthur Smith at Alternative Energy Action Network prepared this comparison chart. It's a little dated (Aug. 2007) and some candidates have probably "borrowed" more ideas from other candidates (as we have seen on health care and other issues), but this is a good benchmark.

Happy 35th Anniversary, Mrs. Bizgrrl!

A break from the tropical birds - one from my archives. Canada geese on Foothills Parkway.

Click image for larger view

Still sorting through photos of our New England trip, and I think this is one of my favorites so far. This is near Stockton Springs, Maine, next to an old church that is now an American Legion post on US1/Highway 3 between Belfast and Bucksport along Penobscot Bay.

After Philadelphia and Valley Forge we set out for Massachusetts by way of the Delaware Valley on our way to Cape Cod, Plymouth, and Boston to see the JFK Library.

The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) would reverse the Bush Administration’s 2002 decision that the toxic “waste” created by mountaintop removal could be defined as “fill material,” and recklessly dumped into our water ways. This practice has already destroyed over 1200 miles of American headwater streams, and eliminated access to safe, clean potable water for many communities. The CWPA (HR 2169) currently has 107 co-sponsors, and a lot of momentum. But we need more to get out of committee and onto the floor.

We have 3 of 5 Democrats from TN onboard, and we need to know if Lincoln Davis, Bart Gordon, and John Tanner are “wit’ us” or “ginst us” on stopping mountaintop removal.

If you have a moment, please take a moment to call Davis (202-225-6831), Gordon (202-225-4231), and Tanner (202-225-4714), politely but forcefully asking that they co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169), and take a stand against mountaintop removal.

A quick report on our TN Dems and mountaintop removal below…

The next stop on our road trip was Philadelphia and Independence National Historical Park and then on to Valley Forge National Historical Park.