I arrived at 30 Rock this afternoon in time to join our afternoon editorial meeting in progress—and I noticed something on the bottom of my shoe: oil. I had carried it from Florida by air to New Orleans, through the airport, onto the plane, through LaGuardia and all the way to our newsroom. And now...its preserved forever in this photo. This oil stains like ink from a pen—I have it on my shirt and pants, and on a shirt from a previous visit. It doesn't come out. There's a lesson in that.

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A new group calling itself "I'm Going to the Gulf Anyway" has recently popped up on Facebook:

This group is committed simply to the idea that instead of canceling your trip to the Gulf for vacation because of the oil spill, we're going anyway. If there is oil when you get there, you could volunteer to help cleanup if needed. Makes sense to help out considering all the great memories you have from going there all these years...

It seems to be functioning as a sort of a pep rally, a small but hopeful gesture of commitment for a region seriously in need of one just about now. Here's one typical post:

For better or worse I will be traveling to the NW. Florida Gulf Coast, supporting the local economy and spending my 4th of July family vacation with my family in Destin. I loved the area pre-oil, I love it now, and I will continue to love an support the area and people post-oil...until it is all better again.

Greetings from a hot and steamy New York City. It seemed like such a good idea to walk to work today. Sitting in front of a fan for 15 minutes once I got here turned out to be an even better idea. Memo to self: New York City cabs are air-conditioned.

We're juggling a lot for tonight's broadcast including more on what tropical depression – but soon to become a tropical storm again – Alex is going to do once it gets back out over the Gulf of Mexico. We'll have more from Anne Thompson's extraordinary tour of the rig where crews are drilling one of the relief wells that are expected to stop the oil leak once and for all. We're previewing this week's Senate confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. Also, Richard Engel has the story of one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. forces in the war in Afghanistan, and the parents of the dead who refused to stop pressing the Pentagon for answers about how and why they died.

I hope you will join us tonight for NBC Nightly News.

In full disclosure my attention is a little divided this afternoon. I'm writing today's blog while watching the world cu....come on there it is!!! kick kick kick....it's in...yes...noooo. almost!. I'm sorry, I was trying to say I'm watching the world cup match between the U.S. and Ghana. It's been that way around the newsroom. The tapping of computer keyboard interrupted by a rising chorus of cheers, usually followed by a collective groan. Those of us who have suddenly discovered the sport are quickly adapting to the high anxiety-low scoring nature of the international soccer. Perhaps someday, someone can explain to me what exactly constitutes "offside" in soccer, and why the clock counts up, not down. Don't even get me started on those mysterious ill-defined extra minutes that they tack on to the end. Chances are by the time you read this...I'm sorry, hold that thought a sec.... free kick...come on, come on...yes!!!. OK I'm back, where was I? Oh ya, -- chances are by the time you read this the match will be over (translation: no excuse for missing our broadcast), but win or lose, hats off to team USA for expanding our sports horizons beyond the gridiron, diamond and hardwood, and giving us something to cheer about.

I hope you can join us for Nightly News tonight where we'll have late word on the track of Tropical Storm Alex, and whether it poses any threat to the oil leak clean-up and recovery operation. We've also just received some new information on the condition of former Vice President Dick Cheney who is in the hospital this afternoon. Also, things are looking up at the factory of a well known American brand, and it may be telegraphing better days ahead for the U.S. economy.

Thanks for checking in with us. We'll look for you this evening.

We are headed back to the Gulf for the start of next week. We will do tonight's broadcast from New York and then head down over the weekend. I'm looking forward to being there, being with the people there...but I'm not looking forward to what I'm going to see, and how much it's changed since my last visit.

Apologies for not posting yesterday, and thanks to all those who did.

We may say a word about the new iPhone tonight. What a story. The only problem with it appears to be: Making calls. Here's something else that may be said and written about the appliance in the near future, as more people get them: it’s the arrival of the video phone. Truly portable "live chat" is here. It was the stuff of science fiction when I was a boy, and now it’s possible from hand-held device to hand-held device--for those moments in life that aren't already televised. It may be the perfect appliance for the age of truly portable narcissism. Now we wait for the pedestrian collisions on the sidewalk, or the stories that will no doubt be written under the headline "VIDEO PHONES LEAD TO INCREASE IN DISTRACTED DRIVING." So that's something to look forward to.

Also: You've read about the demands celebrities make (dressing rooms, transportation, catering, etc) when on tour? A "leaked" document, just out, shows the demands Steve Martin makes at all banjo concert venues. It’s awesome.

And one more thing: I have a slew of new music to write about--in the coming days, my woefully dormant music site will come alive again--I just need to find the time. Perhaps on the flight to New Orleans--or merely waiting on the runway at JFK!

Have a good weekend, and we hope you can join us tonight.

Tom Costello writes:

Our report about how restaurant dinner plates have grown from 9" in the 1960s to 12" today grabbed a lot of attention. With so much extra room on our plates, many restaurants are filling up that extra space with more food. The food is relatively cheap, but not necessarily good for us.

We did our math wrong and were too conservative with our initial estimates of how much extra space. Many viewers reminded us that 3" more space on a round plate = 78 percent more space. (We reported that it was a 33 percent increase -- we forgot to use the simple middle school math formula a = pi * r²).

Seventy-eight percent more food -- talk about a mouth-full!

For what it’s worth, I called it. Shooting the breeze in our newsroom in the first hour after the Rolling Stone article had broken (initially in the form of an AP story, then we received the text) I said, in our newsroom to no one in particular, "What do you want to bet the President pulls Dave Petraeus off Centcom and makes him Special Master, in effect, for Afghanistan?"

I did not know General McChrystal well. I had dinner with him, his circle of aides (now well-known) and others in Afghanistan during my last trip there. I have known General Petraeus for several years, and last saw him here in New York. For all they share in common, the two men could not be more different. I think it’s safe to say General Petraeus is the closest thing we have to a "celebrity General" in this country—the way men like Patton, MacArthur, Bradley and Marshall were regarded over 60 years ago...and to this very day. If you asked 100 Americans, at random, to name an active duty General officer, I'm guessing Petraeus would be the only name, if any, that most people would volunteer—in what pollsters call "unassisted recall." Depending on the success of this new assignment for him, his name will loom even larger in the scope of history. Like all who have volunteered for duty, he has paid a huge personal price for his many deployments. As head of Central Command, he had just settled back in to a domestic routine, living Stateside while still traveling a great amount.

We will talk about all of it tonight. We'll also cover the latest stomach-turning development from the Gulf: the unchecked flow of oil, once again, from that BP well. To lift our spirits, we'll look at twin titanic struggles (both on grass) in the field of sports. We hope you can join us tonight.

NBC correspondent Ron Allen and producer Amber Payne sent these photos from Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they're reporting on the Abigail D. Butscher Primary school built by Minnesota Vikings safety Madieu Williams for an upcoming Making a Difference feature.

Think about the journey of Jann Wenner's music magazine—from its humble roots chronicling a new art form (and social movement) in 1967...to today. On three stories of note lately: Goldman Sachs, the oil spill and now General Stanley McChrystal—Rolling Stone has been quoted around the world. This story will no doubt turn out to be the most impactful of all of them. We can guess the outcome of tomorrow's meeting at the White House. We can also guess this will do nothing to help matters between the U.S. and its allies, or the Afghanistan leadership structure. In the debate over insubordination, and over what President Obama should do, let us never forget: This war is about the men and women we've asked to fight—all 90,000 of them.

The journalist David Ignatius wrote on this topic today, quoting an Obama White House insider as saying, "Dissent is the music of policy." Well then, it’s somewhat poetic that a music magazine has highlighted the extent of the dissent between the Obama Administration and its chosen commander on the ground. It also caused a few smiles when people realized that despite the powerful impact of their McChrystal story, it was still—in keeping with the DNA of Rolling Stone—Lady Ga Ga who made the cover of the magazine. Some things never change.

We hope you can join us tonight.

By Richard Engel, NBC News Chief International Correspondent

KABUL, Afghanistan – General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, apologized during the daily military brief Tuesday for comments made by his aides mocking President Barack Obama and other administration officials in an upcoming Rolling Stone magazine article.

The briefing attended, in person or via secure connection, by the top military commanders across Afghanistan began at 7:30 a.m. sharp, as it always does. The first speaker was about to start his portion of the classified update, which covers the latest intelligence, military and media issues of the day, when McChrystal stopped him. He addressed the magazine article and issued an apology. The apology was quickly released to the media by McChrystal's aides.

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It reads: “I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard. I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war, and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."

‘This is mine’
McChrystal didn't issue blame or seem angry, according to a senior military official. He said, "this is mine," meaning the responsibility was his alone. After the apology, the military/ intelligence/ media briefing continued. McChrystal told the commanders not to be distracted by the magazine controversy and to "maintain their focus."

Aides say McChrystal will not be addressing the media or commenting on the issue at least until after his visit to Washington.

Some of the harshest comments made by the coterie of McChrystal’s aides are directed at White House National Security Adviser General Jim Jones, the National Security Council and the White House.

The question that emerges is: Is this a story of a blunt general getting out of line and disrespecting his “chain of command?” Or is it a case of an Afghan policy that is unclear, with the commanding military officers on the ground frustrated at the multiple strategies and political pressures coming from Washington?

Perhaps both issues are at play. McChrystal spoke perhaps too bluntly (he's not know to be a politically savvy general), but there are also great frustrations here among senior commanders that the White House is simply not committed or focused on the war and has not outlined a clear objective.

Related links:
Biden? 'Did you say: Bite me,' and other quotes
First Read: Afghanistan crisis looms

Michael Hastings, the author of the Rolling Stone article in which Gen. Stanley McChrystal made derogatory comments President Barack Obama, was profiled by Ann Curry in this video from 2008:

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My thanks to Lester Holt and David Gregory for holding down the fort and affording me some time last week to travel with my family to Ireland, where we had a wonderful time together. Sadly, the oil spill has only gotten worse in the few days I've been gone. We'll be back down in the Gulf before too long, and until then we have the best team in the business on the ground and out on the water. I hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

Today's new fathers really have their priorities set according to a new study published by the Boston College Center for Work and Family. Just in time for Father's Day, researchers focused on 33 first-time dads to understand their approach to the age old juggling act of career and family. The verdict is that today's new father is more determined than ever to be hands-on, sometimes at the expense of a fast track career. Of course with more dual-career households women are not defaulting to the traditional prime caretaker role as they once did, but as the research points out, men are picking up the slack and that "traditional roles" of fatherhood no longer exist. Researcher Brad Harrington says "young people and especially new fathers are redefining what it means to be successful and happy." Those around them are noticing too. The study, The New Dad: Exploring Fatherhood within a career Context, also points out fathers today are finding increased respect and responsibilities on the job just for being a new father.

My own children are now in their twenties. The first thing I always say to expectant and new pops is this: being a dad is and always will be the best job I ever have. My generation of fathers likes to think that we have been more involved in our children's lives than the generation that preceeded us. If in fact today's new fathers are taking parenting to a new level, as this study suggests, I hope it means somebody raised them right.

We've got a lot of news on the broadcast tonight. We will let you hear a lot of what BP CEO Tony Hayward had to say on the hot seat before a Congressional committee today. Also, we'll meet the young star of the American soccer team who is giving it his all in the World Cup.

I hope you will join us for tonight's edition of NBC Nightly News.

Click for more from Brian and NBC Nightly News.

By NBC correspondent Ron Allen

Editor's note: Watch for upcoming reports from Ron Allen and producer Amber Payne in Sierra Leone on NBC Nightly News.

Sierra Leone--When our driver asked for directions to the school, the man standing by the side of a badly rutted dirt road lifted both arms and seemed to be pointing to the sky. "Go up that steep green hill, with what passes for a road," he was saying. It was more trail than road. But eventually we got there.

It was June 16, the International Day of the African Child, an annual moment of recognition that has been observed across the continent since 1992, when scores of South African school children who were demanding a better education in the South African township of Soweto were massacred by apartheid-era security forces in what became known as the Sharpeville Massacre. It's a terrible piece of history that seems far removed from the World Cup competition happening in the same place where Nelson Mandela, who served 27 years in prison for his civil rights activism, is now a former President.

We were visiting the Abigail D. Butscher Primary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone, a place where the children need a decade of recognition, perhaps two—not just a day. The school was built by Madieu Williams, Butscher's son, a man better known for his work Sunday afternoons for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings than for his efforts in West Africa. Williams is why we are here. The family came to the U.S. when he was just nine years old. Now, he's a rising football star, a Free Safety for the Vikings. When he's not trying to stop the NFL's best receivers, he's a philanthropist, humanitarian and world citizen, who's back where he was born, trying to make a difference.

By just about any global socio-economic measure, Sierra Leone ranks near the bottom of the charts. On a day devoted to African children, it's troubling to think that one of every four kids here dies before age five. More mothers die giving birth than just about anywhere else. Only 30 percent of the students here, where the state struggles to provide free education, make it to high school, which helps explain why only a third can read and write.

Photo by Ron Allen/ NBC News

Students attend class at Abigail D. Butscher Primary school

One can see what all of that means in real life at the Connaught Hospital, a hulking concrete building downtown, that like so much here feels trapped in the nation's British colonial past. Many cars still have right-hand drive steering wheels. Every sign is in English. We just passed Regents Road, then Gloucester Road. The front of a mini-van bus says it goes to Gordich Street-New England. A store called "Mobility International" sells Nokia phones.

In the heart of downtown Freetown, Kissy Road bakes in the midday sun. Few clouds give relief today. It must be 90 degrees and humid. We're anxious for the daily torrential rains for relief. People pack the streets and markets. Just about everything you can imagine is for sale, especially clothing. There's a surprising amount of commerce in a place where more than half the people earn less than a dollar a day.

We visited Connaught Hospital's pediatric ward with a team of American doctors and nurses from The Healing Hands Foundation, a Baltimore based non-profit, who are here on something of a scouting mission. The group has partnered with The Madieu Williams Foundation. While one group focuses on education, the other looks at health. They hope it's a very long term deal. Most of Connaught's doctors fled the country during Sierra Leone's decade long civil war that ended in 2002. That war made this nation synonymous with blood diamonds, child soldiers and wrenching amputations, a reputation and reality it now struggles to overcome.

Photo by Ron Allen/ NBC News

Two boys wait for their first visit to the dentist.

One measure of the desperate medical condition here is that there are just six dentists in the country. Some 6 million people live here. The Healing Hands team has two dentists. This morning, people came from miles around when world spread they were here.

A humanitarian award and football brought the two organizations together. Healing Hands' director, Dr. Jamie Flores, is a surgeon based at the University of Miami. He's a big guy with a vice-like handshake grip who played football—defensive tackle— at the University of Maryland, as did Madieu Williams. The school recently honored both for their humanitarian efforts. After the event, the two former players decided to team up.

We watched as Dr. Flores and his team examined children with cleft palates. Another had burns over much of his body from a household accident with boiling water, his mother said. Another child's face was swollen by a cancerous tumor. Flores plans surgery for several of the kids—routine procedures that will take less than an hour and are taken for granted in the United States. Here, as one of Flores' colleagues put it, surgery is so rare, it's like magic.

It's pure coincidence that we are here with the two non-profits when the continent marks a day for children. The kids here who survive face as tough a life as perhaps anywhere else on the planet.

When your company has been at the root of this country's biggest environmental disaster, you have to choose your words carefully. Businesses are suffering, and emotions among those living along the oil-stained Gulf coast are raw. And so when the chairman of BP, Carl-Henric Svanberg said after his meeting with President Obama today that BP cares "about the small people," a lot of us winced. Surely it was a linguistic, or perhaps a cultural faux pas. None of us for a moment would like to think Mr. Svanberg, who is Swedish, was talking down to or belittling the victims of this disaster. Just before stepping in front of the mics, he had agreed, albeit under White House pressure, to put $20 billion of his company's money into an escrow account to pay for claims from the oil leak.

Listening to his entire impromptu give and take with reporters it seemed he was trying to make the point that BP, despite the stereotype image of greedy oil companies has genuine concern for those who have suffered from this crisis. The term "small people," however got in the way of that message, and as our Ron Mott will report from the Gulf tonight it has enraged a lot of people he was hoping to reassure.

Mr. Svanberg has been mostly in the shadows during this crisis, as BP CEO Tony Hayward became the public face. Mr. Hayward's mention to reporters that he wanted his "life back" similarly garbled the company's message a few weeks back. Any of us who speak extemporaneously before a live TV camera know you are bound to eventually bumble a thought or say something you regret. Nine times out of 10, the viewer gives you the benefit of the doubt. At a time like this, BP faces a nearly empty reservoir of good will, and as they are painfully learning again, words as much as deeds count for a lot.

Full coverage of the crisis including new progress in the effort to siphon the oil tonight on NBC Nightly News. Please join us.

As the president spent a second day in the disaster zone trying to demonstrate the government's commitment to overseeing the Gulf disaster response, he and the rest of us got a brutal reminder of just how much of this mess seems to be eluding anyone's control. Lightning apparently triggered a small fire aboard the ship capturing oil from the well. The result is that BP had to suspend siphoning oil from the spill for several hours as a precaution. The company can't say how much oil was lost to the sea. Thankfully they resumed siphoning this afternoon, but it is a reminder of how uncertainty and chance seem to threaten this operation at every turn. These are truly uncharted waters both from an engineering standpoint, and a political one for President Obama, who addresses the nation about the crisis tonight from the Oval Office. We'll preview his remarks and have more on what happened at the well site today on NBC Nightly News.Join us at 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific for live coverage of the president's speech.

We'll also have a story tonight about the makeover of an important piece of history: It's one you're familiar with if you know the U2 hit "Sunday Bloody Sunday." For years their version of events about the shootings of unarmed Irish protesters by British troops in 1972 was at odds with the official UK government account. But no longer. Jim Maceda tonight has the stunning British acknowledgment that today brought tears to the eyes those who lost loved ones on that bloody Sunday.

Josh Neufeld, the author and illustrator of "A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge," observes that similarities between the Hurricane Katrina tragedy and the BP oil spill "are, distressingly, many." He continues:

One of the most striking echoes are the two men ostensibly in charge of the disasters, Michael Brown and Tony Hayward. In a fit of pique last weekend, I drew a little something about the two executives and their glazed, disassociated stares. In the coming weeks, I hope to check in with some of A.D.'s subjects to get their sense of things five years down the road from Katrina and eight weeks down the road from BP.

Who doesn't like to toot their own horn once in a while? South Africans have waited a lifetime to host The World Cup soccer tournament and figure they've more than earned the right to blow those trumpets called "vuvuzelas" at the games—but now there are calls to ban them. Sure, they're loud and have been the subject of complaints from broadcasters, players, and even some of the fans themselves, but South Africans will argue they are a part of not only their soccer culture, but of African culture in general. NBC's Ian Williams is in South Africa for us and has gotten an earful over the controversy. On tonight's broadcast, Ian will tell us all about it and demonstrate just how loud the vuvuzelas are.

We're also covering the president's trip to the Gulf coast today, BP's latest plan to try and recover more of the spilled oil, and damning new information on key decisions made weeks before the oil rig explosion that two lawmakers say could have set the disastrous chain of events in motion.

I'll look for you tonight on NBC Nightly news.

Another quote from James Carville, on BP and the government's lack of transparency in their handling of the Gulf oil disaster:

“I believe this country is at war...We are being invaded, but in this instance it’s not Al Qaeda or the Japanese, it’s just a hideous, greasy, stupid slick of oil that can’t adjust to our tactics, so why the secrets?"

Read the full article.