azimagery AZ Bike & Peace: The Story of Cap & Trade

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/15/cap_trade_a_critical_look_at

http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/

What is The Story of Cap & Trade? The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals:
free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you. http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/capandtrade.php

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/httpwwwienearthorg.html

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/

I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites:
http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
http://r2meshwork.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-world-fair-trade

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/
http://stroke-azimagery.blogspot.com/
http://my.opera.com/dcimagery/blog/
http://my.opera.com/azimagery/blog/
http://www.vimeo.com/user428906
http://www.youtube.com/user/azimagery
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lo

love-ellen

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.

Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Ashley Smith

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingfun/514508627/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/do-ipods-cause-cyclist-deaths.php?campaign=daily_nl

Photo via chasingfun
@ flickr.
Zombies are everywhere in
pop culture these days, even having infiltrated TreeHugger. There are not a lot of zombies, however, riding the roads completely fixated on their iPods and thus being inattentive to road conditions, and inadvertently killing themselves. There can't be, because zombies, as most of us know, are already dead. And since they feast on human flesh, why would they be riding cycles and listening to iPods? Still, this article seems to infer that it is iPod listening that is leading to a rise in cycling deaths in Britain.

Photo poka059 via flickr.

Certainly there are horrific stories of cyclists killed - and though no proof is given in reports like this one, it could be plausibly inferred that an iPod blocked out some life-saving sound indications of trouble.

Yet in fact, this is putting the blame solely on the cyclist, when the actual statistics tend to indicated that
it is "clumsy or inattentive drivers" that are to blame in 90% of bike-car accidents. And 90% of cyclist deaths are in connection with an accident with a motor vehicle, according to Ken Kifer's Bike Pages.

But before we go ahead and ban iPod
listening while cycling, shouldn't we take a more comprehensive look at cell phone use and texting while driving, a seemingly grave threat not only to cyclists health, but also to pedestrians' well-being? Way back in 2002, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die each year as a result of
cell phone use during driving. In the UK a study last year found texting was more dangerous than drinking while driving.

And in fact, a North
Carolina a law went into effect yesterday putting a $100 fine on texting while driving. A similar NC statute prohibiting mobile phone use is only in effect for teenagers and school bus drivers. Chicago has a law against mobile use while driving going back to 2005, and recently increased the penalty. Elizabeth at Bike Commuters says the National Safety Council is planning to lobby for a nationwide
cell phone use ban.

It seems equally to be common sense to not text while driving as it is to not listen to an iPod while on a cycle needing to be attentive to traffic noises. One solution for cyclists would be to only keep one earplug in while on regular roads. Or how about the Slip - holds the ear buds away from the ears and keeps your ears warm at the same time.

However, recently it seems like the anti-cyclist rhetoric has lately cranked up a notch. Or is it simply that there are more people cycling and thus more chances for motorist-cyclist interactions? In Philadelphia, two pedestrian deaths caused by cyclists have turned the mood against cycling quite sour -
bills have been proposed - one putting at $1,000
fine on riding a fixie bike. Another piece of legislation calls for increasing the fine for riding on the sidewalk from $10 to $300, while another puts the fine for riding while wearing headphones to $300. City Council is also proposing to register bikes. Is this the answer to cyclist-motorist-pedestrian tensions?

http://www.codepinkaction.org/

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Get your own

10 Good Things About 2009

By Medea Benjamin

My almost annual
list of ten good things about the waning year has never before posed such a tremendous challenge. In the face of this challenge, I decided to try a minimalist thought experiment, blocking out the many baneful events that colored 2009, and instead seeking out the small, yet powerfully bright notes to inspire and give us hope for the year head.

1. Tens of thousands of people from around the world took to the streets of Copenhagen to call for meaningful action to address climate change, despite continuous attempts to squelch it. Inside Copenhagen’s meeting halls, indigenous peoples from small island nations and the Himalayas spoke powerfully about their rights and their needs.

2. According
to recent polls a majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and seventy-five percent say no new troops should be sent to that country. Public opinion is on our side.

3. The creative
use of Twitter by protesters in Iran brought thousands of people into the streets of Teheran, including students, young people and thousands of young women. Their courageous and innovative use of social media kept the rest of the world informed of events, slipping out from under the country’s blanket of censorship.

4. The
Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement to pressure Israel to respect Palestinian rights garnered the support of many groups around the world. The growing list of BDS successes is too long to enumerate here, but to choose only one: In February South African dockworkers, remembering
the long history of Apartheid in their country, refused to offload an Israeli ZIM Lines ship in Durban.

5. One of Obama’s first acts in office was to lift the Global Gag Rule, which ended restrictions on U.S. funding for organizations that provide family
planning services and that are often the first responders for women in the fight against HIV.

6. The Washington, DC City Council voted in mid-December to legalize same-sex marriage, making it the first jurisdiction south of the Mason-Dixon Line to do so. Same-sex marriage is now legal in Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut
and will be legal in New Hampshire on January 1st. DC Mayor Fenty signed the bill on December 18, 2009.

7.Michelle
Obama planted the White House’s first organic vegetable garden, a garden that provided food for her own family’s table and helped to educate the nation’s children about healthy eating.

8. 2009 may go down as the beginning of the end of the failed “War on Drugs”. The Obama administration announced that the federal government would no longer arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients and caregivers
as long as they were following their state’s medical marijuana laws.

9. Last year, CODEPINK launched a campaign calling upon the FBI to add Luis Posada Carilles, a ruthless terrorist who was responsible for downing
a Cuban airplane in 1976, to the Most Wanted List and arrest him. On April 8, he was indicted on 11 counts.

10. Obama’s
Nobel Prize victory sparked a global debate about what it takes to be a real peacemaker. While many of us were aghast that a president who has escalated a war was receiving the world's principal peace honor, the aspirational goal of the prize is an added pressure on both the Obama administration and us at the grass roots. We realized that we are the ones who have to make peace, that the impetus is as much on us to turn hope into action.

I looked around and saw the women of CODEPINK, the impassioned environmental activists
in Copenhagen, the young Israeli refuseniks, Afghan parliamentarian Malalai Joya, and all our friends and allies working for peace and social justice around this country and the world, and realized that WE are the hope and change we have been waiting for.

Even after all the disappointments of this year, the items on this list and our own strength and persistence give me immense hope in the possibilities to
come as we greet the New Year.

So here's a toast to our power and our passion—we have our work cut out for
us in 2010!

Support
CODEPINK's work for the coming year and help us continue to be a part
of the hope and change we want to see!

When you make a donation of $50 or more you will receive a deck of our new War Criminal Cards in collaboration with After Downing Street, designed by Iraqi designer, Marina
Murad. Marina was born in Baghdad and her family escaped to Amman, Jordan during the height of the first Gulf War. They immigrated to America in the early 1990's. She grew up in Redlands, California, and received her BA from University of California, Riverside in Fine Arts. She is currently
obtaining her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She designed these cards as part of her personal commitment to peace and justice.

Congratulations President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize - Now please earn it.
As President, you have opportunities to continue working for peace including ending the war in Afghanistan and deciding how the federal budget is allocated including the military spending versus domestic programs such as healthcare + following through with your campaign promises!

End the war in Iraq
Shut Down Guantánamo Bay Prison
Reject the Military Commissions
Act
Stop Torture
Work to eliminate nuclear weapons
Hold direct, unconditional
talks with Iran.
Abide by Senate approved international treaties.

CODEPINK's
promise to you is to find creative, productive ways to hold Obama to his Promises for Peace. We will be the string around his finger that reminds him to practice what he preaches and deliver the change our country
so desperately needs. Please join us in REMINDING OBAMA!

Pledge to Hold Obama to his Promises for Peace