Perhaps you missed this in today's Dallas Morning News; among those who did not were Think Progress and Salon's "War Room" reporter Tim Grieve. And by this, I mean a syndicated column from Universal Press Syndicate's 40-year veteran Georgie Anne Geyer, who writes about a visit President Bush recently received from a few big-money buddies from around these here parts:

By all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."

As Grieve points out, this is but one version of the story that's been making the rounds of late. Problem is, they all kind of sound the same. --Robert Wilonsky

OK, so some of you aren’t jazzed by Alex Rodriguez visiting a Dallas topless bar three weeks ago. But what if I told you that he frequented, at least twice, a Dallas swingers bar three years ago?

According to multiple eyewitness sources, A-Rod’s pattern of behavior sans wife was in full bloom back in 2004, when he showed up at the Dallas alternative lifestyle club Iniquity. Sources who saw, sat with and talked to A-Rod said the Yankees slugger visited Iniquity -- where “membership is not available to single men” and where “playful behavior between women and couples" is encouraged -- without his wife on May 22 and August 9 of 2004, during trips to play the Texas Rangers.

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About an hour ago, I spoke with James Maguire, who wrote perhaps the definitive book about spelling bees: American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds. And among those word nerds, of course, was Colleyville's own 13-year-old Samir Patel, the five-timer who was this afternoon eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee for incorrectly spelling the word "clevis." (He spelled it "c-l-e-v-i-c-e," poor kid.) Maguire was in the Grand Hyatt ballroom in Washington, D.C., when the judges rang the bell that signaled Patel's adios from the contest -- his last -- and describes the mood in the room as one of "the simultaneous heartbreak of 700 people."

"Everyone gasped," Maguire tells Unfair Park. "It's like the breath flew out of everyone's chest. There was a moment when everyone was dumbfounded, and as he walked out they all stood and clapped -- a spontaneous standing ovation. It was a pretty dramatic moment. And they kept clapping, and for a moment I thought he might appear on stage again and take a bow. It was high drama."

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Hoping to make someone, anyone pay attention to the mayoral runoff, Ed Oakley has launched The Truth About Tom, a dumb and clumsy Web site largely dedicated to exposing Tom Leppert’s record as CEO of Turner Construction -- and misrepresenting one of our own stories. We’ll get to us later, but first let’s talk about Ed and Tom.

Since the highlights of Oakley’s business experience include buying up property in a part of town he can control as a council member, he doesn’t quite seem to understand that some people choose to make their living in the messy, unpredictable world of the private sector. As such, Oakley’s Web site rehashes news stories on a handful of construction projects Turner has allegedly bungled, including the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock. There, the city fired Turner after arena officials cancelled a game when an upper-level support beam displayed cracks.

Turner’s experience in Little Rock didn’t exactly doom the company. In September 2006, Turner won a $615-million contract to build the new New York Yankees stadium.

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This morning, Government Executive posted a story based upon internal Army briefings that reveal "combat medical units operating in Iraq do not have the proper emergency transport equipment, are lacking in training and have a shortage of critical personnel, including lab technicians who must send medical tests to Germany." As though things weren't bad enough.

Quoted extensively in the story is Dr. Robert Suter, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center -- and a former paramedic himself who, four years back, served as president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

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A Friend of Unfair Park sends his take on this morning's Ed Oakley-Tom Leppert forum at the North Dallas Chamber. Highlights are after the jump -- and, no, we don't have any idea who our Friend is voting for. But we can guess... Nonetheless, says our Friend, " Both were pressed repeatedly to offer specifics to back up their slogans and buzzwords." Yeah, but did they? --Robert Wilonsky

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Some of us likely know we used to call home the former KLIF-AM studios on Commerce Street and Central Expressway, till our former publisher decided, ya know, a sterile Uptown high-rise really is more, ya know, alternative than a landmark building. At least someone knows how to pay homage to an icon: XM Radio, go figure. But, yup, the future of broadcasting (so they say) will offer a tribute to the past a week from tomorrow, when XM's Channel 6 (devoted to music of the 1960s) will devote five hours of programming to none other than KLIF.

What's that mean? The full press release is after the jump, but in short, XM promises: "You can hear the radio station jingles from the 60’s, recordings of the DJs and announcers, and chatter about Dallas and Dallas-area high schools, restaurants, concerts, and hangouts. And of course, you can hear the classic songs that the station played during the fabulous 60’s." It runs from 3-8 p.m. as part of XM's weekly "Sonic Sound Salutes" show, and if you don't have XM radio, of course, you can always tune in online and listen gratis. --Robert Wilonsky

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Say this about the New York Post: That newspaper will suck every last drop out a juicy story. Like yesterday's "Stray-Rod" story, for instance, about the NY Yanks' third baseman and his "mystery blonde" frequenting Toronto nudie bars. Today it gets a hard-hitting follow-up in which it's revealed that Alex Rodriguez has also been spotted in at least one Dallas "high-end strip club" in recent weeks, as well as other not-spots, with the same lady or someone who looks like her. Guess Alan Peppard ain't on that phone tree.

Us, we really don't give much of a crap about A-Rod's personal life -- or Tony Romo's, for that matter. To be honest, we're only mentioning it this a.m. for two reasons: One, we love the front page of yesterday's Post; "best headline ever," proclaimed one journalism-biz best Friend, who loves her some BoSox. And two, as the Texas Rangers are still paying Rodriguez several mil for the next few years, we oughta get some enjoyment out of the guy. It's not like the last-place Rangers are providing any. --Robert Wilonsky

Right now, there are about 300 kids in Tulsa who think Dallas is just about the meanest city ever. Those kids, in middle school and high school, were supposed to get brand-new Schwinns on June 2 so they could use them in a 10-kilometer ride -- The Tulsa Ride and Race, sponsored by the Children's Hospital at Saint Francis -- the following day.

Only, over the weekend the bikes were stolen from Pacific Cycle's Dallas shipping yard. It's not like they'll be easy to offload: All the bikes were made specifically for the event and have the race and hospital's logos incorporated in their design. The kids'll get loaners till their new ones arrive. Wonder how long it takes to pedal to hell on a Schwinn. --Robert Wilonsky

On the front page of this morning's New York Times is a piece about how "clinical depression among retired National Football League players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained." The story's based on a study conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes, which has determined over the years that many former pro ballers spend their retirement suffering "dementia, severe arthritis and nutritional/dietary problems that change their lives forever."

To that list they can now add depression -- the heartbreak of which is revealed in another Times story today about former Dallas Cowboy and Hall of Famer Mel Renfro, who, for years, had been suffering from undiagnosed depression as a result of his having received nine concussions -- "including one," writes The Times' Alan Schwarz, "in which he regained consciousness at the end of the Cowboys’ bench with no idea of who or where he was." Renfro suffers from a "foggy" and "heavy" head; he has short-term memory loss and feels fatigued and sad, even when fresh out of bed. Reports The Times:

Working for a mortgage company in Dallas, where as a former Super Bowl champion he remains well-known and popular, Renfro said his meet-and-greet duties have grown only more difficult and frustrating: “I’ll forget people’s names 10 seconds later,” he said. “It feels awful. I’m embarrassed.”

You know who should be embarrassed? Every head coach who shoved a player back on the field by telling him, "Screw the team doctors." And every team owner, past or present, who looked the other way. --Robert Wilonsky