Morning News Roundup (13 September)

BushCo's Wars

• Vice President Cheney, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pressured senators on detainee legislation yesterday, urging them “not to be too restrictive in setting legal limits on CIA interrogations of enemy combatants.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• NATO announced suicide bombings have killed 173 people in Afghanistan this year. “Most of Afghanistan’s surge in violence has taken place in volatile southern provinces, where some 8,000 NATO forces took military control from the U.S.-led coalition on Aug. 1.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Police have recovered the bodies of 65 men dumped on streets in Baghdad, it was reported today. The discovery sparked fears that civil war in the Iraqi capital was escalating, with Sunni Arab and Shia Muslim death squads undeterred by a month-long security crackdown throughout the city. [The Guardian]
  
  
• In his first state visit to Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the security situation in Iraq with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and asked for his support in quelling the violence that threatens to fracture Iraq. Al-Maliki said U.S. accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq will have no effect on existing agreements between the countries. "All the political, security and economic accords that have been signed with the Islamic republic's officials will be carried out," he said. [SFChronic]

Domestic Potpourri

• Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee that Osama bin Laden has made it clear that scaring the United States into an unsustainable spending spree is one of his aims. In a 2004 video, Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, spoke of “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”
  [...]
  The direct reference to Mr. bin Laden echoes what is now a week’s worth of tough talk by the Bush administration about him, a move Democrats call a politically motivated effort to refocus the nation, and its voters, on the war on terror instead of the troubled conflict in Iraq. Mr. Chertoff said his message was not political, but simply a recognition of reality and the tough choices he must make. [NYTimes]
  
  
• Howie Kurtz in the WaPo highlights Christopher Buckley's recent unloading on the President in Washington Monthly (Buckley is the son of noted conservative William F., is the author of Thank You for Smoking, and is a loyal Republican):

  "I voted for George W. Bush in 2000. In 2004, I could not bring myself to pull the same lever again. Neither could I bring myself to vote for John Kerry, who, for all his strengths, credentials, and talent, seems very much less than the sum of his parts. So, I wrote in a vote for George Herbert Walker Bush, for whom I worked as a speechwriter from 1981 to '83. I wish he'd won. . . .
  
  "Who knew, in 2000, that 'compassionate conservatism' meant bigger government, unrestricted government spending, government intrusion in personal matters, government ineptitude, and cronyism in disaster relief? Who knew, in 2000, that the only bill the president would veto, six years later, would be one on funding stem-cell research? A more accurate term for Mr. Bush's political philosophy might be incontinent conservatism. . . .

  
  
• On Tuesday, voters responded to Minnesota State lawmaker Keith Ellison's liberal message calling for peace, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and universal health care. He beat three contenders in the Democratic primary in a Minneapolis-area district long dominated by his party. Ellison, a 43-year-old criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student, could become the first Muslim elected to Congress. [WaPo]

Climate Crisis

• As gas prices and anxiety about global warming rise, more people like the Floesers are bypassing the corner gas pump to run their cars on vegetable power. Kits are now available and biodiesel pumps are popping up in more places. Either way, a diesel vehicle is a requirement. It also helps to have a sense of initiative -- the sort that can take you to the service door of a Chinese restaurant looking for a fill-up. [ENN]

Big Blue Marble

• Brazil and India have signed multi-million dollar trade deals to improve co-operation between the two major emerging economies. The deals involve technology and alternative energy source development. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said strengthening ties formed part of a vision to create a more just economic world order. [BBC]
  
  
• During his visit to Brazil, chances are that the cars Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will use would be running on an ethanol mix instead of petrol. Brazil is one of the world’s leading producers and users of this alternative fuel that is usually made from sugarcane, and also from sorghum. Seven out of 10 cars sold in that country are operational on flex-fuel, that is, they can run on gasoline or ethanol. [EV World]

Misc.

• For several years now, the refrain in the movie industry has been: "We don't want to make the same mistake as the music industry." Hollywood studios, having ventured billions of dollars on their titles, say they can't afford to let customers get used to finding movies via black-market file-sharing.
  
  So what have the boldface names of the business spent the past few years doing? Ensuring that the most effective way to download a movie is via a peer-to-peer network that won't pay a dime to any studio.
  [...]
  Now two companies that actually know a thing or two about selling entertainment online -- Amazon.com and Apple -- are making their own attempts to drag movie downloads into this millennium.
  
  Apple made its official entry into the movie-download business yesterday at a splashy event in San Francisco, which included the introduction of new iPods and a preview of a set-top box, iTV, that will let viewers watch downloaded flicks on their TVs. Amazon's Unbox service launched last week. The Amazon and Apple efforts show a lot more promise than earlier stores, with noteworthy improvements in the shopping and downloading experience. [WaPo]
  
  
• It looks as though Steve Jobs, boss of Apple, might need a charisma download after what many people thought was a lacklustre performance - by his own high standards - at the company's much hyped developers' jamboree in San Francisco yesterday.
  
  Actually, since he had hardly anything new to say, he didn't make a bad fist off it. What other company announcing a series off minor upgrades to an existing product (the iPod), a film download service with an initial library of only 75 films, plus a new home entertainment product for next year, could have attracted such headlines around the world?
  
  Finally, Apple announced a forthcoming device called iTV, available next year, that among other things, will be able to transmit video from a computer to a living room television screen. Leaving aside the question of why we need an extra intermediary to get films to our television sets, the mere fact that he announced it at all, was a sign of weakness. It was done to prevent people buying a rival device from Microsoft. Or whoever. [Victor Keegan in The Guardian]