Weekend Update (02 September)

Top Commentary

• From Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, comes this comment piece on President Bush's speech from Thursday at the American Legion Convention, published by TomPaine.com (highlights below, but I recommend a full read):
  

  The 9/11, and subsequent, attacks around the world were tragic and criminal deeds. Nobody has to tell us in the Middle East about terrorism's evil, because we suffer its negative impact in two ways—as victims of terror for many decades, and also as the owners of the societies that give birth to so many terrorists.
  
  Yet Bush's response to terror remains hobbled by three constraints: misdiagnosing the causes and aims of terror; waging a "global war on terror" that has only expanded the problem by giving terrorists new reasons to cause havoc; and exaggerating the nature and extent of the terror threat to Americans and the world—primarily for domestic political purposes.
  [...]
  The president's speech Thursday night was most compelling for its capacity to say nothing new—nothing that he has not said repeatedly in the past three years—while adding new layers of misinterpretation and diversionary confusion that he sells to the American public on the basis of emotionalism, patriotism and nostalgia. His main thesis sums up his shameful misanalysis: "The war we fight today is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.''
  [...]
  I can think of a lot more credible candidates for this century's decisive ideological struggle, including fighting poverty, expanding equitable global trading patterns, promoting good governance and the rule of law around the world, giving ordinary people everywhere a sense of being treated with dignity and justice, safeguarding the global environment and a few others.
  
  Bush is wrong about the real threat from terror and has been wrong since he first had to deal with the impact of 9/11: It is neither a global ideological movement, nor does it plan to take the battle to the streets of Peoria and Memphis. His idea that different sorts of Islamic extremism and militancy form "a worldwide network of radicals that use terror to kill those who stand in the way of their totalitarian ideology'' is also a gross exaggeration and simplification, but one that fits comfortably into the neo-conservative-driven Republican White House view of the world (and their electoral imperative in the United States).

Friday Night Follies

• In yet another classic Friday-afternoon "take out the trash" maneuver to bury bad news on a slow news day (how much slower can it get than the Saturday of Labor Day weekend?), the Transportation Department's Inspector General is recommending discipline for FAA executives who gave the 9/11 commission false information, reports the New York Times. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this; for our part, CYA looks like a perfectly good explanation, especially from an agency that has a lot of A to cover when it comes to 9/11. [MoJo Blog]

Climate Crisis

• The United States, now at nearly 300 million people, is the only industrialized country that has experienced strong population growth in the last decade, creating concerns that the boom and Americans' huge appetites for food, water, and land will sharply erode the nation's natural resources in coming years, according to the Center for Environment and Population, a Connecticut-based nonprofit research organization.
  
  The Northeast remains by far the most densely populated region of the nation, but it also had the slowest population growth in the country during the 1990s, including a 2 percent population reduction in urban areas. In contrast, the South and the West were booming, creating new pressure on fragile environments and water sources. [Common Dreams]

Recent Huggs
[I've been submitting "green" news stories to the user-initiated eco-news service Hugg.com; you can see all my huggable items here, and if you create an account, you can submit news and give others a hugg]

• Wired's Autotopia blog notes that hybrids are becoming more of a considered purchase, despite the public not fully understanding the economics or fuel efficiency: "More than half of consumers who are considering buying a new car say hybrids are a possible purchase even though they are clueless about them, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The company surveyed prospective buyers who said that hybrids will cost more than $5,200 above comparable vehicles (about 50% above reality) while they expect hybrids to get 28 more miles per gallon than conventional vehicles." [Hugg | original news source]
  
  


• Wind farms are booming on Poland's breezy Baltic Sea coast with electricity companies from Asia, Europe and the US keen to be among the first to invest in Poland's fledgling wind- energy sector. The investment boom comes as Poland's Economy Ministry is preparing to issue new EU-recommended guidelines requiring electricity distributors to buy up more power generated using renewable sources. With just four wind farms producing 107 megawatts of electrical power currently operating in Poland, the sector in the EU newcomer enjoys enormous growth potential. [Hugg | original news source]
  
  


• San Diego is beginning to join cities like Chicago, Portland and Seattle in installing green roofs, with at least two developments - Cosmopolitan Square and Strata, both in East Village - set to include the feature. Centre City Development Corp (CCDC) is offering a bonus credit of 1.0 Floor Area Ratio for developers who create an ecoroof over 75 percent of a building's roof space. [Hugg | original news]

Misc.

• 88% of couples in long and happy relationships have lips of similar size, according to research by the University of Leicester. [BBC Magazine's 10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week]
  
  


• ABC is going to be showing a "docudrama" about 9/11 that is purportedly based on the 9/11 Commission Report. But, its writer Cyrus Nowrasteh is a well-known libertarian/conservative and he's brought an interesting spin to the proceedings: it's Clinton's fault. Check out the movie's page at ABC, where you can watch a preview (with a great line uttered by a terrorist in the desert--"Are there no men left in Washington?"). ThinkProgress has also been covering this:

  The problem isn’t that Nowrasteh is conservative. The problem is that Nowrasteh and ABC are representing “The Path to 9/11″ as an unbiased historical drama. Promos for the movie say it is “based on the 9/11 Commission Report.” Nowrasteh claims he “wanted to match the just-the-facts tone of the report,” and describes the project as “an objective telling of the events of 9/11.”
  
  Here’s some of the objectivity you can expect: Nowrasteh says the film shows how Clinton had “frequent opportunities…in the 90s to stop Bin Laden in his tracks — but lacked the will to do so.” He has referenced Clinton’s “lack of response” to Al Qaeda “and how this emboldened Bin Laden to keep attacking American interests.” A review today in Salon.com says the film paints Clinton “as a buffoon more interested in blow jobs than terrorists.”

[posted with ecto]