We've covered about 100 miles on our road trip through Alabama today. Done six interviews and shot five tapes using three cameras... all of which now goes by satellite to our Chicago bureau. There they will edit it and then beam the finished product to New York and Nightly News.

So far the hardest part is figuring out what won't make it in to the spot. My story can only run 90 to 95 seconds. One part I wanted to get in but won't have time for came from Foley. The assistant manager of the Super 8, who I mentioned in an earlier post, sent us an e-mail telling of the good being done to help Katrina victims. But there has also been some bad. Her normal snowbird vacationers from up north have been calling asking if the crime rate in Foley has gone up as a result of all the evacuee. Laura Palmer says she gets furious over those calls. She blames them on the looting images out of New Orleans.

Our race through Alabama is over for today. Up in Chicago, for the edit team, it's only just begun.

More tomorrow from Mississippi.

Driving through deep east Texas, you get the feeling that the storm happened last week, not last month. Piles of downed trees and metal roof debris litter every street. I've covered a lot of hurricanes, and you become used to seeing that sort of thing a couple of days, or even a few weeks later. Just to the east of Orange, on the north side of Interstate 10, is a pile of tree litter and debris. It's a mile long, and almost 50 feet high. You can see from the highway there's room for it to grow, and trucks are lined up, filled to the top, to add to the pile.

There has been so little coverage of these places, towns like Orange, Deweyville, Bridge City, Vidor, that you forget a major hurricane whipped through here. We stopped to fill up at a gas station outside of Deweyville. The pumps are working, but there are no covers for them, and the awning that was once covering half of the pumps sits on the ground in a corner of the parking lot. The manager says he and his son dragged it there after the storm, and it will probably sit there until spring. The clean-up crews, he explains, are too busy with other material, and he can't afford to pay someone to come and get it.

I'm enormously proud of the effort that dominates our blog today... two of our finest correspondents have set out on a mission that we will all hopefully learn from: Carl Quintanilla is traveling from West to East in the Gulf states and Martin Savidge from East to West. They will end up in New Orleans on Friday and cover what they see en route. We have vowed to stay on this story, to document the suffering... and this is our way of shedding some light on those who don't always get the media attention along the way. The volume of other news of late has meant I haven't been able to travel back to the region as often as I'd like (since our last trip to Mississippi) and while we are planning our next trip to the Gulf, we are confident that this effort will keep the story front and center with our viewers. Please join us for the first two installments of their series of reports tonight, and let us know what you think.

To the major news of the day: a man I first met as a reporter when he was the deputy to a U.S. Attorney named Michael Chertoff, Judge Samuel Alito, was today nominated to fill the Sandra Day O'Connor vacancy on the Supreme Court. His nomination was immediately praised and immediately attacked (in keeping with the natural balance of Washington), and we will try to balance it all out tonight, and introduce the American people to this jurist and father of two. We received strong indications late last week that we should be taking a good, hard look at Alito. Truth be told, his bio was among those that I've been carrying around in my briefcase (of possible nominees) for months now, and please note that "Erick,"a poster on RedState.org had the right call AGAIN in predicting Alito, as he did with Roberts. Erick either has a good SCOTUS/White House contact... or is just really good at predicting those the President will nominate to the highest court in the land.

We're also enormously proud of the announcement NBC News made today: starting next week, NBC Nightly News will be available online and on-demand, after 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT each night. This is for all those viewers who have stopped me in airports and politely explained that while they watch whenever they can, their busy lives don't allow them to see their favorite newscast every night. Soon, there will be no excuse. It's an idea whose time has come, and we're all very excited about it.

Of special additional note tonight: a question-and-answer explainer from Robert Bazell on the bird flu, and a final remembrance of Rosa Parks. A lot going on, and we look forward to sharing it with you tonight.

It's Halloween today. Even in the hurricane zone.

But what does your candy-craving, 8-year-old do when all the homes in the neighborhood have been damaged? When residents still haven't moved back, much less put M&M's by the front door? Nearly two months after Katrina, did this hurricane season steal Halloween, too?

Not quite. Tonight, in a town not far from us called Nederland, Texas, we hear they're having a "Trunk n' Treat." Families are encouraged to drive their cars to Boston Avenue, dump candy in the trunk and pass it out to kids who'll be canvassing the row of traffic. It's a way to help restore the tradition for kids who may still not be able to understand the reach of the storms' damage.

This afternoon we met the administrator of a local hospital here in Port Arthur. He has a 10-year-old. We asked what he was going as for Halloween. He said, "Death." (He'll wear a robe and carry a sickle.)

It's easy to miss Port Arthur, Texas. It's small and far from the interstate. It's hardly ever been the victim of a direct "hit" -- and when it was, like during Hurricane Rita, people's attention were already turned to New Orleans.

That has people here annoyed.

More than once today, we met folks who thought media coverage out of New Orleans was excessive, that it ignored the plight of those here who waited for food and delivery trucks just like everyone else. There's talk of pride here, too -- pride that Texans don't complain, even when times are tough.

Tonight, we'll take you to Port Arthur and explain why it's easy to overlook towns like this. When you drive through town, it doesn't look bad. At least, not at FIRST. Rita's storm surge didn't get far inland here. Many businesses are up and running. Restaurants are serving limited menus.

But travel to the back neighborhoods, and you realize that thousands of roofs were damaged by the high winds. That means water ruined houses by dripping in from above -- not flooding them from below. It means residents, workers and doctors still haven't moved back. It means the wait is long to get contractors to come visit. It is, in effect, a moderate but maddeningly slow pace of recovery.

We had a second crew go there this morning to divide up the workload. They report a lot of flooding in homes due to 18-20 foot storm surge. FEMA trailers sit in almost every driveway near the Gulf. The fishing and shrimping industries, already in dire straits pre-Katrina, are now really hurting. Fishermen say these days their nets catch more of people's homes than they do fish or shrimp.

Timothy Russell is the mayor of Foley. Been the mayor for 9 years. He says the city's still caring for about 400 evacuees. Echoes residents who say they help because of what they suffered with Ivan. "We've eaten MREs," he quips.

The local electric utility sent workers into Katrina's aftermath to help get the lights on. Foley lost 100 percent of its power in Ivan so they know what turning on the lights can mean. Foley also sent volunteers to feed victims. "We helped after Katrina," the mayor told me. "We're still helping now."

Starting the drive for Bayou La Batre, Ala. We're thinking it's about 50 miles or so. It's going to be tight, time-wise, getting everything done for Nightly.

Track our progress via GPS here.

So as we fill up the "9" is coming down at Dodge's.... it's now $2.37/gallon. $25.70 for nearly 11 gallons in our Toyota Camry.

How's this for news... new prices just went up at Dodge's gas station here in Foley. Gas is down to $2.39/gallon.

Just finishing up in Foley, Ala. Talking to the assistant manager of the Super 8, Laura Palmer. They have evacuees in 30 rooms, down from 66. She says it's like having family they've become so close. Palmer also says the reason Foley's been so giving is because folks here have stood in FEMA lines and have lost everything. They just stand and listen to Katrina evacuees and shake their heads in  understanding. Last year hurricane Ivan hit here, causing a lot of damage. Katrina just grazed them this year.

Also at this hotel is Melanie Mitchell. She's been here since Sept 4. Says she's had a hard time overcoming her pride and accepting help. She's used to giving, not taking she says: "It's like I've died and gone to heaven and we're living with angels."

Got to go... we're moving to find the mayor.

Martin filed this video blog from Foley. Click here to call it up, then click "launch" to play it.  I'm working on a more visually elegant way to display video in this space, but this will have to do for now.

On the banks of the Sabine river, the last point in Texas before you hit Louisiana, the small hamlet of Deweyville, Texas is waiting for help. It's small, only about 1,000 people. Driving through here you see eight of 10 houses with a tarp on the roof and a tree or two down in the yard. This is timber country in deep East Texas. Pine trees 80 feet tall ring most of the houses. Or at least they did until Rita passed over. The eye of the storm came right up the river. It snapped trees three feet in diameter all over the area. You can find the occasional house with a roofer on top, new shingles being slapped down, but for the most part people here are waiting. Waiting for help.

The Busby family evacuated to Missouri during the storm. They came back two weeks ago and have been living in a tent in their front yard. Cecil, his wife Christina, and their daughter, 7-year-old Brianna. Their water well works, so they have water, and as of last week, power was back, but their house can't be lived in... the ceiling fell in when trees came through the house. Cecil cut the trees out, the Corps of Engineers tarped the roof, but the Busbys are waiting for FEMA to inspect the house and either give them a housing voucher or (what they would prefer) a trailer to put on their land. Cecil's grandfather built the house, they hope they can save it.

School starts here again on Wednesday. The kids have missed 19 school days and have been out of school just shy of a month. It's the last school district in Texas to reopen after the storm. Mold is an issue throughout the High school, the roof of the elementary school was peeled back, and the middle school had damage as well.

Driving into Beaumont, Texas Sunday night, five weeks after Hurricane Rita struck 30 miles from here, you can still see scars. Four out of five signs for businesses are still blown out, not yet replaced. Highway signs, still leaning southwest, blown over as Rita approached. The occasional business still boarded up. RV parks full with new-looking travel trailers.

There is no catastrophic damage, no miles of flooded houses and flattened buildings. But the damage is here. Our hotel for the night here in Port Arthur has no carpet on the first floor. It was flooded out by a hole in the roof. Sheetrock has been ripped out from the floor, two feet up the wall, exposing the backsides of bathtubs and wiring in the rooms. We're walking on cardboard taped down to the floor. Downed trees are still stacked up for removal on the curb, and there are whole city blocks surrounded by chain link fencing, while the repairs and rebuilding take place. Construction trucks are everywhere, either rebuilding, or looking for work.

On the positive side, the bars and restaurants are busy, the Wal-Mart parking lot is full and people are lined up nine deep at checkout. Normal life goes on. This is not New Orleans, or Biloxi, or ground zero for Rita (Cameron Parish, La., just to the east). But this is an area that was hurt.  We're trying to find out how bad. On Monday's broadcast, we'll talk to residents here still recovering from Rita, who feel like they have been forgotten.

Tuesday we're hoping to head to Cameron Parish, a place with a savage hurricane history. In 1909, a storm killed every cow in the parish, every building was washed away, yet miraculously, only two people died. When Rita came ashore in September it wiped away huge chunks of land, gutted the fishing industry, and leaving hundreds homeless.

Editor's note: Al is field producing for correspondent Carl Quintanilla, who will report all this week from towns along the western Gulf Coast. Read Carl's first blog from the journey here.

This morning, we begin a rare experiment in the fast-moving world of daily television journalism: the chance to immerse ourselves in a story for a week and bring you a different chapter every night. If it works -- and we think it will -- we'll have helped illustrate the true effects of this year's hurricane season on the Gulf Coast.

Here's how it will work: each morning, two small caravans of producers, photographers and engineers will pull into a different town. A forgotten town. Or one that was never paid enough attention to be forgotten in the first place.

We'll ask the questions so many of YOU have asked: how's the relief effort? What's the pace of rebuilding there? Were promises made to victims of the storm, and more importantly, were promises kept? Have people moved back, and if so, how much of their lives have been forever changed by this year's punishment from Mother Nature? What do their reactions (or those of our country's) say about ourselves?

At the end of the day, we'll show you what we found. Then we'll load up the gear, hop in the car, and head to the next days's destination. No disrespect to Charles Kuralt, but we'll literally BE "on the road."

If there's one thing I've learned since standing outside the New Orleans Hyatt Regency as Katrina hit, it's that EVERYONE'S "Katrina" experience is different. It depended on whether you were rich or poor, urban or rural, old or young -- even overweight or thin.

Try as we might to tell everyone's story (and we've tried), it's near-impossible to show all the facets of a phenomenon that struck over such a wide area. Our team, headed by ace producers Al Henkel and Mark Hudspeth, will do our best. And because we'll be focusing on the coastline WEST of New Orleans, we'll also tell the story of Hurricane Rita -- and how its devastation was compounded by the chaos from Katrina just weeks before.

We're excited to take you on this journey. With the immediacy of this blog, we hope to be your eyes and ears as we bring you with us.

As the Blues Brothers might have said: it's 100 miles to Port Arthur, Texas. It's dark. And we're wearing sunglasses. We'll see you on the road.

Hurricane Katrina was born on August 23 and lived for 9 days… but in just one of those days, August 29, the fourth hurricane of the 2005 season triggered the greatest humanitarian disaster in America's history… Eventually displacing more than a million people.

You have to go back to the Great Depression to see that kind of population on the move. Now two months later we're moving to see what has and hasn't happened in her wake.

To get to our starting point, Foley, Ala., we first had to drive east out of New Orleans. Normally the drive would be about 180 miles and take three hours. We took nine hours and covered 241 miles.

For the most part highways, I-10 in our case, are open and in only a very few places impacted by the storm. The same can't be said for coastal highway 90. It's a mess, most of its bridges damaged and closed. Gas is plentiful along the way and sells on average for $2.75 a gallon. The fast food spots are open and busy but don't look for a hotel. If their open, they're full.

We wandered on and off of I-10, dipping in and out of disaster, scouting ahead for the journey back that will make up our reports every night this week in a series we're calling "After the Storm: The Long Road Back."

Our first stop out of New Orleans, at 10 a.m., wasn't that far down the road, in Michaud, La. It's where they make the external fuel tanks for the space shuttle. The only place they make them. NASA hopes to return to space next May. What we found could have them rethinking that.

From there we headed to Mississippi. As you drive in the Katrina zone beyond the devastation there are other impressions. Grit. Your skin and lips constantly feel dry and covered with dust. You can't see it, but you feel it coating you. The last rain in the region was hurricane Rita. Ironically, areas that were flooded are now bone dry. Fire is one of the greatest fears here.

By 12 noon we're passing through East Orleans and another of Katrina's effects pours through the window… smell. The bouquets range from interesting to "Oh my God!" In a mile of roadway I am nearly overcome by the smell of some sort of fuel which is then replaced by the overpowering aroma of roasting coffee from the huge Folgers factory. A half mile later something obviously dead replaces that scent.

1pm and we're pulling into Pearlington, Miss. The town sits on the bank of the Pearl River. The very river Katrina followed inland. It was said this town was forgotten before the storm and definitely afterward. At the small Catholic church, the statue of Mary still stands. The church behind it is erased. So is the post office, right down to the slab, gone. 

I talked to Griff Hailes. He and his wife Winney had just set a camping trailer where their house was. No sign of the house, but they have a 70-foot deep sea tug in their backyard now. Lots of folks come by to take pictures. Griff is thinking of charging admission to make up for what the insurance won't cover, which right now is everything.  He's 80, she's 79.

2:56pm and it's Pass Christian, Miss. This is the town where the cops got trapped in the new library as the storm surge rose. The hurricane glass held until they realized they were trapped. From those windows they watched Katrina from underwater, in sort of a reverse aquarium. The amazing part is how they got out.

I met Dave and Carole Baker there. Like prospectors, they were bent over on their property, sifting through the sand, trying to find jewelry or silverware. Carole walked me through their house room by room. It took some imagination since the only thing left is the slab. We were the first camera crew they had seen.

Back on the road again and more interesting things to see.Most cars in the storm zone are new. The most common state plate is "temporary." Most common sign? People advertising "House gutting." And you see lots of American flags… all of them new.

We pass through Long Beach, Miss. This is the town a British billionaire is promising to rebuild. The millionaires who own the vanished beachfront mansions are probably glad for that.

5:05pm and Pascagoula, Miss. is getting dark thanks to the time change. We pass several shopping center parking lots littered with clothing. When I see one with people wading through it we stop. By street light and aided by headlights, Carolyn (she wouldn't give her last name) digs through the clothing spread out before her. She is looking for something for her grandbabies. Their parents have lost everything and here is what remains of the clothing Americans gave. For two months it has been sitting scattered in the open air. She will search all night if she has to, haunted by the faces of children who are now cold since fall has come and their coats are gone.

In a single day we have been reminded of what one storm did to change life for a million people. We've met people who still struggle to survive. Come with us this week and we'll show you.

There is little I can or should add to what we've watched transpire today. I've been on the set of Nightly News since 9:00 a.m., and I should quickly point out that our whole team... correspondents, analysts, camera crews, producers, assignment desk personnel... have all been on a hair-trigger and working enormously hard today to cover this story and report it accurately.

I just keep thinking: now we know. Now we know why some of those witnesses were called. Now we know about the role of the journalists in this case (which will be debated and argued over for years to come), now we know the allegations, now we know that Mr. Fitzgerald (apparently) studies baseball closely, confesses to no party leanings and cannot wait to sleep in his own bed in Chicago. I heard the name Elliot Ness used to describe Mr. Fitzgerald today. I've been thanked by several people for pointing out on the air the derivation of Mr. Libby's nickname: an early admiration for Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, the famed Yankee shortstop. Also, during our live coverage earlier today, Tim Russert explained in detail the substance of his contact (tangential and non-Plame-related, it turns out) with Mr. Libby that caused such speculation. As often happens to those of us working in this business: since our energy goes into live coverage of events like today's... (being on the "giving" end deprives us of the viewing experience, but that's a trade-off we gladly make to do what we love) it will take days of reflection and reading of analysis to soak in exactly what transpired and what's next.

We are putting together the broadcast now, no easy feat on a night like this.

I want to thank those of you who e-mailed us to say that I don't hate America.

I am guessing Meet the Press will have a huge viewing audience on Sunday, as will all shows political in nature.

I heartily recommend Tom Brokaw's special on NBC tonight, "In God They Trust." And since many of you have expressed a desire to see the documentary we put together on New Orleans for the Sundance Channel (and I'm finding that many of you, like me, don't get the Sundance Channel) we hope to soon announce an outlet where it will air on one of the NBC Cable networks.

We will next be on alert for a fast nomination to the Supreme Court. We note that Harriett Miers was among those on Marine One today, flying to Camp David with the President where he and Mrs. Bush will celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary tomorrow.

We wish all of you a good weekend, safe and restful, and hope you'll join us tonight.

In response to some viewer e-mails, I would like to provide more details about a report we had on breast cancer on Wednesday night.

Our report was based on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that looked at the reasons for some good news in the battle against breast cancer. Until 1990 the death rate for breast cancer had been going up. But since 1990 it has been falling about two percent a year. The reasons for this hopeful trend had been a medical mystery.

Researchers looked at seven separate statistical analyses of the trend and concluded two factors were responsible. The first was regular mammograms. An increasing numbers of women have been getting screening mammograms and as a result doctors are finding ever more breast cancer at earlier, more curable stages. There has been a big debate whether mammograms save lives and these results should end that argument.

But the study found that just as important was a change in the way breast cancer is treated for many patients.  Increasingly, women with breast cancer get what is called adjuvant therapy. This can be hormone therapy, chemotherapy or both. It is administrated soon after the removal of the tumor. The point is not to treat cancer that is there, but to keep the cancer from coming back. The studies showed that adjuvant treatment is at least as important, possibly more so, than regular mammograms in bringing down the overall death rate.

But I want to emphasize that this study was not about any particular chemotherapy or hormone drug. It showed how trends in medical care are affecting the overall death rate. It does not contain any information on what specific treatments a woman with breast cancer should be receiving.

It certainly does not mean that every woman diagnosed with breast cancer should be getting adjuvant chemotherapy or hormone treatment. Breast cancer experts say one of the biggest problems they face now is that many more women get the treatment than actually need it. That approach is helping to bring down the overall death rate, but many suffer the side effects of the treatment unnecessarily. The hope is that genetic tests will soon identify those patients who will actually benefit from adjuvant therapy.

And finally, while it is wonderful to see the breast cancer death rate falling, we need to remember that 40,000 women in this country will die from breast cancer this year. While there is progress, the research still has a long way to go.

Turmoil at the White House... with the Harriet Miers withdrawal, a grand jury investigation and the war grinding on in Iraq, it's a pivotal time for the Bush presidency. Tonight, a look at how each challenge affects the White House, and ultimately, you.

It's never the crime.  It's the cover-up.

There has been a lot of discussion about whether Patrick Fitzgerald will limit his charges to obstruction of justice, perjury and other "technicalities," as some Republicans have described them, or go for an indictment on the underlying charge of violating the Identities Act. That Act forbids unauthorized disclosure of a clandestine intelligence officer's identity.

Within five weeks of being appointed and within two weeks of hearing his first witnesses, Fitzgerald asked for and received permission from the Justice Department to expand his investigation into perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses.

In recent days, some on both the Left and the Right have suggested that such charges as these would make the prosecution "troubling" in that they don't reach the level of gravitas that violating the Identities Act does. Somehow, they suggest, this would be either less satisfying [Left] or less serious [Right]…as if this was the first time such charges had been used in Washington scandals.

However, a reading of key charges filed in Watergate, Iran-Contra and the Clinton sex scandals show that these charges are what special prosecutors have used in the past, almost exclusively, to pursue government wrong-doing, particularly in complicated cases. The defendants in these cases, like the Plame case, always find themselves dealing with conspiracy, perjury and obstruction charges.

In Watergate, Attorney General Mitchell and White House Domestic Affairs Adviser John Ehrlichman were convicted of conspiracy, perjury and obstruction. White House chief of Staff H.R "Bob" Haldemann was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction. John Dean, the White House counsel, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and counselor Charles Colson pleaded no contest to the same charge. Jeb Magruder, who headed the Committee to Re-elect the President, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

None were charged with burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate.

In Iran-Contra, a case involving sending the ill-gotten profits of Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan contras, Lt. Col. Oliver North was charged and later convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents. John Poindexter, the National Security Adviser, was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, the alteration and destruction of evidence and defrauding the government.

Neither were charged with illicit arms sales.

Both men had their convictions overturned on appeal because of issues related to immunity granted them by congressional committees.

And in the case of President Clinton, impeachment charges were also based on laws governing perjury and obstruction of justice rising from the Lewinsky scandal. 

He was not charged with having sex with a former intern.

Leaks are the lifeblood of journalists. For a long time, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court and other empathetic citadels of power, we were conditioned to respond indignantly to questions about where our unsourced information comes from. Typically, we'd reply: "That's a matter of honor. We cannot answer that question and maintain our integrity."

That attitude didn't help our already anemic standing in the public eye. And it didn't take long, in this era of political free-for-all, unbridled spin and instant reaction, for journalists to become the subjects of the kinds of questions that we used to think we could ask with impunity, but were exempt from having to answer.

We have gone through a lot of self-examination in the last 30 years. Initially, much of it was confined to newsrooms and journals that most people don't read. It grew steadily, and once in a while we would make a big mistake that would generate more public scrutiny and discomforting questions. The Internet made the self-examination even more uncomfortable (because we can't set the terms on that public forum the way we can on our newscasts and in our newspapers and journals) and more intense (because of the Web's immediacy and pervasiveness).

Our reader's e-mail questioning the motivation of our source in the FEMA story brought all that to mind, and prompted me to recall a day back in the early 1980s when the heads of state, foreign ministers and finance secretaries of the world's industrialized nations were meeting in Williamsburg, Va. I was a young bureau reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. A colleague who had about the same amount of experience as I did -- not much -- was assigned to cover a briefing at the summit meeting. Afterward, he called me, almost breathless, to describe it.

He said there were 500 or so reporters in a big auditorium. A well-known American cabinet official walked to the microphone in front of the room and began his briefing with the words: "This comes from a high administration official." My friend was amazed. "It was (So-and-So). But we can't use his name," he said. "There were five-HUNDRED reporters there." Nobody, he said, objected.

Now, this is really no big revelation. It's the way Washington works. Information is power, whether in the hands of a cabinet officer, a FEMA administrator, or someone who happens to have copies of interesting e-mails and wants a reporter to put them in the newspaper or broadcast them on television. More to the point, information is power in the hands of a reporter. The reporter's status depends on how much information he or she can gather. The less viewers and readers know about where that information comes from, the more powerful the reporter becomes... both inside and outside the newsroom.

The problem with that, is it can open the door for abuse in the hands of a reporter who is unskilled, uninformed, unscrupulous or suffers from any of a thousand other human shortcomings. In the old days, we journalists just said: "Trust us." Your answer, loud and clear, has been: "Trust, but verify." Through our mistakes and omissions, we've earned that skepticism.

Generally, in recent years, we've been better about examining ourselves on disclosing the motivation of sources. We still aren't good enough. The immediacy of the Internet has helped. It makes us ask the hard questions all day every day.

The Associated Press, the Washington Post, The New York Times and, I might add, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, all identified that cabinet secretary back in the 80s as "a high administration official" in their subsequent accounts. What was his motivation for remaining anonymous? Who knows? Maybe he didn't want to upstage his boss. Nobody, I recall, addressed that question in their reporting.   

And, by the way, if you think that we're cured of our hand-in-glove relationship with Washington, just look back a few paragraphs. More than 20 years later, I still felt compelled to refer to the guy, parenthetically, as "So-and-So." Once it's in your blood, it's tough to get it out.

Last week, Nightly News' investigative unit broke the story of e-mails that revealed a divergence between the warnings of a FEMA deputy stationed at the Superdome during Katrina, and the responses he got from the inner circle of former director Michael Brown. The testimony of the FEMA insider, Marty Bahamonde, was a focal point of Senate hearings the next day. His criticism of FEMA is especially significant because of his reputation: he is highly praised by both Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The report prompted a skeptical response from one viewer, who wrote:

"… Initially, I thought it was a terrific report. However, I think you owe it to your viewers to give some indication as to who tipped off your reporter and who provided you with the e-mails. If someone in Washington is continuing to make Michael Brown the scapegoat for the disaster in New Orleans in order to protect others, you missed the real story; namely, who is doing the leaking and whom are they trying to protect?"

His first point is a topical one. We are adherents of journalism's transparency movement (the silver lining in the storm over confidential sources), and we try, when appropriate, to share details about how we got the stories we report to you. (Obviously, it's not always possible to identify sources.) Here, we missed a chance to share some background information. NBC News obtained the e-mails from a FEMA critic. 

As for the viewer's second point – whether these e-mails were made available to make Brown a "scapegoat" – it's speculative. Our investigative team says there's no evidence that politics were at work here, especially given the bipartisan nature of the Senate hearings (chaired by a Republican) and Bahamonde's stature as a respected source.  (For a sense of how his testimony was received, see this Washington Post story.) To me, the skepticism expressed by this viewer is a (not unwelcome) sign of the journalism times. I hope he understands that we take his concerns to heart, and think carefully about our sources, their agendas (if any) and what constitutes everything you need to know about the information we report.

Wow. Just last night I told my wife I would take some time off to be with the family "as soon as the news calmed down." Not bloody likely. 

Cell phones and pagers lit up this morning just prior to our morning editorial meeting with word that the Miers nomination had been withdrawn. Tim Russert almost immediately reported that a nose count in the GOP Senate Caucus showed they did not have 51 votes in the President's own party. As for the official version of the pullout, that was foreshadowed by Charles Krauthammer in his column: the request for documents pertaining to her service to the President was just too much.

Now the President is faced with another huge nomination. And now the President has to make it through tomorrow. An insider told me today that the White House "is certainly mentally preparing for the possible indictment of Libby and Rove." Again, no leaks from the Grand Jury, none from possible targets, very few tea leaves and that leaves all guess work and no facts (or few facts) to go on. We'll have reports and analysis of all of the above from Pete Williams, David Gregory and Tim Russert. What a week in politics, and in the life of this Administration.

The President was in Florida today, checking into the post-Wilma recovery effort, with his brother (and Rep. Katherine Harris) at his side. There are problems with power, water, ice and gasoline availability. It's not so much that Wilma caught anyone by surprise (have we ever had MORE NOTICE than we have today when storms approach? Again, I recommend the book ISAAC'S STORM as a measurement of how scarily blind we once were to these approaching monsters), as much as it is the new scrutiny of the government's reaction after any storm in this post-Katrina era.

We'll take on the issue of Tamiflu tonight... suddenly the hottest black-market substance in the free world, seemingly. There's a run on this stuff, which was available on eBay until this morning. For people with means, the rush is on to get doctors to write the scrip to allow them to stock up. While taking it as a prophylactic is of no use, it's also a flu medication, and the manufacturer has now made news by moving to keep it available for when it's truly needed.

We have an emotional update on New Orleans tonight, specifically: a return to the Lower 9th Ward. And our special report tonight on our incredible shrinking retirement benefits. Along the way we will report on seemingly gross oil company profits, and much else tonight.

To the mailbag...

Having written the equivalent of a James Michener novel each day in this space for the past several days, it's time to cut back as there's other work to do. But I did want to post an e-mail I received yesterday. I found it very disturbing and I read it aloud to a few employees gathered in the newsroom, who had the same reaction. I will link to it here and in lieu of personally responding to the author's charge, I'll briefly explain it below, on the off chance that there were other viewers laboring under the same misconception.
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"I was disappointed that you put Rosa Parks at the back of the bus upon her death. If she was white, would she have come before the Bird Flu story? For a channel who has always been fair and not prejudice tonight that was not the case. I feel betrayed, insulted and sad that you would place her death behind all other news. She changed this country to the positive for all not just black people. In the future please be more sensitive in the order of your news. She should have had a seat in the front of the news instead of the back." -- Lisa in Warwick, R.I.
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Anyone who has watched this broadcast with any regularity over the years knows that the final position in our broadcast, known as the last "block" in our trade (which on normal nights is often devoted to a lighter, happier or perhaps inspirational news item, if subject matter and time allow), traditionally serves as a place where we pay tribute and remember those who have left us. Too many prominent people to mention, including Presidents, Queens and Kings. I think any rational review of our coverage of Rosa Parks would stand up to scrutiny. Further, we were proud of how we chose to look at her life and its meaning. I was the author of the words.

As much as we should always examine our own work and how it's received by our viewers, implications like the one in this viewer's e-mail can be devastating and dangerous. Very simply: does anyone truly believe it was the intent of this broadcast to downplay or diminish in any way the life or death of an icon in the Civil Rights movement?

On the whole, I much preferred the kind sentiment contained in the e-mail to our blog that invoked David and Chet (click and scroll down for the comment from P. Soler in Moraga, Calif.), two of the men we see in our opening montage each night, which serves to remind us of the need for good reporting every time out.

We hope you can join us tonight.

The news broke out of Washington shortly before 9 a.m. this morning. Harriet Miers has withdrawn her name for consideration to be the next justice on the Supreme Court. Tonight on the broadcast we'll look back on her rocky road since President Bush nominated her on Oct. 3 and Brian will discuss the political implications with "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert. In the meantime, you can read the latest on the story here, including links to Miers' withdrawal letter to President Bush and the president's response.

Will you be able to afford health care for all the years of your retirement? As employers cut benefits,  more Americans are felling the pain. How much do you need? How can you stay covered? We have some answers, tonight.

Because viewers always ask for it and because it's not available anywhere else on Nightly.MSNBC.com, here is Brian's closing thought from Wednesday's broadcast:

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"And finally, the other health news development of this week: word that McDonalds will soon post nutritional information on its food wrappers. The cynics and live-for-today types may have a point when they say: do people really go to McDonalds for the health of it? Do we want to be reminded? Isn't the danger that your loved one might find out about it part of the dirty thrill of eating a Big Mac?

Others say McDonalds wins by volunteering to do this. One expert says they're educating consumers who will now know what it means to have fries with that."