Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | I told them everything, says Bush after secret hearing in Oval Office
"Asked about the reasons for the joint appearance yesterday, Mr Bush said: 'I wanted them to know how I set strategy, how we run the White House, how we deal with threats. The vice-president answered a lot of questions - answered all their questions. And I think it was important for them to see our body language as well, how we work together.'"

I want to emphasize something because I truly cannot believe he said this: "I think it was important for them to see our body language as well, how we work together." First of all, on its face, does it even make sense at all? Body language? Who THINKS like this? Secondly, I can't for the life of me think of WHY it would be important for the 9/11 Commission to know how George Bush and Dick Cheney work together. Too bad the brilliant liberal media couldn't ask him that question. Oh that's right. It's too scary to ask the president questions. The other thing I find disturbing is the commissioners' notebooks were confiscated and will be checked in case they wrote down anything confidential. WTF? Will they send the commissioners to Lacuna, Inc. to have their memories erased if they heard something confidential?

The New York Times > Times on the Trail > Playing the Heavy
"Mr. Cheney seems particularly well suited for the role. For one thing, his loyalty to Mr. Bush is probably unmatched in this White House. He has the command of facts that comes from having made a life in Washington."

"HE HAS THE COMMAND OF FACTS"????? Apparently Mr. Nagourney defines "facts" differently than the rest of the world.

STLtoday - Leonard Little Charged With Felony In DWI
Highway 40 is a major highway and Ladue is a tony suburb of St. Louis. I doubt that 78 MPH is unusual on that stretch but for 4am it might be. This is a sad situation and you can only wonder what was going through Leonard's mind as he got into his car and headed west. Without the whole story, it looks pretty bleak for the Rams.

Yahoo! News - Steven Spielberg to Direct Munich Olympics Film
"After finishing the Munich Olympics film, Spielberg plans to direct a project titled "The Rivals," followed by a big-screen adaptation of H.G. Wells' alien invasion tale, "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise (news), Daily Variety reported."

Why remake "War of the Worlds"? Sure the 1953 version has some flaws, mainly the performance of Ann Robinson in the female lead and some dated dialogue, but the script is literate for the most part, the acting is above par, the direction well-paced and imaginative, and the special effects are superb. It's a classic.

Telegraph | News | Stop behaving as if you are a Frenchman if you want to win, says Kerry's (French) adviser
I know the guy is right, but something about this just makes me shake my head in disgust. Here we go again. Elections are so sickening.

STLtoday - Sports - Rams Will Cut Warner
I was, and remain, a big Warner fan. I still think he can have some great years in the NFL. But this has to be done. Martz no longer has confidence in him. And I think one of the biggest reasons is because he talked Martz out of putting him in the game up in Chicago. I disagree with the article that there will not be interest in the league. I think Oakland, Arizona, Detroit, Miami and Washington will show interest. Even with the strong draft, you can't just overlook a two time MVP.

The New York Times - Text: Testimony of Condoleezza Rice Before 9/11 Commission (reg. required)
Some excerpts:

"RICE: In the memorandum that Dick Clarke sent me on January 25th, he mentions sleeper cells. There is no mention or recommendation of anything that needs to be done about them. And the FBI was pursuing them. And usually when things come to me, it's because I'm supposed to do something about it, and there was no indication that the FBI was not adequately pursuing the sleeper cells."
...
"ROEMER: You don't think there's any responsibility back to the advisor to the president... RICE: I believe that the responsibility -- again, the crisis management here was done by the CSG. They tasked these things. If there was any reason to believe that I needed to do something or that Andy Card needed to do something, I would have been expected to be asked to do it. We were not asked to do it. In fact, as I've..."
...
"RICE: Well, actually when you have principals meetings they really sometimes are to tell -- for the principals to say what their staffs have said -- have told them to say. THOMPSON: Right. RICE: I just have to say we may simply disagree on this with some of the commissioners. I do not believe that there was a lack of high-level attention. The president was paying attention to this. How much higher level can you get? The secretary of state and the secretary of defense and the attorney general and the line officers are responsible for responding to the information that they were given and they were responding. The problem is that the United States was effectively blind to what was about to happen to it and you cannot depend on the chance that some principal might find out something in order to prevent an attack. That's why the structural changes that are being talked about here are so important."

So basically, "nobody told me to do anything". But the president was paying attention. Lovely. Look: you are not going to be able to change the structure of government. Ever. The purpose of the executive branch is to be able to OVERRIDE that structure in the name of the people. GET THINGS DONE. ASK QUESTIONS. You don't sit there reading memos looking for the line where it says "Rice has to do this." Her testimony was extremely enlightening...and damning.

Yahoo! News - Futures in Balance as Rice Prepares to Testify
"Some analysts also wonder if Rice, who has complained in the past about all-consuming jobs, may not be ready to leave Washington. She has expressed interest in becoming national football commissioner and been rumored to be interested in running for Senate or governor in California."

Now wait a minute. "National football commissioner"? WTF is that? Do you think they mean NFL commissioner? Paul "Just signed a 3 year contract extension" Tagliabue's job? I think there may be a story there...

NFL to clamp down on clutching and grabbing
"'I don't really understand what we're trying to do' Belichick said. Belichick said that in many of the examples on a demonstration film shown to coaches, it was unclear to him whether a violation occurred. "

Now THERE'S the best explanation I can find of the "genius" of Bill Belichick. Just have your secondary pull the other team's receivers down. After a while, everyone forgets it's illegal.