It was indeed another gorgeous, summery morning on the French Riviera, but the real heat was indoors. There wasn't a single empty seat inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière -- which holds more than 2,000 people -- for "Sicko," and dozens of stragglers were locked out on the sidewalk. Moore's screed against the outrageous state of American healthcare was received with uproarious affection, but one might argue that Cannes provided the softest possible crowd. An American left-wing populist, attacking America's profit-motive, private-sector ideology before a roomful of international intellectuals, at least half of them Europeans. May I introduce a new phrase into the Franglais dictionary? C'était un slam-dunk.

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That is in fact how it works. My unknown friend with the unknown film might have had a better short-term commercial future at Sundance (although that's far from a sure thing), but as far as festival quality-of-life issues go, he's in the right place. The South by Southwest Film Festival can't compare with Sundance as an acquisitions marketplace or a high-profile showcase for new movies. Even claiming that SXSW has the countercultural cachet that Sundance once possessed is misleading, because no single event or institution can wield that kind of cultural power in today's fragmented media environment. But it's a pile of fun, and whatever people say about Sundance, they don't say that.

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But now it seems that the al-Qaida leader is very much alive -- and that he's got enough time on his hands to keep a finger on the pulse of American public opinion. That might lead one to wonder whether the Bush administration has done all it can to capture bin Laden, or whether he's really "on the run," as the president likes to say, or whether all the attention the White House has devoted to Iraq might have been better served going after the people who, you know, actually attacked the United States on 9/11 and say they're planning to do it again.

But that's not what "Hardball's" Chris Matthews thought when he heard the bin Laden tape. Matthews listened to the al-Qaida leader and declared: "He sounds like an over the top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore."

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Them's fighting words! But the funny thing is, listening to Murtha speak on the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" last night, he did sound remarkably like someone who could have received prominent placement in "Farenheit 9/11."

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Sheehan's central demand -- that the president meet with her and explain why her son died -- has immense power in a country that's beginning to understand it was lied to about the reasons for the Iraq war, at a time when the carnage seems not only endless but futile. To build on that power, the antiwar movement being born at Camp Casey must understand and hold onto the source of Sheehan's moral authority: her authentic grief over her son's death and her fearless demand to talk honestly about it, even with supporters of the war.

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"It's not a moment too soon for strong, effective -- bold -- American leadership at the United Nations," wrote Heritage Foundation fellow Peter Brookes in Monday's New York Post. "The world's largest international institution is in serious need of some 'tough love' -- and the smart money says John Bolton is the right man to give it ... We need an ambassador in New York who can tangle with the increasingly powerful (and confident) Chinese, the ornery Russians and the (always) cranky French on the Security Council."

While opponents argue Bolton is about as anti-U.N. as they come, Brookes thinks otherwise. Bolton's criticisms of the institution, he says, "have always been inspired by the U.N.'s ideals -- and therefore scathing about its corrupt reality."

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Not so, says a new report from the Center for American Progress: "Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the rising American death toll has prompted some commentators to suggest that poor and minority soldiers are bearing the brunt of the war's human cost. An analysis of casualties by the Center for American Progress in Washington suggests otherwise. The majority of the dead are Army and Marine enlisted personnel, white men in their mid-20's, who graduated from high schools in major cities and suburban areas. Moreover, a look at the poverty rates in the high schools many of them attended suggests that these young men and women are from working-class communities that are neither disproportionately poor nor rich."

For a more truthful picture of military service in Iraq -- one that's literally more black and white than Moore's, and isn't black and white at all -- this is the film to see.

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"Liberals can't bring themselves to support freedom in Iraq," he wrote, "lest they seem to collude with neoconservative bombast. Meanwhile, antiwar ideologues can't support the Iraqis because that would require admitting that positive outcomes can result from bad policies and worse intentions."

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