MOMocrats™

Housing Policy Needs a Green Makeover (Sustainable Communities Are Part of the Work/Life Issue)

Several months ago, I wrote a lengthy post suggesting ways to use the mortgage crisis as an opportunity to help people facing foreclosure by helping them build and tap green equity in their homes. I also pointed out how to green housing policy by using tools like location efficient mortgages to reshape urban/suburban residential and commute patterns.

I'm excited to read that the Obama administration is holding a summit today to re-examine federal housing policy. Like the author of this Grist article that points out how housing policy can incorporate green climate/energy elements, I'm hopeful that the newly-launched Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (headed by my new heroine, Shelley Poticha) can start to undo our unwieldy, car-dependent way of living and working. It really will take the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and the Housing and Urban Development agencies working together to achieve this. Consider residential rehab the flip side of the climate/energy bill we never saw emerge from the Senate this Congressional session. Also consider the 70+ years of highway-centric city and regional planning we've had that needs to be reworked.

As someone who lives in Los Angeles, city that's the poster child for car-culture obsessed fossil-fuel dependency run amok, I think it's notable that we Californians voted to RAISE TAXES to fund high speed rail that would connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even we see the need for a new vision of working and living.

A small, practical step that builds on what's been done before would be to have Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, two of the biggest federal loan guarantors, prioritize location-efficient mortgages in the products they underwrite. A bigger challenge will be to get big banks on board. Convince them this is a new market, and the greedy pigs profit-seeking banks'll probably jump at the opportunity to revitalize the moribund real estate market.

Let's wean ourselves off foreign oil. And as the BP Gulf Oil spill disaster has shown us, domestic oil isn't the silver bullet solving our oil dependency problems either. Wouldn't you rather be able to take a high-speed train or light rail to work, instead of spending 2 or more hours a day in a car stuck in traffic (time out of your life you'll never get back to play with your kids or just relax)?

Greening our housing policy may just be the way to do it.

UPDATED TO ADD on August 20, 2010:

I'm loving the Grist folks for keeping their eye on this issue too--here's a post about energy efficient mortgages and a bill Senator Michael Bennet says he'll introduce after the August recess. Bennet is up for re-election, so let's make sure he's around to lead the effort to get the Sensible Accounting to Value Energy Act (pdf) passed. From the Grist post:

"Energy-efficient mortgages" have been available for years, running on the premise that borrowers who spend less on utility bills have more money available for mortgage payments. But they've been an underused niche product that few buyers or even lenders know about. The SAVE Act would take the concept and apply it to all government-sponsored mortgage enterprises, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration. Those three entities currently guarantee more than 90 percent of new loans, so the bill would have a profound effect on ramping up home efficiency.

"The big news is that this would become a part of every federally backed mortgage," said Cliff Majersik of the Institute for Market Transformation, an efficiency advocacy group that helped draft the bill.

Energy efficient homes would cost less to run, and thus affect how big or small a mortgage a borrower would need. Both energy efficient mortgages and location efficient mortgages (that value proximity to public transit), are tools for reshaping society and could really change how we live and work in positive, and sweeping, ways. Pay less for an environmentally-friendly house that has better transit options for getting around your community? Sounds great to me.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. She tweets advice to DNC politicos at @cyn3matic and tends the MOMocrats Facebook page.

A Woman Who Supports Gay Rights & Marriage Equality Boycotts Target

I applaud this woman for publicly withdrawing her purchasing power from Target.

Recently the corporation donated $150,000 to the Republican candidate for the gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota, Target's home state. This sparked ire from LGBT groups, who demanded to know how Target could support an anti-marriage equality candidate at the same time as they supported gay rights and causes.

As mentioned by Randi Reitan, boycotting Target will be hard, because it's convenient to shop there and it's a handy place to pick up gifts for kids and grandkids. Soon it'll be time to stock up on back-to-school stuff. But I admire her allegiance to her cherished LGBT family members and friends, and her quiet, principled stand.

Corporations and marketers want to court women because they know we control the purse strings. Sometimes I detest being treated as if I'm merely Giddy Shopper Lady. (I mean, I am all that, AND more. Heh.) What if we could take that same power of the purse strings and use it for good, not evil? Together we could really get Target's attention. Maybe we could even get them to do the right thing--be consistent in their support of LGBT causes.

Cynematic's cobwebby blog is P i l l o w b o o k.

BP Oil Spill -- Where Do We Go From Here? Where Do I Go From Here? A List of Proactive Steps

My kid ADORES Legos. And yet--

Eleven people dead from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in addition to 41 oil-industry related deaths and 302 injuries between 2001-2007. Oil-covered pelicans. Dolphin carcasses choked with oil.

Legos are made with plastic, a product that requires petroleum in its manufacture.

And there, in a nutshell, is everyone's addiction to oil. It's woven so completely in our lives, in our kids' favorite toys, the convenient sandwich bags we use, the useful stain-free fabric in our upholstered car seats, in our prettifying makeup. To divest ourselves of these things feels like removing joy, ease, or what's surely a minor, harmless, and pleasing indulgence from our lives. No wonder we resist.

What this devastating disaster for the Gulf has made us do is look at ourselves. Both to see what we can do to help, and to see how we're part of the problem.

Go Read This: Waiting for Obama (Is There a Community Organizer in the House?)

MOMocrat Queen of Spain nails it. Read Waiting for Obama now.

This is our country. Let's help clean it off and fix it. College students on summer break. Seniors who can take long blocks of time and travel to the Gulf. Families who might be persuaded to take a family volunteer vacation to the economically and environmentally devastated Gulf to help in some way.

Yes, a thousand--no, a million times YES! Yes we can help the Gulf, Mr. President. Just let us know how. We're all sickened by what's happening there to our brother and sister Americans and to the plants and animals. Let's do something truly patriotic, and get volunteers shoulder to shoulder NO MATTER WHAT PARTY, to save this cultural and ecological treasure that is the Gulf.

Sure, we know OFA is there to help with the November elections. But we also know OFA was able to organize people quickly and easily for the National Day of Service that this administration promoted. We'll be there in November, but the Gulf needs us now and let us be there now to help there too.

Let us rise to the occasion. Call us to our higher selves. It's not enough to be angry at BP or to use every instrument of governmental power to hold this corporation legally accountable. It's time for BP to pay for skilled work to be done to clean up the Gulf, *and* for organized volunteers to help however they can.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k once in a blue moon.

Democrats, Gulf Coast demand BP pay oil spill cleanup and other costs, refuse to pass along cost to taxpayers

The Gulf Coast region relies heavily on fishing and tourism as an economic base. Both are decimated by the ongoing and ever-expanding oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tourism is projected to be a $20 billion business annually, and fishing is $1.8 billion in Louisiana alone. 

The environmental impact of the oil spill is huge, "The magnitude of the problem for fish and wildlife depends on how long the well continues to leak oil and where and when it touches land, said Karen Foote, marine fisheries division administrator for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department.

Foote said marshes may suffer long-term damage from the oil spill. The Louisiana coast includes 3 million acres of wetlands that serve as a nursery for game fish such as speckled trout and red drum and are currently nurturing the brown shrimp crop to be harvested by the state’s fishing fleet."

In the last week, Congress and the Gulf Coast tourism industry have demanded that BP be held financially accountable for these losses.

In AdAge.com, "Gulf Coast's $20B Tourism Biz Asks BP to Foot Advertising Bill" article, Michael Bush reports

"Even as BP struggles to control the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and government authorities and scientists struggle to determine the extent of the environmental damage, Gulf Coast states have landed on a way for the oil company to start making amends: shoring up their tourism industry with advertising dollars.

Authorities in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have turned to the energy giant to fund ad campaigns, fearing that their summer-tourism business will disappear as major media outlets continue to fill the news cycle with reports and images of the catastrophe. There's a lot at stake. According to figures cited by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Gulf of Mexico's shores and beaches stretching from Texas to Florida support a $20 billion tourist industry.

"We just want to get the word out that we are open for business," said Kenneth Montana, president of the Harrison County Tourism Commission, the convention and business district bureau on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

On Monday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated that BP had to be held accountable, and asked for support to prevent any government bailouts

Watching the tragic consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico these past few weeks-from the economic pain of local businesspeople to the environmental degradation-has been positively gut-wrenching.

So I was appalled yesterday when a Senate bill to hold oil companies accountable for their actions and require them to pay the full cost of their deadly mistakes was blocked by a single Republican dissenter.

We can't let one of the worst environmental catastrophes in decades go unpunished, and we can't allow something like this to ever happen again.

Happy Tax Day!

 No, really. Happy Tax Day!

We at MOMocrats get as annoyed as any normal person by the tedious piles of tax paperwork we have to fill out each year to do our social duty. (I mean, seriously: we're a bunch of writers. We have to fill out the Schedule C.) And of course, there are some government programs we are disappointed to see our tax dollars going toward.

But as patriotic Americans, we're also genuinely proud to know that we help pay for many of the public sector agencies and government programs that make this country a better place to live, and so we're happy, on this tax day, to reflect on all the good the hard earned cash we're parting with can accomplish.

Here are some of the things MOMocrats writers actually like paying taxes for:

Julie: I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund schools and I do believe that solid, well-rounded education is a cornerstone of a great culture.

I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund CHIP, and knowing that kids get needed health care is crucial to me.

Need Help Registering Voters Online? There's an iPad App for That.

Or at least, there will be an iPad-compatible mobile application for that, in May, according to Project Vote, which has collaborated with Echo Interaction Group to create software that would help voter registration organizations register applicants to vote over a mobile phone or computer.

Only four U.S. states currently support fully automated online voter registration - Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Project Vote appears to be banking on optimism that more states will soon follow their lead.

There are, of course, a few voter fraud prevention issues posed by online voter registration that must be overcome.

Many states currently allow voters to fill out voter registration forms online, but still require eligible citizens to complete the registration process by printing out the completed forms, signing them by hand, and then mailing them or hand-delivering them to a local voter registration office, in order to ensure that a valid signature is on file for comparison in case the voter's identity ever needs to be verified.

International Women's Day: Celebrate Women

It's International Women's Day. A day to honor women's impact on world history, further the cause of equal rights for women everywhere, and appreciate the women in our own families and communities who make important contributions to our daily lives.

So what are you doing to celebrate?

If you're still looking for something to do, you could hold a dinner party on behalf of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood to raise awareness about the need to improve pregnant women's access to medical care. You could attend a local Join Women on the Bridge event on behalf of Women for Women, an non-profit organization that helps women in war-torn countries escape and recover from the cycle of violence.

You could watch influential women speakers discuss their world-changing work over at the TED blog, or visit WomenCount to read profiles of women running for public office. You could sign Change.org's petition to persuade Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act, a bill that would integrate U.N.-recommended measures to prevent violence against women into all U.S. foreign aid missions.

You could donate to organizations that work to empoyer impoverished women and girls, like CARE or Barefoot College. You could send your favorite women International Women's Day ecards through Care2 (and earn credits toward charitable donations that you can later direct to charities that assist women).

If you would like to join a group writing blog posts in honor of International Women's Day, you could join these events hosted by Gender Across Borders and Bloggers Unite.  

Or, you could tell us about the great International Women's Day events you've attended or read about, or point us toward great posts about International Women's Day here in our comment section.

Celebrate International Women's Day with the White Ribbon Alliance

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is an organization working to get women worldwide better access to lifesaving prenatal and childbirth care. Last year, on Mother's Day, we at MOMocrats encouraged our readers to share their own birth and adoption stories to promote the White Ribbon Alliance's Mother's Day Every Day initiative.

This year, we are hoping you will help us spread the word about a new WRA initiative, the White Ribbon Alliance Global Dinner Party. In honor of International Women's Day on March 8th, the White Ribbon Alliance is asking women around the world to hold dinner parties at their own homes and invite their friends to raise money and awareness to reduce maternal mortality. 

Details on the many ways you can participate and suggestions for making your own party a success are available at the WRA website in their Global Dinner Party Guide. If you are planning your own White Ribbon Alliance Global Dinner Party, let us know here in the comments. We'll feature the MOMocrats' own dinner parties — and link to other bloggers' posts about their Global Dinner Party events — in an upcoming post.

This Isn't About Ads Any More (Video Responses to Focus on the Family's CBS Super Bowl Ad)

As with many things that irritate, Focus on the Family's "pro-life" ad has gotten under the skin of a lot of people--people who prefer their sports politics-free, people who are pro-choice, and people who like their gay selves, siblings, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and parents just fine the way they are.

Can't go without mentioning the Planned Parenthood ad:

There's the spicier Raging Grannies ad (women after our own hearts who TOTALLY GET IT):

And now there's an ad making fun of the Focus on the Family's particular brand of right-wing Christian homophobia:

While these are all alternately touching, hilarious, and snarky, it's not about the ads any more. It's about a right-wing religious organization that's funded to the tune of $112,000,000 and chronically UNDERFUNDED pro-choice organizations. That's why MOMocrats launched this Tailgate for Choice campaign.

If we say we support choice and enjoy reproductive rights, then let's walk the walk with even a small donation to the organizations that protect those rights for us and provide needed services to women.

Cynematic needs more hours in the day. Period. She also ignores her personal blog, P i l l o w b o o k.