Morning News Roundup (17 Mar)

• Four Republican Senators introduced legislation that would legalize the BushCo administration's warrantless wiretapping program. [WaPo]
  

  The bill would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, without a warrant, for up to 45 days per case, at which point the Justice Department would have three options. It could drop the surveillance, seek a warrant from FISA's court, or convince a handful of House and Senate members that although there is insufficient evidence for a warrant, continued surveillance "is necessary to protect the United States," according to a summary the four sponsors provided yesterday. They are Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine).
  [...]
  It is far from clear whether the bill can win passage. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) -- whose panel plays a major role in the surveillance matter -- pointed his thumb down yesterday when asked about the measure. He said he particularly objects to letting the government "do whatever the hell it wants" for 45 days without seeking judicial or congressional approval.

• As if our national credit card wasn't already maxed out enough, Congress raised the debt ceiling yesterday (via the WaPo):
  

  The government bumped up against its $8.18 trillion statutory debt ceiling last month, forcing the Treasury to borrow from employee pension funds to keep the government operating. After weeks of pleading from Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, the Senate took the politically unpalatable but economically critical step of raising the ceiling for borrowing to $8.96 trillion. Under House rules, the debt limit was raised last year without a vote when lawmakers approved a budget.
  
  It was the fourth debt-ceiling increase in the past five years, after boosts of $450 billion in 2002, a record $984 billion in 2003 and $800 billion in 2004.

  
  The AP (via Yahoo!) notes that with this increase, our national debt will "represent $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States."


• Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was tapped by President Bush to become the next Secretary of the Interior, succeeding the recently resigned Gale Norton. Environmental groups weren't happy, noting that Kempthorne fought to open national forests to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling and worked to weaken water safety and endangered species laws. The League of Conservation voters had this succinct response:
  

  During his career in Congress, Governor Kempthorne earned a paltry 1 percent lifetime LCV score. Enough said.

  Check out this ThinkProgress report, which has even more info about the new kid on the block.
  


• The US says it has authorised Iraq Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to hold talks with Iranian officials about the situation in Iraq. The talks with Iranian officials will be to "express our concerns... about their involvement inside Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McLellan said, with Iran's nuclear program still to be discussed at the UN. [BBC]
  


• The right-wing Family Research Council (FRC) has asked the Department of Homeland Security to revoke the “designated status” of this summer’s Gay Games. Such status allows non-citizens with HIV/AIDS to visit Chicago for the event. [ThinkProgress]


• Finally, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, green beer (via Wired News):
  

  Brooklyn Brewery, located on Brewer's Row in Brooklyn, New York, is one of a handful of breweries around the country that uses sustainable energy when producing its beer.
  
  Its choice of method is wind power, which provides 100 percent of the brewery's energy needs, making the 1,658,000 gallons of beer it produces green year-round.
  [...]
  Brooklyn Brewery isn't equipped with wind turbines on the warehouse roof, however. Instead, the brewery pays a premium rate to Con Edison so that the 285,000 kilowatt-hours it uses off the grid every year is replaced by energy produced at a wind farm located in Madison County, in upstate New York.
  
  Community Energy, which manages the 20 General Electric wind turbines that produce electricity for the beer house, estimates that Brooklyn Brewery's commitment to green power stops 335,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 1,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 500 pounds of nitrogen oxide from being emitted into the atmosphere annually.
  [...]
  New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, has developed a unique method that uses its waste to power its factory.
  
  After producing its libations, New Belgium puts its waste water inside closed pools filled with anaerobic bacteria. The microbes feed on the water, rich in nutrients from the brewing process, and produce methane gas, which is then pumped back to the factory where it becomes electrical and thermal energy. That's equivalent to what 22,000 trees absorb in one year or what is produced by driving a car 290,000 miles.
  

[PS] I got a tip-o-the-hat over at Treehugger, one of my fave green consumer sites, for suggesting this great vegetarian cookbook by Peter Berley. I am well chuffed.