Yesterday, President Obama spoke again about the thankfully failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight last week—and this time he was more forceful in his criticism of federal agencies' "mix of human and systemic failures" to address the matter. The NY Times reports, "The president was told during a private briefing on Tuesday morning while vacationing here in Hawaii that the government had a variety of information in its possession before the thwarted bombing that would have been a clear warning sign had it been shared among agencies, a senior official said." more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: more ›

In a move that was inevitable, NBC has now started to call the civil war in Iraq a civil war. On NBC News’ ”The Daily Nightly” Brian Williams writes, “We will also reference our decision today (after much consultation over the weekend with our colleagues, fellow journalists, historians, analysts and members of the military, both present and former) to describe the fighting in Iraq as a Civil War. We believe it is a more accurate reflection of what is happening there, and there was a fair amount of reaction to the decision today... even though a number of news organizations have already made a similar call.” more ›

Republicans are telling the A.P. that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be resigning. So, all it took was the Democrats winning the House and possibly the Senate. more ›

Brian Reisinger, Swandivedigital more ›