Tomorrow, bloggers across America will unite for Hurricane Katrina Blog Relief Day to raise awareness (and hopefully millions of dollars) for all of the wonderful charities helping the victims of this devasting hurricane.

I, personally, have chosen the American Red Cross. I was a disaster services volunteer back in the early 80’s, and I know first hand just what the Red Cross is capable of doing for these victims, if they have the funds to do so.

While I have chosen the Red Cross as the charity I would like to raise funds for, I am also including some other fine charities in my sidebar. Please remember, when deciding to make a donation to any organization, to make sure you do so only through their official website.

Many, many, bloggers are providing updates and local information about the hurricane’s aftermath. Throughout the day tomorrow I will highlight some of them, in an effort to help raise awareness, and money, for this cause.

No amount is too small. You would really be surprised how quickly $1 donations add up. Seriously.

Do me a favor tomorrow. Skip lunch and send the money you would have spent on it to one of the charities on my list. Better yet, don’t do it for me, do it for these people:

(All Photos Via Yahoo! News)

Voluntary organizations are seeking cash donations to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states, according to Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response. But, volunteers should not report directly to the affected areas unless directed by a voluntary agency.

“Cash donations are especially helpful to victims,” Brown said. “They allow volunteer agencies to issue cash vouchers to victims so they can meet their needs. Cash donations also allow agencies to avoid the labor-intensive need to store, sort, pack and distribute donated goods. Donated money prevents, too, the prohibitive cost of air or sea transportation that donated goods require.”

Volunteer agencies provide a wide variety of services after disasters, such as clean up, childcare, housing repair, crisis counseling, sheltering and food.

“We’re grateful for the outpouring of support already,” Brown said. “But it’s important that volunteer response is coordinated by the professionals who can direct volunteers with the appropriate skills to the hardest-hit areas where they are needed most. Self-dispatched volunteers and especially sightseers can put themselves and others in harm’s way and hamper rescue efforts.”

Here is a list of phone numbers set up solely for cash donations and/or volunteers.

Donate cash to:

American Red Cross
1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669) English
1-800-257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing
1-800-436-6348

America’s Second Harvest
1-800-344-8070

Donate Cash to and Volunteer with:

Adventist Community Services
1-800-381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA
1-800-919-9338

Christian Disaster Response
941-956-5183 or 941-551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
1-800-848-5818

Church World Service
1-800-297-1516

Convoy of Hope
417-823-8998

Corporation for National and Community Service Disaster Relief Fund
(202) 606-6718

Lutheran Disaster Response
800-638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
717-859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
888-256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
800-872-3283

Salvation Army
1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention — Disaster Relief
1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief
1-800-554-8583

For further information: visit the website for the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) at: http://www.nvoad.org/.

Source: FEMA]

After what seems like an eternity, Dori has given us at update on her blog.

I have been in and out of the hospital with trouble breathing, dizziness and general fatigue in the past few weeks. Turns out it was PCP, a form of pnuemonia people with low immune systems get. After many tests, spots on my lungs we thought to be the PCP are not getting better after 21 days of intense antibiotics. Dr. Kapoor beleieves them to be the spread of the cancer. Tests will soon reveal the answer.

With everything going on today, please take a moment out of your day, and say a prayer for her.

As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

…

Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and–now–Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.

In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.

While it’s easy for irresponsible people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to say the things he says, we also need to keep this disaster in perspective. While Hurricane Katrina has inflicted unprecedented damage to the Gulf coast, there is no evidence for anyone to use “global warming” as the reason for this hurricane. While many will argue that the sheer number of hurricanes this season is the result of “global warming”, now is not the time for that. Experts agree that it could have been much worse, and stronger storms have hit our nation many times in the past.

On Sunday, meteorologists watched in awe as one of the most powerful hurricanes they had ever seen churned northward over the Gulf of Mexico on a direct bearing for New Orleans. Fed by unusually warm waters in the central gulf, Katrina easily pumped itself up to a Category 5 monster, with top winds approaching 175 mph. That afternoon a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft flying through the storm pegged its minimum barometric pressure at 902 millibars, making Katrina the fourth most powerful hurricane ever observed.

But by the time it reached land Monday, Katrina was no stronger than any of a dozen or more hurricanes that have hit the United States in the past century. Hurricane Camille had a substantially lower central pressure when it slammed into Mississippi in 1969. Hurricane Charley blasted the Sunshine State with higher winds when it came ashore near Tampa last year.

When we are sure that all of the refugees are safe, when we are sure that every child has plenty of fresh drinking water and a full belly, and when we are sure that the victims of this disaster are no longer in harms way, then, and only then, should any of us focus on anything else.

There is so much more that I want to say about Mr. Kennedy’s article, but I will not. Not now, or ever. Suffice it to say, I think he is irresponsible for his actions, and heartless for his words.

One of Apple’s main rivals, Creative Technology, has been awarded a patent for the interface used on many digital music players.

Creative said the patent applied to its players, as well as some competing products such as the Apple’s iPod and iPod mini.

The patent covers how files on a music player are organised.

…

Creative said it had applied for the patent, dubbed the Zen Patent, on 5 January 2001 and was awarded it on 9 August.

It applies to the way music tracks are organised and navigated on a player through a hierarchy using three or more successive screens.

For example, this would be a sequence of screens that could display artists, then albums and then tracks.

“The first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen Patent was our Nomad Jukebox MP3 player,” said Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo.

“The Apple iPod was only announced in October 2001, 13 months after we had been shipping the Nomad Jukebox based upon the user interface covered by our Zen Patent.”

I’ll take my Zen Jukebox over an IPod any day.

Martial Law has been declared in New Orleans as conditions continued to deteriorate. Water levels in The Big Easy and it’s suburbs are rising at dangerous levels and officials stated they don’t know where the water is coming from. Residents are being urged to get out of New Orleans in any way they can as officials fear “life will be unsustainable” for days or even weeks.

…

Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps of Engineers, said a breach in the eastern part of the city was causing flooding and “significant evacuations” in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes. He did not know how many people were affected by the flooding.

Authorities also were gathering information on a levee breach in the western part of New Orleans. Jason Binet, of the Army Corps of Engineers, said that breach began Monday afternoon and may have grown overnight.

[Source: WBEN]

From The National Weather Service:

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE…OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE…ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS.

Hurricane Katrina strengthened to a dangerous Category 5 storm on Sunday with 160 mph sustained wind as residents of south Louisiana jammed freeways in a rush to get out of the low-lying region and head inland to higher ground.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida, meaning hurricane conditions were expected within 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm warnings extended east to Indian Pass, Fla., and west to Cameron, La.

Katrina had been blamed for nine deaths in South Florida.

The hurricane’s landfall could still come in Mississippi and affect Alabama and Florida, but it looked likely to come ashore Monday morning on the southeastern Louisiana coast, said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. That put New Orleans squarely in the crosshairs.

Pray for the people along the Gulf coast.

Country music’s “Redneck Woman” promises to keep her can of Skoal in her back pocket from now on. Tennessee’s attorney general had asked Gretchen Wilson not to pull out a can of smokeless tobacco during performances of her new song “Skoal Ring” because it glamorized tobacco use.

…

“Skoal Ring,” from her upcoming album, “All Jacked Up,” refers to the wear mark the tobacco cans leave in a blue jeans pocket.

Wilson also stated through her representative that she has no relationship with U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., the manufacturers of Skoal.

Since Wilson has agreed to quit displaying the Skoal can, it “pretty much resolves the issue,” said the attorney general’s spokeswoman, Sharon Curtis-Flair.

Personally, I think the fact that she has no relationship with the manufacturers of Skoal should resolve the issue. It’s moronic to think that leaving the can of tobacco in her pocket is going to target young people less. It’s not like anyone in the audience is standing there thinking, what is that round object in her back pocket? A hockey puck?

Next thing you know they are going to tell her to change the name of the song.

She should change the name of the song to “Moh’ron Ring“. A moron ring refers to the wear mark that idiotic ideas leave on the forehead of states’ attornies. Of course, some might consider this glamorizing the use of morons, which is just as dangerous as tobacco these days.

The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song Redneck Woman a hit to stop “glamorizing” the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts.

State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, Skoal Ring .

…

The title of her song Skoal Ring refers to the wear mark left by carrying a can of smokeless tobacco in a pocket of blue jeans.

The landmark $206 billion tobacco settlement “provided that advertisements such as this would be and should be prohibited,” Summers said.

She’s singing about chewing tobacco! Oh my Gawd!!! Someone do something quick, before the young people of our great nation are corrupted by this evil, evil, woman!

Of course, please ignore the following facts:

The #2 song on the country charts “Something More” by Sugarland, mentions “To drink some red wine and celebrate.”

The #3 song on the country charts, “As Good As I Once Was” by Toby Keith, mentions “Name is Bobby Jo, Meet my twin sister Betty Lou, And we’re both feeling kinda wild tonight, And you’re the only cowboy in this place, And if you’re up for a rodeo, We’ll put a big Texas smile on your face”

The #4 song on the country charts, “Play Something Country” by Brooks and Dunn, mentions “I’m a whiskey drinkin’, cowboy chasin’, helluva time.”

The #5 song on the country charts is titled “Alcohol” (by Brad Paisley). Need I say more?

Gretchen Wilson is not advertising “tobacco use” any more than the above mentioned artists are “advertising” sex and booze. If the Attorney General of Tennessee really wants to get his panties in a wad, he should take a closer look at some of the songs from different genres that don’t call Tennesee home.

Also note: Dale Earnhardt Jr. drives a car with “Budweiser” plastered on the hood, Mark Martin peddles Viagra while his car takes the lead, and the premier circuit in NASCAR was known as “Winston Cup” until two years ago.

Pardon me now, while I “put that bottle to my head and pull the trigger” with “Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Allison Krause