As you've no doubt heard, Ted Sorensen passed away over the weekend. Sorensen was, among other things, a speech writer for President Kennedy, and part of the team that negotiated an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which makes him the only person I've ever met who has actually saved the world.

In 2007, I had the good fortune to mentor three high school students as they produced a documentary portrait of Mr. Sorensen. The result was Through Words, a short film that tells Mr. Sorensen's story in his own words, gives an insider's view of one of the most terrifying periods in American history, and makes a convincing argument for the power of language in diplomacy. The film is all the more remarkable for having been produced and directed by three high school students, and I can think of no greater tribute to its subject than to include the film here.

Through Words was produced in the Unscripted program, a documentary filmmaking class at the Jacob Burns Film Center's Media Arts Lab. Thanks to filmmakers Kelly Simpson, Sam Pasternack, and Stephanie Edlund for allowing us to post the film.

Still life with Camry and AK-47

NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel reports live from Iraq tonight as the last combat troops drive into Kuwait. Rachel is there, broadcasting live from Baghdad. More pictures after the jump. You can also check them out on our Flickr stream.

And we mean it!

Traffic is shunted everywhere with jersey barriers. Everywhere, everywhere. I don't know what these guard towers are guarding, but it's unsettling to not be able to see if anyone's in them when you're boxed-in in traffic. They're an ideal spot not just for overwatch, but for a sniper.

Cameraman Bredun getting very meta

Watering the roadside lawn? Yeah, I dunno.

Business is slow because everyone's fasting for Ramadan.

Producer Madeleine Haeringer

Producers Madeleine Haeringer and Cory Gnazzo. The glamor. The glory.

Random guard tower on a downtown Baghdad street.

Richard Engel-- Best. Tourguide. Ever. Again.

The black banners with writing on them are death notices. Same way we post them in the paper -- they post them on the roadside.

Countdown -- Keith and Eugene -- in the chow hall in the green zone.

Rachel hard at work

After 14 days of deliberation, a jury in Illinois found Former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty on one count of lying to federal agents. One count out of a possible 24. On the other 23 counts, the jury was hung. The judge will declare a mistrial, and federal prosecutors say they will retry the case.

Until then, until we have fresh Blagojevich news, we highly recommend you listen to the wiretap tapes yourself. The Department of Justice has made them and their corresponding transcripts available online here.

The U.S. Border Patrol is not the same thing as the American Border Patrol. The U.S. Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency. The American Border Patrol is an anti-immigration activist group that owns a ranch near the Mexican border. In order to keep counter protesters off their lawn, organizers of this weekend's armed Tea Party rally staged the event at that private ranch in Hereford, Arizona. There were 400 attendees and about a dozen speakers including a charming radio host who brags on his Facebook page that he once was a "Heroin Addict-In between prison stints." From the New York Times:

"Instead of finding bugs in our beds, we're finding home invaders," said Tony Venuti, a Tucson radio host who attached a huge sign to the fence that told immigrants to head to Los Angeles, where they will be more welcome, and even offered directions for getting there.

Then, one of the more infamous anti-immigration demagogues, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, threatened to show off his famous climbing skills.

"If I had all the national TV here, I'd probably climb the fence to show you how easy it is."

Sorry America, no climbing demonstration for you. Sheriff Joe only climbs for national audiences.

As fringe-y and wacky as the armed rally at a private ranch seems, keep in mind that a Republican Senate hopeful, J.D. Hayworth, was a very proud attendee and speaker. An ad for the event headlined his Senate campaign website all weekend. We'll see if it helps him defeat Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the Republican Senate primary later this month. If it does... well, I'm sure he and President Tom Tancredo will get along swimmingly.

White House photo

Man, when the White House gets ready to sell you as the greatest, they don't mess around. Here's the (de-typoed) announcement for Jack Lew as the new (and returning) director of the Office of Management and Budget:

Lew, who already has outstanding experience in the position under the Clinton Administration, has been serving in the State Department under President Obama. During his time under President Clinton, 11 million jobs were created, and the federal budget was balanced for the first time since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. An inherited $290 billion deficit was turned around, and resulted in a more than $236 billion surplus at the end of 2000.

In our conversation yesterday with Richard Holbrooke yesterday, the first since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan also heaped praise on new OMB director. As a deputy secretary of state, Mr. Holbrooke said, Lew tripled the civilian diplomatic presence in the region. More?

"If he's confirmed, it's a tremendous loss for us because he filled a job that had never been filled before, never existed. The second deputy secretary of state focused entirely on resources and management. He brought to that job six years as head of the office and management under President Clinton.

"In the State Department, it was tremendously complicated because this is a hard place to manage. He also worked with AID. He was my closest collaborator -- still is my closest collaborator in this building. He did a tremendously important job in helping us get the resources to do the civilian effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"But it goes far beyond that. Jack had changed the building, and it was a brilliant decision by Hillary Clinton to bring him into the building. Now it's totally logical that he goes to OMB. It makes absolute sense. He's head and shoulders the best candidate for that job, just as Gen. Petraus was the best candidate to replace Gen. McChrystal, but we will need to fill in behind him.

"He assured me, when called me to tell me what's going on, that if he's confirmed he will spend a lot of time supporting Afghanistan and Pakistan from OMB. So the U.S. government comes out ahead in this thing, because he is coming back into the cabinet and, as Secretary Clinton, said he's been an indispensable person in this building. If he's confirmed it's going to be a great loss for us, but it's the best thing for the U.S."

Remember this guy and his blues for the Gulf of Mexico? "Dirty Cajun" Drew Landry took his song to the Presidential Oil Spill Commission hearings this week. "I never thought I'd be the hippie that brought his guitar to the meeting," Landry said, before launching in.

Landry warned the commission about the coming hurricane season and what it means for his culture. "This could be the next expulsion of the Cajun people, the people that love this place," he said.

The commission listened, and seemed a little stunned by his message. "I think you've made your point," co-chair William Reilly told him. "Thank you for your presentation, too. Everybody's with you."

Maybe that's true in spirit, but those commissioners can't possibly be in Drew Landry's muddy shoes, not with everything he and his fellow south Louisianans have to lose.

(H/T @Debbie in PHX

[Dirty Cajuns]

BP photo by way of Times-Picayune

With its hopefully miraculous new cap in place over the Deepwater Horizon well, BP is testing today to see if it will capture all the oil until a relief well can be completed. After nearly three months of tens of thousands of barrels of oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day, it's hard to believe that the worst of it might really, actually be over.

For the families directly affected by BP's disaster, the worst has only begun. BP has been touting its claims process for fishermen and others put out of work by the Deepwater Horizon. You can get forms in three different languages! Darryl Willis will tell you all about it! Up to six months of relief on the way!

But in Louisiana nearly 40,000 are seeing their payments from the company reduced because, as workers in a self-employment, cash economy, they can't prove their losses to BP's satisfaction. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

BP said it soon will begin adjusting claims downward based on "the seasonal nature of fishing activities, which will also result in a decrease in payments,'' Ms. Nichols wrote. Clearly the company's interest is in minimizing the amount it will have to pay to families left without their livelihoods in the wake of BP's environmental disaster. BP is also refusing to consider business expenses, such as loan payments on fishing boats, she noted.

Meanwhile, the New York Times spills some serious ink on BP's safety record -- maybe "danger record" would be a better way of putting it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Republican Party appears to be ready to contest the elections this year on the basis of "Hey! Unemployed guy! We hate you!"

When they're not objecting to unemployment benefits on the basis that unemployed people are lazy, and don't deserve them, Republicans have another line of attack, that if we are going to pay unemployment benefits to those lazy people, the cost can't be added to the deficit. It must be paid for. If there's one thing Republicans want voters to count on them for right now, it's to prioritize the deficit over all things! Anything that's not paid for -- "Sorry! We can't afford it! It's the deficit! No exceptions!"

Except for one really big exception. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), who has objected to increasing the deficit to extend $10 billion in unemployment benefits, told Fox News this weekend that it's fine to borrow in order to keep the $678 billion in Bush tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year. "You do need to offset the cost of increased spending. And that's what Republicans object to. But you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans," Kyl said.

Just to be clear, a deficit is money flowing into the government as taxes, minus the money going out of the government as spending. Those are the only two ingredients, money in and money out. If you're saying you don't care about one of those things -- if you're saying taking in less money in taxes isn't a big deal -- then you don't actually care about the deficit!

Disregarding one of them would be like saying, "Hey, let me make you a gin and tonic! Here's a glass of ice. Here's some tonic. Here you go! Here's your gin and tonic! Sorry, we didn't have any gin! Enjoy!"

[GOP economics as a gin and tonic]

Deepwater Horizon Response photo

Twice now the federal government has defended its six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, and twice federal courts have rejected the ban.

Undaunted, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a new ban this afternoon. This one's not a blanket moratorioum, but a series of "suspensions."

Secretary Salazar has directed BOEM to direct the suspension of any authorized drilling of wells using subsea or surface BOPs on a floating facility. Secretary Salazar has further directed BOEM to cease the approval of pending and future applications for permits to drill wells using subsea or surface BOPs on a floating facility. These suspensions shall apply in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific regions through November 30, 2010, subject to modification if the Secretary determines that the significant threats to life, property, and the environment set forth in this memorandum have been sufficiently addressed.

Salazar's old rules used depth to define whether drilling was banned -- anything deeper than 500 feet was out. His new rules apply to rigs that float, like the BP's Deepwater Horizon used to do. At least, they apply unless another court throws them out.

[New Deepwater Drilling Suspensions (pdf)]

Nate Silver pinpoints a problem with the Pentagon's new Don't Ask, Don't Tell survey. Among other questions, troops are asked whether they're serving with anyone they "believe to be homosexual." Silver writes:

[T]here's nothing to prevent a solider from speculating that some of his colleagues are gay, and this must occur rather frequently. Indeed, the survey almost seems to encourage troops to use their "gaydar" -- the question it poses is not whether they know other troops to be homosexual, but whether they believe them to be homosexual. Occasionally, there might be some relatively decent evidence for this, or there might be some dubious evidence that just so happens to be right. But for the most part, it would seem that you'll be picking up a tremendous number of false positives -- soldiers who are believed to be gay, but aren't -- and that these false positives will swamp any instances in which soldiers (in spite of DADT) are actually somewhat open about their same-sex attractions.

The Pentagon is spending $4.4 million on the research, part of its plan to spend the year studying a repeal of DADT. Service Members United, among others working to repeal the ban on gay soldiers serving openly, have condemned the survey as biased and derogatory.

NBC reports this statement from Sen. Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts):

"I've spent the past week reviewing the Wall Street reform bill. I appreciate the efforts to improve the bill, especially the removal of the $19 billion bank tax. As a result, it is a better bill than it was when this whole process started. While it isn't perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial meltdown, ensures that consumers are protected, and it is paid for without new taxes. That doesn't mean our work is done. Further reforms are still needed to address the government's role in the financial crisis, including significant changes to the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate."

Does this mean Sen. Brown is done shopping for changes? He got a break allowing banks to invest 3 percent of their capital in hedge funds, since his state has a lot of them. And then he got Democrats to strip a provision for $19 billion in new fees from banks, in a way that doesn't necessarily make sense. Would he like sprinkles on top? Fries with that? It looks like, for now, he expects not.

David Portugal, Jr., got married in Arizona this weekend. I think he's the guy in the silver shirt in the video above, with the ponytail and mustache, chaining himself to the Arizona capitol building in April. Portugal, who moved to Arizona from his hometown of Los Angeles, was protesting the state's new "Papers, please" anti-immigration law.

This weekend, as Democratic governors pressed President Obama to back off its lawsuit against Arizona, the New York Times reported on Portugal's wedding to Perla Farias in Goodyear, Arizona. Portugal and Farias are both Mexican-American, full citizens of this country and supposedly people for whom the new law would have little effect.

Except that it did affect their wedding, because so many undocumented immigrants have fled Arizona. From the Times:

As they were planning the wedding, the couple heard from three uncles of Ms. Farias's who in 2008 had relocated with their wives and children to find construction work in Washington State. The family members had planned to move back to Arizona in time for the wedding, but the impending immigration law made them decide not to.

"So we're a very big, happy family -- all split up," Ashley Godinez, one of Ms. Farias's aunts from Washington, said by telephone.