There is something mean in human nature that prefers to think evil that gives a willing ear and a ready welcome to calumny a sort of jealousy of goodness and greatness and things of good report.

Could it be that all those reports coming from our own intelligence that Bush ignored was right all along? Could it be that the UN was right all along?

I can remember when I was National Security Adviser the intelligence community told us... they put out an intelligence report saying that Iran would never back off from attacks on shipping in the Gulf if we use force.

As a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence I will be participating in several hearings on the startling revelations contained in the report.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory even more are false and most are uncertain.

In the aftermath of September 11 and as the 9/11 Commission report so aptly demonstrates it is clear that our intelligence system is not working the way that it should.

I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

When we had to do book reports I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.

Imagination it turns out is a great deal like reporting in your own head. Here is a paradox of fiction-writing. You are crafting something from nothing which means in one sense that none of it is true. Yet in the writing and perhaps in the reading some of a character's actions or lines are truer than others.

I had been a reporter for 15 years when I set out to write my first novel. I knew how to research an article or profile a subject - skills that I assumed would be useless when it came to fiction. It was from my imagination that the characters in my story would emerge.

If the reporter has killed our imagination with his truth he threatens our life with his lies.

At the risk of appearing disingenuous I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe which is frequently hilarious.

I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America.

One of the consequences of the Iranian revolution has been an explosion of history. A country once known only from British consular reports and intrepid travelogues is now awash with historical documents letters diaries grainy video weblogs and secret police files of questionable authenticity.

No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then and it is misremembered now.

In my view far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting the New York Times the Washington Post and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly.

The study also included the disturbing revelation that most of the troops who reported having mental health problems also reported that they did not seek or did not receive care for their problems.

My home State of North Carolina ranks 12th in the United States for increased aging population and according to a national report 41st in overall health. According to this same report individuals aged 50+ are the least healthy.

As the GAO report recognizes the long-term health of our forests relies on additional fuel reduction options and funding to reduce the risks that catastrophic fire poses to our nation's ecosystems communities and federal budgetary resources.

As long as I have my health I want to be reporting somewhere.

But if you - if what - the reports are true what they're saying is is that as a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care at the margins that's going to increase our costs we knew that.

I'm sad to report that in the past few years ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

While approximately one in every 400 children and adolescents have Type I diabetes recent Government reports indicate that one in every three children born in 2000 will suffer from obesity which as noted is a predominant Type II precursor.

A reporter's ability to keep the bond of confidentiality often enables him to learn the hidden or secret aspects of government.