Bush’s Glass is Half Full and All Wrong

PLUS: Darfur gets complicated...The Iraq Study Group gets obsolete...Upstate New York gets hot...Pirates get scary...And kids actually don’t like reading, they just like Harry Potter. It’s Friday the 13th, what could go wrong?

Celebration Excuse

July 13; fermentation, gender integration, and JFK mayhem.

1568

Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral perfects method of bottling beer. Boy, are we thankful.

1837

Housewarming! Queen Victoria of England moves in to BuckinghamPalace and is the first monarch to live there.

1900

The Boxer Rebellion: Chinese peasants resist foreign influence. Those pesky conquerors are totally messing with their Feng Shui.

1908

Girl Power! Women compete in the modern Olympic Games for the first time.

1923

The famous “Hollywood” sign in the L.A. hills is dedicated, although it originally reads “Hollywoodland.” (The last four letters were removed in a 1946 renovation)

1960

The Democratic National Convention nominates Senator John F. Kennedy for President.

1985

The original Live Aid concerts rock out in London, Philadelphia, Moscow, and Sydney.

Cake and Presents Galore

1864: American millionaire and richest man to sink with the Titanic, John Jacob Astor IV
1942: Action star Harrison Ford

1946: The Highly acclaimed actor, Cheech Marin

1957: The guy who brought us Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Almost FamousCameron Crowe

Daybook

PEOPLE

Former Rep Tom DeLay and current Rep. Trent Lott head to Arlington, VA to speak to College Republicans

STUMPIN’

Bill and Hillary: Campaigning in New Hampshire

Bill Richardson: Headed to the Lation Vote 2007 Banquet in LA

John McCain: Giving Iraq speech in Concord, NH

Sam Brownback: Speaking to the Collge Republicans National Convention in Arlington, VA

Ron Paul: Hanging at Google HQ in California

Mike Huckabee: Heads to a truck stop on Highway 18 in Algona, Iowa, then off to the Winnebago County Fair

WATCH MORE TV

Watch At Work

The Oprah: “The Day I Found Out My Husband Was A Child Molester”

Ellen: (Repeat) Allison Janney

Regis & Kelly: Joey Fatone, Abigail Breslin

The View: Perez Hilton

Stay Up Late

Letterman: Queen Latifah, Smashing Pumpkins

Conan: They Might Be Giants

Leno: Victoria Beckham

Kimmel: Bear Grylls

Ferguson: Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley to you Muggles out there)

 

Eavesdrop

STEAL THIS AUDIO:

Michael Moore, director of SiCKO

Who: Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker, whose past credits include “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine,” and “Fahrenheit 9/11.” [Michael Moore]

What: At a press briefing at the NAACP conference in Detroit, MI, Moore answers critics of his new movie SiCKO and provides an articulate critique of the American healthcare system, insurance companies, HMOs and managed care.

Why: 47 million Americans don’t have health insurance, but countless more (and maybe even you) are in the grips of a system that spends almost $7,000 per person every year (more than twice as much as the next highest country, Germany) but still ranks 37th in health care outcomes in the world. [Health and Human Services] [World Health Organization]

  • Moore thinks it’s ridiculous that a doctor would have to “call a man at the insurance company, a man sitting in a cubicle perhaps a thousand miles away, to ask permission if he the doctor can perform this treatment, prescribe this medicine, do this procedure, on the patient that is sitting 50 feet down the hallway.”
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  • In our system, “we have the insurance company in between the doctor and the patient. At least with the government, we have the power every two years, every four years, to do something about it. We can’t vote for the executives at the insurance company.”
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  • Only in America do we call health care “benefits": “Did you know that word is never used in the rest of the Westen World?That’s an American word, ‘the benefits.’ Because there they’re called human rights.”
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  • Moore busts the myth that other industrialized countries have long waits to receive healthcare: “...in America, [only] 46% of the American public is able to...get in to see the doctor in the next day or two...in Australia it’s 66%...in Germany it’s 69%...Britain, ...71%.”
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  • Besides, “The reason we may have a slightly shorter wait for some...things in the U.S. is we make sure that 47 million aren’t in line in front of us!”
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  • “It’s not that these other countries don’t have their own problems. Because they do. But at least they come at it with the basic core value that everybody’s in and nobody’s out.”
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Find a theater playing SiCKO near you: [SiCKO]

Popularity Contest

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

NYT: Ex-Mayor of Newark Indicted in Corruption Case

WP: CIA Saw “Irreversable” Instability

USAT: Net Threats Result of Kids’ Online Behavior

LAT: Dow Leaps nearly 300 Points

CBS: Chinese Shop Sold Buns Stuffed With Wet Cardboard

ABC: McCain Official Busted On Sex Charge

NBC: ‘Harry Potter’ Movie Casts Record Spell

CNN: Drug Flights Surge In Carribian En Route to U.S.

FOX: MISS-JUDGED; Beauty Queen Keeps Crown

Masthead

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Mic Check is produced every weekday by Christy Harvey, Sara Langhinrichs and Nicole Murphy, and is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Read more about Mic Check.

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