House of Representatives Democrats really did not expect the Justice Department to present their contempt citations against two of US President George W. Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury for prosecution.

But the effort and having a civil lawsuit at the ready as a backup in their fight against the White House over the 2006 firings of nine federal prosecutors has satisfied, for now, some liberals who for a year have wanted much more: Bush's impeachment.

Even before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to reach Congress' highest office, the California Democrat had rejected demands from many in her party for impeachment.

Until two weeks ago, she had sat for seven months on the contempt citations sought by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee against Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and his former counsel, Harriet Miers.

So can Boris pull it off? And do the Tories really want him to?

But there is nervousness, too, among the Cameron camp. A column by Philip Stephens in the Financial Times which suggested the leadership would like Johnson to lose narrowly, scaring Livingstone and showing the Tories could score in the capital, has been much discussed at Westminster this week.

Few know Cameron's real view and senior figures in the Tory campaign are adamant the speculation is untrue. Some officials say the London election is too singular to draw wider conclusions. But while Johnson is a supporter of Cameron and signed-up moderniser, Crosby's strategy may encourage the view that the party should return to its base to hoover up voters.

There is dismay in the Livingstone camp at the relatively easy ride Johnson receives in the media. Their man, they say, is subject to almost daily beatings in the Evening Standard by Andrew Gilligan, the former Today reporter who sparked the David Kelly affair.

The Mac Guy: It can take time to retrain self when switching to Macs

Hey Mac Guy: I'm enjoying my Mac but wish I knew how to navigate around quicker. They need a guide for recovering Windows users.

Mac Dazed

Two books I can recommend are "Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual" by David Pogue (www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529529), which is a general guide to the Mac interface, and "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition" also by Pogue (www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514129). This second book sounds like it may be a better starting place for you, but it won't be available until sometime in February.

ELECTION 2008: MCA pits novice against Lim Kit Siang

MCA is placing so much faith in its record in Perak that it was willing to field a novice against DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang in the Ipoh Barat parliamentary seat. The candidate - Liew Mun Hon, a 32-year-old engineer, will pit his wits and sizeable party machinery against the veteran Lim.

So long Time Warner Cable, hello DIRECTV

Now sure, I've read George Ou's recent posts about the poor image quality of their "HD-lite" service, but I still wanted to see what they were offering. [Until now, I had avoided satellite because I liked the idea of video-on-demand, and because I couldn't imagine life without NY1, a local all-news station that's exclusively on Time Warner Cable only available through Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. In reality, we hardly ever use VOD, and as for NY1 — well, life always has trade-offs, and I can always stream the audio from their website if I get really desperate.] The bottom line: For our first 12 months, we could pay $49.99 a month for virtually every station we receive today (it would go up to $69.99 a month after the first 12 months). On top of that, we would need to buy a $99 HD-DVR ($199, plus a $100 rebate), which at least on the surface, appears to blow away our current Scientific Atlanta box from Time Warner.