Around the Tubes: 7/21/07

A special pop-culture version of Around the Tubes featuring Madonna and Dave Chappelle ...and Tony Snow, too.

• Madonna's 1991 PSA that put "Rock the Vote" on the political and cultural map is featured below. It's not only funny but edgy and candid, too. Apparently her "American Life" flop wasn't her first experience with rapping!
• Rock the Vote's blog has an interesting post about "Green-Collar America" -- a term describing the prospective class of Americans that would find employment if industries "went green." The Apollo Alliance, a environmental think tank, recently released a study that suggested that "a green economy will produce almost 3.5 million new jobs in the United States, many of which will be clean and relatively safe jobs for low-skilled workers in rural areas." Politicians -- not just prescient policy wonks -- have become aware of these "green jobs," proposing the Green Jobs Act, which will help create some 35,000 jobs in green industries like solar panel installation, building weatherization, and wind farm construction by subsidizing $125 million in funding for training programs.
• Fred Stutzman of Unit Structures wrote a really interesting post about the evolution of facebook. Because facebook recently extended membership beyond college campuses and created a plethora of applications -- many of which provide more clutter than information -- some original users are ditching the site. He suggests that these early-facebookers are moving on to new and better sites but "refuses to blow their cover" and expose the newest social-networking trend.
• CNN White House coorespondent Ed Henry posts this self-indulgent, uninformative post about his recent run-in with Dave Chappelle at the White House gate. Supposedly Chappelle said that his favorite part of the Bush presidency is "the nicknames." Chappelle also reportedly would love to have Tony Snow's job. Funny...i guess.