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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Of course everyone is now talking about Sarah Palin, John McCain’s new VP pick.  I’ll leave most of the discussion to the pundits except to point out this interview she did with Glenn Beck at the beginning of the summer about drilling for oil and the polar bears.

You may remember that we reported on polar bears being made endangered species - with excitement - back on May 14th. We also reported on Sarah Palin’s fight against the polar bears back in June.

Also take note of how the interview ends…

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It’s time to set the record straight: Properly Inflated Tires Save Gas. There’s been a large amount of petty political posturing over this embarrassingly simple fuel efficiency technique recently, with John McCain’s Presidential campaign attempting to mock Barack Obama for including it in his energy plan.

So now that we’ve heard the spin, what are the facts?  Properly inflated tires across this country when coupled with regular service and tune ups could save between 3% and 4% of all the gasoline consumed in the United States per year.  When compared to the recent Republican gimmick policy initiative demanding more drilling off of U.S. coastlines which will net, at most, 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which is at most 1% of US gasoline demand, five to ten years from now, it’s pretty clear which solution makes more sense.

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As the election heats up and folks begin to take things more personally, I was relieved to see a story on NPR that looked beyond the party lines and the mud being slung between the two. The piece, called “A Conversation: How Race Influences Two Voters” features a conversation between Greg Harden of Rochester, N.Y., and Trish Callahan of Portland, Maine - two people with very different backgrounds. Harden is white and has spent most of his life in the suburbs, while Callahan has a black biological father and a white biological mother but was raised by a white adopted family.

takepart to listen to the discussion now and takepart to join the discussion yourself and talk this issue through.

Race is of course a big issue this go around because Barack Obama is the first African-American presidential candidate.

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Feeling alienated from the election process with all the headlines and spin? You should head on over to jibjab.com, where you can watch their latest election satire and even put yourself in it!

You can watch mine here : (although I’m not sure why I have a mustache in it…)

• It’s time for some campaigning !

It’s kind of fun and the video does a great job of poking fun at everyone. I have to say that this years election is already pretty intense considering we haven’t even had the conventions yet. Since I’ve been in Ohio, I ‘ve seen atleast 3 John McCain TV ads, and I haven’t been watching much TV…

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GI Bill was passed into law this morning by the President/ Our very dear friends at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) have lead the fight for the new GI Bill.  Over 20,000 people called representatives in Congress, spread the word to friends and signed the petition at www.GIBill2008.org

We were honored to work with the IAVA throughout our Charlie Wilson’s War social action campaign. They are a remarkable organization and played a tremendous role in today’s victory.

Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of the IAVA, sent this message earlier today:

Generations of veterans to come will benefit from this bill. Your support in this fight has been overwhelming- very few bills in recent history have received such an outpouring of public support. Together, we can be extremely proud of this victory.

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As the election draws nearer it’s becoming more and more important to encourage everyone to vote this go around.

In regards to the youth vote, The Nation has an interesting piece up about the influence of Rock the Vote on the election this year:

While RTV held the biggest name brand in youth politics, youth turnout declined in 1996 and 2000, and a lot of political minded folks concluded that Rock the Vote wasn’t getting the job done. As described in [the] book, Youth to Power, the vacuum left in youth organizing by the failures of Rock the Vote in part inspired the boom in youth organizing that occurred between 2003 and 2007.

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John McCain wants to unleash the power of American innovation to ween the country off oil with an old fashioned, but effective motivator; a cash prize. The presumptive Republican nominee for President proposed awarding a $300 Million prize to the inventor who could come up with a car battery far advanced from the current technology available, in a recent speech at Fresno State University.

While enormous strides have been made in recent years in battery technology, what’s currently available for mass production limits plug in electric cars to about a 250 mile range per charge, and leaves little to no room for trunk storage with the space needed for the Lithium Ion Batteries. The batteries are also costly which prompted Senator McCain to require the winner of his proposed challenge to deliver battery power at 30% of current costs having as he put it, “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”

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Social Action + Cinema Videos of the Day:

1) Arianna Huffington breaks down the media

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

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Social Action + Cinema Videos of the Day:

1) Climate Security Fight Not Over!

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

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