Fine for Littering

This just in, via the Washington Post: Apparently picking up litter in Iraq is now punishable by death.

So, we've been sniping at anyone who picks up weapons materials that we've deliberately placed as bait... don't we also have some sort of weapon exchange program where we pay Iraqis to turn in guns and stuff? I'm not saying that they're deliberately laying down "bait" that people could get a reward for... I'm just not certain that they're going out of their way to make sure nothing they leave laying out could bring dollar signs to an innocent civilian's eyes.

Dipping a toe in.

Yesterday (September 15th) I went down to Prescott and attended the statewide meeting for the Arizona Green Party. I met a lot of cool people there, and it seems like there's some real momentum in the party right now, so it's an exciting time to get involved. I've volunteered for the Media sub-committee, so we'll see how that goes. It looks like the Greens have a shot at taking the Mayor's office in Tucson, which would make Tucson the largest city in the country with a Green mayor. Dave Croteau, the Green candidate, is running against an incumbent Republican with no Democratic challenger. As Claudia Ellquist put it, "the Democrats decided not to put a spoiler in this race."

Splitting my loyalties (slightly) I went after the meeting to a fundraiser for Howard Shanker, a Democrat who is running to replace Rick Renzi (R - Scandalous) in the AZ-01 congressional district. Since the Greens don't appear to be running anyone in this race, at least not yet, I'm not too torn up inside about supporting a Democrat, especially one who worked so hard to keep artificial snow making (which leads to larger ski lodges, which require bulldozing and clear cutting the side of the mountain) off of the San Francisco Peaks. He seems like a great, standup guy (we'll see what a few years in D.C. do to him, of course) and I'm happy to support him, though I'll keep my eye out to see who's challenging him in the primary. The fundraiser itself was a blast. He's got the support of many Navajos and Hopis, and the entertainment, a group called Blackfire, was a Navajo band that did Rage Against the Machine style rock.

After Kerry's loss in 2004 I decided that I would focus on local politics for a while. Now, two years later, this is my first real foray into the local political scene. I've got a chance to be part of building the Green Party in Coconino County from the bottom up, and to help elect someone decent to replace Renzi. I think I'm happy with that.

Green Bandit Out.

A follow up on an earlier post

More information about whether individual actions have an impact on the climate here.

Could it be?

It looks like the Bush Administration has found an environmental cause it can get behind. It's trying to push for quicker deadlines for countries to phase out ozone depleting chemicals. No joke. From the Grist article linked above, it appears the motivation is largely economic. American chemical companies can make a lot of money by providing new, ozone safe refrigerants, while China will lose some profits if the new deadline gets pushed through.

This highlights something I've been thinking about for a while: often the environment and the economy are portrayed as at odds with each other. They aren't, and they shouldn't be seen that way. If we can focus on ways that going green can be a wise monetary move, maybe we can get some change here.