Happy New Year to all.

How are you celebrating the new year? Predictions? Personal resolutions? Hopes? How about a good riddance list?

Snowed in again. You Ain't Going Nowhere. The Byrds, 1968.

It is a freaking mess out here. This blizzard looks to be worst than the last one. And it's only just begun.

The airport is already in chaos:

Lines are already hundreds deep and airlines have canceled some flights as a result of the winter storm that began to dump snow on the Front Range this morning. Snow started falling in downtown Denver shortly before 10:30 a.m. and may fall at a rate of up to 2 inches an hour. Between 8 and 18 inches will be piling up on the ground. A couple of feet can be expected in the foothills as the storm pulses into Friday and even Saturday.

More on the aiport situation here. Frontier is being particularly hit hard. If you're driving, here are the current road conditions.

Here we go again. The snow is expected to begin falling around noon. I'm off to get as much done as I can before the snow gets too heavy to drive in and the roads ice up. Just little things, like going to the office to get the mail, the grocery store to stock up on food and pick up some fresh flowers to brighten a gray day.

Here's an open thread for you.

Public defenders toil daily in the courtroom trenches protecting constitutional rights for very little money and even less glory.

Now there's a blog awards just for them. Sentencing Law and Policy explains here.

But don't take our word for it, head on over to the Inaugural 2006 Public Defender Blog Awards and check out the diverse and thoughtful blogs and cast a vote.

The 2006 Blawg Awards didn't include a category for public defenders, an oversight that will be remedied next year. But there are some good sites there, so mosey over there too and check out the winners. TalkLeft won the Best Politico Law Blog Award this year.

The TL kid is with friends watching the Bronco game. He'll be back soon, we've got fresh tamales and homemade chicken enchilladas and green chile for dinner, with margaritas to accompany them.

The fireplace is turned on, it just started snowing heavily (again) and I'm glad to be warm and safe in my humble abode.

Best wishes to all of you for a happy holiday and let's hope next year at this time, our soldiers will be home from Iraq.

We're about to head into what is likely the blogoshpere's lowest week of readership.

I'll be offline most of Saturday as the TL kid is flying in -- assuming the airport stays open.

Let's give the gift of links to other bloggers. Who are you reading? If you have a blog and have a post that you think TalkLeft readers would be interested in, link to it in the comments (just use the html buttons so the site doesn't get skewed.)

And if there's anything else you want to say, here's a place.

The original Eschaton has been restored. No need to go to the temporary site anymore.

Digby is having and end of year fundraiser and as usual, eloquently explains why bloggers need contributions to keep on trucking.

Digby is an absolutely essential daily read for progressives. Please keep it going.

As I wrote two weeks ago, bloggers need Christmas heart too.

It's time for the Tuesday open thread. What's happening in your world? What are you reading and concerned about today?

And if any of you readers are Scoop-tech, and know how to put the publication date into my rss feed ( which block I put the code in and what code I should put in), please let me know. Colin of Scoophost is out of town until the first of the year and I'd like to do it asap. Many thanks!