EVERYTIME YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES... Anais Nin used to keep a card index of lies she'd told - in a box helpfully marked "Lies" - which helped her keep track of what she'd told to whom.

George Bush is lucky - he's had Mother Jones produce something similar to help him keep track of his enormous whoppers.

While we're talking about Bush, his NBC interview yesterday was fascinating - asked to suggest what he'd like to be his Apollo Mission (as an overarching, memorable achievement to mark his Presidency), he looked confused, thought for a bit, mumbled something about sorting out the Medicade finances and then suggested "energy". The first bit, financing help for the poor and the weak, is the everyday business of government (like saying "I hope I'll be remembered for procurement") and the other wasn't even quite defining a problem, much less proposing a visionary solution.

We know it's not surprising, but you'd have thought this far in he'd have had something to offer that people could gather around...