From the article, a quote from my choice for a-hole of the year...

Caroline Bourke, 53, who lives behind the Poczateks, also has complained, but said last night she wasn't surprised the case was thrown out. "I guess these days, there are going to have to be new ordinances," she said.

Caroline...please please please, no new ordinances criminalizing childhood.  

Some snippets from Robert Weissman's Part I review:

   When word got out that Michael Moore was working on a movie with the working title SiCKO, about the U.S. healthcare industry, the industry went bananas.

    Memos started shooting around, warning insurance and drug company executives and representatives to keep looking over their shoulders, to make sure they avoided being ambushed by Moore and a camera crew. Indeed, they had something to fear, for they have a great deal of needless misery and suffering to answer for.

    But it turns out that Moore didn't need them after all.

    Instead, he's made a movie driven by heart-breaking story after heart-breaking story. SiCKO presents a devastating indictment of the U.S. healthcare system by letting victimized patients speak for themselves.

    ...

    Moore's camera captures the pain, chaos and forced indignity imposed upon every day people who do their best to deal with an impossible situation.

    ...

    The publicity for SiCKO says the movie sticks to Michael Moore's "tried-and-true one-man approach" and "promises to be every bit as indicting as Moore's previous films."

    This is actually somewhat misleading. The approach is a little different. There's humor, but there aren't many gimmicks in SiCKO. There's no effort by Moore to confront industry executives. Moore himself has a much smaller role than in previous films.

    It is also a bit deceptive -- as an understatement -- to say SiCKO is as indicting as Moore's previous films. No matter how big a fan you may have been of Moore's earlier movies, you'll find that SiCKO cuts deeper and is more powerful and profound. SiCKO is, by far, his best movie.

    This is, simply, a masterful work. It is deeply respectful of and compassionate towards the victims. It seethes with outrage, but its fury is conveyed by all of the horrifying stories it presents. The narrative is, by and large, understated. It overflows with raw emotion, but manages to explain clearly the systemic imperatives that lead the
    richest nation in the history of the world to fail so miserably at delivering healthcare to all.

    Could things be different in the United States?

    Yes.

    The second half of SiCKO looks at other countries' healthcare systems, and finds that national, single-payer insurance delivers far better care. More on this in my next column.

    Sneak previews for SiCKO are being shown around the United States on June 23. The movie opens nationally on June 29. Be ready to be driven to tears and rage.

Weissman's Part II review concludes with the following:

   From the care provided in Havana and in a touching scene at a Havana fire station, an even more profound lesson emerges: the power of a cultural commitment to care for one another. All of us for all of us, with as big an "us" as possible.

    SiCKO is not an anti-American film, though much of the right-wing chatter says otherwise.

    People in the United States do routinely pitch in for one another on a voluntary basis, Moore emphasizes. The problem is that the U.S. corporate health insurance system, the corporate-dominated economy more generally, and the ideology that undergirds both, seeks to defeat the essential insurance function of sharing risk -- of everyone helping to take care of everyone else.

    Moore offers this challenge, or plea: "If there is a better way to treat the sick ... simply by being good to each other ... why can't we do that?"

    People in the other countries visited in the film "live in a world of we, not me," says Moore.

    To varying degrees, they have created solidarity societies, and they are happier, and healthier, for it.

Moore questions if people will say to significant others - "Honey, let's go see that healthcare documentary tonight." I hope WE prove him wrong.

I know this has made some rounds, I guess on Kos posted the video, and "our favorite" [read horrid sarcasm] Lou Dobbs also talked about it.

A few things for people to consider.  One, is this an ethics violation where the attorney from C&G expressly says our goal is to NOT find a qualified American worker, where the law requires them to try and find one.

Many tech companies are always pushing for more H1-B visas when it appears that a common tactic may very well be to ignore qualified US workers.  What do people consider the possible motivations behind this.  Personally, I believe we may be looking at a business-as-usual tactic in ensuring a docile workforce, too afraid of losing their visa to raise legitimate complaints.

When the winds exceed 10 knots, flights aren't allowed to take off.

Particularly the final last paragraph.

Today, 06.22.2007
"War Preparations and War Strategy in the Middle East"

The Syrian army has been mobilized and is digging defensive positions. Syrian military leaders have been meeting with Iranian military leaders to coordinate war preparations. The Russians and Chinese have been sending significant arms shipments to Syria, including advanced  MiG-31 fighters, Chinese-made  C-802 anti-ship missiles, Metis-M and  Kornet anti-tank missiles (used to stop the Israeli offensive in Lebanon last year), and sophisticated anti-air missiles.
...
The Syrians seem to expect an attack on their country. The Syrian government is allegedly moving sensitive state archives out of Damascus. Rockets are being sent to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. What is going on?
...
Iran and Syria may be militarily weak compared to Israel and the United States, but political cracks have appeared on the U.S. side. Washington may prove helpless. The Middle East is a powder keg, ready to explode. The Israelis and the Americans want peace. But every olive branch has proved a snare. The Syrians and their Iranian allies want blood. And blood they shall have. The Bush administration says the Syrians are "fueling the war in Iraq." The Iranians are doing the same.
...
Iran and Syria have a mutual defense pact. Both are being supplied with Russian and Chinese weapons, and both are expecting a war by the end of summer. How will the war start?
...
The strategy of Iran and Syria, like the strategy of Muslim terrorists, is manipulated by Moscow and Beijing. It is Moscow's timetable that carries the most weight. Moscow supplies the needed weapons, and the intelligence assessments. According to the late Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer assassinated by Russian operatives last November, Moscow wants America to be bogged down in a Middle East war. Top leaders in al Qaeda are Russian agents. The Russians trained many terrorist leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. And Russia is well served by growing violence in Lebanon. Middle East conflict keeps oil prices high, and that makes money for oil-rich Russia. The American economy is thereby weakened.

So she was willing to spill the water out. Drink the water. Anything -- all that she wanted was to be able to have a cup that her 19-month-old toddler could drink from.

Here's what happened in Monica's words:    

"I demanded to speak to a TSA [Transportation Security Administration] supervisor who asked me if the water in the sippy cup was 'nursery water or other bottled water.' I explained that the sippy cup water was filtered tap water. The sippy cup was seized as my son was pointing and crying for his cup. I asked if I could drink the water to get the cup back, and was advised that I would have to leave security and come back through with an empty cup in order to retain the cup. As I was escorted out of security by TSA and a police officer, I unscrewed the cup to drink the water, which accidentally spilled because I was so upset with the situation.

"At this point, I was detained against my will by the police officer and threatened to be arrested for endangering other passengers with the spilled 3 to 4 ounces of water. I was ordered to clean the water, so I got on my hands and knees while my son sat in his stroller with no shoes on since they were also screened and I had no time to put them back on his feet. I asked to call back my fiancé, who I could still see from afar, waiting for us to clear security, to watch my son while I was being detained, and the officer threatened to arrest me if I moved. So I yelled past security to get the attention of my fiancé.

"I was ordered to apologize for the spilled water, and again threatened with arrest. I was threatened several times with arrest while detained, and while three other police officers were called to the scene of the mother with the 19 month old. A total of four police officers and three TSA officers reported to the scene where I was being held against my will. I was also told that I should not disrespect the officer and could be arrested for this too. I apologized to the officer and she continued to detain me despite me telling her that I would miss my flight. The officer advised me that I should have thought about this before I 'intentionally spilled the water!'"

Bush claims he's not part of the executive branch.

think progress

Congress joined the Bush Administration for a nice little barbecue on the South Lawn [Tuesday night]. The theme was Mardi Gras, so everybody could enjoy memories of New Orleans being destroyed by the Bush Administration and then pretty much left in that same condition years later.

THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)

MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over.

An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced "Chemical Ali," one of Saddam Hussein's notorious top former aides, to death by hanging for genocide over the mass killing of tens of thousands of Kurds in 1988.