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This week on Uprising:

* US Continues Cozy Relationship with Philippines Despite Human Rights Violations
* Mumia Abu Jamal on Iran: The Repression of the Repressed
* Ice Caps Have Melted, Threatening to Trigger Runaway Heating
* Black Agenda Report on Racism in Firefighter Hiring
* Maine Communities Fight Nestle Over Water, and Win!

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US Continues Cozy Relationship with Philippines Despite Human Rights Violations

President Obama met on Thursday at the White House with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to discuss “counter-terrorism cooperation.” But activists both …

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Economists are pointing to an 11% surge in new home sales in the US this past June, boosted by tax credits, as an indicator that the housing market may have bottomed out and is starting to revive. But the National Housing Trust Fund, enacted a year ago, remains unfunded. Signed into law by then President George W. Bush, the federal program was slated to assist low-income families by constructing, rehabilitating and preserving affordable homes. But in a year, no money has actually been designated to the Fund. Revenues were originally intended to come from the mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but when the two became financially unstable, the plan was halted. Earlier this month, Congressman Barney Frank proposed legislation that would address the lack of funding for the …

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President Obama met yesterday at the White House with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to discuss “counter-terrorism cooperation.” But activists both here in the US and the Philippines have urged the President to bring up government-sponsored human rights violations, in particular the persecution of activists like Philippino-American Melissa Roxas, a Los Angeles based volunteer who was abducted and tortured this past May during a trip to her home country. Roxas, who has appeared on Uprising to discuss human rights violations in the Philippines, was kidnapped with two of her companions and held for six days during which she was handcuffed, interrogated, beaten, suffocated, denied access to a lawyer, and threatened with death. She was accused of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army. Lawyers have …

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Dirt! The Movie, a new documentary by Gene Rosow and Bill Beneson, digs deep into the story of the soil covering our planet. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, the film traces the history of earth’s living skin, while highlighting its destruction through industrial agriculture and mining, and what ordinary people are doing to reclaim and nurture dirt. We see the serious consequences of mass starvation, global climate change and drought that have directly resulted from corporate forces endangering the soil vital to sustaining life. Inspired by the book, “Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth,” by William Bryant Logan, the film encounters forays into sustainable agriculture, villages standing up to multinational corporations, and scientists studying ways in which soil can help stem the rising temperature of our earth’s …

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Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Racism in Firefighter Hiring

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

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Columbus Arrives in Trinidad

Back in the day on July 31st, 1498, Christopher Columbus didn’t discover the Caribbean island now known as Trinidad, but descended upon its shores anyway. As part of his Third Voyage to the Americas, Columbus claimed the land days later for the Spanish crown in spite of its original inhabitants and renamed it in the Spanish word for the “Holy Trinity.” Such was not reassuring, however, as three years prior, the European expeditionary invoked the very same trinity of the Christian faith to enslave the inhabitants of the island of Haiti. The future that awaited Trinidad after Columbus did not fare much better and can be most dramatically told by the population decline over the centuries of its native people.

It has been estimated that 40,000 natives …

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” – Rachel Carson

We’ll take a look at the housing market in the United States and how the year-old National Housing Trust Fund is still awaiting fulfillment; And, Melissa Roxas, an American victim of torture in the Philippines, fights for justice. Plus, Dirt: the Movie – a new documentary about the soil under our feet. And, the Black Agenda Report.

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drew sharp criticism on Tuesday for using his authority to make line-item vetoes in the State budget. The governor cut even more state-run social programs to save an additional $656 million, including $80 million from the county run Child Welfare Services Program. The CWSP is a service that responds to reports of child abuse and neglect across the state. Schwarzenegger described the package as containing “the good, the bad and the ugly,” the ugly referring to his additional cuts to adult day health care, health care for the poor and AIDS prevention efforts. About 100 of the state’s 279 parks also face closure, some as early as Labor Day. Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation said, “the governor’s heartless act is not only deadly, but …

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President Obama has sent a string of top officials this week to Israel to discuss, among other things, his demand that Israel freeze settlements in the West Bank. There are over 120 Israeli settlements and over 100 outposts on Palestinian land, considered illegal under numerous international resolutions. Obama’s insistence on freezing expansion has resonated with many countries who have joined in the US call. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued for the completion of structures that are partly built, and to allow for what he calls “natural growth” of the settlements. Meanwhile, Israeli civilians have taken it upon themselves to stage make-shift outposts this week, in defiance and with the implicit support of the Israeli military. Young Israelis in particular, have set up tents and huts in the West Bank this …