Green Options » EcoLocalizer

House Demands Audit of the Federal Reserve

Rhonda Winter — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:19:55 +0000

Where Did All of the Money Go?

Ed Schultz interviews Florida Rep. Alan Grayson about Congress finally demanding more transparency from the Federal Reserve, and auditing their massive secret bank bailouts. The recently passed legislation will now allow the Government Accountability Office to independently audit the Fed, and their nefarious Wall Street deals. Alan Grayson and Ron Paul co-authored the amendment, which also had a whopping 311 co-sponsors in the house.

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“We need to stop giving money to the bad banks, they just eat it, they don’t actually hand it out to people and do anything useful with it. We have to give money to the good banks. The fundamental strategy that has been followed since the Bush Administration to try to recover from this is flawed…the good banks will go and make good loans to people, to businesses, to small businesses in particular, and the economy will recover.”

—Rep. Alan Grayson

Bayview Celebrates the Latona Community Garden

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:08:02 +0000

Many of our Bayview neighbors joined us last weekend to celebrate the second anniversary of the Latona Community Garden. What used to be a smelly skanky debris-filled eyesore, is now a thriving organic community garden. The formerly blighted corner has been transformed into a warm and welcoming public space where neighbors gather, local kids play, and organic food is grown.

Several of the neighborhood kids climbing the walnut tree in the Latona Community Garden.

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AMA Now Believes that Marijuana Has Medical Value

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:20:36 +0000

In a historic shift, the conservative American Medical Association has just voted to reverse its long held position that marijuana has no medical value; the group is also planning to entirely review it current cannabis policy. During a meeting in Houston this week, the AMA’s House of Delegates adopted a new position which demands that:

“Marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

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See a Battery, Pick It Up

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:08:07 +0000

See a battery, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck. Especially if you take the battery that you found and safely recycle it, keeping dangerous toxic poisons out of our seas and drinking water.

I found this used battery near the ocean in Pacifica, right across from our friend Rick’s Salada Beach Cafe. It has since been safely recycled, and kept from polluting our waterways.

Our oceans are already turning into acid. We have to start today to try to make things better. Keeping one more toxic battery or piece of plastic out of our oceans, collectively, will make a difference. Once you start looking, you may be really surprised just how many “disposable” batteries litter our streets and sewers. Next time you see one, pick it up; what you do matters.

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Did Diet Coke Cause My Cancer?

Rhonda Winter — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:27:12 +0000

Recently I have been reading very disturbing research about how Diet Coke can possibly cause cancer and kill you. The artificial sweetener that is used in most diet beverages, aspartame, once ingested, becomes a lethal poison called methyl alcohol. Small quantities of this noxious substance can lead to blindness and death; even the most miniscule amounts of this aspartame toxin are strongly linked to cancer.

This is an image of the cancerous tumor that was recently removed from my body.

Billionaires for Wealthcare Reinvent Guerilla Musical Theatre

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:47:10 +0000

CNN highlights the Billionaires for Wealthcare enthusiastically singing the praises of a public option, as they entertained unsuspecting attendees at a health insurance conference in Washington DC last week. Wolf Blitzer and Jeanne Moos discuss the increasingly popular use of guerilla musical theatre across the nation. Cleverly orchestrated performances and mini-musicals seem to have become much more popular with folks now than rabid screaming teabaggers.

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Our Oceans Are Turning into Acid

Rhonda Winter — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:59:16 +0000

Sigourney Weaver narrates “Acid Test“, an illuminating and terrifying NRDC documentary that explains how quickly our planet’s oceans are acidifying due to all of the carbon dioxide that we are pumping into our air. This pollution is causing rapid changes in our oceans’ chemistry that will completely disrupt all life on the planet as we know it on a scale that has not been seen for tens of millions of years.

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Billionaires for Wealthcare Sing the Praises of a Public Option

Rhonda Winter — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:59:38 +0000

The brave Billionaires for Wealthcare are back in fine voice. This group of talented guerrilla performance artists graciously entertained attendees at a conference of health insurance industry workers with a seemingly spontaneous performance of a clever operatic anthem about our desperate need for a public option.

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At the annual conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans, (the corporate lobbying group that recently released a threatening report about how any inclusion of a public option in health care legislation would cause private insurers to grossly inflate their rates even more), attendees were entertained by the Billionaires for Wealthcare with their clever rendition of the ever hopeful song “Tomorrow“.

Michelle Obama’s Straight Talk on Women and Health Insurance

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:00:29 +0000

First Lady Michelle Obama talks straightforwardly about women and why we all so urgently need health care reform in this five minute short that was just released by the White House. At the moment I know that I am existing in something of a self-absorbed cancer bubble of my own, but I actually found this quite moving and powerful.

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Al Franken Is “Supply Side Jesus”

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:58:59 +0000

Years before he was a well-respected United States Senator, Minnesota native and satirist Al Franken was also “Supply Side Jesus“. He gives voice to this witty and sardonic animated allegory, “The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus”. Franken is quite effective as the overtly capitalist Christ who embraces supply side economics above all else; indeed Jesus and Franken are both Jewish. This five minute cartoon manages to be both simultaneously outrageously hilarious and disturbingly creepy.

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Grayson Speaks Truth and Fire

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:42:02 +0000

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson has just utterly transformed the health care debate in the United States with his speech from the House floor. “I’m just saying what everyone else has been thinking,” explains Grayson.

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Harvey Milk Is Finally Honored

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:38:01 +0000

Visionary Civil Rights leader and revolutionary Harvey Milk has finally been honored by the state of California with an official day to celebrate his life and impact. Each May 22nd is now “Harvey Milk Day”. On that day state schools and educational institutions will now be encouraged to conduct relevant civil rights related exercises.

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Sell the Vatican, Feed the World

Rhonda Winter — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:31:13 +0000

Comedian Sarah Silverman explains her ambitiously brilliant plan to end world hunger. She calls on Ratzinger, the chief architect responsible for obfuscating many of the Catholic Church’s most horrific sexual abuse scandals, to sell the Vatican and feed the world with the money.

“We need a hero, and who is more primed to be our hero than the pope? He’s literally a caped crusader,” explains Silverman. I think that she might be on to something.

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President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize!

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:11:21 +0000

GASP! WOOT! YES!

President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples“; as well as for his ongoing work to free the world of all nuclear weapons.

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Our National Parks: America’s Best Idea

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:17:28 +0000

Filmmaker Ken Burns’ most recent PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, is a stunning and utterly engrossing tribute not only to our country’s many awe-inspiring natural landscapes, but also to our nation’s fundamental democratic principles. Burns interviews scores of ordinary people, from park rangers and activists to journalists and historians, as they trace the origins of our greatest collectively-owned resources, and share their unique personal experiences in the vast beauty of our national parks.

“When we look at the parks and we look at the United States and we examine the whole idea of democracy, I think that the park experience is an exploration of the idea of freedom.”

-Shelton Johnson, Park Ranger

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Billionaires for Wealth Care Proclaim: Let Them Eat Advil!

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:48:50 +0000

Billionaires for Wealth Care have created this rousing anthem to satirically support our nation’s for-profit health care industries. The group was counter-protesting at last week’s teabagger anti-health care reform 9/12 rally in Washington D.C. (which was funded by major health insurance corporations). The Billionaires were dressed in top hats, tuxedos and evening gowns, and carried placards like: “Fight Socialism—End Medicare Now!” and “Let Them Eat Advil!”.

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According to the Billionaires’ website they are:

A grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We are not a political, religious or even particularly well-organized group. We’re simple folk, thrilled profiteers pouring out of our corner offices to dance on the grave of “Change.” We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to health care, if we ain’t broke, why fix it?

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Bicycle Repairman Saves the Day Again

Rhonda Winter — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:16:00 +0000

In a land where everyone else is a Superman in a red cape, being a bicycle repairman is something special indeed. I remember this brilliant Monty Python skit from my childhood, and it seems just as funny today. “See how he uses a spanner to tighten that nut!” It not only makes me most enthusiastic about the upcoming Monty Python reunion next month, but also really makes me want to learn more about how to fix my bicycle. Then I would truly have useful super powers.

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Michelle Obama’s Victory Garden Is Helping to Reshape Our Nation’s Food Policy

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:31:19 +0000

The White House has just released a new official video which profiles Michelle Obama’s hugely successful organic vegetable garden. The First Lady talks about the process of creating the victory garden, as well as the importance of shared family meals, making healthy choices, cooking fresh local food, and the need to change how our nation eats. In the short film Obama explains what she hopes that her example will help to accomplish:

We were a busy working family, and I would find it difficult to feed my family in a healthy way - quickly. So I decided to change our diet, and this happened throughout the course of the campaign, with simple things. I started adding more fruits and vegetables, trying to sit down and prepare a meal as a family a couple times a week, and eating out a little bit less. Trying to eliminate processed and sugary foods as much as possible. And I saw some really immediate results with just those minor changes. I thought well, if I could help other families learn these small changes in my role as first lady, that would be a good thing.

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This Bus Bike Rack Rap Rocks

Rhonda Winter — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:11:36 +0000

My happy transportation moment of the week came when I stumbled across this most excellent song on the Muni Diaries. The rap was created for the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky to explain how to use the bike racks on their buses. The infectious chorus has been stuck in my head all week: “Bring it down, pull the bar, put it on, put it on, take it off, put it up when you’re done, then you’re done…”

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Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating

Rhonda Winter — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:27:20 +0000

When I was in college I briefly dated a boy whose idea of a meal was eating cold meat chili from an open can. In retrospect, how and what he chose to feed himself provided a very telling insight into his character and values. How and what we eat shapes our lives and who were are. Nothing we do is more intimate; our meals sustain our very existence. When we choose to grow our own food, buy from local farmers markets and not eat highly processed packaged food, we are not only taking positive steps toward building and sustaining a locally based economy, but we are also lessening our collective carbon footprint upon the planet.

If you are starting to feel inspired to create some simple, affordable, tasty meals from locally available seasonal food, but are a bit clueless how to begin, Lisa Jervis‘ new book, Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, may provide just the help that you need.

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