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GUEST: Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen US soldier

Almost 100,000 people participated in this year’s Americas World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Among the US participants was Cindy Sheehan, with Gold Star Families for Peace. Cindy Sheehan gained international fame when she camped in front of President Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch last summer demanding to meet with him over the war in Iraq. Now she has allied with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who she met in Caracas this past weekend. Sheehan told Chavez, “I am convinced with your support … and the support of people all over the world, the war in Iraq will end, our troops will come home, Bush will be impeached and he will be brought to justice.”

Cindy Sheehan will join Martin …

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GUEST: Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, based in Mexico

The issue of immigration has become increasingly discussed in the legislature, and the media in the past several months. Currently there are about 15 bills and resolutions are under consideration by Congress, most of them cracking down on undocumented workers and some on their employers. Last month, the house passed the so-called “Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act.” The bill, called the Sensenbrenner bill after its sponsor, calls for, among other things, the construction of nearly 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and making it a felony to cross the border. Critics are calling it the harshest immigration bill in recent times. …

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GUESTS: Dwayne Roberts, Orange County activist and journalist, John Earl, journalist and publisher of the Orange County Organizer

Costa Mesa Mayor Alan Mansoor, became an honorary member of James Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project during a meeting hosted by the anti-immigrant, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, or CCIR, in Garden Grove last week. Mansoor, as listeners may recall, spearheaded a controversial plan to train some Costa Mesa police in immigration enforcement. The plan, which passed by a 3-2 vote last December, caused heated debates over immigration during subsequent city council meetings. At the January 3rd meeting, Mayor Mansoor, cut off immigrant rights activist Coyotl Tezcatlipoca during his public comments and summoned the police to forcefully remove him. Tezcatlipoca had merely asked his supporters to stand …

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GUEST: Dortell Williams, Lancaster Prison inmate, radio commentator for Uprising

Dortell Williams has been an inmate at Lancaster County Jail for 15 years. He is an avid listener of KPFK and has filed commentaries about prison related issues. Dortell reached us by phone yesterday and filed a commentary about California Congressional Representative Randall Harold Cunningham. Cunningham resigned from the House of Representatives on November 28, 2005 after pleading guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004. Cunningham has a history of advocating for stiffer prison sentences. Here is Dortell Williams. We apologize for the poor quality of the prison phone line.

You can email Dortell at dortellwilliams@yahoo.com.

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GUESTS: David Bacon, labor journalist and photographer, Dave Campbell, Secretary Treasurer of United Steel Workers Local 675
Iraq is a nation with a strong history of unions and labor movements. Following the U.S. invasion Iraqis continued to be subjected to a 1987 law enacted by Saddam Hussein that banned public workers from unionizing. In spite of the ban, oil workers in Basra have organized and forced multinational corporations to relinquish their concessions to privatization. A new photo-documentary project called “Iraqi Workers Organize,” seeks to tell their story. The exhibit features photographs by labor journalist and photographer David Bacon and hopes to help build solidarity between U.S. and Iraqi unions and workers. This year, LA harbor longshoremen and oil worker’s unions will host the traveling …

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Empire Notes
GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about Hamas and Palestinian democracy.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

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GUEST: Elliot Mincberg, Legal Director of People for the American Way

The confirmation of Samuel L Alito to the Supreme Court is still not guaranteed. A test vote is scheduled for Alito today – if he gets the necessary 60 votes, Republicans plan to go ahead with the final vote tomorrow. Democratic senators Edward Kennedy and Jon Kerry are calling for a filibuster to block the nomination but it appears unlikely they will get enough support. California Senator Dianne Feinstein has announced that she would vote against Alito, but then warned her fellow Democrats not to try to block his confirmation with a filibuster. She was quoted as saying, “I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster. This might be a man I disagree with, but it …

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GUESTS: Stefanie Faucher, Program Director of Death Penalty Focus, Natasha Minsker, Death Penalty Policy Director of ACLU Northern California

Death Row inmate Michael Morales is scheduled to be executed by the state of California this February 21st. Last Thursday, a federal judge agreed to hear Morales’ claim that death by lethal injection violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Morales was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Terri Winchell. Key to the jury’s decision to give him the death penalty was the questionable testimony of a jailhouse informant who claimed Morales confessed to him his guilt. The informant, Bruce Samuelson, claimed that he and Morales conversed in Spanish to ensure that others would not be able to listen in. However, Samuelson did …

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This week on Uprising —

As Hamas wins a majority in the Palestine Legislative elections, we’ll hear a detailed analysis by Nadia Hijab of the Institute for Palestine Studies

Report from the World Social Forums: We’ll speak with Djiadia Dagnoko from Bamako, Mali, and Sujatha Fernandes from Caracas, Venezuela.

The first nationwide study on day-laborers is released – we’ll speak with Abel Valenzuela, the lead author of the report, on surprising facts about day-laborers, worker abuse, and the benefits of workers’ center.

Plus Empire Notes on a part 2 of “a strategy for Iraq,” and the Black Commentator on Walmart.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * …

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Tim Wise, antiracist activist, author of “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son ”

Anti-racist activist Tim Wise was in Los Angeles this past weekend. He addressed the Cinematographers guild on the issue of Race, Privilege, and Power in the 21st Century. Wise’s latest book is “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.” He is currently working on a book about Race and Katrina. He tours the country widely, and has spoken at hundreds of college campuses and community forums accross the country. Michael Eric Dyson says, “”Tim Wise is one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation.” I had the chance to speak with Tim last weekend about current issues of race, …