This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!  The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing--not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

(also on dkos)

Al Gore says it all today and shows where we must go.

The whole speech, followed by Barack Obama's words of support.  Come on folks, pull your sleeves up.  We've got work to do.

Text of the speech, after the fold.

[For those who missed the live video link in Todd's front page post and liveblogging]

I like what I'm hearing.  Barack Obama spoke before the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Convention today.  Yesterday, he said this about SEIU's help for him in the primaries:

"SEIU's endorsement has made a tremendous impact over the course of this campaign. Their trademark purple has been a presence everywhere--at rallies, at worksites, and most importantly, on the doors and phones, talking to voters about the kind of change we can bring about if we change our politics."

I have video of the speech below. It's great. Please watch it if you can. This is how Obama will win the votes of working folks. I hear in Barack Obama a key theme that attracted me to John Edwards:

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth but work and the workers who work hard every day

We need a nation that rewards work, not just wealth.  Barack Obama will help make that change, if we all work for it.  

(also on dkos and doucudharma)

CHICAGO - Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15,

msnbc

I see a few diaries here and at Daily Kos decrying or applauding Hillary Clinton's campaign for "reserving its rights" on the Michigan decision.  Some on either side think this means that Senator Clinton will fight for the four delegtes all the way to Denver.  

There's a problem with that thinking. Reserving rights just does what it says.  It prevents the waiver of any rights pending a decision on what to do. But there has been no decision to continue to fight the Michigan issue.  It's possible, but in my view, unlikely that such a fight over 4 delegates will happen.  In any event, that decision has not been made and may never be made.  

Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Clinton, said on NBC's "Meet The Press" no decision had yet been made.

"I have not had a chance to talk with Senator Clinton at any length about it, and obviously this will be a big decision. But her rights are reserved," he said.

But one of her strongest supporters, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, sounded uninterested in a further challenge.

"I don't think we're going to fight this at the convention, because even were we to win it, unless it's going to change enough delegates for Senator Clinton to win the nomination, then it would be a fight that would have no purpose," Rendell said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080601/ap_o n_el_pr/primary_rdp

More after the fold.

Today, on his blog, Paul Krugman called out the Obama campaign for an ad that has been running in North Carolina and Indiana.

Is Obama misrepresenting what I said?

I wrote on Krugman's views on the gas tax holiday last week:

Paul Krugman: Barack Obama is right on gas tax holiday.  

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/4/29/1845 20/166

Krugman criticized the McCain plan as "a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers."

He said this about the Clinton plan:

The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it's pointless, not evil. But it is pointless, and disappointing.

After the fold, the Krugman's comments asking for a retraction of the use of his words in an Obama ad.

In an interview with People Magazine, John and Elizabeth Edwards made clear that they would not endorse either Obama or Clinton.

Bottom line: the couple said they will not endorse either remaining candidate, saving their political capital for their own causes - his, fighting poverty; hers, fighting for universal health care.

People: John & Elizabeth Edwards: What We Like (and Dislike) About Clinton & Obama

More, after the fold.

John McCain recently proposed a "tax holiday" for the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  Hillary Clinton joined McCain in that call, but said she would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.  McCain will just let the highway fund lose money, a policy consistent with his borrow and cut taxes philopsophy, i.e., "voodoo economics."    

Barack Obama opposes a "tax holiday" for the federal gas tax.

Who's right?  Paul Krugman says Obama is.

More, after the fold.