In response to the RNC’s 9/11 tribute video I give you our videos of the day,

1)TomDispatch presents : Andrew Bacevich’s 9/11 Plus Seven

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

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I’ve always been interested in the impact of our vanishing water resources, an environmental issue that seems to get left behind a lot. A point Elizabeth de la Vega echoes in a piece she recently wrote for TomDispatch entitled “Our National Water Policy - Oh Wait, We Don’t Have One“. The piece opens with as American of a quote as you can get, one from Homer Simpson:

“Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don’t have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it, didn’t they?” — Homer Simpson

Simpson’s aside, De la Vega explores the much needed state of water policy here in the US as a time when we have floods in the Midwest and wildfires on the West Coast, here’s a taste of the confusion and lack of definition she explores:

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If you want to do a little reading about the oil crisis before you fire up your car and hit the gas, I reccommend heading over to TomDispatch to read Dilip Hiro’s piece called The Current Oil Shock : No Relief in Sight. In it Hiro, author of Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World’s Vanishing Oil Resources, looks at how the “the present oil shock can’t be compared to the three shocks that preceded it and then explores just where the planet is likely to look in the medium term for energy (and global warming) relief.”

He also explores why it is so important for the West to take charge:

When it comes to energy conservation, there is a far greater opportunity for saving in the affluent societies of the West than anywhere else in the world. An average American uses twice as much oil as a Briton, a Briton twice as much as a Russian, and a Russian eight times as much as an Indian. It was therefore perverse of U.S. energy secretary Sam Bodman to focus on the way the Chinese and Indian governments subsidize oil products to provide relief to their citizens — and to urge their energy ministers to cut those subsidies to ‘reduce demand.’

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TomDispatch is a site I love to read and often times I blog about the various pieces and books featured on the site. I was very excited to see that Tom has a new book out, The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire. It’s a best of collection that focuses on “the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. offshore Bermuda Triangle of injustice from Guantamano to the CIA “black sites,” not to speak of extraordinary rendition, the response to Hurricane Katrina, global warming, Iraq’s black gold and the energy crisis, and, above all, the Bush administration’s misbegotten “smash of civilizations.”

But don’t take my word that it is worth reading, here’s what Howard Zinn had to say:

“TomDispatch is one of the wonders of the electronic age. A touch of the finger and you get the juiciest, meatiest information and analysis, so rich a feast of intelligence and insight I often felt short of breath. Now, Tom Engelhardt has assembled some of the best of his dispatches, from some of the boldest and most astute commentators in the country. So take a deep breath and read.” [TD]

And in case you’re a watcher and not a reader you can watch a video of Tom himself talking about the book by clicking here >>

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Chris Hedges (along with Laila al-Arian) has a new book out, Collateral Damage, America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians. It takes the voices of soldiers and veterans of the Iraq War and tells of their experiences with American war protocol as it relates to civilians in Iraq.

Hedges has a great piece up on TomDispatch that is adapted from the introduction to his book, the piece is called “Collateral Damage : What It Really Means When America Goes to War” and is something everyone should read:

The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing. The savagery and brutality of the occupation is tearing apart those who have been deployed to Iraq. As news reports have just informed us, 115 American soldiers committed suicide in 2007. This is a 13% increase in suicides over 2006. And the suicides, as they did in the Vietnam War years, will only rise as distraught veterans come home, unwrap the self-protective layers of cotton wool that keep them from feeling, and face the awful reality of what they did to innocents in Iraq.

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Ann Jones, author of Kabul in Winter, has been using the power of digital cameras to help women in Africa reclaim their voice. Her latest piece on TomDispatch is called “Me, I’m a Camera” African Women Making Change and in it, Jones documents how taking cameras to the Democratic Republic of Congo has helped the women to leave their victim status behind:

As a volunteer with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), I go from country to country, running a simple little project dreamed up by the IRC’s Gender-Based Violence unit. (GBV is the gender-neutral term for what I still call VAW: Violence Against Women.) The project — dubbed A Global Crescendo: Women’s Voices from Conflict Zones — is meant to give women a chance to document their daily lives, their problems, their consolations and joys. It’s meant to give them time and space to talk together and come up with their own agenda for change.

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Bill McKibben, noted environmentalist has a great new piece up on TomDispatch called “The World at 350 : A Last Chance for Civilization.” McKibben is a regular contributor to TomDispatch and with his latest piece explores the realities of climate change:

Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start — even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now.

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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. Mother’s Day is this Sunday (don’t forget!), so be sure to take a look at some of the great posts we’ve put together in celebration of moms everywhere! Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Top 10 Mother’s Day E-Cards

Hillary Andrews Will Not Lick Bob Stokes’ Swizzle Stick

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 10 Green Gift Wrap Ideas For Mothers Day

Peak Oil Strip Tease

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Andy Kondrat:

Tornado Devestated Town Rebuilds As Green Model Community

Radiohead Attempts An Eco-Friendly World Tour

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Jon Popham:

Nepalese Art Photography: Rubin Museum of Art

America’s First Wind-Powered City

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Giulia Rozzi:

Women For Women International Celebrates Mothers Day

Even More on the Kentucky Derby

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Gina Telaroli:

Video Blog: The Week In Social Action

The War Now Tomorrow and Forever

Tom Engelhardt has a great piece up on his site TomDisptach in which he examines what “the present American offensive in Baghdad’s vast Shiite slum, Sadr City, tells us about America’s no-exit future wars.” Engelhardt, author of The End of Victory Culture, begins his essay,
The Last War and the Next One : Descending into Madness in Iraq — and Beyond with a rather simple fact and follows it with the all too sad facts:

The last war won’t end, but in the Pentagon they’re already arguing about the next one.

Let’s start with that “last war” and see if we can get things straight. Just over five years ago, American troops entered Baghdad in battle mode, felling the Sunni-dominated government of dictator Saddam Hussein and declaring Iraq “liberated.” In the wake of the city’s fall, after widespread looting, the new American administrators dismantled the remains of Saddam’s government in its hollowed out, trashed ministries; disassembled the Sunni-dominated Baathist Party which had ruled Iraq since the 1960s, sending its members home with news that there was no coming back; dismantled Saddam’s 400,000 man army; and began to denationalize the economy. Soon, an insurgency of outraged Sunnis was raging against the American occupation.

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Hey all you lucky New Yorkers - Howard Zinn is going to be speaking tomorrow!

Zinn will be talking about his latest book A People’s History of American Empire - and fear not if you don’t live in New York City

and watch an animated video of the book and read some of the pages yourself