There's lots of news in the Duke lacrosse player's alleged sexual assault case, which continues to crumble at an astonishing rate.

• The accuser told yet another version on Dec. 21. The statement was turned over to the Defense on Jan. 4. In it, she says Reade Seligman was not one of those who sexually assaulted her. DA Mike Nifong knew this before he dropped the rape charges, yet didn't drop charges against Seligman. And that's just the beginning of the new inconsistencies. You can read the original suppression motion here and yesterday's supplement here.

• "60 Minutes" will do a follow-up story on the case Sunday night (Jan. 14).

The U.S. is beginning preparations for trials of the 14 terror suspects flown from secret prisons abroad to Guantanamo. It has set up a secret war room in a suburb of Virginia.

The Bush administration has set up a secret war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.

What kind of room do the detainees' lawyers get? If you answered "none," I suspect you are correct.

Update: Check out this great editorial in the Washington Post today.

A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Greece. Shorter version: There were no injuries. It landed in the toilet.

Sounds like a home grown operation to me.

The 4th snowstorm in a month has hit Denver, this time with freezing temperatures in the teens and below. I'm really getting tired of this.

If any of you have a suggestion for a destination, anywhere in the world, with:

• a beach at least 1 mile long, to walk along at dawn and sunset
• a great spa, hiking, yoga classes, etc.
• restaurants serving primarily fresh vegetables, fruit and fish, as well as spirits
• wi-fi to be able to blog while I'm there
• that doesn't cost an arm and a leg

please let me know in the comments.

Congress has decimated the U.S. asparagus industry by waiving tariffs for Peruvian asparagus. It's a backwards attempt to buffer coca eradication with crop substitution.

Notwithstanding divergent views on free trade among our readership, I'm sure we can all agree that tariffs shouldn't be arbitrarily lifted in support of a failed drug war policy in Peru.

The new Congress can fix this. The Seattle Times has more.

Judge Reggie Walton has issued the following trial decorum order (pdf) for the Scooter Libby trial. There will be two overflow courtrooms.

Also, from another order granting the following persons 24 hour access to the courthouse during the trial, here's a clue as to who's on the Government's trial team (some could be agents and paralegals in addition to lawyers.).

ORDER as to I. LEWIS LIBBY granting the following individuals access to the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse 24 hours a day/7 days per week from the date of the Order until the conclusion of the trial of this matter: Patrick Fitzgerald, Peter Zeidenberg, Kathleen Kedian, Debra Bonamici, Debbie Bond, Gerard Francisco, Jared Richards, Katie Hance, Bonnie Hansen, and Harry Brady.

Woo-hoo! Via the National Journal Hotline, Howard Dean and the DNC have chosen Denver to host its 2008 national convention.

A Democrat who was briefed said that chairman Howard Dean made the final decision yesterday, weeks later than planned. DNC comm. dir. Karen Finney declined to confirm the choice.

Colorado is a marquee states for Democrats, who have, in the past two years, gobbled up the governor's mansion, control of the state legislature, and two congressional seats.

How excited am I?

More from the Denver Post. The decision will be announced this afternoon.

Rudy Giuliani has ended his silence over Bush's proposal for a troop increase. After the speech, he announced he supports a troop increase.

"I support the president’s increase in troops," Giuliani said in a statement. "Even more importantly – I support the change in strategy – the focus on security and the emphasis on a political and economic solution as being even more important than a military solution."

The Washington Post reports that two of the coveted media seats in the Scooter Libby trial will go to bloggers.

After two years of negotiations with judicial officials across the country, the Media Bloggers Association, a nonpartisan group with about 1,000 members working to extend the powers of the press to bloggers, has won credentials to rotate among his members. The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the highest-ranking Bush administration official to face criminal charges, could "catalyze" the association's efforts to win respect and access for bloggers in federal and state courthouses, said Robert Cox, the association's president.

Firedoglake announced last week that with the aid of Arianna Huffington, it had been granted a press pass for the trial.

Here are some excerpts from Bush's speech tonight.

Several Republicans are balking at the plan:

A number of Republican senators -- including Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Sen. Olympia Snow of Maine and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas -- have publicly questioned whether Bush's plan to increase troop strength will help stabilize Iraq.

"A troop surge in Baghdad would put more American troops at risk to address a problem that is not a military problem," Coleman said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

"It would put more American soldiers in the cross hairs of sectarian violence and create more targets. I just don't believe this makes sense," Coleman said.

Democrats are upset, among other things, at Bush's lack of consultation with them over the plan. By the time he met with them, the plan was a fait accompli.

President Bush hasn't even given his speech yet, but the first new surge of troops is already en route to Baghdad and more are scheduled to leave tomorrow:

Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad today. An additional battalion of roughly 100 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday.

There will also be more call-ups from the National Guard.

What's different about this troop surge? According to military commanders, the troops will be residing in local Iraqi neighborhoods:

New York's losing Attorney General candidate, Jeanine Pirro, won't be crying in her spilled milk.

Instead, she'll be raking in $1 million a year as host of her own Warner Brothers television talk show.

Good luck Jeanine, break a leg. We are all much safer and freer with you on television than directing crime policy.

My prediction: the show will be a big hit. Guilt still sells in America.