When John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate today, he ended the rally by playing Van Halen’s Right Now and Van Halen is not pleased. According to the Huffington Post, “the band had no idea McCain was planning on using “Right Now” during his big entrance in Ohio telling us, ‘Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given.”‘

I went back and watched the original video for the song and think I know why John McCain thought it might be OK to use it - give a watch and see if you can figure it out:

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Chasing the DNC Flame by Fonda Berosini

TakePart at Slow Food Nation by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

State Fair Having Trouble Keeping It Green

TOMS Wrap Boot: Shoe Addicts Saving Lives

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Andy Kondrat:

Mexican Gov Spends $16M to Save Endangered Porpoise

Wilco Offers Section on Website for Carpooling to Shows

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Jon Popham:

Portland Gym Utilizes Human Energy

Angkor Wat Threatened by Tourism Boom

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Gina Telaroli:

10 Powerful Women Using Their Power for Good

10 A+ Worthy Movie and TV Teachers

So as we announced some time ago, Radiohead decided to document the issues surrounding being an eco-conscious band touring the world. Well, yesterday marked the end of the tour, in Santa Barbara (technically, they have some dates in Japan in October, but we’re not counting those), so I thought it might be interesting to catch up with the band’s blog and see how the whole “green tour” thing worked out.

As it turns out, the blog ended up being incredibly technical in describing the actions taken to help green the tour. The gist of it all, as far as I can tell, is that the band looked for little ways to make a big difference. These included:

1) Having truck drivers plug their trucks into venue power sources so the drivers didn’t have to idle all night as they slept in their cabs with the A/C on.

2) Asking fans to carpool, and providing venue-specific public transportation information on the Radiohead site.

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Have you been trying to figure out the easiest and smartest way that you can reduce your carbon output on an everyday basis? And do you like to get that information in a fun flash-based internet environment? And do you like being able to easily save your choices online so you can calculate your carbon savings and share them with friends? And do you like rhetorical questions?

Well, if you answered “Yes” to any of those, except the last one, then the BBC’s Bloom is for you. The website is filled with information and tips on how to plant “seeds,” which are actions you can take that help the environment. Says the site,

Bloom helps by hand-picking individual actions for you, then letting you compare them by how much CO2 they save, how cheap they are or how easy other Bloomers have found them.

Still with me? Good.

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I can’t help but mention that today is Michael Jackson’s 50th birthday. Even with all his weirdness of the past years - I still have a soft spot in my heart for Michael. And more than that, his life seems to me to be a reminder to let our kids enjoy their childhood and to not force them to grow up too quickly - something I fear that is happening more and more.

But anyways - Happy Birthday Michael - in celebration here are some classic Michael vids - starting with my most fav Michael song - one that is actually quite TakePart appropriate. I challenge you not to sing, dance in your seat and make a difference.

Maybe Barack Obama should use this on his campaign? It does contain the magic word…

More videos after the jump, including a Fred Astaire version of Smooth Criminal that will force you to dance and that Free Willy theme song

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What’s with all the WWII/Nazi movies? They just keep coming.  Ahh well..

Good looks pretty typical - decisions of right and wrong, how to get involved, how to stay true to friendships and stay safe. I’ve always liked Viggo though and he tends to choose “good” films these days, so who knows?

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Statue of Liberty. Photo by satosphere. (Creative Commons)

Summer in New York City means tourists. Many people, from all over the world, make NYC their summer vacation destination. And why wouldn’t they, we have amazing museums, attractions, parks and of course shopping.

However, those of us that live in the big apple rarely get the time to appreciate those things. We’re always on the move, running from work to the gym to a restaurant and maybe to a play, movie or party. More and more folks are beginning to change that though in an effort to save money and gas by taking a “staycation” right here.

Staycations can range from visiting the sites you’ve never seen (like the Statue of Liberty) or staying at home and watching TV during the day. Either way you’re doing something different than your regular routine and you’re also saving money and gas - both things that folks are having trouble with these days.

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TakePart hero Al Gore is speaking tonight at the Democratic Convention tonight! Seems like a good time to remember his challenge to us all!

1) Remix: Al Gore’s Challenge to Repower America

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here >>>

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Forbes just put out their list of the Top 10 World’s Most Powerful Women. And while I am 100 percent in support of promoting women in the workforce, especially in the corporate workforce (where most of the listed ladies are and often ladies are not recognized for), I am not 100 percent in support of what a lot of big corporations (like the ones listed) do.

And more than that, there are a ton of awesome powerful ladies using their power for good! In fact I’ve listed 10 of them below - in no particular order.

1) Michelle Bachelet - Hillary Clinton’s (a powerful woman in her own right) opening paragraph to the piece she wrote on Bachelet for Time Magazine’s 100 Influential People, says it all,

“When I heard that Michelle Bachelet — a doctor who devoted her life to helping the people of Chile, a daughter who lost her father to the violent regime of Augusto Pinochet and a leader who experienced personally the brutality of dictatorship but never lost hope in the people of her nation or the promise of democracy — was running for the presidency of Chile, I was enthralled.”

Bachelet went on to become the first woman president of Chile. Before that she was also the Health Minister and then Defense Minister - she was the first woman in Latin America to hold those posts. A breaker of barriers, Michelle Bachelet has used her internal power to gain actual power and inspire young girls everywhere.

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In writing this post on Google Earth and Cows yesterday, I came across this amazing video of Sir David Attenborough talking about the power of Google Earth to empower communities and keep tabs on the environment through mapping technologies. It is totally worth your 8 minutes and 41 seconds:

The possibilities and potential are pretty amazing - especially considering we could all stand to be in touch with the natural world a bit more.

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