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Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is about Walmart.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

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Loretta Ross, founder of Sistersong, Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective

NOTE: Senator John Kerry has just announced a filibuster. Click here to find out more.

Senate confirmation debates on Supreme Court Justice Nominee Samuel L. Alito continued on Thursday with two more Senate Democrats pledging to back him. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Senator Johnson of North Dakota both announced their endorsement of Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination. Johnson has criticized Alito’s record, but said he did not feel that it was sufficient to justify a “No,” vote. Both California Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein have pledged to vote “no”. Samuel Alito would need fifty-one “Yes,” votes to be confirmed as the nation’s 110th Supreme Court Justice. The only viable option left to stop …

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Palestine Elections
GUEST: Nadia Hijab, Senior Fellow at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Palestine Studies, author of “Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work” and co-author of “Citizens Apart: A Portrait of Palestinians in Israel”

Palestinians went to the polls yesterday to vote for members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. About 80 percent of eligible voters were registered, and more than 700 candidates ran for 132 seats. The Associated Press called the election, “an exemplary exercise in democracy, with far fewer disruptions than expected and extraordinarily high turnout.” This morning’s results show that the Hamas won an outright majority on the Council with at least 70 seats. The US and European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Time Magazine called the victory “a Middle East earthquake.” Israeli and American officials reacted with trepidation to the news.

Update …

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Nation-wide Study on Day Laborers
GUEST: Abel Valenzuela, associate professor of Chicana/o studies and urban planning at UCLA, director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, lead author of the report, “On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States”

The nation’s first survey on day laborers was released this week, showing that nearly a quarterare US citizens, 43% are married or live with a partner, and almost two thirds have children. The report also found that most day laborers are active members of their community in terms of attending church, sports clubs, or community centers. But the study also found a disturbing trend of worker abuse by employers. One in two workers were cheated out of wages in the two month period prior to the survey, 44 percent were denied food, water and breaks; …

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World Social Forums in Mali, Venezuela
GUESTS: Sujatha Fernandes, Researcher and Lecturer on Latin American Politics and Social Movements at Princeton University, currently based in Venezuela, Djiadia Dagnoko, on the national organizing committee of the Mali World Social Forum, in charge of coordinating forum activities.

The sixth annual World Social Forum this year takes place in three cities on three different continents. On January 19th, 20,000 activists gathered in Bamako, the capital of Mali in West Africa, to discuss cotton subsidies and debt relief for poor countries. Today, January 24th, activists are kicking off the second part of the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela where 100,000 are expected to attend. There is an anti-imperialist march planned for today on the streets of Caracas. President Hugo Chavez is expected to address the forum. Others expected to …

Only one week after being listed in the podcast directory of iTunes, Uprising’s nationally syndicated weekly program is featured on the front page of iTunes, under “New and Notable” podcasts. Uprising began podcasting the weekly show since December 2005. Online listenership has increased to almost 900 subscribers as of this post!

Get the Uprising Podcast. (What is podcasting?)

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Lawyers Take Haitian Refugee Rights into the Courts
GUESTS: Candace Jean, Immigration Attorney and advocate for Haitian refugees

The office of Homeland Security has denied temporary protected status to Haitian refugees in response to a request by the Haitian government more than a year ago. Haitian leaders in South Florida have long protested what they call unfair treatment of Haitian refugees as compared to undocumented immigrants from other countries. Last Thursday, refugee advocates announced a new approach: they will fight for Haitians’ freedom in the courts. Several lawyers filed motions on behalf of their clients asking courts across the country to stop deportations because of its deteriorating human rights conditions.

New Drug Prescription Program
GUEST: Deborah S. Socolar, Co-Director of the Health Reform Program at Boston University School of Public Health

The new Medicare prescription drug …

Due to severe wind storms last night, KPFK was off the air last night because of a power outage at our transmitter site on Mount Wilson. The power was restored at 9:20 am this morning. We are now back on the air.

Our weekly edition is a syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

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Will Iran be Next?
GUEST: Simin Royanian, Economist and Co-founderWomen for Peace and Justice in Iran

Iran has resumed its nuclear research program, saying it wants to pursue peaceful nuclear energy options. In response, an unnamed U.S. official denounced Iran as a threat to regional and global peace. Vice President Dick Cheney said on CNBC regarding possible action against Iran, “No President should ever take a military option off the table. Let’s leave it there.” Iran is the world’s fourth largest exporter of crude oil and the second largest producer for OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran has started to transfer its foreign accounts to banks in South …

Tim Wise, author of “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privilaged Son” will be speaking at an event hosted by Elliot Gould.

Wise’s talk, “Beyond Diversity: Race, Privilege, and Power in the 21st Century,” will take place this Saturday, January 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the Harmony Gold Preview House, 7655 Sunset Blvd.

This event is free and open to the public. Visit www.timwise.org for more information.

The RSVP line is (323) 969-2728