While it's just one comment from just one viewer, I felt the need to write a clarification for the blog -- given the fact that the comment in question, from a viewer in Massachusetts, flirts with a comparison between the Bush Administration and Nazi Germany. Please understand: there was no attempt Wednesday to curtail anyone's Constitutional freedoms.

Background briefings are commonplace in Washington. They are often the only way to learn the motivation of a public official. I've attended them under Democratic and Republican Presidents. At times, I've had long conversations with Presidents (current and former) knowing I couldn't repeat a word of it -- it never happened, in effect. It educates my thinking and my coverage of them, but it's all held in confidence. Some of it goes with me to my grave. Other times, like today, we're allowed to express the President's views without direct quotes. We all took notes, but there were no recording devices in the room. The business of quoting Presidents directly is actually astonishingly new in the "modern era"... and you don't have to go back many decades to find a time when it was not allowed at all. Sometimes it's a member of Congress, the Cabinet, or the White House staff giving the briefing. Briefings are designed to benefit the briefing party in some way, by controlling the message, and can be many things: on the record (everything is quotable), on background (a "senior official" says...) or off the record (nobody knows nothing). There are other (deep background, for example) categories in between. It's usually understood in advance. Wednesday, President Bush declared certain comments "off the record" after they were uttered and notes had been taken... and so I was careful to check with others present to make sure our collective recollection was correct. He gets to do that, the topic was national security, and the alternative was not having a window into his thinking at all. In this case, those looking for a dark corner, something sinister or partisan, are simply looking in the wrong place.

"Now is the winter of our discontent…"

This month kicks off a six-month citywide celebration honoring William Shakespeare. Venues in and around Washington, D.C., will be filled with plays, ballet, readings, exhibits -- all honoring the Bard of Avon.

So how curious it was to see that Richard III begins on Monday here in Washington. This 16th century play is considered by many to be his masterpiece. In it, he created a political character of evil incarnate in the form of Richard III. The Shakespeare Theater Company is serendipitously located in the Lansburgh Theater, just off Pennsylvania Avenue, almost halfway between the White House and Capitol Hill.

Richard III is the master of deception, who lets nothing stop him in his quest for power. He's evil, ruthless and completely immoral. His society is one of ambition and revenge. His ends absolutely justify his means.

What better setting for this than Washington, D.C.? What better month? We've recently witnessed the execution of a dictator, the burial of a President known for healing the nation after Watergate, and now the "surge," "escalation," "increase" of troops to Iraq.

This city today is consumed by Iraq: Reaction to Bush's speech last night, and the administration trying to sell the plan on the Hill, and to the American people. Capitol Hill, too, has an agenda: Those who support the plan, those who don't, and those who see the plan as something that perhaps benefits their own personal agenda.

If you're in Washington, Richard III will be performed from January 16-March 18. There are no discounts for politicians, but tickets are still available.

If you find yourself not in front of a TV, but in front of a computer, you can watch a live stream of NBC News' coverage of President Bush's speech tonight by clicking here. It begins at 9 p.m. ET and is expected to last about half an hour.

As is the custom prior to a major speech (normally the State of the Union and select others), the White House today invited a small group of broadcast journalists to the Roosevelt Room for a briefing, which was mostly with national security types... until the President walked in, unescorted. Tim Russert and I calculated that he was with us for just over an hour. He was forceful, animated and at times aggravated by the current state of the debate over Iraq. While the conditions of the conversation do not allow for direct quotation, we can certainly reflect the President's thinking when we come on the air tonight. Upon exiting the West Wing, I phoned one particular detail into MSNBC: Toward the end I asked the President if he'd seen the Saddam Hussein execution video. He said he had, and when I asked where it "ranked" (among the mistakes of the war) he indicated it was just below Abu Ghraib in terms of damage -- meaning slightly less damaging. The President also noted the damage done at Haditha.

It was, as I discussed with Brit Hume on my way down the West Wing driveway, an energetic and muscular tour of the world that the President gave us today. It was full of detail, but delivered in plain language. It is safe to report that the President is acutely mindful of the position this speech puts him in, and the position his policy puts him in. He sees the numbers. One thing he refuses to discuss is the notion of a "what if/plan B" backup. He says he is, in this instance, all about this portion of the mission. It is clear he is ready for a fight, and ready to take his argument to the people if opponents start tinkering with the machinery of war funding. In repeated bows to realism, the President indicated the patience of the United States is not limitless -- while he strongly indicated that generations of Americans would pay a heavy price should we retreat now.  As for the other material we learned, Tim and I will take a moment and go through, on the air tonight, our joint recollections of today's session at the White House.

We'll also check in with David Gregory (who will by air time have portions of the speech in hand) for the state of the administration going into tonight's speech. Richard Engel will report from where this all matters most: the streets of Baghdad. Richard has been out and about in some very dicey and dangerous real estate for us this week, and he's on my mind constantly, as are all of our people there.

Lisa Myers will follow up on her investigation into anti-RPG weapons systems for American armed forces. Don Teague will report the fascinating and harrowing story of a commercial airline flight on Dec. 29 that turned into a genuine American travel nightmare. And we'll round out the broadcast with an equally timely story on the Third Infantry. Those were the good folks who took such good care of us at the start of the war -- the "tip of the spear" heading up the attack.
I often wonder if I'd be alive today without one armored, mechanized platoon of the 3rd I.D. in particular, who were with us after our helicopters were forced down under fire in the desert south of Najaf. They have had several tours in this war, and elements of the Third are heading back yet again.

AMTRAK DIARIST
In part to avoid interrogation or possible cavity searches at the airport, I took Amtrak to and from Washington this time, as I did on my last trip. I can report a generally favorable experience, which included an EARLY arrival last night. While the dinner rolls could easily substitute for the balls used during competition at any jai alai fronton in the world, it is a comparatively relaxing way to get from point to point. Question: When did "stations" (example: Penn Station, Union Station) become "station stops?" I first remember this term making its way into the Amtrak lexicon a few years back. It's clear they are now station stops, despite the seeming redundancy. Announcements are plentiful, and the slamming overhead compartments are louder than any 50mm in the military's arsenal. But there's something to be said for not having to remove one's shoes, belt, watch -- generally stripping to the skin -- for the unrestrained joy of sharing an inch-wide armrest with a complete stranger inside a flying tube filled with stale air and little food or water.         
 
GETTING TO THE CORE OF THE APPLE
Electro-geeks (and a good many law-abiding, Luddite-leaning civilians) are atwitter over Steve Jobs' newest reason for us all to throw away our expensive, tricked-out iPods. The new iPhone was unveiled yesterday (full disclosure: I am a religious iPod user and a Mac laptop owner) and the reaction from my most clued-in friend on all things technological is this: If you drop it, you ruin your life. Thus the financial clamp of the dreaded service agreement. The very same screen intended as a touch-screen you must then use to view video -- fingerprints notwithstanding. Also, no one is raising the elephant in the room: the face goo that can often collect and mar the surface of any phone. That almost crosses the TMI line in personal electronics reviews, I know, but someone had to say it. I'm sure it's a cool device, while perhaps not for everyone.                           
         
It snowed in New York today. For three minutes. And I missed it.

We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast, and especially for our live coverage and analysis of the President's speech tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. on the West Coast.

While you're waiting to take off your shoes and put your laptop in a plastic tray in the airport security line, how about passing the time by reading about why you should change your car insurance?

The Transportation Security Administration is ready to give you that opportunity. And it wants to know if airports would like to use security checkpoint ads to generate some income. TSA notified industry that it will accept proposals for the next month from airports and advertisers who want to take part in a one-year program that will evaluate interest and effectiveness of checkpoint advertising.

LAX and some small airports in Tennessee are already taking part in a small-scale pilot test to evaluate the idea. Ads are placed in the bottom of the plastic trays used to hold a passenger's belongings as they pass through the screening machines.

TSA has invited interested advertisers and airport operators to come to Washington on Thursday to learn more about the plan.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York, but he was in Washington this morning for a briefing with senior administration officials about President Bush's speech tonight on Iraq. Before jumping back on his favorite shuttle flight, he delivered today's vlog from the White House north lawn.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Brian also spoke briefly with Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory during MSNBC-TV's all day political coverage. You can watch that by clicking here.

Editor's note: Mike took you inside the smoke-filled Speakers' lobby in a post on June 27, 2006, which as he updates below, is history after less than a week of the 110th Congress.

New Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that smoking will no longer be permitted in the Speakers' Lobby, the anteroom of the House chamber that had previously served as a smoking sanctuary for members of Congress. The move comes 10 days after a smoking ban went into effect in Washington, D.C., bars and restaurants, and years after smoking was banned in executive branch buildings all over town.

Members will still be permitted to light up in their private offices, however.

NBC News has confirmed the following about the president's address from various senior administration officials:

Where: The White House Library, not the Map Room as previously printed on a White House schedule.

Length: Aides say the run-throughs clock the speech at about 23 minutes. Advisors say they know they have to be "reasonable" and keep it under a half hour. They say there will be some poetic language, but mostly complex explanation of the plan and the circumstances that led to this point.

Key points: Advisors say the big news of the speech has largely all been reported now. The president will ask for roughly 20,000 additional troops. Most to Baghdad. About 4,000 to the west in Anbar Province. The president will speak about goals for Iraqis to take over operational security control by November. Advisors say "that's something Maliki wants."

Briefings: By day's end, 148 members of Congress will have been to the White House to be told about the plan by the president and his national security team. Consultations will be "steady" and "ongoing" in the days ahead. Today at 2:25 p.m. ET Speaker Pelosi and the bicameral leadership are due at the White House for their briefing according to advisors.

Context: Advisors say the president will in effect say "I get it." He will take responsibility and acknowledge that past attempts to secure Baghdad have failed and he will explain how and why he expects different results this time. Advisors referred to the president as being in "education and explanation mode." Advisors say the president will strongly reject any suggestion that this is a so called last ditch effort, as many critics assert. Advisors describe the speech as a "launching point" and say the president will continue to speak about the plan in a variety of settings. Tomorrow he goes to Fort Benning, Ga., to talk to troops more informally. Other senior officials like Secretaries Rice and Gates and Vice President Cheney are expected to reinforce the message with their own events and speeches. So far, no plans are set to place the president in an environment with a general American audience. The president also has his State of the Union address on Jan. 23 and preparations are underway for that.

To illustrate how much we have to impart during our allotted half hour tonight, here is a glimpse of just the non-first-block items vying for time in the broadcast: An update on the condition of Senator Johnson, new climate figures and findings, the Malibu fires, Mark McGwire (and Cal Ripken), a possible New Orleans curfew, the death of a prominent animator, the bottom falling out of the oil market, and Steve Jobs' latest invention that is supposed to combine and condense all our electronic needs (and presumably all of our food, water and breathable oxygen) into a very expensive Altoids box.

At the top of the broadcast tonight (as of the end of our editorial meeting a few minutes ago), will be some combination of the following: Timeline predictions on an influx of U.S. soldiers and Marines, along with a preview of other points in the President's speech, the violence today on an awful stretch of Haifa Street in Baghdad (where every day is a bad day), and the ongoing Special Forces air strikes in Somalia. The last item has more impact when put differently: Over the last 24 hours, the United States' war on terrorism has opened up an "African front." The operation used one of the most deadly and impressive aircraft in our arsenal... one I've flown on... the AC-130 "Spectre" gunship. It is old and slow by modern aviation standards (it is propeller-driven) but then again, speed and appearances aren't important. It is the aviation equivalent of a battlefield full of weapons -- and in some cases, before those in the target zone hear the prop noise, a number of fierce and lethal weapons have already hit them. It has the fighting force of several platoons arrayed at various "stations" along the fuselage and under the wings.  You don't want to find yourself on the business end of one of these. For all its size and power, it is also capable of landing on a relatively short landing strip. Considering this mission didn't officially exist 20 hours ago, information (after-action and continuing action) has been hard to come by, but we'll report what we know.

On the subject of the President's Wednesday night speech, I've talked to several White House folks over the last 12 hours or so, and some guidance (other than what's already been published in the Journal, Times, Post and elsewhere) is starting to emerge. One official said today that without this proposed course of action, "the mass killings would be unimaginable" in Iraq.

All of the items above are in some flux -- we've already done some format-shifting since we broke from the meeting -- so story order may go down to the wire tonight, and I'll try as best I can to set the table concerning all the ground we have to cover (and I'll try to mix a few more metaphors) at the very top of the broadcast.

IT'S ABOUT YOU
New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, whose retirement announcement earlier this season, it has been argued, made for a huge media and team distraction, is walking away from the sport after a spectacular season, and has retired from football at the age of 31, part of an elaborate plan he has laid out for his life going forward. In a departure from modesty, he told a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York: "I'll be missed." Barber has announced his intention to "become a news anchor." Later this afternoon, I will announce my intention to "join the New York Giants backfield."

WIKI-WHAT?
A great cartoon in last week's New Yorker: Man at computer keyboard, woman stands in doorway. He says to her, "I just feel fortunate to live in a world with so much disinformation at my fingertips."

THE BIG BOX
Among loyal readers of the Sunday New York Times Style section (which is by all indications still figuring out just who they want their reading audience to be), the featured wedding each week is called the "Big Box." This is mostly an apt graphic-based description, as it's big and in a box. It generally seems to run about 800-1,200 words and is accompanied by artsy photography of the happy couple.  At least one blog, "Veiled Conceit," regularly takes apart the style the page is written in, say nothing of the happy couples enjoying their nuptials (and who among us hasn't enjoyed a nuptial?). This past week featured the wedding of another lovely couple, and writing that some thought could have been sent over to the Times by the editorial staff of the Onion. In my experience, brides in the Big Box have some common traits:

They are invariably "more at home in a pair of combat boots than they are in high heels." They are ALWAYS described as "spontaneous." 

While all of their friends constantly urge them to "have more fun," none is "looking for a relationship"... instead, a relationship "finds them."

The brides-to-be are a "constant blur of activity" and are apt to "kayak down the Hudson at Midnight on New Year's Eve." 

Many of the men are in passionless relationships until they are hit squarely on the forehead by the club of love, in the form of the aforementioned combat-boot wearing free-spirited woman.

Weddings are always on a bluff, a dune or a "sweeping lawn," and are usually officiated either by an Enormously Powerful Federal Judge who's a friend of the family or a member of the online ministry community with names like "The New Life Church of the Free Spirit."  Participants seldom wear shoes.

I digress. Back to this week's Big Box. The first few paragraphs are worth repeating here:

It's as difficult to categorize Colleen Saidman, an owner of Yoga Shanti, a papaya-color studio in Sag Harbor, N.Y., as it is to hold a headstand for the duration of the Beatles song "Let It Be," a challenge often presented in the classes she teaches.

To begin, Ms. Saidman, who is also a model, is fearless, especially when it comes to wearing orange, diving into the cold ocean, laughing loudly, going barefoot or making radical changes in her life.

In her packed classes she tiptoes between the mats, making adjustments and dabbing rose oil on the foreheads of students. She has been known to startle them with poems about death."

It gets better a few paragraphs later when she meets Rodney Yee, something of a celebrity in the Yoga world, who we're told "is meticulous about anatomy and alignment." They find themselves in a crowded hot tub after a day of posing at a Yoga conference in Nashville. Rodney recounts their "coming together":

She put her thumb on my forehead, right on the third eye, and literally I felt something I'd never felt before.

It goes on.

Still, they didn't want to break up their marriages, which they said were not unhappy.

Oh well. The author of the Big Box wedding for many years has been Lois Smith Brady, a wonderful woman whom I once met when she needed a quote while covering the wedding of a former NBC co-worker. Ms. Brady earned her salary this week -- the weddings that result in disintegrated marriages and wreckage left behind are a journalistic challenge: Trying to write a romantic, positive and compelling story while knowing both principals leave something of a wake behind them. Week after week, Ms. Brady turns in some of the most entertaining (and challenging) writing in the paper, and did so again this past Sunday. And that, Dear Reader, is life in the Big Box.  Full disclosure: My wife can't understand why I spend valuable time reading this stuff.  I should point out in my own defense that I read Style only after the A Section, Metro, Week in Review, Business, Book Review, Magazine and Automobiles. It's dessert on paper, really.

Back to reality, and the news. We'll put all of this in some logical order; our folks will do some more reporting, and as always we will hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

Brian begins today's vlog with a recap of what happened after the first feed of Monday's broadcast. Click here for the latest on the U.S. airstrikes in Somalia and here for the latest on the wildfires in Malibu, Calif.

You can watch the full vlog by clicking here or on the image.

What a day here in New York. The city was invaded by pungent natural gas fumes just after 9 a.m. this morning. NBC management put out a memo to all 30 Rock employees urging us to close our windows and telling us the vents to the outside air had been closed. In a city still understandably raw and jittery after 9/11, this was a big event -- some very smart and normally level-headed people found themselves battling more than a hint of fright and foreboding. It was hard not to, it was a strange occurrence. The incident also launched a strange kind of civic/media war between municipalities -- with New York saying the gas was coming from New Jersey (my home state doesn't enjoy the best aromatic reputation, as you know, so we're an easy target) and Jersey City officials blaming it on a gas leak in Manhattan. The spokeswoman for the Jersey City mayor aggressively took to the airwaves this morning, in what made for a fun kind of aside when it became a redundancy feast for the ears. She used phrases like "O.E.M. Office" (the "O" in O.E.M. stands for "Office") and "heating or HVAC" (ditto here -- the "H" in "HVAC" stands for "heating") in her attempt to calm the public and explain why it couldn't possibly be coming from Jersey. It was great listening for those of us monitoring developments on radio. Actually, with winds out of the west at 7 mph with gusts to 20, it made a lot of sense that it was NOT originating in, and lingering over Manhattan island. But the air has been cleared, as they say.

Taken together, there were events across the country today -- all of them covered with the cursory JUST IN or BREAKING NEWS graphics on the all-news cable networks -- that didn't say great things about our world.  In addition to the gas-filled streets of this city, Austin, Texas, residents woke up to dead birds -- a lot of them -- in the streets, and a solvent cloud rose about Sugarland, Texas, this afternoon. And that's if you DON'T count the explosives investigation adjacent to a cruise ship in Miami, and yet another BREAKING NEWS story in Missouri.  I'm going to stay indoors for the rest of the day, and perhaps until my retirement.

THE REAL CULPRIT
Of course all of this could have been the fault of... global warming. Yes, I'm kidding, but this brings us to a serious topic: the blog traffic and the tone of the comments over the weekend told us we needed to revisit a segment we did on the broadcast Friday night, which included a live interview with a veteran NOAA forecaster (Video link). We will do just that tonight -- I think if we're guilty of anything it was an omission in our reporting: the differences between (and the relationship between) a short-term weather event and a long-term climate change. Additionally, if experts are going to cite El Nino in their explanation for the high of 72 degrees in Central Park on Saturday, are those same experts willing to admit that global warming has an effect on El Nino?  Looking at the comments on this blog, I fear that the heat from some of you may well contribute to the problem if we're not careful. I note I was called a "global warning denier" (because an on-air guest blamed our high temperatures on El Nino in response to a question) and I've been told I've "lost all credibility." A learned expert in the field wrote to say, "I am one of the countries (sic) most well known meteorologist (sic)," and so it went all weekend. Everybody needs a good eviscerating every so often. Deep breaths, everybody.

Elsewhere in tonight's broadcast: we'll preview (using as our source material the strategic leaks of same and our own reporting) the President's Iraq speech this week -- this coming Wednesday night at 9 p.m. There was talk about it today on the Hill, and we'll have some of that for you. Also, Detroit's best -- will they be good enough? And speaking of the best: We have a terrific feature tonight on the amazing Air Force Thunderbirds (YOU try doing that with an F-16) and a first among their ranks.

Thanks to those who commented in response to the admittedly self-indulgent "memory lane" portion of this blog on Friday -- with special thanks to those who mentioned Steinbacks Department Store and the Royal Manor in Wall Township, a notorious night spot we frequented. It's as if you were riding along in the van with us. It was fun while it lasted.

Tomorrow in this space, the New York Sunday institution known as the "big box"... and why it was extra-special this past weekend.

We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

It's been a difficult weekend for my family and for many other families in New Orleans. The so-called crime wave that hit the city during the start of this new year has been unsettling. As of Monday, there have been at least nine people killed in the last eight days. Correspondent Martin Savidge wrote a compelling story on the issue for Nightly News on Friday. But the problem has become personal for me, as it has for others who live here.

This weekend, Mayor Ray Nagin put it best when he said in a hastily called news conference that even one murder is too many. For a good number in this city, the one murder too many was the brutal slaying last week of Helen Hill. Hill was a talented, award-winning filmmaker. Her husband, Paul Gailiunas, is a doctor who dedicated his time to serving the poor. Together they moved back to this city after Katrina destroyed their home to raise their 2-year old son, and be a part of the city's recovery. Many people become a part of the city's rebuilding effort just by deciding to live here. According to the Times-Picayune, Helen and her husband were different. They collected food for homeless people, served indigent patients and in ways big and small served as an example to their community of what it means to help rebuild. 

Thursday morning, Helen Hill was murdered inside her home, apparently by an intruder. Her husband was shot three times and found shielding their toddler in the doorway, apparently trying to protect him. It was shocking on a number of levels. The neighborhood they lived in attracted an artsy, eclectic crowd. But in recent months, a string of robberies and shootings had begun to put people on edge. Helen Hill's murder has put some people there over the edge. They are angry, frustrated and fearful. And rightfully so. 

It was also shocking personally, because it turns out that Paul and Helen were friends of our friends. On Friday, I learned that Dr. Gailiunas served as a pediatrician for two of our children's closest playmates. Sunday I learned the couple were acquaintances of another family we know. I also learned that their son went to pre-school at the same place we considered sending our children. The city of New Orleans is truly a small town. People tell me that if you live here long enough, you either know someone or are related to them in some way. I'm now sure that it would have just been a matter of time before my family would have met Hill and her family.

This weekend, the mayor and police chief hinted that they'll announce aggressive new tactics including a possible overnight curfew. Helen's friends and neighbors set up a makeshift shrine on their doorstep. And folks gathered in coffee shops and churches across the city to plan a march on City Hall for Thursday. In our home, we debated whether installing a security fence would make us seem unfriendly to our new neighbors.

There will be no easy answer to the crime problem. The police force is understaffed, the criminal justice system is overburdened and some residents are so overwhelmed with fear, they refuse to tip off police about criminal activity in their own neighborhoods. What may be required is an unprecedented effort by police, City Hall, the district attorney and community groups. Whatever action is taken will come too late for Helen Hill's family. The rest of us in New Orleans are hopeful it will come just in time for ours.

Why are birds dying in Austin, Texas? And what's that smell in Manhattan?

Those are two of the mysterious questions the broadcast will try to answer tonight. Also, more reporting on the effects of global warming, which so many of you commented about on Friday.

Brian shares more in today's vlog. Click here or on the image to watch. (Note: Some of you may experience difficulty trying to view the video. We're aware of the problem and working to fix it ASAP.)

We want to remind our viewers on the west coast that our Sunday "Nightly News" broadcast, which has been pre-empted or moved to an earlier time because of NBC's Sunday Night Football over the past few months... returns tonight.  We're back on at our regular time in the Pacific and Mountain Time zones and we hope you will tune-in tonight.

This has been a busy weekend.  We continue to follow the developments in Iraq tonight... as the President prepares to address the nation this week.  After almost 4 years of fighting, the President's new plan is likely to spark a debate on Capitol Hill and across the country.  Will the U.S. put more troops on the ground... and will it make a difference?  NBC's Kevin Corke will have the latest from the White House.  NBC's Jim Maceda reports from Baghdad.

We have been following the avalanche in Colorado that closed a major highway this weekend.  The road is now open... following the 3rd major snowstorm in 3 weeks.  NBC's Don Teague will have that story.

Also, NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman joins us tonight to report on what could be a major breakthrough in stem cell research.  Researchers have discovered stem cells in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women.  It may mean that doctors will be able to extract stem cells without ever harming the fetus.

CNBC's Phil LeBeau will bring us a live report from the Detroit Auto Show… and CNBC's Jim Goldman reports from the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. 

And we'll close tonight with the story of Kate Middleton... Prince William's girlfriend... and why she is now getting the royal treatment.  Keith Miller explains.

It's all coming up tonight on NBC Nightly News.  We hope to see you then.

Tomorrow's predicted high in New York's Central Park is 68 degrees. We broke a record here today, and will set a new record with each day forward, for the latest arrival of snow... ANY snow... this winter. We've yet to have a flake, and it's the latest-arriving winter in history. And for every New York story, there's another region reporting strange happenings -- from Denver (they're getting hit AGAIN) to New England (bare grass ski slopes in some places) to the American South, where twisters rolled through three states so far today, January 5th. Tonight we'll have a look at what might be going on here.

Also tonight, we'll look at what happened on day two of the Democrats in control in Washington, plus the Bush White House changes its management of the Iraq war and security situation. There are also changes being announced in how Homeland Security money is distributed.

And we have a disturbing story from New Orleans today. Put simply: There were more Americans killed there this week than in Iraq. And to end on an up note, as we try to around here each Friday night, Kevin Tibbles will have our "Making a Difference" report tonight, on an extraordinary woman in Chicago.

MAX ENCOUNTER OF THE FINEST KIND
One of the great things about working in 30 Rock is that you never know who you're going to see. One day it will be President Clinton walking through the lobby, and on another day it will be Sen. Clinton. When SNL is in season, it's not uncommon to share an elevator with the likes of Jessica Simpson or Alec Baldwin or Neil Young.

Having said that: A funny thing happened today while getting lunch. I saw Max Weinberg in the NBC commissary this afternoon. I've known Max as a fellow NBCer for years, but for some reason (perhaps owing to the long line to pay for our food) today I chose to come clean about my past. I finally told him just how much of my high school and early college years I devoted to following Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band all over the Jersey Shore. There was one bar in particular: Trade Winds in Sea Bright, N.J., eight miles from my house and right on the ocean. My "associates" and I (OK, two or three guys from my firehouse crammed into Lt. Mike Spratford's rusted, tragic and mostly-blue Ford Econoline van) would spend all of Friday and Saturday nights there, with the exception of an impromptu and harrowing side trip further south along the shore to Jimmy Byrne's Sea Girt Inn. We basically spent our paychecks in two nights. As an excellent customer over the years, I got to know the bouncer at Trade Winds, and while we enjoyed a tasty beverage or two, he would often tip me off to any rumors of an E Street Band appearance. More often than not, such events would happen after closing time. Bruce would come in unannounced, grab the microphone, plug his guitar into an amp and stand on a table. Clarence Clemons (a substantial man) would bring his substantial saxophone and stand on a substantial table alongside Bruce. And Max would use whatever drums the house band had (that was usually a group called "Fresh," whose set list I'm quite sure we could all still recite from memory, and who were best known for their rendition of "Hold Back The Night") and somehow those drums sounded better in Max's hands. It was always late, it was never enough, but it was heaven.

And there's a postscript to this story: It turns out my friend Max is indeed every bit as romantic about those old days as I am. He just called my office and, after some reflection, assured me that those were, in fact, great days. He confirmed my belief that the Jersey Shore from 1975-79 was a great place to grow up listening to great music. Max also remembers Fresh as a great house band, and he added that he met his wife at the Stone Pony while playing with another house band called Kahoots... a band I saw many times. While it's a small world, it's also mostly gone. Trade Winds long ago met the wrecking ball, and is now condominiums. Max has lost track of most of those local musicians, but he still keeps in touch with that Bruce guy. And he assured me that if he ever hears of a Jersey Shore blowout, just like old times, he'll let me know.

Thanks for not minding tonight's stroll down memory lane. I hope for a few of you out there who might hail from the same place, it means just as much.

Back to business: I see that CNN has switched to severe weather coverage mode due to more than one suspected tornado in the south this afternoon. Now it's off to the newsroom to start putting this all together. We hope you will join us for our Friday night broadcast to end the week. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you back here on Monday for what promises to be another eventful week.

The weatherman in Washington, D.C., says it will be 70 degrees tomorrow. New York City hasn't seen a single snowflake yet this year. What's going on with this wacky weather?

As Brian says in today's vlog, that's a question the broadcast hopes to answer for you tonight.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Perhaps the most graphic way of viewing the political change that took place today is this: Nancy Pelosi is now second in line to the Presidency after the Vice President. The 66-year-old veteran member of Congress from California became Speaker today, the first woman to hold the job.  In the meantime, across town, the Director of National Intelligence is out, as is the President's White House Counsel. It's a time of great political change, with more to come. We are days away from the President's policy speech on Iraq, and weeks away from the State of the Union. That nicely sets the table for our broadcast tonight.

As Joe Scarborough put it this afternoon on MSNBC, we all noticed several Republicans who were seemingly fighting the urge to stand up and applaud Nancy Pelosi today -- presumably because they were fighting back a 12-year habit of standing to applaud the Speaker. While much of it took place during my hour-long shift as part of MSNBC's political coverage today, there were several iconic scenes: the children-filled rostrum, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., rising to swear in the new Speaker, the trio of Tony Bennett, Richard Gere and Carole King in the House Gallery, Pelosi's handshake with Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, former Speaker Thomas Foley rising with great apparent effort to applaud, former Speaker Hastert's wan applause from his back seat in the chamber, the newest Pelosi (Alexandra's daughter and the Speaker's granddaughter) being passed between what seemed to be about 50 different people, the embrace between Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Congressman Virgil Goode, R-Va., Sen. Robert Byrd's, D-W.V., trembling hand and determined expression while taking his oath from Vice President Cheney, and in Boston -- the swearing-in of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, using the Bible the Amistad slaves gave John Quincy Adams. More history.

There were questions today, on air and off, about Sen. Johnson's, D-S.D., health... and in that light, while he's reported to be "coming along well," people should remember that Sen. Joe Biden's, D-Del., recovery/absence lasted seven months.

David Gergen said today he sees "zero evidence" that the President will change his rhetoric or position. Are we headed for an inevitable, unchangeable train wreck?  Even Joe Scarborough referred to President Bush in a question to Gergen today as "so isolated during wartime." I should add that a member of the Iraq Study Group expressed great ongoing frustration to me this week (even an air of futility) over the lukewarm White House response to their final report. Tomorrow, Moveon.org apparently plans a protest outside a press event by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., on increasing troop strength in Iraq. Former President Clinton appeared to have a warm and humorous conversation today with Vice President Cheney -- it would be great to know what was discussed.

Required reading: The op-ed pieces today by Brent Scowcroft (New York Times, login required) and by Shultz, Perry, Kissinger and Nunn (Wall Street Journal, subscriber login required) that are generating so many hours of chatter in the media.

Now to the rest of the broadcast: We'll report much of the above with the help of Chip Reid, Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell and David Gregory. We have a pretty shocking piece on child car seat safety tonight, and we will revisit the hero of the New York City subway system. We are watching the skies (and the ground) in New Orleans today as they are dealing with a drenching and relentless rain... though so far most of the most serious rainfall seems to be centered over Lafayette, La., to the West.

In news from outside of this world, between the meteorites falling into houses and Russian booster rocket parts falling in parts of the American West, is it any wonder the folks at O'Hare thought they saw something in the sky other than a DC-9 on final approach?

And a word about the weather, especially here in the East: It's unseasonably, even strangely warm. Today the arrival of the new Speaker was heralded by cherry blossoms in the nation's capital. Indeed, I saw bulbs blooming in Washington this week, and pediatricians are telling parents that germs and illnesses are living on and incubating in unnatural ways this time of year. While it is officially being blamed on unusual weather patterns (a jet stream far to the north is one explanation), we'll do some special reporting on it here tomorrow.

It's a full broadcast. We hope you will join us.

U.S. officials are providing more details about the impending resignation of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and nomination of Adm. Mike McConnell.

The White House has been trying for more than a year to get Negroponte to take the No. 2 job at State and have McConnell replace him. On at least two, and possibly three occasions within the past 18 months, the White House approached each man about taking a new job.

The White House had grown impatient with Negroponte, believing that he had added a layer of bureaucracy to the intelligence community without adding much product. In particular, say officials, they did not believe that he was willing to butt heads with those who reported to him.  Several issues they had hoped he would resolve were not being dealt with. Moreover, the DNI payroll had grown to more than 1,500 and the director's office was seeking a permanent headquarters building either near the State Department or in the Washington Navy Yards.

Both men were initially reluctant to take on their new jobs.

Officials say Negroponte feared it would be seen as a demotion. The DNI job is a cabinet level position and the Deputy Secretary of State job is not. 

The decision to give Negroponte at least nominal control of Iraq policy within State assuaged that concern. (One official also speculated that Negroponte may have been promised the Secretary's job when and if Condoleezza Rice stepped down for whatever reason. The official noted that the first President Bush appointed Lawrence Eagleburger Secretary of State in the final days of his administration, rewarding Eagleburger for his years of diplomatic service, including as deputy secretary.)

Admiral Mike McConnell

McConnell, who has been successful in the private sector, was not opposed to taking the job but wanted certain assurances. The elevation of Bob Gates to Secretary of Defense helped persuade him to take the job.  In 1992 when McConnell was director of the NSA and Gates the director of the CIA, Negroponte and McConnell liked the the idea of working with Gates.   He quietly visited the President in Crawford over the Christmas holidays to finalize the decision.   McConnell's appointment came with a strong recommendation from Vice President Cheney, for whom he had worked while at the Pentagon during the Gulf War.  Unlike Negroponte, McConnell is an intelligence professional.  The White House thinks his experiences with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office of Naval Intelligence and National Security Agency will permit him to move quickly on issues that they thought Negroponte had avoided.

While we all focus on the 110th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, there was one perfect moment in the House chamber that would escape anyone but a parent. The new Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is a grandmother of six. In fact, there had even been a question around the time of the election whether she would choose to stay in Washington to watch the returns, or head to New York if her daughter went into labor.

Just yesterday, her 8-year-old granddaughter revealed at a fancy tea that her grandma eats chocolate ice cream for breakfast. So when grandma becomes Speaker of the House, it's a huge day. You wear your best suit, mom makes you put on a tie, you gotta comb that hair, and behave. But as any parent knows, no matter how hard we try, kids just end up being, um, kids.

Click here or on the image to watch video from the House floor. There’s a little messing with grandma’s mic, a little shoving, a little grabbing of what looks to be grandma’s BlackBerry.

If Madame Speaker can control the House as well as she quiets down the kids, we foresee time-outs for misbehaving lawmakers in the near future.

As I just posted, he's anchoring on MSNBC in 40 minutes, but Brian still found time to deliver today's vlog.

As he explains, the new Congress will get lots of coverage on tonight's broadcast. Click here or on the image to watch.

Just a quick note to tell you that Brian anchors an hour of MSNBC's all-day coverage of the new Congress today at 1 p.m. ET and you can watch it live on your computer.

We're streaming MSNBC-TV on the Internet until 2 p.m. ET. Click here to watch.

Donald Rumsfeld delivered an absolutely beautiful eulogy for his old boss today. Watching the next speaker, President Carter, it became incredibly sad. For reasons he enumerated, his friendship with President Ford was closer than even our very best historians have realized heretofore. We learned today that President Carter placed but one phone call from his helicopter, Marine One, after the Camp David Accords were reached: It was to President Ford. And about the wonderful, classy and close Ford family, with whom we the people have become "re-acclimated" over the past few days: The weight of mourning finally got to them today. From the matriarch, the solid, stoic and heroic Betty Ford, to the children, the tears came as the eulogies were delivered -- no doubt coupled with the realization that the time of burial was nearing. What an interesting thing we've seen happen to this country and many of its citizens since first word of the death of the 38th President. Many of us can't help but view this President and his era against our own times and leaders. A year from now, 10 years from now, the word "decency" will endure when the name Ford is mentioned. 

I just completed compiling the portions of today's eulogies we'll be using, and writing the connective tissue -- and it was a difficult process -- as it was viewing it live. It was no less sad than it was during the first few hours and days.

On the broadcast tonight, we'll cover today's remembrances in Grand Rapids. We'll also update the story stemming from the Saddam execution a few days ago. We will also cover, thanks to correspondent Kevin Tibbles, the struggle going on in the Rockies and the Midwest after yet another devastating snowstorm. Their situation has not received the news coverage it might have during a less eventful week. We also plan to profile a man being hailed as a hero here in New York for an extraordinary showing of courage beneath the streets of this city. And we will mark the retirement of Max Mayfield -- the well-known head of the National Hurricane Center whose job took on unique responsibilities as Katrina approached.

It's a lot of ground to cover. We hope you'll join us for our Wednesday night broadcast.

Editor's note: Correspondent Kerry Sanders will profile National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield on tonight's broadcast. Today is Mayfield's last day on the job after 34 years. We asked Kerry to share a personal story with blog readers.

I've known Max for a long long time. I began covering hurricanes in 1982. While Max was always feeding me information of what would likely happen and how unsafe areas could become, you know how we as reporters tend to head into the thick of the storm. I will remember Hurricane Ivan in Sept. 2004 the most.

I freely admit that I foolishly decided to ride out Ivan in a home built to withstand a hurricane. It was a "dome home," called that because it was shaped like a dome.

Max warned me it was a very dangerous move to ride out a category four on Pensacola Beach. He recently remembered, as we chatted about his retirement, that I had been in the "dome home" and lived to talk about it. Max's advice sticks with me. He said: "Kerry, don't ever do that again."

I can say, after riding out that storm, watching the cars wash away into the bay, that I will never do that again.

I will miss Max, and owe him a personal thank you for guiding me to safe spots to cover all those hurricanes.

Editor's note: Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski broke the news last night on our broadcast and has written this follow-up for MSNBC.com.

Although nothing is final until President Bush puts his stamp on it, administration officials tell NBC News the president has all but decided on a temporary surge of additional American forces into Iraq in an effort to bring sectarian violence in Baghdad under control. 

While no one is talking specific numbers, military officials believe it would involve some 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines.

Most of the increase would be achieved by extending the deployments of those troops already in Iraq by 90 days, and accelerating the deployments for troops scheduled to deploy by sending them into Iraq sooner.

Click here to read the rest of Jim's report.

The broadcast may lead with something other than President Ford's funeral or the hanging of Saddam Hussein tonight, as Brian explains in today's vlog.

Click here or on the image to watch.