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

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on “a change in the air on Iraq.”

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

“You can’t believe the government – on anything. And you especially can’t believe them when they’re talking about important stuff.” — Gary Webb

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

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This week on Uprising –

* A special thanksgiving edition of Uprising featuring Noam Chomsky speaking at MIT on the “Four Current Crises in the Middle East.”

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The Four Current Crises in the Middle East

GUEST: Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT

We spend the hour today with Professor Noam Chomsky. According to Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the New York Times, Noam Chomsky “continues to challenge our assumptions long after other critics have gone to bed. He has become the foremost gadfly of our national conscience.” …

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GUESTS: Robert Jensen, Professor of Media Ethics and Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, author of several books including “The Heart of Whiteness : Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege” and Ben Caldwell, Executive Director of Kaos Network, and co-founder of Project Blowed, the oldest running hip hip open mic in California

Actor and Comedian Michael Richards, who is most famous for playing Cosmo Kramer on the successful television sitcom “Seinfeld,” exploded in a racist tirade at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood last Friday night. In a cell phone video obtained by TMZ.com, Richards is shown to have directed the N-word several times to a black audience member who the on-stage comedian felt interrupted his act. Some members in the crowd continued to laugh at the comic’s …

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GUEST: Gaston Biraben, filmmaker

Cautiva, or Captive, is a new film by debuting Argentine filmmaker Gaston Biraben. Cautiva tells the story of a young teenaged Argentine girl, Cristina Quadri, as she learns the truth about her biological parents. Growing up with the only family she has ever known, Cristina’s life is suddenly turned upside down after a judge summons her from school. The judge informs Cristina of blood tests that prove her real parents were leftists who were disappeared following the 1976 military coup in Argentina. The Argentine thriller has garnered critical praise, and has also won numerous awards and prizes at international film festivals. Most recently, the film was awarded two Silver Condors in Argentina. Cautiva is a cinematic exploration of the horrors of Argentina’s recent history and …

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GUEST: Cindy Alvitre, American Indian Studies lecturer at Cal State Long Beach

On the eve of the Thankstaking holiday, we pull back the saccharine marketing of turkeys and children in pilgrim pagents to look at what this holiday truly marks. With our Professor Cindy Alvitre we’ll discuss the American historical amnesia that allows for a holiday like Thankstaking and how it is rooted in the American reluctancy to admit the genocide that was the foundation this country was built on.

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GUEST: Mumia Abu Jamal, political prisoner and award winning journalist

Mumia Abu Jamal is an award winning journalist and political prisoner. Today’s commentary is on Thanksgiving

Listen to Mumia’s audio commentaries at www.prisonradio.org.

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GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

Visit www.blackagendareport.com. This week’s commentary is on the draft.

“If when I was set free someone had asked me: did they torture you a lot? I would have replied: Yes, for the whole of the three months… If I were asked the same question today, I would say that I’ve now lived through seven years of torture” — Miguel D’Agostino, Argentine torture survivor

“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect” — June Jordan